Some members of the press have dropped the ball this election. But many election-setting issues have stemmed from important reporting and talented journalists.
There’s no doubt about who’s getting the worst press out of the current election. That would be, umm, the press itself. Hating on Australia’s media seems to be how plenty of Australians are passing the time while they wait out the election campaign. It’s dominating social media: if there’s a word cloud for this election, the journalistic take-down GOTCHA! would be centre-field.
Sure, hate on the media, but let’s leave the journalists out of it. More, let’s recognise that plenty of individual journalists — most of them, really — are doing some great work. It’s journalists, not a no-longer mass media, that amplify the agenda (with significant input from Twitter), story by story.
The core issues that are shaping the election — like the treatment of women in politics, the inherent corruption in a politicised grants process (and the consequent demand for a national ICAC), the aged care crisis — all started as news stories, dug out and spread around by journalists.
Read more about how journalists have shaped this election campaign.
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