An online roundtable discussion this week examined a range of challenges to public interest journalism and the implications for public health, and put forward some suggested solutions, reports Alison Barrett.
The discussion was moderated by Associate Professor Carmel Williams, with contributions from:
- Professor Bronwyn Fredericks, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) – University of Queensland, and Co-Chair of Croakey Health Media
- Dr Norman Swan, Co-Host of The Health Report and Reporter – ABC
- Alex Cramb, CEO – Public Interest Journalism Initiative
- Dr Melissa Sweet, Editor-in-Chief and a Director – Croakey Health Media.
Alison Barrett writes:
The public health sector has a critical role in protecting public interest journalism as an important determinant of health, media and public health experts said this week.
An online roundtable discussion highlighted the roles of public interest journalism as part of responses to the scourge of misinformation and disinformation, for informing and empowering communities, communicating reliable health information, and for accountability of decision makers and power-holders.
Professor Bronwyn Fredericks, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) at The University of Queensland and Chair of Croakey Health Media, also discussed the importance of public interest journalism in supporting truth telling, citing Croakey’s submission to a Parliamentary inquiry into the Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024.
“Australia needs to do better to develop and support a diverse and sustainable media landscape so that truth telling can be supported by media at all levels, from communities to state, territory and national publications,” she said.
Speakers distinguished between journalism that is in the public interest, and the impact of corporate media organisations that can be seen as part of the web of commercial determinants of health, and that too often undermine the safety and rights of First Nations people.
Convened by The Centre for Health in All Policies Research Translation (CHiAPRT) in partnership with Croakey Health Media as part of the Centre’s In Conversation: Boundary, Spanners, Thinkers and Policy Actors Roundtables, the topic was ‘protecting public interest journalism as a public health good’.
The roundtable drew strong interest from across the health sector, with more than 60 attendees, including people working in health organisations, universities, NGOs, communications and policy.
Among a range of ideas put forward, ABC’s Dr Norman Swan suggested the establishment of an independent Foundation to support public interest journalism, as a form of public health intervention.
This Foundation could provide financial support for public interest journalism, the development of outlets, audience building and training of journalists from diverse backgrounds, he said.
The webinar heard of multiple systemic and structural challenges facing public interest journalism, including financial insecurity, threats to personal safety, the power and influence of Big Tech, growing misinformation and disinformation, and diminishing trust and audience interest in journalism.
In the week where whistleblower and former military lawyer David McBride lost an appeal against the severity of his sentence for sharing classified documents with journalists, Sweet called for a systems approach to protect public interest journalism and the safety of all those who contribute to its production.
“Truth telling can be extremely dangerous,” she said, pointing to a Committee to Protect Journalists report stating that more journalists were killed in 2024 than in any other year since the Committee began collecting data more than 30 years ago.
At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed last year, nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed by Israel, with many more killed and assaulted this year.
Marking World Press Freedom Day earlier this month, the European Union said:
We are increasingly concerned by the growing threats to journalists and other media professionals, including online and offline, intimidation and attacks, arbitrary detention, legal persecution and transnational repression, all aimed at silencing their work.”
The EU said that “emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, can intensify these risks by enabling pervasive surveillance and targeted harassment across the world”, Sweet told the webinar.
While governments could do much more to support the sustainability of public interest journalism, wider society – including the health sector – also need to be engaged, according to Sweet.
“Protecting public interest journalism as a public health good also requires wider structures and systems to consider their roles and responsibilities in this space,” she said.
“Public interest journalism does not stand alone – we’re part of wider systems that contribute to informed communities and accountability”, including whistleblowers, civil society, community advocates, academics and activists, she said.
News deserts
Alex Cramb, CEO of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, said it is incumbent on the community to advocate to governments on the importance of sustainable and appropriate funding for the public interest journalism organisations and communities that need it most.
In its five-year Australian News Data Project, PIJI consistently showed the shrinking of public interest journalism, with many newspapers – disproportionately in regional communities – closing or significantly reducing their operations due to declining revenue streams, up to the end of the project in December 2024.
Cramb said very few countries had a more concentrated media ownership than Australia.
“That, particularly in the modern context of the digital environment, places a lot of people in communities at risk of being fed misinformation and disinformation, which, in a public health sense…is a life and death issue,” he said.
Pointing to the influence of algorithms on what we read, Cramb added that many people don’t think about it – “they consume what is placed in front of them”.
Cramb said one of the public health sector’s strengths is that it has content – the one thing that “any outlet is desperate for”.
He urged public health professionals to build relationships with newsrooms, advocate, provide information and be interesting. “Provide that content with courage,” he added.
Advocacy
Professor Bronwyn Fredericks urged public health professionals to engage more with public interest journalism as an important determinant of health.
She also urged the sector to use the media and public interest journalism to advocate more on other structural determinants of health, including food and housing insecurity, poverty and racism.
Fredericks said she had noticed a decline in some advocacy work undertaken by the public health sector since the Voice to Parliament referendum.
Fredericks called for courage and bravery in speaking up as it’s a critical part of public health. “How do you do public health…if you’re not out there campaigning?” she said.
She also emphasised the importance of including Indigenous people in public interest journalism, either as journalists and media professionals or as expert voices, for example, in amplifying the voices of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health services and Land Councils.
Dr Norman Swan agreed with Frederick’s comments on diversity, telling the webinar that existing broadcasters need to do more to ensure diversity is part of their core business.
Trust in truth telling
Swan told the webinar that communicating evidence-based stories on health is important and builds trust, which “improves the decision-making, and the direction people take for themselves and their families”.
“I have no doubt that public interest journalism, public sector broadcasting, public sector journalism in general is a determinant of health and wellbeing,” he said.
However, “it’s never been a harder task than it is now”.
New media platforms, mediums and styles of communicating – including podcasts, videos and social media, for example – are important for connecting with, and building audiences, according to Swan.
However, one of the downsides is the harmful application of artificial intelligence and influence of industry interests.
Swan recounted how deepfakes had been made of him to trick people into buying unproven supplements and weight loss products.
ABC attempts to have the deepfakes taken down failed, he said. “Meta wasn’t interested in the public health aspect of this.”
See Croakey’s archive of articles on public interest journalism and health
