Extract from The Guardian
The Project co-host used the Andrew Olle lecture to talk about the
potential damage to journalism of focusing on clicks and shareability of
content but said it was not ‘criticism, so much as therapy’
“What I see is a news cycle that’s only getting quicker, and whose
attention span is only getting shorter,” Aly said in his Andrew Olle
media lecture on Friday night. “That’s been a growing trend in broadcast
media anyway, but the growing integration with online platforms clearly
isn’t helping changing this.”
The co-host of Channel Ten’s The Project, who frequently produces content which goes viral, warned that the more the media chose popularity over substance the more it damaged its authority with the public.
“And maybe the greatest threat is the prospect that we might forget why we do what we do,” he said. “Not our careers, but our vocation.”
Aly, whose role on The Project won him the Gold Logie for the most popular personality on Australian television, made his remarks at a black tie dinner at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern.
The Olle lecture was established as a fundraiser for brain cancer after the acclaimed ABC journalist Andrew Olle died of a brain tumour in 1995.
Aly said he too is guilty of committing the sins of modern journalism, admitting that given the choice between producing a story on superannuation or one on a gaffe by Tony Abbott he would chose the latter.
“It’s easy to write, easy to read and will earn me more kudos,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I? And if I have a choice between spending weeks or months getting to know a low socio-economic community to get a direct sense of what their concerns are and staying in my office and bashing out a live blog of the parry and thrust of the day in politics, I’ll choose the blog every time. Again, why wouldn’t I?
“So please understand nothing I say tonight is in a spirit of criticism, so much as therapy. I feel we’re at a genuine flashpoint and we need a place to talk through that.”
Journalists are so obsessed with speed that if they share something incorrect on social media a day later they apologise, he said.
“To be slow online, even slightly, is embarrassing,” he said. “It requires some token of self-awareness, like an apology, because without it, it’s like we’re risking our social status.”
The proliferation of media and information meant that organisations had to shout loudly to be heard and that meant going viral with strident, provocative and polarising content.
“That leaves us with some pretty new measures of journalistic success,” Aly said.
“Television programs are successful if their hashtag generates a voluminous twitter conversation; online articles are valued if they generate an enormous comments thread and lots of hits. That’s not a point about the evils or otherwise of social media. It’s a point about how what role we want it to play in deciding what is and isn’t successful journalism.”
Last year’s lecture was given by former Australian Women’s Weekly editor Helen McCabe, and in 2014 it was presented by Fairfax Media investigative journalist Kate McClymont. Other speakers include Today co-host Lisa Wilkinson, ABC PM host Mark Colvin and News Corp Australia executive Lachlan Murdoch.
The event will be broadcast on 702 ABC Sydney on Sunday and televised on ABC News 24 on Saturday.
The co-host of Channel Ten’s The Project, who frequently produces content which goes viral, warned that the more the media chose popularity over substance the more it damaged its authority with the public.
“And maybe the greatest threat is the prospect that we might forget why we do what we do,” he said. “Not our careers, but our vocation.”
Aly, whose role on The Project won him the Gold Logie for the most popular personality on Australian television, made his remarks at a black tie dinner at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern.
The Olle lecture was established as a fundraiser for brain cancer after the acclaimed ABC journalist Andrew Olle died of a brain tumour in 1995.
Aly said he too is guilty of committing the sins of modern journalism, admitting that given the choice between producing a story on superannuation or one on a gaffe by Tony Abbott he would chose the latter.
“It’s easy to write, easy to read and will earn me more kudos,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I? And if I have a choice between spending weeks or months getting to know a low socio-economic community to get a direct sense of what their concerns are and staying in my office and bashing out a live blog of the parry and thrust of the day in politics, I’ll choose the blog every time. Again, why wouldn’t I?
“So please understand nothing I say tonight is in a spirit of criticism, so much as therapy. I feel we’re at a genuine flashpoint and we need a place to talk through that.”
Journalists are so obsessed with speed that if they share something incorrect on social media a day later they apologise, he said.
“To be slow online, even slightly, is embarrassing,” he said. “It requires some token of self-awareness, like an apology, because without it, it’s like we’re risking our social status.”
The proliferation of media and information meant that organisations had to shout loudly to be heard and that meant going viral with strident, provocative and polarising content.
“That leaves us with some pretty new measures of journalistic success,” Aly said.
“Television programs are successful if their hashtag generates a voluminous twitter conversation; online articles are valued if they generate an enormous comments thread and lots of hits. That’s not a point about the evils or otherwise of social media. It’s a point about how what role we want it to play in deciding what is and isn’t successful journalism.”
Last year’s lecture was given by former Australian Women’s Weekly editor Helen McCabe, and in 2014 it was presented by Fairfax Media investigative journalist Kate McClymont. Other speakers include Today co-host Lisa Wilkinson, ABC PM host Mark Colvin and News Corp Australia executive Lachlan Murdoch.
The event will be broadcast on 702 ABC Sydney on Sunday and televised on ABC News 24 on Saturday.
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