Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 28 November
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
The ‘I’ word was once taboo in journalism – but these days, the ‘I’s seem to well and truly have it. The online age has heralded the rise of the celebrity journalist: ‘personalities’ with headshots, Twitter accounts and guest spots on Q&A. How does this impact on the quality of our journalism? With Margaret Simons, Greg Jericho (aka Grog’s Gamut) and Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes.
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Featuring
Margaret Simons
Margaret Simons is Associate Professor in the School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University. In 2015, she won the Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism. Her recent books include Six Square Metres, Self-Made Man: The Kerry Stokes Story, What's Next in Journalism?, Journalism at the Crossroads and Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs, co-written with former Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser. The latter won both the Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011.
In addition to her academic work, Margaret regularly writes for the Saturday Paper, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, Griffith Review, the Monthly and other publications.
Greg Jericho
Greg Jericho began blogging under the pseudonym, Grog’s Gamut, in 2008. After toiling away with an audience of family and indulgent friends he steadily built up a small readership of his posts on politics and the media. He came to prominence during the 2010 election when his criticism of the media coverage created much discussion among journalists in the press gallery and also was noticed by the managing director of the ABC, Mark Scott.
This attention led to his identity being revealed in the Australian. Since August last year he has writer a weekly column for the ABC’s The Drum and his book, The Rise of the Fifth Estate was released in August by Scribe Publications.
Jonathan Holmes
Jonathan Holmes has been a journalist for 35 years. Born and educated in Britain, he joined BBC TV’s current affairs group in 1971. After 12 years working behind the camera on programs like 24 Hours, Nationwide and Panorama, he came to Australia in 1983 to become executive producer of the ABC’s Four Corners, where he stayed until 1985.
Apart from a brief stint making documentaries in Boston, Massachusetts, and a two-year posting to Washington DC as an ABC correspondent, he has lived in Australia ever since. He became an Australian citizen in 1990.
At various times in his varied career, Jonathan has served as head of ABC documentaries, executive producer of the ABC programs Foreign Correspondent and The 7.30 Report, and of Channel Ten’s short-lived current affairs program Public Eye. Since 1993 he’s been more frequently an on-air reporter for Foreign Correspondent and Four Corners. He’s been a nominee for a Walkley Award four times – though never a winner – and, with Jill Jolliffe, won the 1998 Logie Award for Best Documentary.