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Henry Mayer Lecture
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In 1993 the inaugural Henry Mayer lecture was presented by Bruce Gyngell at the Sydney Opera House. This was an event organised by the Henry Mayer Trust, a body established following Professor Mayer's death to provide funding for the journal. The second lecture at the Opera House was presented by Brian Johns, then head of the Australian Broadcasting Authority, but without dedicated institutional support the idea of an annual lecture lapsed.
In 2005, Professor Tom O'Regan, publisher of MIA and Professor Graeme Turner, director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, revived the plan for an annual memorial lecture jointly presented by MIA and the Centre.
The Henry Mayer Lecture is now an annual event, commemorating Professor Mayer, whose energy and passion guided the journal through its first fifteen years, and giving it the impetus to become one of Australia's premier academic journals dealing with the media industries. |
2008 Henry Mayer Lecture
 The Spin We're In: Media and Democracy in Post-Howard Australia, Professor Rodney Tiffen
Thursday 22 May 2008
5:30pm - 6:30pm
The Mayne Art Museum – St Lucia UQ [see map]
Audio of this lecture is available for streaming or downloading
Abstract
In several important ways Australian democracy was in a worse state at the end of the Howard era than at the beginning. Such judgments are always problematic, and Australian democracy is more vibrant and resilient than critics of government action sometimes think. If we focus exclusively for example on the way that the Freedom of Information Act has been eroded or implemented in ways that undermine its purposes, then we may lose sight of the larger countervailing social forces moving in the direction of greater disclosure. Nevertheless the concentration of executive power and the use of public resources and institutions for partisan advantage both became considerably worse during the eleven and a half years of the coalition government. In particular the larger dimensions of the spin enterprise and efforts at the control of and shaping of information and of manipulating the media all became even more pronounced.
This lecture considers some of the trends undermining Australian democracy during the Howard era especially as they relate to the news media, and also speculates about which of them will continue to get worse whatever the colour of the government, and which are particular to the government just defeated.
Biography
Rodney Tiffen is professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. He has written widely on media and politics in Australia. He is a former editor of Media International Australia and editor of the post-humous collection of Henry Mayer’s writings, Mayer on the Media.
Past Lectures
2007: Mr Peter Manning, Adjunct Professor, University of Technology, Sydney
2006: Dr Jane Roscoe, Programme Executive, SBS Television
2005: Mr Graeme Samuel, AO, Chairman, ACCC
1995: Mr Brian Johns, Chairman, ABA
1993: Mr Bruce Gyngell
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