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Taking the media to task

Jay Rosen is an outspoken media critic and journalism professor at New York University. In his keynote address at the 2011 New News Conference as part of Melbourne Writers Festival, he deconstructs the current state of political journalism in the US and in Australia, saying they have much more in common than most of us want to believe.

Some of the problems Rosen identifies include the media treating politics as entertainment, politicians peddling perception as reality, and press gallery journalists priding themselves on being "insiders". It's happening in Washington and Canberra, he says, and it's not just the Murdoch press and Fox News. According to Rosen, the ABC also has a case to answer.

Offering solutions for the future, he argues that a better knowledge of and respect for politics could change everything.

Jay Rosen is a media critic, a writer, and a professor of journalism at New York University. He has been on the journalism faculty at NYU since 1986. From 1999 to 2005, he was chair of the Department. Rosen is considered one of the founders of the idea of "citizen journalism". His book about the subject, "What Are Journalists For?" was published in 1999. He has run the blogsite "Press Think" sinice 2003.

Listen to Rosen speak (and even watch) at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Big Ideas here.


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