New media means new challenges

But it’s what’s happening outside the newsroom rather than within in that creates the greatest challenge. The reduction in costs and associated rapid increase in uptake of video and still image-enabled telephones has outfitted the average citizen with news gathering equipment which a decade ago was the privilege of only the networks. In short, no act of violence is likely to go unnoticed and unfilmed.

Television stations in Australia have been quick to cash in on the new media-equipped public clambering over each other to encourage the citizen reporter to submit his or her news footage for broadcast.

Unfortunately, as the Virginia Tech massacre illustrated, citizen journalism can endanger rather than just empower the public. Take a look at I Report on CNN and what you see is mobile phone footage collected by a student running towards the gunshots.

Eagerness to engage in citizen journalism put students in the line of fire, literally, but rather than being disturbed by the outcome, networks rewarded the risk-taking by high rotation screening of the footage.

Thus dangers for young people exist at both ends of the process - to those collecting the news and those watching it.

Broadcasters should institute a code of conduct governing the use of material collected by citizen journalists to bring it in to line with acceptable practices by those on the network payroll.

Fortunately while new media is part of the problem it can also present part of the solution.

What parents have repeatedly demanded was certainty. They believe they - and not broadcasters - should determine how much and what news content their children see. Unscheduled news content totally undermines that right. Further they felt that the classification zones were largely meaningless if news content not in keeping with the classification zone could be screened.

Digital television presents an opportunity to return certainty to parents while not interfering with broadcasters’ rights to broadcast significant breaking news events. In the event of a significant news event broadcasters could retain the scheduled programming while launching a parallel channel broadcasting the news material. A text alert could notify viewers of the additional material.

In short, digital television technology should be employed to prevent news events "overtaking" scheduled children's programming and to protect safe harbours placed in the classifications zones to protect children.

But there is another issue which digital technology can address. Increasingly Australian broadcasters are accessing live feeds - often from overseas broadcasters. These are typically from the world’s hotspots where the possibility for unpredictable and disturbing footage is greatest.

Australia's commercial television code seeks to regulate the content of commercial television in accordance with current community standards while ensuring that viewers are assisted in making informed choices about their own and their children's television viewing.