The Case Studies Seminar

In his regular column, the Council's Chairman, Prof David Flint, looks at the first case studies seminar organised by the Press Council.

The Press Council is under-taking a number of initiatives which in fact amount to an Ethical and Quality Audit of the Australian press and of the Council. This audit will involve a number of stages including:

• a continuing review of the Council's complaints facility (including a review of the last five years' statistics, the reults of which are printed as a supplement to this issue of the News);
   
• a survey of previous complainants for an assessment of the Council's procedures; and
   
• a survey of professional and public attitudes to ethical issues, particularly through a series of Case Studies seminars and the completion of questionnaires by participants in those seminars.

The Council, in structured meetings with journalists, journalism students and other media professionals, will work through case studies based on Council adjudications to measure, record and publish the attitudes of professional groups to important ethical issues. Similar encounters with members of the public will ensure that the views of Australian readers flow into the process. A balance of views - regional, gender and ethnic - is being sought.

A central feature of the case studies seminars will involve obtaining the views of each group not only on the major issues in each case study, but on more general issues. This will be done through a questionnaire of their attitudes to the press, to the Press Council and to freedom of expression issues.

The first case studies seminar (using Volume One of the Case Studies) was held in Melbourne on 3 March at the Monash University city premises and was to be attended by young print journalists from The Age, the Leader newspapers, Syme Community Newspapers, the Herald-Sun, Southern Cross, Shepparton News, The Australian, and the Warrnambool Standard.

The Press Council was represented by myself, the Vice-Chairman, Dorothy Ross, six Council members or alternates and the office staff, headed by then Executive Secretary, Jennifer Treleaven.

The venue and attendance at the seminar were organised by Steve Foley, a member of the Press Council, representing the publishers of The Age. It was supported by the Melbourne Press Club, employers and Regional Dailies of Australia.

Although there was a 24 hour train strike in Melbourne that day, over 60 of the 82 journalists who had indicated an interest attended.

Each participant received in advance a copy of a booklet of case studies, together with a kit on the Press Council so that they could all be reasonably conversant with the principles and procedures of the Council.

After an introduction which outlined the Council's activities and the format the evening would take, the seminar was divided into smaller groups, each assisted by a Press Council member or member of staff, and each group appointed a rapporteur. The groups were given one hour to consider the case before them and draft an adjudication. There was then a break for refreshments.

The group returned to a plenary session when each group rapporteur presented his/her group's draft adjudication. As there were eight groups, it was decided that each case study - only four were selected - would be considered by two groups. So, for each case study we had two rapporteurs and there was then a spirited discussion of the drafts. I then invited the group to vote on the draft adjudications and also to vote on whether it upheld or dismissed the complaint in question.

At this stage, each participant was asked to complete a detailed questionnaire about his/her attitudes to freedom of expression, to the press, to the Press Council and about his/her evaluation of the seminar. I then revealed to them how the Press Council had ruled on analogous material. It was a very interesting and lively evening. We are going to use the surveys as a valuable research resource. It will allow us to speak authoritatively on professional and public perceptions on freedom of expression and ethical issues. It will also allow us to evaluate our performance as a press council, as well as promoting our work.

The results on the four complaints were:

No. 2 - re: gratuitous reference to race; Council dismissed; seminar upheldby 57-1

No. 5 - re: poor taste; offensive; Council upheld in part; seminar dismissed 34-23 with a reservation

No. 8 - re:invasion of privacy (photo); Council dismissed; seminar upheld by 48-8

No. 13 - re: inaccuracy; inadequate correction; Council upheld; seminar upheld by 52-5.

The general consensus was that this had been a very successful meeting. The questionnaire results indicated that the participants had found the exercise both stimulating and informative. Most thought that they were better informed on questions of press ethics.

The case studies seminars are an important initiative. Benefits will include:

1. a way of communicating information about the APC to the profession, industry and the public;
    
2. drawing attention to ethical issues;
    
3. most importantly a way for the Council to find out the attitudes of journalists, editors and members of the public - a learning experience for the Council;
    
4. by collating the results and the questionnaire, providing a valuable marketing performance indicator to the Council. This would involve the efficiency of the procedures and also the application of awareness of community attitudes and so on.

Having personal details of the participants (e.g. that it was a predominantly young, tertiary educated group of journalists with an average experience of X years in journalism at Y level) is I believe relevant in our learning about professional attitudes. These can be compared with, for example, a more senior group of journalists, a group of editors, groups in the cities and regions, members of the public. By providing this information to Council members, professional and public views will be effectively inserted into and become part of the Council's consideration of complaints. The profession and the public will thus be participating at a level not before attained in developing a body of media ethics "case law" in Australia. (Our past complainants will, when we survey them, also become involved. If we survey all future complainants, we will have yet another, expanding resource.)

This is an ambitious program. It will allow us to establish a continuous ethical and quality audit of the Australian press.

1. Using the case studies series to assist other press councils and similar bodies. We could, for example, ask for a session to be set aside at future conferences of the World Association of Press Councils to run a demonstration seminar.
    
2. Inviting groups of opinion leaders to a case studies seminar. We could explain the issues which confront the Council.
    
3. In conjunction with publishers, schools of journalism and community organisations and groups, the Council could run specific case studies seminars aimed at their journalists, students or members.
    
4. By having public case studies seminars, e.g. when we are interstate, we could gauge public attitudes to important ethical issues while allowing the public to become aware of the ways in which the Council operates.

David Flint

See also:
Case Studies home page

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