MediaWise Pty Ltd

12/06/2026

And you?

12/06/2026

Food for thought:

Start by limiting notifications for users or forcing social media companies to make their notifications gentle, and only for very specific items.

Then, disconnect the link between viewed content and advertising dollars, and reprogram the algorithm to stop prioritising highly emotive content.

Finally, remove infinite scroll and place a clear “bottom” on the feed where users are encouraged to stop and do something else.

This removes all the features the Australian eSafety Commissioner has cited as dangerous for teens, which is how we ended up with a hard-to-enforce social media ban for under 16-year-olds.

Social apps like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are designed to be addictive. What would they look like if we removed the worst features?

22/05/2026

How many facts did you know?

02/05/2026

Attacks on journalists and journalism are proliferating across the world. UNESCO’s most recent report on global trends in freedom of expression, reveals a 10% decline in freedom of expression worldwide since 2012, a setback comparable only to three other periods – World War I, the prelude to World War II, and the late 1970s Cold War period.

26/04/2026

Very interesting: Guardian Australia has more online readers than SMH.
The New York Times, the BBC — and the AFL’s news website — all have more readers than any News Corp paper. Its most read, The Australian, is now swamped - in Australia - by the BBC website, by a massive 53%. Skynews is fading away.

11/04/2026

Journacide…the changing rules in war reporting.

There used to be some sense that killing a reporter would mean serious consequences. Now that understanding has vanished, writes the BBC’s world affairs editor

10/04/2026

The President’s Men set me on the path to journalism. The film is based on the 1974 book by journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who investigated the Watergate scandal for the Washington Post. It remains one of the finest films about investigative journalism ever made.

All The President’s Men is a masterpiece of political cinema. Watching it 50 years on, it feels less historically distant than it does disturbingly prescient.

31/03/2026

Free press or a free ride?

Based in Canberra, the press club bills itself as “Australia’s most recognised forum for discussion and debate”. Besides the hundreds of journalists, editors, politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats who hold membership, the press club also has more than 80 corporate and government sponsors, including arms manufacturers BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, SAAB Technologies and Thales, as well as mining and energy giants BHP and Woodside Energy.

Despite its self-described status as “a vigorous champion of media freedom”, the press club has said little about Israel’s killing of journalists – or any other matter of press freedom. Its ‘Freedom of the Press’ webpage lists only four public statements, one of which links to an International Association of Press Clubs press release from September 2025 condemning “the killing of journalists in Gaza” while making no mention of Israel.

Two refer to instances where the press club withdrew invitations to scheduled speakers. In March 2022, the press club withdrew a speaking invitation to then-Russian ambassador Alexey Pavlovsky, citing “allegations of war crimes and bombing of civilian targets” in Ukraine, as well as “media censorship in Russia”.

In October 2025, the press club abruptly cancelled a planned address by former New York Times Middle East bureau chief Chris Hedges, who was due to speak on Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza. Hedges called the decision “a terrible betrayal of our colleagues in Gaza who have been killed for chronicling the daily savagery in Gaza; for doing their job”.

“No doubt the club is able to slither away from its journalistic integrity. No doubt it is spared the attacks that would come from allowing me to speak. But please, have the decency to remove the word ‘press’ from your club,” Hedges wrote at the time.

The National Press Club and journalist union the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance did not respond to questions.

Israel has killed more than 250 journalists since October 2023

29/03/2026

Journalists are not legitimate targets, regardless of the outlet they work for.

Israeli attack on clearly marked press car kills reporters as WHO laments deadly day for paramedics.

24/03/2026

What a treat it was to introduce Anna Welch, first speaker in Hawthorn Historical Society Women who Inspire series.

Anna Welch is Principal Collection Curator, History of the Book at State Library of Victoria. She works on the Rare Books Collection at State Library Victoria and oversees the library's Women Writers Fund initiative, which allows the library to add under-represented women's voices to the State Library.

Although State Library Victoria holds an extraordinarily rich collection, it's clear from consulting early library catalogues that patriarchal perspectives on collecting have resulted in the under-representation of women writers.

The work of the Women Writers Fund aims to give future generations access to more diverse and representative voices from different times, cultures and disciplines and ensure that women’s voices aren’t lost to history.

The Women who Inspire series complements the Women of Influence exhibition running at the Camberwell Library until end of April. It showcases eight radical bold Hawthorn women whose influence continues to radiate across our society.