Presented by the ANU School of Cybernetics and The Fenner School of Environment & Society

Register in person, or join us via Zoom here.

Journalism is often known as the ‘Fourth Estate’, and the news media has traditionally been viewed as the guardian of the public interest, and as a watchdog on the activities of government. Yet with much of the contemporary press reliant on private business – and a model that that has changed completely thanks to the internet – do we need to reconsider how this pillar of democracy is supported in our society?

Provocations is a live, interactive academic event which seeks to shed light on competing visions for future sustainabilities.

This second iteration of the series will welcome Professor Peter Greste. His provocation will surround the idea of reconsidering journalism as a public good rather than a commercial enterprise, and the development of a set of regulatory and funding mechanisms to make it serve that purpose.

Peter will begin the event by presenting a 10 minute provocation, followed by responses from, and discussion between, our ‘Provocatees’, Andrew Meares and Dr Rebecca Pearse, and Peter. Finally, there will be a live Q&A session in which the audience has the opportunity to engage with Peter’s vision for our journalistic future.
 

Our Provocator: Prof Peter Greste

Professor Peter Greste is an academic, film maker, journalist, and author. He is currently professor of journalism at Macquarie University.

He came to academia in 2018 after a 30-year career as an award-winning foreign correspondent for the BBC, Reuters, CNN and Al Jazeera, in some of the world’s most volatile places. He was based in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Latin America and Africa, and covered conflicts across those regions and in the Middle East. In 2011, he won a Peabody Award for a documentary on Somalia, Land of Anarchy, for the BBC’s flagship current affairs program, Panorama.

He is best known for becoming a headline himself, when he and two of his colleagues were arrested in Cairo while working for Al Jazeera, and charged with terrorism offences. In letters smuggled from prison, Peter described their incarceration as an attack on press freedom.

His campaign for freedom earned him numerous awards including from the British Royal Television Society, the Walkley Foundation, the RSL, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the International Association of Press Clubs. In 2017, with two colleagues, he established the advocacy group, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom which actively campaigns for media freedom across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

As an academic, he leads a research program investigating the impact of national security legislation on public interest journalism. Peter is the author of The First Casualty about his experiences in Egypt, and the wider war on journalism.

Our Panel
 

Dr Rebecca Pearse

Beck Pearse is a sociologist at both the ANU’s School of Sociology and the Fenner School of Environment & Society. Her teaching and research focuses on inequalities and environmental policy.

Beck’s current projects investigate renewable energy rollout and natural resource management in rural NSW, with particular focus on land and labour relations. Her other work focuses on the political economy of climate and energy policy. She is author of Pricing Carbon in Australia (Routledge/Earthscan, 2018) and a contributing author to Beyond the Coal Rush (Goodman et al 2020, CUP).
 

Andrew Meares

Andrew Meares is the Design Lead (Interim) at the ANU School of Cybernetics. Andrew is a Walkley Award winning photojournalist with more than thirty years professional experience working at The Sydney Morning Herald. His primary research activities centre around the creation, circulation, and curation of images and the stories we share about and with technology.

Andrew joined ANU as a Senior Lecturer in 2019. Andrew has held roles within the Masters of Applied Cybernetics teaching team and was program convenor in 2021. As Educational Experiences Lead (Interim) Andrew led the design and delivery of the short course Cybernetic Bootcamp in 2022.

Andrew served as the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery President 2015-2017. Andrew joined the office of the then Leader of the Opposition, The Hon. Bill Shorten MP, 2017-2019.

As an ANU industry appointment Andrew is passionate about broadening the opportunity of education and creating meaningful experiences through novel research outputs. He is currently curating and exhibition Cybernetics 22 (Nov-Dec 2022) sharing perspectives on cybernetic futures from 1968, 1975 and today.
 

Prof Katherine Daniell (Facilitator)

Professor Katherine Daniell is a transdisciplinary academic at the Australian National University in the School of Cybernetics, Fenner School of Environment and Society, and Institute for Water Futures.

Trained in engineering, arts and public policy, her work bridges multiple domains including multi-level governance, cybernetics, participatory processes, risk management, sustainability science, river basin management, politics and cultures of innovation, education, and international science and technology cooperation.

Katherine is a John Monash Scholar and currently serves as a member of the National Committee on Water Engineering (Engineers Australia), Director and Board Member of the Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust, a member of the Initiatives of the Future of Great Rivers, and Editor of the Australasian Journal of Water Resources.

Katherine is also President of the French-Australian Association for Research and Innovation, and is a French Chevalier (Knight) in the Ordre National du Mérite.