Read about Tony

With only a few days before my time with you at LitFest, there’s still time to check out what’s happening in the world of news right now, and I urge you to do just that. When I was in my final years at high school, I confess I didn’t pay much attention to the daily news, and I wonder how many of you are really that interested. (Well, you’ve booked into this session, so you must care a little, surely!)
So, before we meet, ask yourself a few questions (and by all means prepare a few for me):
Is news important? Does it make any difference whether we know what’s happening on the other side of the planet – or even the other side of town?
What is news, anyway? Who decides what stories will be covered, who will get to comment on the events of the day, what prominence each story will have in the daily news line-up? Who are the newsmakers – and how do they get the attention of the editors?
And what about the standards of today’s journalists, in print (and that includes the web), on radio and TV? Are journalists any better today than they were 20 years ago? Or a century ago? Does it really matter if they can’t spell – or if the Media Adviser to the federal Opposition Leader doesn’t know the meaning of ‘concoction’?
Come to that, does it really matter if YOU (yes, YOU) have a limited vocabulary, can’t spell very well, or can’t punctuate a sentence correctly?
You might hazard a guess at my stance, but what’s yours? (Or don’t you care?)
Looking forward to Friday ….

PS: Apologies, but my colleague Sandy Kaye, who was to be with me at LitFest, is on a shooting assignment in Thailand - these things happen when you’re a working journo - so you’re stuck with me for the session!

If you’d like to comment on Tony’s post or presentation please type your response in the box below and click on ‘Submit comment’. (If no box is showing click on ‘__ comments’ and it will appear).