Volume 3, Issue 2: 2009
Editorial
GMJ/AU is pleased to release Volume 3 #2 issue for 2009.
Note: Please update your browser bookmarks to our new URL: http://www.hca.uws.edu.au/gmjau/
Editorial
It gives me great pleasure to introduce this issue, ably guest edited by Dr. Collette Snowden of the University of South Australia. As a member of our Advisory Editorial Board, Collette proposed a special issue on the theme of “The Need for Speed”, and we are pleased to now feature this focus in this issue.
As we enter our fourth year of publication, GMJ/AU has recently been ranked as a B journal by the Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research, Australia. We are pleased with this recognition and will use this to build on GMJ/AU’s strong performance for the future.
Our next issue will be guest edited by a new member of our GMJ editorial team, Dr. Milissa Deitz, on the theme of “Obsession and Addiction” (see the Call for Papers in this issue). I would like to extend my thanks to Collette for her work on this issue as well as the whole production team.
Hart Cohen
Guest Editor: Dr. Collette Snowden
As the Global Media Journal/Australian Edition evolves and develops, it does so in an environment where the media, and the technologies used and relied upon by media professionals to produce content, are also evolving. As they do so, they are transforming media practices and processes. This transformation is happening as media delivery platforms adopt and adapt technology that is increasingly compact, has higher speed and higher fidelity. By necessity, media scholars are also required to adapt their traditional practices and to respond to the changing media environment more rapidly.
As media professionals are losing the capacity to have time to reflect and review their work before it is distributed, media scholars are also responding to the changes wrought by the increased speed of change. The role of academic study to reflect on, and to consider, the consequences of change, and to contextualise it historically and in relation to other issues, now also requires greater responsiveness and broader distribution for it to be relevant. With this approach in mind, I am pleased to present the content of this edition for readers of the journal, as it considers the concept of “The Need for Speed” in relation to some specific media issues and cases.
In the peer reviewed section: Technology in conflict reportage: News-gathering during the final days of the Sri Lankan Civil War by Kasun Ubayasiri, examines the use of digital communication technology in an environment where reports of conflict were otherwise censored and controlled by government and the military.
In Reporting in the ‘New Media Environment: How today’s television journalists are recycling work practices of the past’, Barbara Alysen draws on archival research she conducted at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. This research compares the nature of work required by television journalists working in the mobile platform and 24-hour delivery markets today with that required in Australian television journalism in the early 1970s. It reminds us that, in the news media, ‘the need for speed’ has been a constant feature, even if at times the actual speed has varied.
Not wrong for long: the role and penetration of news wire agencies in the 24/7 news landscape by Jane Johnston and Susan Forde, presents a content analysis of the ‘Breaking News’ sections of two major news websites to examine and discuss the changing and evolving role of news agencies. This study brings a contemporary perspective to consideration of the characteristics of the content produced by news agencies and its re-use in other news sources. This discussion adds empirical analysis to the scholarly literature to expand our understanding of the role of news agencies in the modern era, and the importance of the speed of production and distribution of news.
In Globalisation, television and developmental agenda, Dr. Usha M. Rodrigues re-works the older media development paradigm of the second half of the 20th century. Rodrigues argues that the contemporary proliferation of television outlets and programs in India reflects a vibrant and diverse media culture free of both government and foreign agendas.
In the non-refereed essays for this journal we are also pleased to present a thoughtful reflection on the structure and agency of news from Jake Lynch. Our In Conversation segment features an interview with Australian born, former American ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, by journal editors Antonio Castillo and Hart Cohen. As the American-Israel political and diplomatic relationship again returns to the global media stage, the interview presents a thoughtful, considered perspective on this relationship. It also marks the publication of Indyk’s significant book, An Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East. In this issue we are pleased to publish a photo-essay from a young Australian scholar and journalist, Kitty Hamilton, which reflects on the rising use of mobile telecommunications by Mongolian nomadic herders.
In this issue, we are also pleased to present work by post-graduate scholars whose work is already deserving of rapid dissemination. Gary Makin, in Painting everyday life: Fulfilling Baudelaire’s challenge through photographically-driven painting is a substantive take on the links between painting and photography through the lens of Baudelaire’s modernist proposals.
In addition, we have Nukte Ogun’s, Voiding of scrutiny and accountability in Turkey: Media and Journalism under the Justice and Development Party comprehensively examines the problems of political censorship in Turkey as religious and secular parties battle for hegemony of the political landscape.
Tim Dwyer has again provided his incisive Media Monitors column and the issue also includes book reviews of published work on a variety of topics of particular interest to the Global Media audience.
I would like to acknowledge the patience and forbearance of my fellow editors, Hart Cohen, Rachel Morley and Antonio Castillo. Many thanks also to Myra Gurney for subbing this issue, and to Roman Goik for his continued work on the website design and management of the website.
Collette Snowden
For the Editorial Committee
We invite feedback to this issue to be forwarded to Associate Professor Hart Cohen (h.cohen@uws.edu.au), Dr. Rachel Morley (r.morley@uws.edu.au) and Dr. Antonio Castillo antonio.castillo@rmit.edu.au.
