Pommy media causing a stir in Australia

The Australian media landscape is becoming a little heated as recent British entrants continue to carve out new digital territory in the Land Down Under. Colleen Murrell reports on the increasing levels of distrust both between the players – The Australian versions of The Guardian, the Daily Mail and the BBC – and between those players and the tough local media groups, Fairfax Media and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Australia

ABC News 24 and BBC World: a study of limited resources and challenging newsgathering

ABC Australia’s News 24 website proclaims: "ABC News 24 provides around the clock coverage of news events as they break at home and abroad. It’s news when you want it, on your platform - TV, mobile and online." In this article, the stations content is analysed across 24 hours of its programming and compared with the same 24 hours of programming from BBC World. The content is tested for four key values: range of stories; coverage of the big stories; competence in going live to breaking stories; and ability to add value through analysis, debate and context. The examination of the data against these four key values enables an analysis of the nature of the service and assists in assessing whether or not it is providing an enriched and different offering in a busy 24/7 media landscape

Fixers and foreign correspondents: news production and autonomy

The television foreign correspondent\u27s licence to roam and generate news is increasingly under threat. This paper concentrates on the micro production processes of today s correspondent as he or she goes about the job of newsgathering \u27on the road\u27, and considers the changing nature of the correspondent\u27s autonomy. It inserts the missing character in foreign newsgathering - the locally hired fixer - and explores how this person affects the correspondent\u27s autonomy. An analysis of interviews with 20 foreign correspondents and five fixers leads to the conclusion that the foreign correspondent is rarely the sole editorial figure on the road but is instead the main actor representing the creative interplay of a succession of fixers or \u27local producers\u27. This deconstruction of the ways in which a correspondent builds an ad-hoc newsgathering team each time he or she lands in d new place allows for a deeper understanding of the modus operandi of reporters.<br /

Gatekeepers: going, going, gone - the challenge of citizenship journalism to traditional practice

Commentators believe that the reporting of the London bombings of July 2005 ushered in a new era of the citizen joumalist. News outlets in Britain were&nbsp; flooded with emails and mobile phone pictures. But with the sheer quantity of material heading into the editor\u27s inbox, how can we be sure of its veracity? This paper looks at The Herald Sun. The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph and The Adelaide Advertiser to investigate the current systems in place for checking incoming leads and material. The paper raises questions regarding the reliability of current systems and puts forward the possibility that new approaches and systems may be needed to meet the new challenges. The paper further explores if newspapers are still acting as gatekeepers of the traditional system or if they are letting the gate swing ajar in response to&nbsp; changed circumstances.<br /

“Our Relationship? It’s the Odd Mucky Weekend, Not a One Night Stand”: Journalists and aid agencies in the UK, and the current challenges to sourcing in humanitarian disasters

In humanitarian crises, the sources that journalists employ have always helped determine which stories achieve a high media profile, as well as play a part in framing the story. In particular, aid agencies acted as powerful gatekeepers to disaster zones, providing flights, transport, fixers and translators to journalists–and more recently, text, images and resources for the social web. Questions have been raised around transparency and objectivity in such reporting as a result. This paper draws on 40 semi-structured qualitative interviews with UK national journalists (broadcast, print and online) and aid agencies belonging to the UK's Disasters Emergency Committee. As a result, this paper builds on journalism studies looking at boundary (re)negotiations in journalism and the source-media relationship to show the current patterns in what has been described as a “mutually exploitative” relationship. It compares and contrasts what assistance journalists say they accept from aid agencies and what aid agencies report. It examines how both sides are often unwilling to acknowledge the close association. It will also look at how the increasing professionalisation of NGO operations including the employment of former journalists and producing their own content may be affecting the power dynamics. Finally, it asks whether the slow emergence of scandals means this relationship has not only affected stories that are covered but those that are not

Efficacy and Safety of Ciprofloxacin for Prophylaxis of Polyomavirus BK Virus–Associated Hemorrhagic Cystitis in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Recipients

Polyoma virus BK–induced hemorrhagic cystitis is an important cause of morbidity after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Fluoroquinolones have been shown in vitro to inhibit BK viral replication by direct inhibition of the BK-encoded DNA gyrase. We hypothesized that extended prophylaxis with ciprofloxacin may decrease the incidence of severe (grades 3 and 4) BK virus–associated hemorrhagic cystitis (sBKHC) after HSCT. We retrospectively collected patient and transplant data, as well as incidence of sBKHC, for all consecutive patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT between June 2006 and August 2010 at our institution. Prophylaxis for sBKHC with ciprofloxacin 500 mg orally twice daily from day 0 until day 60 had been instituted in March 2009, delimiting a group receiving ciprofloxacin prophylaxis (CP) or no prophylaxis (NP). We compared the cumulative incidence of sBKHC in CP and NP, including death in absence of sBKHC as a competing risk. Ninety-two consecutive patients were included in the analysis, 44 in CP and 48 in NP. Median age of patients was 50 years (range: 19-70), and 47% received a myeloablative conditioning regimen. The cumulative incidence of sBKHC was significantly reduced in CP (2.6% versus 20.9%, P = .01). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that assignment to CP and concomitant acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) were the only factors independently associated with the occurrence of sBKHC. Patients in CP did not experience a higher risk of Clostridium difficile diarrhea and were less likely to develop episodes of bacteremia. Ciprofloxacin prophylaxis appears safe and effective in reducing the incidence of severe BKHC after allogeneic HSCT

The launch of ABC News 24 Television : interview on ABC Local Radio

Dr Colleen Murrell was interviewed on ABC local radio in advance of the launch of ABC Australia\u27s 24-hour TV station. In the interview she discusses the reasons for the ABC\u27s new venture in broadcasting and places it in the context of other international stations such as BBC World, CNN and Sky News. Dr Murrell also discusses the cost implications and the ability of the ABC to produce original content from its international correspondents.&nbsp

Foreign correspondents and international newsgathering: the role of fixers

This book reveals that &lsquo;fixers&rsquo;&mdash;local experts on whom foreign correspondents rely&mdash;play a much more significant role in international television newsgathering than has been documented or understood. Murrell explores the frames though which international reporting has traditionally been analysed and then shows that fixers, who have largely been dismissed by scholars as &quot;logistical aides&quot;, are in fact central to the day-to-day decision-making that takes place on-the-road. Murrell looks at why and how fixers are selected and what their significance is to foreign correspondence. She asks if fixers help introduce a local perspective into the international news agenda, or if fixers are simply &lsquo;People Like Us&rsquo; (PLU). Also included are excerpts from interviews with TV correspondents and fixers and in-depth case studies of correspondents in Iraq and Indonesia