Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 20 September
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Today’s American media is sharply divided along left and right political lines, with little room in the middle for the objective news and current affairs that was once the norm. From Fox News to The Daily Show, the New York Post to the New York Times, everyone has an agenda.
Are the public being duped – or are they complicit? And how far does the media influence politics ... will it elect the next president, or will the people? What lessons does all this hold for Australia?
Join Richard Fidler, former Newsweek deputy editor Julia Baird and the ABC’s Siobhan Heanue to talk about media and cultural empires in the land of the stars and stripes with Sophie Black.
Featuring
Richard Fidler
Richard Fidler presents Conversations with Richard Fidler, a long-form interview program broadcast around Australia on ABC Radio.
Richard has interviewed CIA agents, ex-prisoners, astronauts and the Dalai Lama, but he’s particularly partial to guests unknown to the broader community, who have led extraordinary lives. Conversations has generated much praise for the breadth of its subjects and the depth of its research.The Conversations podcast is among the most popular and addictive programs in Australia; with nearly half a million downloads a month.
In 2011 Richard received a Churchill Fellowship to visit public radio programs in the US, including This American Life and The Moth.
In another life, Richard was a member of comedy group The Doug Anthony Allstars (DAAS), which played to audiences all over the world.
Siobhan Heanue
Siobhan Heanue is a journalist and presenter for ABC television and radio news. She joined the ABC as a news cadet and is now a Canberra-based reporter.
Her reports appear on a range of current affairs programs, including ABC TV’s Lateline, and she presents The Culture Quarter on ABC News 24.
In 2011 Heanue was the recipient of the US Studies Centre’s inaugural media fellowship, in partnership with the World Press Institute. In two months of immersion in US politics, business, culture and media she visited the New York Times, CNN and the Obama 2012 campaign headquarters in Chicago.
Sophie Black
Sophie Black is a writer, journalist and Crikey’s editor-in-chief. She has worked in senior management across cultural and media organisations, and has written for outlets such as The Guardian and The Monthly. As the Wheeler ...
Julia Baird
Julia Baird is an author, broadcaster and journalist. She has recently returned from the United States, where she worked as a columnist and deputy editor of Newsweek.
Her writing has appeared in a range of publications, including the Daily Beast, Harpers Bazaar, the Guardian, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Monthly, Newsweek, the New York Times, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Her first book was Media Tarts: How the Australian Media Frames Female Politicians. She is currently writing a biography of Queen Victoria, which will be published in 2013.