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Editor's note
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We live in a time when the bullying of journalists has become a casual pastime for the President of the United States. When journalists around the world are increasingly being stripped of rights and persecuted by governments who ought to know better. When a man like Jamal Khoshoggi can be brutally assassinated for his writing. When all over the world, the businesses that supported journalism have been diminished by behemoths Facebook and Google.
For anyone who, like me, is old-fashioned enough to have grown-up intoxicated by the idea of fearless journalists holding power to account, we have come a long way from All The President’s Men. But this week has brought two pieces of encouraging news.
The first is Time Magazine’s decision to name four journalists and one newspaper as its person of the year. The magazine’s stand for journalism is laudable and necessary, as Australian journalist Peter Greste, who endured his own grim experience of incarceration in Egypt, writes in The Conversation.
Greste has recently become a journalism professor of the University of Queensland and is working to research and promote journalistic freedom. At The Conversation, we see this as important work. We will report Greste’s findings and do what we can to lend him our support.
The second piece of good news is the ACCC report into the regulation of digital platforms, released on Monday. The report is long and floats a lot of ideas, but it takes seriously the question of market failure, in particular the way the rise of Facebook and Google has made it hard to fund journalism.
As ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in his press conference on Monday, this is a classic economics problem: how do you a support a public good when the market is clearly failing to do so? It’s not clear he has the right answers yet, but Sims and his colleagues at the ACCC should be applauded for asking the right questions.
At The Conversation, we believe clean information is as vital for democracy as clean water is for health. We are deeply committed to providing our own unique brand of academic journalism as a public good, one that helps people make informed decisions.
If you value this work please support The Conversation with a donation. But even more important is to understand the true value what all journalists do – most especially those in our profession who accept grave risks – and act accordingly to protect their rights and support their work.
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Top story
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The annual award was this year shared between four journalists and a newspaper.
AAP/The Conversation
Peter Greste, The University of Queensland
The four people and a newspaper who are Time magazine's "Person of the Year" have been given the acknowledgment not just for what they have done, but for what they have come to represent.
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The excavations at the Normanton site in 2015.
Shaun Adams
Shaun Adams, Griffith University; Michael Westaway, Griffith University; Richard Martin, The University of Queensland
When the remains of Aboriginal people who died more than a century ago were found, the local Aboriginal community wanted to know more about these past lives.
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Uluru-Kata Tjuta: of 19 Australian World Heritage sites this is one of only two that recognise the values of ‘living’ Aboriginal culture.
Shutterstock
Ian Lilley, The University of Queensland; Celmara Pocock, University of Southern Queensland
Of Australia's 19 World Heritage sites, only two recognise our Indigenous heritage. None of the our three cultural sites do so.
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Business + Economy
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Tim Harcourt, UNSW
The consequences of Brexit mean Australian exporters need to stop focusing on Britain and think more about Europe.
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Ben Phillips, Australian National University; Matthew Gray, Australian National University; Richard Webster, Australian National University
A new ANU computer algorithm can provide near instant answers about how to get the best bang for welfare dollars. It says we should boost Newstart and cut either pensions or family benefits.
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Health + Medicine
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Jane Tiller, Monash University; Margaret Otlowski, University of Tasmania
Because genetic changes that cause cause health complications can be hereditary, the information affects not only the person with the mutation but also their biological relatives.
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Neera Bhatia, Deakin University; James Tibballs, Royal Children's Hospital
A parliamentary committee report recommends the Australian government investigate whether an opt-out system could help increase donation rates. But the evidence suggests it wouldn't.
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Environment + Energy
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Jack Pezzey, Australian National University
For decades, economists have pondered the 'social cost of carbon' - the price worth paying to avoid the future costs of greenhouse emissions. But a new analysis suggests this quest is impossibly complex.
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Ian Wright, Western Sydney University; Jason Reynolds, Western Sydney University; Michelle Ryan, Western Sydney University
Of Australia's capital cities, Perth has the saltiest tap water, while Melbourne, Hobart, Darwin and Canberra have the least salty. And while all are within guidelines, the variation is striking.
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Cities
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Brendan Wintle, University of Melbourne; Sarah Bekessy, RMIT University
Expanding cities and farmland have created many small, often isolated patches of vegetation. Long seen as having limited ecological value, a new study shows these are vital for endangered species.
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Politics + Society
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Rayner Thwaites, University of Sydney
The federal government's proposed changes to how and when citizenship can be stripped need close scrutiny.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The outcome will be disappointing to News Corp in particular which has
been highly critical of the ABC's expansion in online publishing.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Speaking to The Conversation, Albanese wouldn't comment on Bill Shorten's unpopularity with voters, arguing instead that it's a matter of whether the Labor team is “seen as worthy of election".
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Peter Greste, The University of Queensland
The four people and a newspaper who are Time magazine's "Person of the Year" have been given the acknowledgment not just for what they have done, but for what they have come to represent.
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Education
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Ittima Cherastidtham, Grattan Institute; Will Mackey, Grattan Institute
Before deciding what to study at which university, high school graduates should consider the drop-out rates, early-career employment prospects and lifetime earnings their program is likely to yield.
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Anna Olijnyk, University of Adelaide
Victorian schools could potentially be without federal funding after 31 December if the state government refuses to sign up to the Gonski 2.0 funding reforms.
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Science + Technology
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Sarah Keenihan, The Conversation
The headquarters of the Australian Space Agency will be in Adelaide. So how did we get to this point? Here are ten essential reads to fill you in.
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Mark Hemer, CSIRO
The Moon has gravity of its own, which pulls the oceans (and us) towards it.
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