The ABC of Auntie’s exit from news
The ABC’s recent bizarre decision to make its national political editor redundant took the spotlight away from Auntie’s broader abandonment of any pretence at being the national broadcaster of news.
It’s approach to news is now what we who spent years in the commercial world once called, retailing of news. Much of the ABC airwaves and online are now filled with retail variations of one central feature piece. It may be a so-called news investigation, a 7.30 piece, Four Corners or even Australian Story, but the central piece is simply a resource that is mined relentlessly for various forms of content across the news cycle. This lazy and complacent form of content generation fills the void of air time created by the ABC’s abrogation of its charter to serve the Australian community with an adequately resourced news service.
This retreat from a serious attempt to cover the news is evident across the ABC spectrum. I routinely consume ABC regional services and have done for 50 years. Regional ABC radio news services that once prided themselves on filling every bulletin with stories highly relevant to their local community of interest are now filled with anything but relevant local stories.
This morning’s ABC radio news for Southern Queensland led with a piece from Mt Isa. Apparently, ABC management considers Mt Isa and the Southern Downs to share a community of interest. In fact, the same ABC bulletin included just one story from the Southern Downs and that was about a town crier competition in Toowoomba. Such is the contempt ABC management holds for regional audiences.
It doesn’t matter which area of the ABC one examines, the same retailing and multi-purposing of content applies. Another example is rural industry reporting, once the pride of the ABC, which now utilises Land Line as the generator of the central resource which is then mined exhaustively for use on ABC rural reports, the Country Hour and regional news services.
Such is the awareness of rural issues among ABC management that they apparently conclude any rural story has relevance in any rural area. Of course, that’s the height of ignorance. The Southern Downs rural report this morning was filled with a lengthy piece about passionfruit varieties. It doesn’t figure in ABC editorial assessments that perhaps such a story in an area with no commercial passionfruit production is hardly relevant. The legendary figures of ABC rural reporting would be appalled at what the ABC has become.
Whether it’s small regional newsrooms or the once mighty metro outfits, the decline and abandonment of capability is similar. For example, the ABC TV newsroom in Brisbane made the decision some time ago to cover just three local stories per day. The rest must be filled by resources from interstate and overseas. So, if a story occurs outside the three story limit, the audience has to learn about it elsewhere.
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I recently heard the ABC Director of News interviewed on ABC Radio Brisbane’s mornings program. He was attempting to justify the axing of the role of national political editor. He said quite boldly that TV news was no longer a priority because very few people, including his children, watch it. Could it be that no one watches it because it doesn’t cover the news?
Love or loath the commercial TV news bulletins (and they infuriate me) at least they try to cover the news and indeed audience numbers reflect that. ABC TV’s 7PM bulletin is lucky to scrape an audience of 550,000 across the five city metro market (does not include Tasmania, NT or any of the regions) while 7 and 9 between them share around 1.8 million people. Could the audience be passing judgement? And of course, the good Director of News for the ABC conveniently dismisses the valuable role TV news plays in generating content for online platforms. But of course, the ABC is yet to learn that from the commercial broadcasters.
The reality is that the ABC is no longer the national broadcaster when it comes to news and it hasn’t been for a long time. So, which network rightly lays claim to that mantle.?
Clearly it is the Nine Network. Their carefully acquired, multi-platform network includes our most distinguished newspaper mastheads and when combined with their TV, radio and online footprint, Nine is clearly Australia’s premier news network. Their courageous defence of the truth in the BRS case is testimony to their rightful place at the helm of news in Australia.
The Seven Network is still in there giving it a good shot, but they don’t have the masthead and radio firepower of Nine and must broaden their base to fight back. Seven and Nine both understand that the TV bulletins are much more than just free-to-air product. They leverage their stories across socials and online highly effectively, something the ABC appears to have no interest in emulating.
As for our once great ABC national broadcaster? While their management doesn’t understand the problem, Auntie is destined to decline further. It’s increasingly confining itself to a narrow set of agendas and distancing itself from the real Australia it was established to represent.?
RIP Auntie.
Retired Private Investor
8 个月Just show the real news with no bias or comments from reporters. We don’t care about their opinion. I agree with a previous comment that the presenter doesn’t need to give a summary of what we just heard unless they want to put a spin on it. While I’m at it Sarah Ferguson and David Speers should stop talking over interviewees. They never let politicians answer questions without reigning them in to a gotcha moment. It’s a disgrace and poor journalism if that’s what you call it. Another annoyance is that our Sundays are full of religious claptrap that espouse Christianity. I am an atheist so why does the people’s station force us to watch this mythical propaganda each week. And don’t tell me we can change channels. The ABC should be unbiased on all matters political, social and religious and I don’t want to have lbgtxyz shoved down my throat proclaiming it is normal. It’s not.
Chief Operating Officer at Queensland Catholic Education Commission
1 年The ABC entered the era of online news with considerable foresight and with the advantage of a substantial, geographically dispersed radio news workforce used to regular filing and updating of stories, a rhythm that lent itself to on-demand news. However side by side with that came 24-hour tv news, an insatiable consumer of content, which has as its go-to format the live cross. That somehow became the focus of content creation. What is being lost is the craft. How often do you see a live press conference, followed by a reporter doing a live cross telling you what you just saw? That's a considerable use of resources but what did it contribute to my understanding? Not much is usually my answer.
Journalist and content producer
1 年Some interesting points there, and as the son of a former ABC rural reporter I'm inclined to agree that rural content has declined. While I agree that the ABC can learn some things from the commercials, I think we also have to acknowledge the failings and farce that is regional commercial news in Australia. The loss of local regional news by seven, nine, win, former APN, SCA and others has been absolutely catastrophic for regional areas in a way that dwarfs the failings of the ABC. We can't expect one outlet to compensate for the loss of an entire industry - it's just not realistic and something needs to change.
Journalist
1 年What you are seeing is the result of massive cuts to the budget in real terms. The ABC cannot afford to keep doing what it has been across all the platforms, including a dedicated news channel. It’s coverage is spread far too thin. Like it or not, the Director has made no secret of plans to transition to a digital first model. I’m sorry to see the TV and radio decline too, (along with all that valuable experience) but it sees on-demand as the future and that’s where its resources should be directed. From my own observations of young people’s viewing habits, it’s hard to disagree.
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