Public Interest Journalism

Quality journalism, in the public interest, urgently addresses the immorality expressed by powerful people and otherwise influential ones. Ensuring the powerful are accountable is important. Ensuring the influential use their influence for good in the world is also important. But how do you know who is powerful and who is not? How do you know when a seemingly powerful person is merely a puppet for the really powerful? How do you know when to judge, and report upon, the misuse of power? How do you know when to judge, and report upon, the misuse of influence? How do you attempt to hold people in positions of authority accountable not only for their own actions but also the actions of the people they are authorised to supervise? What have you been contributing to public interest journalism in the interests of a healthy planet?  If you have not been making a suitable contribution, and you have possibly even been preventing other people from making those contributions, how should you be hel

How do you distinguish between acquiring information and learning from it? Perhaps you regard public interest journalism as a process involving the writing and re-writing of history as it occurs. Initial assessments of potentially significant, new events should always be questioned carefully. Significance must be examined contextually, through the most relevant expertise and experience. An event is significant if it is likely to have long-term consequences for the people directly experiencing it. If decisions associated with events are also likely to have long-term consequences for the people directly affected by the decisions, the decisions are political. The process of making those decisions is also political. Political decision-makers usually want history to be recorded in their favour. The job of a public interest journalist is, instead, to record the truth of history as it occurs, or at least to do so very soon afterwards. Once an initial assessment of events is made, an initial

Do you know much about power struggles ? Do you know how to tell the difference between being reasonably dominant and being unreasonably domineering ? Do you know how to define dominance and prominence in the context of politics ? Do you know how to identify abusive power and control , and how to report it appropriately? You may regard the public interest as reflecting good societal health, good environmental health and good mental health, and protecting them. Do you know much about epistemology ? Are you quite well acquainted with the sociology of knowledge ? Do you know how to identify a crisis , and respond to it appropriately? Are you acquainted with agnotology ? Are you acquainted with various epistemic communities ? Do you know much about the replication crisis ? Are you capable of interpreting an epistemic crisis with adequate objectivity ?  Do you know how to define and compare epistemic regimes ? Have you attempted to understand the strategies used for gaining and mainta

You may believe there have never been adequately developed democracies anywhere in the world.  Yet the theoretical basis of quality democracies has been known for many years, and possibly even for many centuries. Public interest journalism is an expression of democracy, sometimes even more so than voting. There are many ways to volunteer if you wish to support a quality democracy, in any part of the world, but perhaps you have more urgent matters to address, like finding somewhere to sleep or something to eat or a way to escape from danger. Perhaps you have urgent responsibilities relating to other people in terms of providing sleeping arrangements and eating arrangements and safety arrangements.  How do you usually assess urgency, both personally and politically? How do legal structures help or hinder the expression of a well-informed democracy? How do financial structures help or hinder the expression of a well-informed democracy? When, in your view, does news become history? Wh

How do you define 'local relevance' when assessing news and culture? How do you define 'global relevance' when assessing news and culture? Perhaps you prefer to locate relevant information at its source rather than through the news media . Where have you found public interest journalism of relevance to you over the past twenty-four hours, if anywhere?  Who truly knows about relevance to the public? Who truly knows about credibility, comprehension, veracity, sensitivity and usability in relation to the provision of necessary news? What do you know about the Civility Party of Australia and how do you know it? You may be aware that the party has no influence whatsoever in Australia, or anywhere else for that matter. But why does the Civility Party, and civility itself, have so little influence in the world? Quality news in the 21st century is associated with veracity, relevance, appropriate attribution and usability .    How, if at all, have you been investing in civil

What do you know about the ways in which people access news about climate change ? How do you attempt to locate the truth ? Perhaps you have been looking at an atlas .  Perhaps you have been looking at wildfires . Perhaps you have been looking at poetry .   A burning Taiga is not right. Who now knows the planet's plight? Why must forests often die To name our fears 'prosperity'? From the warming deeps and skies, Burn the fires of greedy lies, Formed on winds while life expires Through fossil fuels, disease and fires. In powerful nature, dangers start. Extreme events rip lives apart, As muddied nations feel defeat Even as the flood goes in retreat. Let us clamour to remain Outside the furnace to sustain A gentle world within our grasp  Or die with our last, heated gasp.   While your car spewed out its sneers, And warmed the air for a thousand years, Did you smile and feel quite free As your actions also warmed the sea?   The world already burns in fright. Who killed the for

The public has the right to know the truth about influential individuals, groups and organisations. That right is associated with the assessment of social influence and how it is used and abused, especially politically. The public also has a right to know the causes of social influence, particularly when those causes are associated with unjustified access to excessively influential media outlets. Not everything in the public interests involves reports about corruption and organised crime . Although organised crime can only flourish when public administration and government practices are associated with corruption and/or incompetence, the public has a right to know about organisations devoted to overcoming corruption and addressing incompetence. How do you attempt to prevent vulnerable persons from making terrible mistakes? How do you attempt to encourage powerful persons to act appropriately? Of course, people acting against the public interest are likely to find investigations