Valuing News

Aligning Individual, Institutional and Societal Perspectives

This project aims to identify the links between the preparedness of individuals to pay for news, the value of news brands and organisational cultures of news publishers, and the social value of news in promoting a democratic public sphere.

Its significance arises with the ongoing crisis of news media business models, which is raising new questions about the future of journalism, and the changing role of governments worldwide in financing news production. Its expected outcomes include advancing debates about how to support public interest journalism, and the value of news as both a commodity and a public good. It will be of benefit to industry, policymakers and the community in addressing the prospects for Australian journalism.

Project aims

The project has five aims:

• Address the question of the value of news through an interdisciplinary analysis that evaluates the drivers of news consumption decisions, including decisions to subscribe to news services, and their relationship to the social value of public interest journalism.
• Undertake an international comparative assessment of the policy implications of news subsidy schemes for commercial news publishers, and associated governance questions.
• Connect analysis of individual preferences (micro) to social goals (macro), through analysing the mediating role of institutions and organisational cultures (meso) of national, regional and local news publishers.
• Analyse trends in both news content and advertising revenue over time through digital methods and dynamic value chain analysis, to determine the relationship between value creation and content monetisation and a commitment to public interest journalism.
• Advance understanding for industry and policymakers of how public policy can promote and reconcile competing objectives of quality, diversity, public interest journalism, and sustainability of news publishing.

Project Funding

The project is funded by the Australian Research Council, Discovery Project DP220100589 (2023-2025)

Recent Publications

Review of the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code Consultation Paper, May 2022. UTS Centre for Media Transition. Professor Derek Wilding, Professor Monica Attard, Dr Sacha Molitorisz, Dr Michael Davis, Vidya Kathirgamalingam, University of Technology, Sydney

Remunerating News, – InterMEDIA 50(2), 2022. Professor Derek Wilding, University of Technology, Sydney

‘Too much’ and ‘too little’ content moderation: Internet governance as a case study in advanced liberal modes of government (PDF) – Presentation to Centre for the Study of Governance & Society, Public Lecture Series, Bush House, Kings College London, 6 April 2023. Professor Terry Flew, University of Sydney

Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code: A New Institutional Perspective – American Affairs, 2023. Professor Terry Flew, University of Sydney

Where to next with Australia’s News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code? – Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 2023. Associate Professor Tim Dwyer, Professor Terry Flew, and Professor Derek Wilding

Online News Act won’t break the web – The Toronto Star, July 15, 2023. Professor Derek Wilding, University of Technology, Sydney

The Value of News: Aligning Economic and Social Value From an Institutional Perspective – Media and Communications, vol 12, 2024. Professor Terry Flew and Dr Agata Stepnik, University of Sydney

Digital platforms and the future of news: Regulating publisher-platform relations in Australia and Canada – Information, Communication & Society, 2024 (in press). Professor Terry Flew (University of Sydney), Professor Petros Iosifidis (City, University of London), Associate Professor James Meese (RMIT), Dr Agata Stepnik (University of Sydney)

News Media Assistance Program Consultation Paper, December 2023. UTS Centre for Media Transition. Professor Monica Attard; Dr Michael Davis; Dr Timothy Koskie; Dr Sacha Molitorisz; Professor Derek Wilding, University of Technology, Sydney

Response to News Media Assistance Program Consultation Paper, February 2024. Professor Terry Flew (University of Sydney); Dr Agata Stepnik (University of Sydney); Dr Timothy Koskie (University of Technology, Sydney); Ms Wenjia Tang (University of Sydney)

Multimedia

‘Too much’ and ‘too little’ content moderation: In Conversation with Terry Flew – Centre for the Study of Governance & Society, Public Lecture Series, Bush House, Kings College London, 6 April 2023. Professor Terry Flew, University of Sydney

Making—and Sustaining—the News: A Virtual Discussion – American Affairs Symposium, 1st May 2023. Professor Terry Flew, University of Sydney

The Daily Aus on the Future of News on Socials – Double Take : A CMT Podcast, 9th April 2024. Dr Tim Koskie, University of Technology, Sydney

In the News

Creative AI: The death of the author? – Sydney Business Insights, August 2023. Commentary by Professor Terry Flew

Facebook blasted as Canadians blocked from news as fires rage – News.com.au, 18th August 2023. Associate Professor Tim Dwyer was interviewed for expert commentary.

