What happened to balance and objectivity in reporting? Are these concepts still valuable in journalism – or, as the popularity of partisanship grows, are we seeing the end of the age of objectivity?
When we do play to a perspective, what are we losing, what are we gaining … and are there new ways to achieve balance?
Chaired by David Nolan, with Amy Gray, Louise Milligan and Jim Middleton.
New News is presented in partnership with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne, and Monash University.
Featuring
David Nolan
David Nolan is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications. His work focuses on journalism studies and the changing role played by media in social and political relations. He recently led a Centre for Advancing Journalism research project focussing on the question of how media representations of Sudanese Australians might be improved.
His work has been published in numerous leading international journals, and he is also on the editorial board of the journal Communication, Politics and Culture.
Among his current research projects is work that focuses on the problem of understanding contemporary change in journalism in an historical light; critical analysis of media transformation in contemporary China; and the role performed by media in the politics and practice of contemporary humanitarianism.

Amy Gray
Amy Gray is a freelance writer and author. She writes on politics, feminism and culture. Her work has appeared in the Age, the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday Paper and other publications. Amy is currently writing a book about motherhood and feminism.

Louise Milligan
Louise Milligan is a multi-award-winning investigative reporter for the ABC TV Four Corners program and a best-selling author of two non-fiction books – Witness, The Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice and Cardinal, The Rise ...

Jim Middleton
Jim Middleton has been reporting national and international affairs since 1970, first for the ABC and now as a correspondent for Sky News. For two decades, he was ABC Political Editor in Canberra – covering Prime Ministers Hawke, Keating and Howard.
He was ABC North America correspondent in New York and Washington from 1980–1986, and has reported from every country in North, South and Southeast Asia – except North Korea. From 2008 to 2014, he presented Newsline and The World, broadcasting to and from Asia on Australia Network TV.
From 2008 until 2015, he was a member of the board of the Australia-Thailand Institute for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne.