George Negus on Media and Culture: Interview by Lee Duffield

Abstract

The interview was commissioned by M/C Dialogue online journal as one in a series with "cultural scholars". George Negus as a veteran reporter, presenter and commentator in Australian television current affairs, was questioned about responses of the journalistic profession to changes dveeloping in media at the start of this Century. He adopts a position that practitioners must adjust to the "opportunities" of new media, convergence or globalisation. In response to proliferation of media producers and outlets, he advocates a continuing role for professional journalists as centrally placed sense-makers. He says: "I hink what the information age will do is make analytical and opinion journalism even more important than it always has been, because the information being available to you, you’ll probably still require assistance in sifting it, assessing it, evaluating it … I think the great paradox will be that as information journalism becomes less important, because the information will be so freely available to any one of these gatekeepers, self styled journalists, the opinion journalism, and commentary and analysis will become more important – because most people don’t have time to do that; they’re too busy doing other things."