Juggling the News Agenda

There has been a heck of a lot of big news stories this week: the stampede in Cambodia, the explosion at the Greymouth coal mine in New Zealand and the ensuing hope and then despair as the second explosion occurred, as well as the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island by North Korea. Yet it seems the coverage has been anything but fair. Naturally, the Greymouth mine tragedy has been heavily present in the Australian media not least because of our close proximity to New Zealand, but does this mean that the deaths of over 400 hundred people in Cambodia are any less significant?

After the initial reports of the Cambodian stampede, the Australian media seemed to forget about the hows and whys of the disaster despite it being labelled as the greatest disaster for Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Today, whilst the religious ceremony to mourn the deaths of those who died in the stampede is the top story on BBC News it only garners a fleeting agency-sourced flash story across most of the main Australian news sites. The ceremony doesn't rate a mention on News.com.au or The Daily Telegraph leaving it up to the ABC and The Australian to provide brief pieces on the reaction in Cambodia to such an horrendous event.

Once again it raises questions about the news values of the mainstream media in dealing with disasters and the manipulation of such events to best match the emotiveness of the audience, something seen with the Pakistan floods earlier this year in which aid donations were lower than anticipated due to the assumption that floods don't have the same emotional weight as other types of disasters. Unfortunately this type of selective coverage has become ingrained in the Western media and will no doubt continue as newspapers cut back on foreign staff and rely heavily on agency feeds.

Story Trail: N Korea Attack

This is a biggie so there's plenty of coverage to dig through today.



BBC News - North Korea attack on island causes international alarm
Al Jazeera English - South Korea president warns North
Global Post - North Korea's one-two punch
Reuters - South Korea talks tough after North Korea shelling attack
ABC - US support for South Korea unshakeable: Obama
Crikey - North Korea attacks: is this war?

Invasion of Net Sleaze

Yes it seems even the deadly serious Reuters news agency is suffering from the type of sleaze dressed up as news, pioneered by websites such as News Corps notorious News of the World.

Weddings and Cans of Worms

By now the news of Prince William's proposal to Kate Middleton has spread across the world, warming the hearts of millions of anglophiles and royalists. As a member of the Commonwealth, Australia is particularly susceptible to 'royal wedding hysteria' but whilst the media has jumped on the story it has also unleashed another news angle that continues to return like a zombie in and open grave.

Yes, the call for Australia to become a republic is back again. Now, despite the fact that according to simple logic, there is no correlation between Prince William's marriage and his immediate ascension to the throne, the debate of Australia becoming a republic has risen from the dead. This morning on ABC News 24 Joe O'Brien chaired a discussion between, David Flint, National Convenor Australians for Constitutional Monarchy and John Warhurst, Deputy Chair of the Australian Republican Movement on, you guessed it, whether Australia should become a republic.

Now this is a perfectly valid discussion to have but it does reveal just how paper thin stories like these are, relying on 'value adding' news angles to provide the depth which the wedding itself can't sustain. Prince William will get married and there will be plenty of media coverage but then he will go back to living his probably rather normal life. In the mean time, expect more of this sort of coverage:

The Punch - Can Kate save the English Royal family?
The Australian - Cautious Prince William 'learns some lessons from the past
ABC News - Royal engagement 'warms Australia's heart'

Story Trail: Aung San Suu Kyi Release

BBC News- Suu Kyi 'ready for talks' to resolve Burma's problems
CNN- Suu Kyi tells supporters to work with her for change
Global Post- Aung San Suu Kyi: powerful icon or powerless leader?
Democratic Voice of Burma- First footage emerges of Suu Kyi
Daily Telegraph- Aung San Suu Kyi: another detention would be 'disaster’ for Burma
New York Times- Burmese Dissident Tells Crowd Not to Give Up Hope
Reuters- Suu Kyi urges freedom of speech in army-ruled Myanmar
ABC News 24- Aung San Suu Kyi wants to engage with military junta (video)

Apolitical Weekend: Madmen

Ok, you'll have to excuse the rather lax start to this blog but I have a new passion in my life: the excellent and award winning AMC production, Mad Men. Now perhaps I'm stepping on well trodden ground here considering the grovelling media coverage of the show already but somehow it still manages to exceed all of my expectations every single episode. In fact the opening itself was enough with its beautiful theme song "A Beautiful Mine" by RJD2, one of few that I actually bother to watch every single episode.

When I bought the first series a few weeks back (no I'm not part of the Foxtel club) I had only seen snippets of the show and while I was expecting an artful and contemporary historical drama I really underestimated its cultural gravitas. The show may be heavily routed in the 1960s period with references to events such as the 1962 American Airlines crash and the death of Marilyn Munroe, its foundations in the burgeoning consumer culture and advertising age are equally reflective on our present materialistic values even if we don't chain smoke and drink ourselves into quite as early a grave or treat women with such a shameless, or at least as evident, objectivity.

That's one of the joys of Mad Men: the extensive product placements of everything from Heineken to Cadillac, paradoxical in a show which is so searching of post-modern culture yet still remains true to its own formula of advertising and marketing. Unfortunately here in Australia free to air tv hasn't jumped on the Mad Men bandwagon, leaving the scraps to SBS instead which has only just finished showing the second season. Thank goodness then that I have left it this late to start watching it as I am at present only half way through series two of four so far, on DVD leaving plenty more episodes to come over the summer non-ratings period. If there was ever a cool antidote to the period of crap reality junk and cancelled American sitcoms this is it.

Story Trail: G20

One of the services I'm hoping to provide on this blog is a daily list of the best stories relating to a dominant issue in the media. Today's serve: the G20 summit in Seoul. Dig in!

Al Jazeera - Obama defends economic moves at G20
New York Times - Obama Nears Agreement to Reduce Trade Imbalances
ABC News - Gillard arrives in South Korea for G20
News.com.au - Julia Von Trapp: Gillard mistaken for Austrian hausfrau by G20 hosts

The Australian - Korea pact to speed Australian FTA
Mark Mardell - G20 nations jostling on cliff's edge
Reuters - Obama tells G20 dollar strength rests on U.S. economy
- Factbox: G20 regulation agenda for Seoul summit
The Guardian: Comment is free - The G20 summit dodges real reform
The Drum - G20 opportunities must not be missed