Those of you who know me personally will know our passion for working towards a type of highly ethical journalism, and other media production, which we believe will strengthen relationships among Australians, and from Australians, relationships with others around the world.
We actually call it relational media. It is not highly fashionable, but it will have its day.
In principle, we believe that if we can constantly source and distribute “good news” stories of flourishing Australian communities, and communicate this narrative to Australians through Australian public media, we could change the Australian social environment. It’s a big challenge, which we embrace as if “the glass is half full.”
In another sense we believe that Australian public media should be instrumental in highlighting the responsibility of Australian citizens to help build their communities, as well as alerting citizens to unacceptable encroachment by the State.
Indeed, we believe that Australian public media should exist for the mutual benefits of Australian citizens; and not be the plaything of business, entertainment or political vested interests.
Therefore, we do not believe Australian public media should be moulded to suit the innovation, financial, media & communications, political and advertising designs of global media organisations. It is reported that these corporate goals are achieved through share ownership, Board and network connections, business models, and/or management control. Some of these strongly connected organisations appear to be Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Bertelsmann, Viacom, CBS, NBC Universal, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Apple.
We believe this is an issue upon which Australian citizens and their government should have a strong mutual interest.
In all of these thoughts, we are into the 5th or 6th year of what we believe will be a 20-30 year project. Light on funds, big on vision and considerable persistence!
And we’ve settled on the following goals for the foreseeable future.
- Engage and encourage journalists and other media producers to conduct their work at a high ethical level
- Equip leaders across the drivers of society to communicate more effectively with journalists and other media producers in mainstream and social media
- Build a repository of good stories, which have passed through a journalistic lens, with the view to building narrative evidence of the public benefits of wisdom and relational thinking, and
- Encourage a network of journalists and other media producers around Australia to go beyond the harsh reality of “objective scepticism” and become advocates of a more relational media.
For your information we treat the Arts, Business, Community Services, Education, Health, Justice, Law, Media, Politics and Sport to be the drivers in Australia’s social environment.
Presently, we are focusing on these issues.
- Strengthen the quality of our media engagement events in Melbourne and Sydney
- Build a cohort of committed “civic journalists” and “media watchers”
- Negotiate the formation of a University-based research centre for media engagement
- Attract a high calibre media professional to lead next stage of AMEP’s development
- Attract high level media and academic boards of reference for our media activities and research centre
- Empower our work through website and social media development
- Sustain sound balance between exciting, emerging opportunities and our available resources
We believe that somewhere deep within our psyche and beliefs we are all called into the contest of ideas. And, we believe every one of us is called, in a unique way, to social action for the purpose of bringing forward a better world.
In the case of AMEP, our call is towards human flourishing and social and economic well being for all Australians; not only those who are fortunate to connect and belong to privileged networks. Our call is also towards responsible use of natural resources by Australians.
As this is an alternate media agenda, we think this requires collegial transformation of Australian media: because we believe that wise, inclusive conversations will cause wise, inclusive social action.
Australian society will always be influenced and formed by rational and robust public discourse, in which alternate ideas are tested. It is through media of some type that this public discourse occurs.
The voice of any rational view that proposes alternate policy settings and social action, which in turn are likely to favourably affect human flourishing, social and economic well being of all Australians, and responsible resource use, is worthy of being heard in the public square.
We see it as part of the role of AMEP to help equip Australian leaders across the drivers to be a voice; and, to use mainstream and social media to have the voice heard.
Bob Simpson
Director
The Australian Media Engagement Project (AMEP)
(a project initiative of P4T Inc)
