Dart Alums Wax Poetic on the Future of Long-Form Journalism

Journalists and media academics from Nepal, Australia, New Zealand – including several participants in Dart Centre Australasia  programs – gathered in Auckland recently to consider the increasingly dim future of longer-form investigative journalism. 

The conference, titled "Media, Investigative Journalism and Technology 2010" and organised by AUT's Pacific Media Centre, was the first of its kind in New Zealand.

Independent New Zealand journalist Jon Stephenson, who serves on Dart Australasia board of directors, noted investigative work was “the core business” of journalism. Without it, he said, the industry is like “a hospital where you do elective surgery but no emergency or trauma.”

Veteran Australian print journalist Bill Birnbauer compared long-form investigative work with poetry: valuable, but not necessarily viable. 

“The future for investigative journalism lies outside of mainstream media,” he said.

Birnbauer suggested a funding model that relies on donations from government and NGOs as one way of providing for investigative work.

The panel was chaired by Wallace Chapman, presenter of TVNZ7’s Backbenchers programme.

Read the entire report on the panel here, as reported by the independent New Zealand news site Scoop.