'Catastrophic failure' theories and disaster journalism : evaluating media explanations of the Black Saturday bushfires

 In recent decades, academic researchers of natural disasters and emergency management have developed a canonical literature on ‘catastrophe failure’ theories such as disaster responses from US emergency management services (Drabek, 2010; Quarantelli, 1998) and the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (Perrow, 1999). This article examines six influential theories from this field in an attempt to explore why Victoria’s disaster and emergency management response systems failed during Australia’s Black Saturday bushfires. How well, if at all, are these theories understood by journalists, disaster and emergency management planners, and policy-makers? In examining the Country Fire Authority’s response to the fires, as well as the media’s reportage of them, we use the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires as a theory-testing case study of failures in emergency management, preparation and planning. We conclude that journalists can learn important lessons from academics’ specialist knowledge about disaster and emergency management responses.

Scientific foundations for an IUCN red list of ecosystems

 An understanding of risks to biodiversity is needed for planning action to slow current rates of decline and secure ecosystem services for future human use. Although the IUCN Red List criteria provide an effective assessment protocol for species, a standard global assessment of risks to higher levels of biodiversity is currently limited. In 2008, IUCN initiated development of risk assessment criteria to support a global Red List of ecosystems. We present a new conceptual model for ecosystem risk assessment founded on a synthesis of relevant ecological theories. To support the model, we review key elements of ecosystem definition and introduce the concept of ecosystem collapse, an analogue of species extinction. The model identifies four distributional and functional symptoms of ecosystem risk as a basis for assessment criteria: a) rates of decline in ecosystem distribution; b) restricted distributions with continuing declines or threats; c) rates of environmental (abiotic) degradation; and d) rates of disruption to biotic processes. A fifth criterion, e) quantitative estimates of the risk of ecosystem collapse, enables integrated assessment of multiple processes and provides a conceptual anchor for the other criteria. We present the theoretical rationale for the construction and interpretation of each criterion. The assessment protocol and threat categories mirror those of the IUCN Red List of species. A trial of the protocol on terrestrial, subterranean, freshwater and marine ecosystems from around the world shows that its concepts are workable and its outcomes are robust, that required data are available, and that results are consistent with assessments carried out by local experts and authorities. The new protocol provides a consistent, practical and theoretically grounded framework for establishing a systematic Red List of the world’s ecosystems. This will complement the Red List of species and strengthen global capacity to report on and monitor the status of biodiversity.

Journalism ethics and law: stories of media practice

Journalism Ethics and Law ignites the conversation about journalism ethics and the function of the law in today&rsquo;s media. Emphasising a practical work-based approach to develop best practice multimedia journalism; this book presents a combined ethics and law experience for journalism students and uses stories and case studies to highlight the most significant questions for the practice of law and ethics today. <br /><br />Journalism Ethics and Law offers readers a new way about thinking about journalism ethics and empowers future journalists to make good and ethical decisions in the field.<br />

Lessons in aiding journalism and democracy: a study of Australian educators working in the Asia Pacific region

&nbsp;This paper examines assumptions about democracy and the role of media held by journalism educators working outside Australia, and the extent to which those assumptions influence teaching styles, regardless of the maturity of the political systems in the nations in question. This paper looks at the work emerging from academics Beate Josephi, Barbie Zelizer, John Nerone, Cherian George and Silvio Waisbord, who argue in Journalism (2012) that there needs to be a change to the understanding by journalism scholars of the central place of journalism in democracy because that view is not global in its perspective. This paper specifically considers Zelizer&rsquo;s point that &ldquo;much of the scholarly world in the West &ndash; and specifically in the United States &ndash; depends directly or indirectly on the presumption of democracy and its accoutrements&rdquo;. The researcher asks, &ldquo;what can we learn about our Australian perspective on teaching journalism in the developing world where there may not, yet, be an operating democracy or a form of democracy that replicates the Western liberal model?&rdquo;

Book review: Richard Lance Keeble and John Tulloch (eds), Global literary journalism: exploring the journalistic imagination

Reviews a new book on international literary journalism and includes critical commentary on the Australian field of literary journalism.

Animal rights and media ethics in Australia: advocacy journalism?

This paper considers the role of animal rights-based Australian law in journalism studies and its connection to instruction of graduate students at a large university based in Victoria. Its case study examples illustrate and develop some of the discussions in journalism studies worldwide of the balance between ethical practice balanced against legal considerations, and whether advocacy and journalism can function together for the benefit of the public interest.

Cross cultural exchange to support reasoning about socio-scientific sustainability issues

In this article, we describe a project on reasoning about socio-scientific issues (SSIs), involving French and Australian pre-service science teachers engaged in on-line discussion and development of a wiki. In the research, we developed frameworks for looking at the quality of reasoning about 'socially acute' sustainability questions. We found the level of reasoning was enhanced by the cross-cultural exchange, and identified the importance of context in framing reasoning quality. We argue that science teachers could effectively adapt this approach to develop students' scientific literacy and embed the 'science as a human endeavour' strand of the Australian Curriculum in their practice.

Geo-social journalism: reorienting the study of small commercial newspapers in a digital environment

This paper begins by problematizing the use of &ldquo;community&rdquo; to define and theorize small commercial media outlets that have geography as their primary characteristic&mdash;particularly hyper local and small traditional newspapers connected to larger media organizations in digital space. We then extend the concept of &ldquo;geo-social news&rdquo; to outline &ldquo;geo-social journalism&rdquo; as a specific form of news work currently grouped under the &ldquo;community media&rdquo; umbrella. Geo-social is a concept for exploring how small commercial newspapers change as media technologies evolve. It offers a framework for understanding how these news outlets and audiences connect via the notion of &ldquo;sense of place&rdquo;. It can also be used as a lens for theorizing their role in social flows and movements and as nodes in the global media network. The practice of &ldquo;geo-social journalism&rdquo;, meanwhile, has two dimensions. Firstly, journalists must engage with the land (environment/agriculture/industry), populations, histories and cultures of the places they report news. Secondly, it involves connections and understandings of the shifting constellations of global and national systems, issues and relationships of the digital era. Finally, this paper argues that by its very nature, &ldquo;geo-social journalism&rdquo; eschews theoretical universalizing and instead demands fine-grained analyses of the specific dynamic of each &ldquo;geo-social&rdquo; publication, its setting and the practices which shape it and it in turn shapes.

Social media's impact on journalism : a study of media's coverage of anti-corruption protests in India

The year 2011 was memorable for many in India &ndash; for those who participated in numerous anti-corruption protests, and for those who witnessed these protests via all pervasive mainstream news media. This paper will use inter-media agenda-setting discourse to explain the Indian media&rsquo;s coverage of the so-called &lsquo;Anna movement&rsquo;. It will outline how the use of mobile and social media platforms by the &lsquo;India Against Corruption&rsquo; organisers and the educated middle class influenced the mainstream media&rsquo;s coverage of the protests. The paper will consider the implication of this coverage, in the light of the unique position of power the Indian news media has in this transitioning society.