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In Australia as elsewhere around the world, the mass media are part of the Establishment. And so, writes Denis Muller, when a big story such as the death of Queen Elizabeth II breaks, there is huge pressure to meet expectations. If that coverage looks like a reflection of Establishment interests, that’s because it is - but it is also unmistakably a reflection of public expectations too.
With that in mind, Muller says, the Australian media’s blanket coverage began well, with some outlets showing a sense of history - and nuance - in their tributes. But what followed was a distinct misreading of the public appetite, and as the saturation of stories continued over the weekend, the stories became increasingly bizarre and banal. Soon we had pieces about visions of the queen in the clouds and the new king’s frustration with a leaky pen. Meanwhile, there have been significant developments in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The lesson for news directors and editors is to recognise when people’s needs on a particular story have been met, and remember that there are other important events going on in the world, too.
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Amanda Dunn
Politics + Society Editor
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Denis Muller, The University of Melbourne
The Australian media’s blanket coverage of the sovereign’s death was a reflection of public expectations, but it was allowed to drag on and became increasingly bizarre.
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Jenny Gore, University of Newcastle
A new report comes at a critical time. Every year, between 5% and 9% of Australian students do not meet year-level expectations in literacy or numeracy.
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Michael Toole, Burnet Institute; Brendan Crabb, Burnet Institute
So far in 2022, more than 12,000 Australians have died with COVID, six times the number of deaths in the previous two years.
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Tristram Sainsbury, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; Robert Breunig, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Unemployed Australians who accessed their super during COVID stayed on benefits seven weeks longer than similarly-placed recipients who did not.
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Graeme Coulson, The University of Melbourne
Kangaroos are essentially peace-loving herbivores, but they’re known to attack if it feels cornered – or even if it sees a human as a sparring partner.
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Lisa Portolan, Western Sydney University
Launched in 2015, Raya, prides itself on being ‘an exclusive dating and networking platform for people in creative industries’.
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Sue Joseph, University of South Australia
Does a journalist’s gender matter if their job is to speak truth to power? It shouldn’t but until recently did. A new book, Through Her Eyes, tells the stories of our women foreign correspondents.
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Politics + Society
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Mike Grimshaw, University of Canterbury
If the All Blacks again fail to fire against Australia in the first Bledisloe Test, perhaps the game’s administrators should take advice from another group of experts entirely.
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Health + Medicine
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Janet Davies, Queensland University of Technology; Alfredo Huete, University of Technology Sydney; Paul Beggs, Macquarie University
A third La Niña event in a row could bring dangerous conditions for people with allergies – but we’ll need better continuous monitoring to be sure what’s coming in the future.
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Science + Technology
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Melissa de Zwart, Flinders University
Starlink has plans to connect phones, planes and even cruises to its space satellites. But there are hold-ups.
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Robert E Nordon, UNSW Sydney; Jingjing Li, UNSW Sydney
Growing cells we can use to produce blood is key to life-saving therapies after cancer treatment – this device has taken us a step closer.
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Environment + Energy
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Neil Saintilan, Macquarie University
Millions of mangroves died off along Australia’s northern coast. The cause? El Niño - and the moon’s wobbly orbit causing extremely low tides.
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Andrew Allan, University of South Australia; Subha Parida, University of South Australia
The city is a A$725 billion wall-like structure running for 170km across the Saudi Arabian landscape. Can it live up to its huge ambitions?
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Education
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Rachel Williamson-Dean, University of Auckland; Gavin Brown, University of Auckland; Pat Bullen, University of Auckland
Children who move schools often can struggle. But so too can those who stay put while others come and go. More attention needs to be paid to these often-forgotten victims of school transience.
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Arts + Culture
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Lisa Perrott, University of Waikato
Like the artist himself, Brett Morgen’s film about David Bowie defies convention to create an extraordinary audiovisual tapestry of an endlessly creative life.
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Ben McCann, University of Adelaide
The titan of French film has died, aged 91. His was a career of immense creativity, which redefined the grammar of cinema.
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Books + Ideas
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Jindan Ni, RMIT University
Siang Lu’s debut novel reveals that whitewashing Asians for the screen is profitable. ‘People pay to see foreignness repackaged as stereotypes – and thus rendered virtually invisible.’
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