2016 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism: ‘Live and Dangerous: Journalism and the Real-Time Social Web’: Emily Bell

Enabled by the reach and power of technology platforms and social networks, modern journalism broadcasts images, video and text from anywhere in the world. Terrorist attacks become horrifying theatre, our attention drawn to events and their aftermath as they unfold; the ‘breaking news’ organisation is anyone with a smartphone and a social media account.

As Facebook Live takes over (from Periscope and YouTube) as the dominant real-time video platform of the moment, and everyday technology turns anyone into a potential broadcasting unit, how do journalists and editors decide what to report and what to edit?

Emily Bell is founding director of Columbia University’s highly respected Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and a leading authority on digital journalism. Before establishing the Center in 2010, Bell worked for Guardian News and Media, as editor-in-chief across Guardian websites and directing digital content.

For the A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism, as part of New News 2016, Bell will lay out her thoughts on the dynamic between citizens, reporters and publishers – which, in today’s media, is in a state of constant upheaval and reinvention. Who’s in control, and what’s the role for legacy broadcasters and news organisations?

New News is presented in partnership with the Wheeler Centre and the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne.