MediaLand

It’s media mayhem in the states as Trump takes on the Murdoch media empire, political machinations are accused of being behind the cancellation of a beloved late night TV show and big media companies are settling all over the place. What does mass media in the states look like under Trump 2.0? 

Who is the most family friendly app of them all? Big tech companies are announcing 'family friendly' features ahead of the policy announcement in Australia that could change the game for kids' content. 

Over the Tasman, Sky is making moves in the New Zealand media scene.

Guest: Eriq Gardner, Legal Author at Puck, former Editor at Large for The Hollywood Reporter 

Are magazines dead? Australia's biggest magazine publisher Are Media is seeking buyers and the future of the publishing industry is up in the air. 

The Emmy nominations were released this week and it’s been a bumper crop for highly produced fiction on the big streamers. Have the 'disruptors' become what they once displaced? 

The radio wars are losing a key general this year, Southern Cross Austereo announced this week that their long-serving chief content officer Dave Cameron will be calling it quits.

And is Lois Lane in violation of journalistic ethics in the new Superman film? 

Guest: Marina Go, Independent Director and former magazine editor and publisher 

Media mania descended on Morwell this week for the murder trial and verdict of Erin Patterson, are the victims being forgotten? 

SBS is celebrating fifty years of broadcasting this year, but is it still meeting its mandate? Managing Director of the Special Broadcasting Service James Taylor is adamant that it is. 

Thirteen years on from the prank call that shocked the world, radio host Michael Christian is taking his former employer to court. Over a decade after the call and the death of a UK nurse that followed it, where does the responsibility for damage caused by media lie? 

Guest: James Taylor, Managing Director of SBS 

Is AI writing your news? Is it a problem if it does? Artificial intelligence in journalism researcher Dr Phoebe Matich is trying to discover the extent to which AI is being used in our newsrooms, and how journalists and audiences feel about it. 

Community radio stations across Australia are fighting for survival against a rising tide of costs and limited funding. The Managing Director of FBI Radio in Sydney Tyson Koh joins us to talk about the station’s efforts to stay on air. 

A sports streaming stoush has broken out as Nine secures a new rights deal for the English Premier League. 

Some linear TV channels burst back into life in New South Wales and South Australia after a brief period off air as Seven and WIN networks find a way to agree. 

Guests: Tyson Koh, Managing Director of FBI Radio and Phoebe Matich, Postdoctoral researcher at the Queensland University of Technology 

The fog of war is an old term but it has very modern applications. In the conflict between Israel and Iran there have been plenty of false images and videos doing the rounds and it can be tough for foreign media to know what’s accurate. So how do you tell the real from the fake? 

Antoinette Lattouf won her employment case against the ABC on Wednesday. Daany Saeed was in court and reflects on the media trial that made ABC the headline rather than the publisher. 

And a war of words has erupted this week with the E-Safety Commissioner and YouTube disputing terms as the Government considers whether or not to exempt the platform from the impending Social Media Minimum Age Legislation. 

Guest: Maryanne Taouk is a reporter for ABC Verify

In a MediaLand special we dissect the ruling for Antoinette Latouff in her case against the ABC this morning. 

This morning the judgement in the case of Antoinette Lattouf vs the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was handed down in the Federal Court of Australia.  

Justice Darryl Rangiah ruled that Australian Broadcasting Corporation contravened the Fair Work Act by terminating the employment of the applicant, Antoinette Lattouf, for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. 

Her lawyers had also argued that her national extraction and race had played a role in her termination, however Justice Rangiah ruled the executives involved were not motivated by these factors. 

The ABC consistently denied she was unlawfully terminated during the hearing process. 

The judge ruled that the ABC must pay Ms Lattouf compensation of $70,000. He also ruled that a further hearing will take place in the future to decide on pecuniary compensation. 

Guests: Michael Bradley, Director of Marque Law and media commentator 

More Australians than ever are getting their news from social media with the big platforms expanding their online reach over that of Aussie newsrooms. We're also becoming more and more worried about misinformation but, depending on our political persuasions, we disagree about where it's coming from. The University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre’s digital media report for 2025 lays our news consuming souls bare.  

It's been a week for strange PR apologies, or non apologies. Three Australian companies illustrate how not to do it. 

And it's Christmas for audio statisticians! The radio stars aligned this week with three sets of data showing us how Australians are listening. 

Guest: Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Canberra Dr Caroline Fisher ck on the global media industry

It's been a week of cuts for TV with Network Ten axing the Project, ABC cancelling Q&A and Foxtel spiking The Back page. What's the future for current affairs television in Australia and can anyone make it pay? 

Aussie reporters have been in the firing line in Los Angeles this week prompting a big conversation about correspondents and their safety in the United States. 

And it's a very special 50th birthday to the SBS! 

Guest: Louise Rugendyke, National TV Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. 

This week, Viv and Tim speak to Greg Hywood in the week he's announced his retirement from his role as Independent Chair at Free TV.  The former Fairfax CEO and newspaper editor has been in journalism and publishing since the 1970s when he started at the Australian Financial Review. He presided over period of intense cost cutting at Fairfax in the early 2010s and was CEO as the merger with NINE was put in place. He shares his views on whether that merger has worked and the state of publishing and commercial media in 2025. 

In another blow to music television, Foxtel has announced that MTV Hits, Nick Music, MTV Club, MTV 80s, and CMT music channels will stop playing at the end of June.

TikTok has announced it is launching safety and wellness features including guided meditation sessions. 

George Clooney is bringing Broadway to America and the world's living rooms in a live streaming event of Good Night and Good Luck.

Guest: Greg Hywood, Retiring Independent Chair of Free TV, former CEO of Fairfax and Editor and Publisher at the Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. 

This week Netflix lifts the veil of secrecy and enters ratings war in Australia and a potential class action law suit adds to mounting pressure on Google’s advertising business.

Commercial TV spending on ‘light entertainment’ is skyrocketing but drama and kids’ programming remain in the doldrums, and the publication of a TV salary rich list shows age of big bucks for broadcast stars might be coming to an end.  

Guest: Dr Anna Potter, Professor in Digital Media and Cultural Studies in QUT’s School of Communication and a Chief Investigator in the Digital Media Research Centre