- interpretation of complex research findings, surveys, and polls in news stories
Reports:
- 'Federal laws blamed for Sydney's welfare ghettos', Paul Sheehan, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 July 96
- 'Ethnic ghettos claim 'irresponsible', Illawarra Mercury, 2 July 96
- 'Urban Ghettos', Melbourne Yarra Leader, 8 July 96
Comment:
- The following journalists/editors comment on their coverage of Ernest Healy's report.
- The Sydney Morning Herald's Paul Sheehan
- AAP's Margaret McDonald
- The Illawarra Mercury's Peter Cullen
- The Melbourne Yarra Leader's Bob Osburn
- Ernest Healy, researcher and author of 'Welfare benefits and residential concentrations amongst recently arrived migrant communities' on how his report was misinterpreted by the media.
- The Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia comments on the harm done to communities through the use of loaded language and offensive terminology in the media.
Please note that none of the reports in the case studies have been the subject of complaints or queries under the Racial Hatred Act.
Margaret McDonald, Sydney Bureau Chief, AAP, comments:
The AAP news desk works to the same tight deadlines and under the same pressure as any other newsroom, although there is the additional competitive pressure of trying to be the first to break the story, rather than reacting to stories which have already appeared; and there are also problems of ownership of a story which we seem to address quite frequently.
The Illawarra Mercury ran the report as we put it out on the wire, without any changes; but the problem AAP regularly experiences is when the wire story is subbed, or a journalist follows up different leads and makes additions to it, and the original thrust or meaning of the AAP story is lost. If there's a by-line on the story that's OK, but if there isn't and the story causes concern among readers, then the newspapers often advise the reader to call AAP as the source of the story and we cop the flak for an article which wasn't the same as the one we put on the wire.
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