Double Take

Journalist and University of Melbourne lecturer, Sami Shah joins CMT Co-Director Monica Attard on DoubleTake to unpack the media treatment of the Jason Arday story. The conversation straddles news media influence, social media power, the boundaries of responsible reporting, and where the limits lie in regulating harmful coverage, and how the issues raised by Arday's story play out too in news...

In this episode of DoubleTake, CMT Co-Director Derek Wilding speaks with Matthew Ricketson about his book with Andrew Dodd, “Getting Murdoched: How Murdoch's Media Wields Power and Punishment”. Matthew is a Professor of Communication at Deakin University and formerly a journalist. The discussion explores the way individuals - including Matthew – have been the subject of sustained criticism by...

With AI scraping vast amounts of content online, is the concept of public commons - a shared public resource with rules around access and use - under threat? In this  DoubleTake  podcast, we explore the future of the public information commons in the age of AI.   Paul Keller , Co-Founder and Policy Director at Open Future and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Information Law at the University...

A special Double Take episode on the Digital News Report, focusing on Australian findings. This year's report highlights the upswing in news consumption among younger audiences and their reliance on influencers and social media to access news. Many under 25s have never used traditional sources like newspapers or radio, even as interest in politics grows among under 35s. DNR researcher and Adju...

Dr Alena Radina sits down with Kevin Kallaugher, the legendary political cartoonist behind some of The Economist’s most iconic and globally recognised imagery. Together, they dive deep in a conversation about survival, the evolution of satire, and the growing dangers of speaking truth to power in an era that has grown increasingly hostile to both. 

This month, journalist, academic and author Associate Professor Margaret Simons joins us to discuss the evolving concept of objectivity in journalism.

CMT Co-Director Derek Wilding speaks with two guests, Julie Eisenberg and Angela Flannery about CMT’s new research and the latest developments in the quest to make digital platforms contribute to news sustainability in Australia. 

As AI rapidly infiltrates every aspect of our lives, the news industry is facing another onslaught from the digital realm. AI companies with billion-dollar values are lobbying the government for copyright exceptions, having trained their systems on copyrighted materials including news. People are increasingly turning to AI for their news and information, and newsrooms are grappling with how AI can...

Our annual review is back - and how could we sum this year up without looking at AI in news - what it means practically and ethically? Sacha Molitorisz speaks with journalist, broadcaster and podcaster Joe Hildebrand, and ABC's Managing Editor (Standards & Compliance) Sashka Koloff about declining trust, hallucinations and sex robots. You'll have to listen to understand.

Monica Attard speaks with Dr Siobhan McHugh, a leading podcast studies scholar and a multi award winning narrative podcast producer, and Dr Sarah Gilbert who leads the UTS Impact Studio, translating the scholarly work of academics into digestible podcasts. 

Does e-Safety do enough? In this episode, Professor Derek Wilding is speaking with Dr Noelle Martin, an expert on image-based abuse, and survivor-turned-activist. Noelle shares her research on image-based sexual abuse, particularly deepfake abuse, which disproportionately affects women globally.   Link below to Noelle's article 'Online safety regulation of deepfake abuse: a case study on A...

Michael Davis talks to Robin Mansell, Professor Emerita at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Scientific Director of the International Observatory on Information and Democracy. They discuss how a broader ecosystem based approach to problems of information integrity is needed.

Reporting on matters of national security is high stakes, and few know that better than Cameron Stewart, Chief International Correspondent at The Australian newspaper, and one of Australia’s most experienced national security journalists. It’s widely accepted that if journalists don't have safe and lawful means to report on matters of national security, democracy is undermined. But government...

We know that people are increasingly getting their news from social media content creators: for people aged 25-34, the go-to platform for news is YouTube. But can content on these platforms be considered news and its creators' journalists? Where are the crossovers harmful or useful?  To help us explore this issue from a content creator’s perspective, our PhD student Chris Hall speaks with Konr...

We dive into the complex and timely topic of populism—its roots, its rise, and its ripple effects across politics and media. CMT Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Alena Radina and Dr Jay Daniel Thompson, a freelance journalist and Senior Lecturer of Professional Communication at RMIT University, distinguish between left- and right-wing populism in the context of President Trump and the recent Australian Fede...

This episode, we are looking at how Europe deals with content moderation, specifically when a digital platform makes a decision about content that someone wants to dispute.  CMT Researcher Kieran Lindsay speaks with digital policy expert Ruairi Harrison.

No one who follows the news, can be in any doubt that since the inauguration of Donald J Trump as US President earlier this year, life as anyone knows it, isn’t the same. And one of the casualties of his short reign so far is the news media in the United States.  So is a push back possible?  Liz Spayd is our guest – she was the first woman named managing editor at the Washington Post, and the 6th...

Derek Wilding speaks with an expert panel on alternatives to the News Media Bargaining Code at a time when it's becoming increasingly difficult to get platforms to the table.

Privacy and media ethics specialist Sacha Molitorisz chats with the ACMA’s former Deputy Chair Creina Chapman and ABC's former Media Watch host Paul Barry on the state of news media in Australia and who should regulate it - their answers might surprise you! 

A little taster of the new year's first episode of Double Take - Media Watch's Paul Barry and former CEO of the MEAA Creina Chapman debate the state of news media in Australia and who should regulate it.

Wikipedia is first and foremost an encyclopedia. It differs from social platforms in that its business model does not depend on advertisers. Indeed, founder Jimmy Wales likens Wikipedia to a republic. So, is it possible to extrapolate some of the principles that govern Wikipedia to social platforms? Hear CMT's Michael Davis speak with Jimmy Wales in this month's episode of Double Take.

In this episode of Double Take, Monica speaks with Fintan O’Toole, an Irish Times columnist, advising editor at New York Review of Books , and winner of the European Press Prize, Orwell Prize and the Robert Silvers Prize.   Fintan has bracing views on how the media covered the U.S. election, and how changes in the media landscape have paved the way for monumental shifts in US politics. Notably, th...

In this episode of Double Take, South Asia media expert Kean Wong asks senior news editors what they're doing to stave off financial ruin in a media world hard hit by Covid-19, how they would like to see digital platforms regulated whilst maintaining freedom of speech, and what they're doing to capture new audiences – especially Gen Z.     Links to media sites mentioned: Jubi - https://en.jubi.id/...

In August this year, the CMT brought together a group of editors from India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines to exchange information on the problems each are experiencing in combatting mis- and disinformation. In this episode of Double Take, our regional consultant and expert on South Asian media Kean Wong asks what the Indian editors took away from the forum, and what lay ahead for them a...

For the past three years, we've been examining what impact the contraction of regional media has had on the amount of news making it to big city markets. Has it impacted the extent to which regional communities can have a voice in big policy debates? Hear from a panel with views on the issue.