Ongoing coverage of the Australian election campaign for 2016.
A citizen journalist begins to find her voice… @JanB_QLD reflects – PART 1 NoFibs and The Westender
Starting Out Reading good journalism is a vital part of my life, and like many I am fearful for its future. Now, having participated in citizen journalism projects over the past 18 months, I have somehow inadvertently inserted myself into the debate about whether citizen journalism threatens or complements professional journalism. I came to citizen journalism when I volunteered for Margo Kingston’s No Fibs 2013 federal election project. The project lead to me doing some writing for my local Westender News and eventually to participating in a community correspondent project with ABC radio in Brisbane. In ‘Getting to Grips with Griffith‘, I reflected on this early experience as a Citizen […]
Are we mitigating the #health risk of worsening #heatwaves due to climate change? asks @takvera
Much of inland Australia including large parts of NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria are experiencing the first heatwave of summer in October, a month before the official start of the season. Temperature records tumbled, including the warmest October day on record with the national average maximum of 36.39 degrees Celsius on 25 October, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Heatwaves pose a major health risk and can disrupt work and operation of infrastructure such as electricity generation and transmission, with flow-on impacts on public transport and general delivery of services. But they also exacerbate fire weather conditions for bushfires. Each summer we fight the bushfires and count […]
Voyage to the new news world: @burgewords #CreatingWaves on online media
Margo Kingston asked me to kick-off a new series on No Fibs about the experiences of citizen journalists working with professional journalists in online media. Here is my response. A WEEK after the 2013 federal election I was driving to my casual sub-editing job on a Fairfax weekly newspaper when I let a brilliant photo opportunity go. During the campaign I’d had to pass a vast billboard of our electorate’s returned sitting member, Andrew Laming, along that route. But on that day, Laming’s face was burning into black ash as a farmer torched his latest crop’s stubble. It was one of those moments when your mind takes the shot, writes the story […]