Defence Minister Richard Marles caused quite the stir in national media this week when he openly warned about undersea cables being sabotaged, almost a first for Australian ministers even as the move has emerged as a favoured grey zone tactic around the world in recent years. In the Baltic, subsea communications and power cables have […]
Probably the single most well-known line in human history is that uttered by US astronaut Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969: That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind Armstrong being in a position to say the line was […]
If we take a narrow view of what the term ‘media’ means, the 2020s so far have seen an all but complete unravelling of what remains of Australia’s media industry – and, honestly, the pace only seems to be accelerating. But the frequent claim that the problem is just about where and how audience attention […]
The last post here offered a round up of the dire state of rural and regional journalism in Australia, but are things any better in the capitals? And in particular, is the Canberra press gallery holding up its end of the democratic bargain? I think these are particularly interesting questions in light of the news that […]
In my decade-long tenure as a media academic at “Australia’s leading regional university” (🙄), I was regularly asked to comment on shifts and changes in regional broadcasting and news. It was a difficult position on occasion because we needed to work closely with regional broadcasters to place student interns and graduates while also exercising our […]
How does someone go from being a bit player on Monty Python’s Flying Circus to one of the longest-standing hosts on Australian radio? Just ask the ABC’s Robyn Williams – the founding host, 50 years strong, of The Science Show. I know Williams only as a frequent listener to The Science Show podcast for the […]
A look at the big trends and changes impacting Australian media in 2026. Mergers and acquisitions Dominating the first part of the year will be the unfolding merger between Seven West (SWM) and Southern Cross (SXL) which formally closes today, January 7. The deal cleared most potential stumbling blocks before Christmas. The competition regulator announced […]
After 9.5 years, I’m finishing up at Charles Sturt Uni on Christmas Eve. I’m proud of what we achieved. As Course Director pre-pandemic, I led course and subject design work that slowed a steep enrolment decline, significantly improved our retention rates, and brought our discipline’s budget back into balance. I’m equally proud of the research […]
Still smarting from the closure of Google Podcasts and the wholly inadequate replacement that is YouTube, I’ve been trying to find a decent podcast app. If you’re someone who both makes and listens to podcasts (you can listen and not make, but if you make and don’t listen, who even are you?), the act of […]
When you fill a film with mutants, you apparently create a mutant film: one whose disparate DNA sequences and mismatched body parts refuse to coalesce into a coherent organism. There are signs that this should work. It has a reasonably strong cast led by both veteran action heroes and the right kind of nerds, as […]