A special Evatt Sunset Seminar, Investigative Journalism: Phillip Knightley with Chris Masters, was held today at the Seymour Theatre Centre in Sydney.
The following is taken from the Evatt Foundation website:
The Evatt Foundation proudly presents a pre-dinner public seminar on The Death of Investigative Journalism and Who Killed It? Featuring Phillip Knightley with Chris Masters
“The age of the war correspondent as hero is clearly over”, concluded Phillip Knightley in the recent edition of his classic study, The First Casualty. As the world awaits war, governments, their spin doctors, propagandists and military commanders will intensify their focus on controlling the media. History suggests that lies, manipulation, news management, distortion, omission, slant and gullible coverage will be the order of the day.
Meanwhile, newspaper circulations are declining all over the western world, viewing figures for news and current affairs are down and there is general public contempt for journalists. It is an extraordinary fact that, of the eleven million ‘well educated’ adults in Britain, about one third do not read ANY daily newspaper whatsoever.
What and who decides our news values? Is the media, particularly TV, in the business of the mass production of ignorance? Is it possible that the more TV news we watch, the less we know?
Everybody who has had anything to do with the media – either as a producer or a consumer – has been aware for some time now that something big has been going on in the information industry, a sea change as deep and as radical as the arrival of the new technology in the 1980s.
You are invited
To consider the state of news and current affairs reporting, in the first of our events for 2003, you are invited to a special Evatt Foundation sunset seminar featuring renowned investigative journalists Phillip Knightley and Chris Masters.
Chris Masters will offer his reflections on the topic and introduce Phillip Knightley to present the main address, after which there will be time for comments, questions and answers. We have scheduled the seminar for 6 pm to 7.30 pm so as to complement your other Saturday evening plans.
This is a unique opportunity to hear two of the most distinguished practitioners of investigative journalism speak about a most pressing topic for the future of Australian politics, culture and society.