Is it OK to turn off the news? – ABC News Daily [podcast], 2nd November 2023. Associate Professor Caroline Fisher was interviewed for expert commentary.

News could soon disappear off your social media feed, experts warn – The Canberra Times, 6th March 2024. Professor Derek Wilding was interviewed for expert commentary.

Future project outputs will be added to this page as they

Project Team

Professor Terry Flew, University of Sydney

Terry Flew is Professor of Digital Communication and Culture at the University of Sydney. He is the author of 16 books (seven edited), 71 book chapters, 118 refereed journal articles, and 20 reports and research monographs. His books include The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy (SAGE, 2012), Global Creative Industries (Polity, 2013), Media Economics(Palgrave, 2015), Understanding Global Media (Palgrave, 2018), Regulating Platforms (Polity, 2021), and Digital Platform Regulation: Global Perspectives on Internet Governance (Springer, 2022). He was President of the International Communications Association (ICA) from 2019 to 2020 and is currently an Executive Board member of the ICA. He was elected an ICA Fellow in 2019. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA), elected in 2019. He has advised companies including Facebook, Cisco Systems and the Special Broadcasting Service, and government agencies in Australia and internationally, including the Australian Communication and Media Authority and the Singapore Broadcasting Authority. He has held visiting professor roles at City University, London and George Washington University, and is currently a Distinguished Professor with Communications University of China, and an Honorary Professor at University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He currently holds two Australian Research Council grants, on Trust and Distrust in News Media, and Valuing News: Aligning Interpersonal, Institutional and Societal Perspectives

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Professor Sora Park, University of Canberra

Sora Park is a Professorial Research Fellow at the News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra. She is the project leader of the Digital News Report Australia, and author of Digital Capital (2017, Palgrave). She has published widely on the impact of digital technology on audiences, with a special focus on digital and social exclusion and the distribution of opportunities and privileges in society. She is currently leading an Australian Research Council Discovery Project ‘The rise of mistrust: Digital platforms and trust in news media.

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Associate Professor Tim Dwyer, University of Sydney

Associate Professor Dwyer has previously taught at Macquarie University and at Western Sydney University. He is a visiting foreign professor at the College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University. His research focuses on the critical evaluation of media and communications industries, regulation, media ethics, law and policy in an era of convergent media, algorithmic mediatisation and the use of personal data. His research also explores how news practices are evolving in multi-platform media organisations, and analyses the implications of these transformations for media diversity and pluralism policies. His latest book, with Derek Wilding is Media Pluralism and Online News: The Consequences of Automated Curation for Society (Intellect, 2023).

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Professor Derek Wilding, University of Technology Sydney

Derek joined UTS as a Visiting Fellow in August 2014 and is now Co-Director of the Centre for Media Transition. CMT is an interdisciplinary initiative of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, launched in July 2017. Derek came to UTS from an industry-based position as Executive Director of the Australian Press Council. He worked closely on the Council’s responses to the Independent Media Inquiry and the Convergence Review and on the adaptation of the Council’s structure and governance to embrace smaller, digital-only publishers. As Executive Director, he led the Council’s complaints-handling functions and worked with the Chair and members on a review of the Council’s standards of practice. Before this, he worked for the Australian Communications and Media Authority where he managed the implementation of the federal government’s media ownership reform package and the resulting commercial transactions. He also managed the ACMA’s monitoring and compliance activities on disclosures rules for commercial radio, as well as other content rules such as the anti-siphoning sports list, pay TV drama expenditure and the anti-terrorism standards for narrowcast television. Derek finished his time at the ACMA by managing an operational policy team dedicated to complex regulatory problems spanning the legal and engineering spheres, including the transition to digital television. From 2000 to 2005 Derek was the Director of the Communications Law Centre at UNSW. He taught media and communications regulation, conducted research and led the Centre’s policy work on issues such as media diversity, cash for comment and telecommunications consumer protection. He has also worked for the Office of Film and Literature Classification and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

