Melbourne’s Anglican Archbishop Philip Freier holds regular public conversations in Federation Square, opposite St Paul’s Cathedral. These popular meetings reflect the lost medieval role of the cathedral as a city’s market place and communications centre. The rood screen in Europe’s old cathedrals divided the straw and rabble of the populace from the Eucharistic offering, rather as Flinders Street divides cathedral and square today.
Mark Scott’s comments in this article are ironic in the light of the ABC’s intention to downsize religious broadcasting next year (see next page).
Just at the time journalism is under greatest pressure financially, the demands for high-quality journalism are more pressing than ever . before, Mark Scott, Managing Director of the ABC, said in October.
Speaking as part of a breakfast time conversation with Archbishop Freier and Gary Morgan, Executive Chairman of Morgan Research, at Federation Square, on the topic ‘In this global 24/7 world, are we ruled by the media?’, Mr Scott spoke of the need for new models for quality journalism in the face of our new global democratised world:
“The impact of climate change, the rise of fundamentalism, the crash of the world financial markets are highly complex, detailed and nuanced issues which need good journalism, not only to break news and give us insight into what is happening, but to provide us with an analysis and the insight into why it happened, what were the causes of it and what will happen next.
“This does require sophisticated analytical journalism that isn’t just journalism that you can outsource or crank out.”
Archbishop Freier opened the conversation with the Prayer for the Media, found in A Prayer Book for Australia
Almighty God,
You proclaim your truth in every age by many voices:
Direct those who speak where many listen,
Those who write what many read
Those who influence what many see,
That they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise,
Its mind sound and its will righteous
To the honour of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
The Archbishop suggested the prayer set a high benchmark. Mark Scott responded that it was legitimate for the public to have high expectations of the media, but a changing world was placing considerably more pressure on the media.
Both he and Gary Morgan argued that the single most dramatic transformation within the media landscape is the introduction of the Internet. They agreed this has led to a decline in the power of the ‘media baron’ and has democratised the media, giving anyone with a modem and a keyboard access to a wider public.1.
Gary Morgan presented some surprising statistics about people’s perceptions on the bias within the media. Research undertaken by his company indicated that people were most suspicious of newspapers, with 85% of those surveyed believing that newspapers were biased, and 74% and 69% respectively believing that television and talkback radio were biased.
Mr Morgan welcomed the Internet, believing that it will lead to a more honest distribution of information.“Younger audiences don’t want to be broadcast at, they want to participate in – they are part of the media,” he said.
Mr Scott presented a view of our lounge rooms in the future, where the box in the corner, or the flat screen on the wall, will have three plugs – one plug for free to air television (offering up to fifteen channels); one plug for subscription television (with hundreds of offerings) and one broadband plug giving the view access to tens of thousands of channels all around the world.
He said he believed reliability and public confidence become paramount amidst this mind-boggling array of choice.
He expressed concern that it is becoming increasingly easy for individuals to read and match material supporting only their particular worldview.
“You can narrow your exposure to anything that doesn’t fit this world view.”
“The question is who are you going to trust, rely on and believe,” Mr Scott said.
Dr Freier told the audience at Federation Square that this issue of trust and credibility was fundamental to relationship.
He said that in oral societies, such as the Indigenous one he came to know in the Northern Territory, reliable information comes from people you have confident relationships with.
“There is something very deep in our humanity which links relationship to information and the effect it will have on us.”
Some of the questions from the audience related to concerns about the loss of quality journalism and the role of print journalism in allowing for reflection.
This article appeared in the November issue
of The Melbourne Anglican diocesan newspaper.
www.melbourne.anglican.com.au/tma