Australian Journalism Review - Volume 43, Issue 1, 2021

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 had an immediate and far-reaching impact on newspaper publishing in regional Australia. Scores of publications around the country ceased printing temporarily or permanently, creating ‘news deserts’ in some towns and regions, and significantly reducing access to local news in others. In response to this, local news start-ups began emerging in towns and regions across the country. Business models, publication frequency and other characteristics vary widely, but one characteristic that is widely shared is an emphasis on community engagement and local interests. This extends beyond the provision of local news to narratives highlighting multi-layered engagement with and support for communities. By engaging with communities as more than providers of news, these outlets may also be positioning themselves to support local social capital. This article explores key themes and ideas in the community-focused narratives of a purposive sample of start-up local news outlets to consider how their strategies of community connection and interaction may also contribute to social capital.

Religion has ‘returned’ to news discourses, since 9/11, with a focus on Muslims and Islam and more recently on Catholicism (in the wake of paedophile priest scandals) and anti-Semitism (with the rise of the far-right movements). These news discourses, however, tend to adopt limited perspectives, and do not reflect the diversity of practices and viewpoints within these religious traditions. As Australia becomes increasingly ‘superdiverse’, there is a greater need for the inclusivity of cultural perspectives of these religions. Current research findings show that religious literacy among media practitioners in Australia is not only limited to specific notions about a small number of religions, it is exacerbated by an Anglo-Celtic dominance in the media workforce. This article suggests that for news media to provide a more culturally and religiously inclusive public service to promote societal understanding, current and emerging journalists require a more reflexive understanding of religions, through journalism studies and humanities more broadly, and how they have historically shaped the world, and continue to do so.

Two decades after Pierre Bourdieu published On Television and Journalism chronicling the decline of French public broadcasting and serious news, Australia’s national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), is in the throes of a similar decline. Besieged by a combination of funding cuts, allegations of political interference, pressure from the commercial media sector, nepotism and legislative frameworks at both federal and state levels that have sent a chill through Australian journalism, the ABC is facing challenging times. Through long-form interviews with journalists and senior bureau figures from the ABC Brisbane Bureau, this study seeks to gauge the extent to which the landscape for conducting public interest journalism in Australia has changed since 2018 and what the future of the ABC may look like.

Review of: Comparing Gender and Media Equality across the Globe: A Cross-National Study of the Qualities, Causes and Consequences of Gender Equality in and through the News Media, Monika Djerf-Pierre and Maria Edstrom (eds) (2020)

Göteburg: Nordicom, 338 pp.,

ISBN 978-91-88855-33-6, p/bk, €28.00

ISBN 978-91-88855-32-9, PDF, €28.00

Available as Open Access at http://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1502571/FULLTEXT02.pdf.

Review of: Journalists and Confidential Sources: Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak, Joseph M. Fernandez (2021)

Abingdon: Routledge, 300 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-36747-412-6, h/bk, $252.00

ISBN 978-1-00303-541-1, ebk, $63.89

Review of: Journalism, Society and Politics in the Digital Media Era, Nael Jebril, Stephen Jukes, Sofia Iordanidou and Emmanouil Takas (eds) (2020)

Bristol and Chicago, IL: Intellect, 211 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-78938-168-9, h/bk, $ 135.00

ISBN 978-1-78938-170-2, ebk, $ 104.00

Review of: The Digital World of Sport: The Impact of Emerging Media on Sports News, Information and Journalism, Sam Duncan (2020)

London: Anthem Press, 176 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-78527-505-0, h/bk, $125.00

ISBN 978-1-78527-507-4, ebk, $40.00

Review of: The Ethics of Photojournalism in the Digital Age, Miguel F. Santos Silva and Scott A. Eldridge II (2020)

Abingdon: Routledge, 166 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-13858-629-1, h/bk, $201.60

ISBN 978-0-42950-468-6, ebk, $53.59

ISBN 978-1-13858-630-7, p/bk, $59.19

Review of: Democracy without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society, Victor Pickard (2019)

Abingdon: Oxford University Press, 248 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-19094-675-3, h/bk, £64.00

ISBN 978-0-19094-676-0, p/bk, £18.99

ISBN 978-0-19094-678-4, ebk, AUD 20.23

Review of: Beyond Journalism, Mark Deuze and Tamara Witschge (2020)

Cambridge: Polity Press, 148 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-74564-342-7, p/bk, $30.25

ISBN 978-0-74564-341-0, h/bk, $57.00

ISBN 978-0-74564-341-8, ebk, $26.99