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Associate Professor Caroline Fisher, University of Canberra

Caroline Fisher is an Associate Professor of Communication specialising in journalism studies and political communication at the University of Canberra. She is a core member of the News and Media Research Centre and co-author of the annual Digital News Report: Australia. Prior to academia, Caroline worked in journalism and politics. In the past three years, Caroline has been awarded funding from industry and the government for independent academic research into news media consumption, markets, and policy. She has 50 academic publications and research reports, and her work has been featured in more than 300 media stories. Her research interests include trust in news, regional news, the changing face of journalism, and political public relations.

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Dr Aljosha Karim Schapals, Queensland University of Technology

Dr Aljosha Karim Schapals (FHEA) is a Senior Lecturer and Study Area Coordinator in Journalism and Political Communication in the School of Communication of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia, as well as a Chief Investigator in the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC). He also serves as Book Review Editor for Media International Australia, a Q1-ranked journal in the field of media and communication studies, and as Academic Supervisor for Queensland Parliament. Previously, he worked as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Journalism at City, University of London. Additionally, he has experience as a practising journalist working for the Financial Times as well as the German government organisation Federal Agency for Civic Education. His research interests lie in the changes taking place in news production and consumption as a result of the internet, with a particular focus on social media and verification, algorithms and automation in contemporary news production, as well as political communication more broadly.

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Professor Philip Napoli, Duke University

Philip M. Napoli is the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he is also the Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy. Professor Napoli’s research focuses on media institutions, technology, and policy. His books include Social Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age (2019); Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences (2011); and Foundations of Communications Policy: Principles and Process in the Regulation of Electronic Media. Professor Napoli has provided testimony, consulation, and research to government bodies such as the U.S. Senate, the US. Federal Communications Commission; the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority. His work has been funded by organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the Knight Foundation, Democracy Fun, and the Open Society Institute.

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Professor Robert G. Picard

Professor Robert G. Picard is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, asenior research fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at University of Oxford, and a fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale University Law School. His scholarship focuses on the nexus between economics of media and communications systems and public policy. He has been a professor for 4 decades at universities in Europe and the United States, has taught at University of Oxford and Harvard University, is the author and editor of 33 books, and has been editor of the Journal of Media Business Studies and The Journal of Media Economics. Picard received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and had post-doctoral study and fellowships at University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and University of Oxford. He has consulted and carried out assignments for governments in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia and for international organisations, including the European Commission, UNESCO, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation. He has been a consultant for leading media companies in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

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Team Support Members

Dr Agata Stepnik, Research Officer, University of Sydney

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Dr. Timothy Koskie, Research Assistant, University of Technology Sydney

Dr. Timothy Koskie is a media sociology researcher with a focus on media pluralism, online media, and international media ecosystems. He is currently working on two projects through the Centre for Media Transition at UTS – Valuing News and Implications of Generative AI for knowledge integrity on Wikipedia. He has completed a doctoral degree, investigating news comments’ potential as a form of media pluralism. He also has two master’s degrees in online media and newsroom work, and has taught undergraduate and postgraduate seminars and tutorials in multiple fields across media, internet governance, and digital cultures. In addition, he has nearly two decades of experience in publishing and education and has taught in and conducted courses on media and communication skills across 14 years in the US, Australia, Spain, and South Korea.

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Miss Wenjia Tang, Research Assistant/PhD Candidate, University of Sydney

Wenjia is a PhD candidate, research assistant, and tutor in the Discipline of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. Her thesis surveys the changing business model of streaming media and the impact of glocalised entertainment media production and consumption internationally. She is also interested in general Big Tech and emerging technologies regulation and has a particular focus on the dynamics in the Internet sphere between the U.S. and China with a digital geopolitics perspective.

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Ms Beth Makin, Research Associate/PhD Candidate, University of Canberra

Beth is a PhD student and research associate in the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra. Her thesis examines Climate Change activism and how social media is used to convince people to partake in civic participation. Prior to starting her candidature Beth has held a number of positions within the University of Canberra and spent significant time volunteering for an International Non-Profit.

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