{"id":17599,"date":"2014-12-19T12:15:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T01:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=17599"},"modified":"2014-12-22T09:11:17","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T22:11:17","slug":"the-information-war-or-editors-as-gatekeepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-information-war-or-editors-as-gatekeepers\/","title":{"rendered":"The information war, or, editors as gatekeepers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gatekeeper\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

Police reporting\u2014a catalogue of the worst crime, murders and personal tragedies occupying our underworld\u2014was big in the 1980s. So I knew I was being given a break when told I\u2019d be spending a couple of months covering the round. But I\u2019d been ABC Radio\u2019s roundsman for less than a week when I was called over to see the chief sub-editor.<\/p>\n

\u2018This is wrong\u2019, he said, pointing to my copy. \u2018Utterly unsuitable. Useless. Unacceptable\u2019. He employed alliteration with effective enthusiasm. \u2018Don\u2019t you know anything?\u2019<\/p>\n

I was inexperienced (I\u2019d been working for less than a year), but I still thought his assessment harsh. I re-read my story. A woman had committed suicide publicly, on the street. However, I\u2019d chosen to leave out the most gruesome details and I thought\u2014all things considered\u2014the report was composed about as tastefully as possible. What was the problem? Did he really want more?<\/p>\n

\u2018Suicide\u2019, he said, looking at me as if I was a complete idiot. Yet I obviously still didn\u2019t get it, so he repeated the word slowly. \u2018Suicide. Nobody commits suicide on the ABC. Now, go and re-write it\u2019.<\/p>\n

I returned to my desk and later submitted a reworked version, bland and undoubtedly completely mystifying to our audience. I\u2019d effectively removed any hint of how the person had come to die. The sub, however, nodded with approval. \u2018That\u2019s better\u2019. He looked at me severely. \u2018Don\u2019t ever mention suicide again\u2019.<\/p>\n

So I didn\u2019t. Others, however, did. Gradually, suicide has become an accepted part of our human and social condition, catalogued and explained on the news. Today you\u2019ll hear stories studded with extraneous details (even on the ABC) that I, even then, wouldn\u2019t have dreamed of mentioning.<\/p>\n

At ASPI\u2019s recent seminar on the first hundred days of the campaign against ISIL the Executive Director brought up an interesting question. Peter Jennings asked where the editorial line should be drawn when it comes to the \u2018information\u2019 terrorists are propagating. Should ISIL, for example, be able to distribute over the internet graphic videos<\/a> of executioners decapitating people?<\/p>\n

By the time the kids running American blog-sites decided (possibly simply because of public outrage) to pull the video, ISIL itself had already begun censoring itself. New videos didn\u2019t show the moment of death itself. The terrorists had made their point. They\u2019d already presented a challenge to the democracies that the \u2018new media\u2019 had clearly failed.<\/p>\n

Eventually\u2014although it took a long time\u2014social media outlets prevented people viewing<\/a> this particular outrage. Notice, however, that it\u2019s only the deaths of US citizens that have been pulled; other horrific executions can easily be viewed on the net. But this is the social media we\u2019re talking about. Traditional media editors already know such stuff shouldn\u2019t be broadcast. In the recent Martin Place siege only Channel 10 (briefly) reported the deranged man\u2019s demands. But old media\u2019s irrelevant now and the game\u2019s moved on\u2014out of the hands of the few and into the hands of everyone. And today, everyone has their own standards.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still no clear agreement about what should, or shouldn\u2019t, be available over the net; let alone an understanding of how that might be enforced. The new media is young. It\u2019s operated by people who, by-and-large, aren\u2019t the same type<\/em> who\u2019d seek steady work at a traditional media organisation. They certainly don\u2019t share the same restraints and views of what\u2019s appropriate to view as those attracted to work as, for example, civil servants, diplomats, soldiers or others in the security industry. So whose standards should apply?<\/p>\n

Yet this is just one aspect of a massive issue\u2014one that\u2019s now as big a challenge to the West\u2019s response as the military campaign against ISIL.<\/p>\n

We pay obligatory lip-service to the shibboleth that this is a \u2018war of ideas\u2019. If that\u2019s the case, who\u2019s fighting on our side? Where are the voices articulating the democratic cause in an intellectual way? Well, here on The Strategist<\/em> of course, but where else in the media?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the responsibility of the politicians to wage this particular war. Unfortunately, they don\u2019t seem to know how because they certainly haven\u2019t accepted the task. ISIL\u2019s well and truly outmanoeuvring our own commanders.<\/p>\n

Public broadcasters are also to blame for us losing this war. The same day as the Martin Place siege began 95 people, including 82 children, were killed in yet another terrorist attack in Peshawar. Who\u2019s drawing this together? And where is the detail and nuance in our reporting of the war?<\/p>\n

Nobody could assert that ISIL\u2019s tactics are anything other than horrific, its ideology abhorrent. Destroying it is vital. Yet why is the Baghdad government arming and equipping Shia militia<\/a> rather than accepting US assistance to train Sunnis to combat ISIL? The air war is going well, but this conflict will be decided on the ground and in the mind.<\/p>\n

I think we\u2019re being defeated.<\/p>\n

Nic Stuart is a columnist with<\/em> The\u00a0Canberra Times. Image courtesy of Flickr user Dmitry Ryzhkov<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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So I knew I was being given a break when told I\u2019d be spending a couple of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[993,730,224,1083,127],"class_list":["post-17599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-isil","tag-media","tag-social-media","tag-sydney-siege","tag-terrorism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe information war, or, editors as gatekeepers | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-information-war-or-editors-as-gatekeepers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The information war, or, editors as gatekeepers | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Police reporting\u2014a catalogue of the worst crime, murders and personal tragedies occupying our underworld\u2014was big in the 1980s. 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