Newspaper journalism in the 1980s

Sunday Herald Sun journalist Joel Deane reporting on the Warburton fires in March 1991.

A few weeks ago I cracked the shits and Tweeted about the media.

That thread, which went viral, is below.

I grew up in a newsroom. I believe you can’t have a healthy democracy without a strong, independent media. I know how hard it is to be a good reporter. I know there are plenty of good journos. So why do I feel betrayed by the profession I love?

— Joel Deane (@joeldeane) September 23, 2020

1. For 25 years it’s failed to come to terms with the threat of the internet.
2. It’s allowed bean counters to run the industry, leading to clickbait churnalism and the clearing out of newsrooms.
3. It’s given too much power to too few publishers and broadcasters.

— Joel Deane (@joeldeane) September 23, 2020

4. It’s tried to turn news into entertainment.
5. It’s aided and abetted the rise of Pauline Hanson.
6. It’s allowed the political class in Canberra to obsess over tactics for 20 years instead of holding them to account for not value-adding to the nation.

— Joel Deane (@joeldeane) September 23, 2020

7. It’s aped the worst aspects of US and UK media.
8. It’s encouraged its journalists to behave like celebrities.
9. It’s failed to stand up on the Julian Assange case. (I know he’s a pain, that’s not the point.)
10. It’s kowtowed to power instead of following the money.

— Joel Deane (@joeldeane) September 23, 2020

11. It’s treated climate change as a political battle instead of an existential threat.
12. It’s allowed its news cycles to be dictated by governments and corporations.
13. It’s lacked the stamina to understand and tell the story of the challenges we face.

— Joel Deane (@joeldeane) September 23, 2020

14. It seeks increasingly simplistic answers in an increasingly complex world.
15. It has no memory.
16. It’s too thin skinned.
17. It’s too parochial.
18. It’s too easily impressed with itself.
19. It’s terrified.

— Joel Deane (@joeldeane) September 23, 2020

After, Meanjin Quarterly asked me whether I wanted to expand on the thread for their blog.

So I started writing about newspapers in the 1980s and went from there.

Here’s the opening:

“I can’t recall exactly when journalism betrayed me, but I’ll never forget how it seduced me. I was 17 years old—wearing my dad’s sports jacket, school shoes, a red paisley tie and a blue striped shirt that still have creases from the box—and standing in the Flinders Street foyer of the Herald & Weekly Times building.”

Go to Meanjin to read the rest.