Building Trust Through Transparency
31 May 2018 at 7:55 am
The Walkleys take Australians behind the headlines with Storyology 2018.
The Walkley Foundation for Journalism celebrates excellence in media through the Walkley Awards, and advocates for great journalism. Through the foundation’s broader program, they aim to get Australians talking about what quality journalism looks like, and why it’s essential to understanding our world.
Storyology – the Walkleys’ Festival for Journalism – presents one of the best opportunities for doing so. An annual event, this year it’s centred in Brisbane over two days (July 27-28) at the Palace Cinemas at the Barracks. Sydney will also host free public events including a panel at Sydney Ideas on Monday July 30, How Can Investigative Journalism Projects Change the World?
The 2018 festival has a particular focus on improving media literacy and trust among Australians. According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, Australian trust in the media has hit an all-time low of 31 per cent, with consumers unable to differentiate between fake news and facts.
The Walkleys recognises that rebuilding this trust in reputable media institutions is critical, and the 2018 Storyology program reflects this. Bringing together some of the nation’s most esteemed journalists, editors, commentators, photographers and media-makers, the aim of the festival is to inspire a conversation between news media and the citizens it engages and informs.
To open the festival on Friday 27 July, fiction and nonfiction storytellers talk about the books that changed their lives. Walkley-winning speakers Trent Dalton, Peter Greste and Melissa Lucashenko will share how reading has inspired them to become storytellers themselves, with careers spanning reportage and novels. They will also reveal which works have had a profound impact on how they view the world.
The following day is stacked out with five riveting sessions, kicking off with Saturday Morning with the Papers. Taking audiences behind the curtain to discover how the news is made are top editors (Lenore Taylor, Guardian Australia and Danielle Cronin, Brisbane Times), a crime journalist (Paula Doneman, Seven), a Pulitzer-winning American investigative journalist (Mark Schoofs, BuzzFeed News) and an iconic cartoonist (Sean Leahy). Together, they will help audiences improve their “fake news” filter, and unpack the challenges that the current US president has presented to media worldwide.
In the afternoon session, Power Shifts: Identity, Diversity, #MeToo, an incredible all-female panel will discuss what it takes to effect meaningful change on a massive scale, and who’s leading the way. Moderated by ABC’s Cathie Schnitzerling, it features 2017 Women’s Leadership in Media Award winner Catherine Fox, The Courier-Mail’s Rachel Hancock and author Bri Lee, whose debut 2018 memoir Eggshell Skull was described by Helen Garner as “scorching, self-scouring: a young woman finds her steel and learns to wield it”.
The day’s program will also feature Sydney Morning Herald chief photographer Nick Moir in Shooting the Storm, and the session Killer Stories, where the journalists behind chart-topping podcasts like Trace and The Teacher’s Pet will discuss the true crime podcast phenomenon and how it’s captivating audiences and changing lives.
Quality journalism has never been more important. Storyology 2018 is a festival for those who consume it, and seek to understand it better.
Tickets for 2018 Storyology are on sale now. Individual sessions start from $30, and full-day Saturday passes are $95. Discounts are available for students and concessions.
