Rules to Reality: how regulation shapes, or fails to shape, our daily lives

Dr Denis Muller is one of Australia’s foremost scholars on media ethics and regulation, with 27 years as a journalist, experience advising the key Australian media regulators, and acting as a consultant to the Australian Government’s Independent Inquiry into Media and Media Regulation in 2011 to 2012. He has also published many (many!) peer reviewed books and journal articles, contributes a regular collumn to The Conversation and makes a radio broadcast show with ABC Radio Victoria Statewide Drive (every Tuesday) on media issues.

Timestamps

2:00 About Denis

12:00 Why media regulation matters to democracy

18:30 How media reporting on facts and opinion have changed, and the uncertain role of the media

26:45 What Sky News' ban from Youtube tells us about media regulation in Australia

33:30 What better media regulation looks like

39:30 How to balance free press with press accountability

43:00 Australia's recent contests with digital tech giants

48:00 What you can do to be a better media consumer

Shownotes

Dr Muller's recent article on the Australian Communications Media Authority.

Recent books from Dr Muller:

Journalism and the Future of Democracy (2021)

Journalism Ethics for a Digital Age (2014)

Media Ethics and Disasters (2011)

Dr Denis Muller is one of Australia’s foremost scholars on media ethics and regulation, with 27 years as a journalist, experience advising the key Australian media regulators, and acting as a consultant to the Australian Government’s Independent Inquiry into Media and Media Regulation in 2011 to 2012. He has also published many (many!) peer reviewed books and journal articles, contributes a regular collumn to The Conversation and makes a radio broadcast show with ABC Radio Victoria Statewide Drive (every Tuesday) on media issues.

Timestamps

2:00 About Denis

12:00 Why media regulation matters to democracy

18:30 How media reporting on facts and opinion have changed, and the uncertain role of the media

26:45 What Sky News' ban from Youtube tells us about media regulation in Australia

33:30 What better media regulation looks like

39:30 How to balance free press with press accountability

43:00 Australia's recent contests with digital tech giants

48:00 What you can do to be a better media consumer

Shownotes

Dr Muller's recent article on the Australian Communications Media Authority.

Recent books from Dr Muller:

Journalism and the Future of Democracy (2021)

Journalism Ethics for a Digital Age (2014)

Media Ethics and Disasters (2011)

Today I speak with Dr Piers Gooding, who is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School and an Associate of the Melbourne Social Equity Institute. Piers’ work focuses on socio-legal concerns with disability and mental health. He is the author of A New Era for Mental Health Law and Policy: Supported Decision-Making and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2017) with Cambridge University Press and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal for Mental Health and Capacity Law. Dr Gooding has collaborated the UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of People with Disabilities, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to physical and mental health, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and the World Psychiatric Association.

 

Recently, Piers has been working on the intersection of ethical and legal issues with emerging digital mental health technologies.

 

This discussion was fascinating to hear about the opportunities and risks posed by new, rapidly expanding mental health technologies. Leaving this discussion, there was no question for me that urgent action is needed to regulate this space. Stay tuned for Piers’ report to be released in early 2022, but in the meantime see more of his work in the show notes.

 

Time-stamps

1:45 Why regulation matters to you and your community

6:00 Digital mental health as a new frontier - opportunities and risks

18:00 Mental health medications and biometric monitoring (Abilify Mycite)

26:45 Solutionism (and techno-solutionism) in information technology and mental health industries

34:00 Building and enhancing a robust regulatory infrastructure for digital mental health

46:00 Piers' call to action for our listeners - contribute to the Privacy Act review! (see below)

Shownotes

UN Human Rights Expert Philip Alston warns of "zombie-like" digital welfare state: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25156

Piers' witness statement to the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System: http://rcvmhs.archive.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/Gooding_Piers.pdf 

How you can contribute to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) review (opportunities coming soon): https://www.ag.gov.au/integrity/consultations/review-privacy-act-1988

From Rules to Reality is a podcast that highlights how regulation shapes, or fails to shape, our daily lives.

Today I’m speaking to Eddie Synot. Eddie is a Wamba Wamba man and lecturer at the Griffith Law School. A former centre manager for the Indigenous Law Center at the University of New South Wales, Eddie’s research and interests spans Indigenous approaches to law, history, culture, anthropology, education, community development and wellbeing.

Today we discussed law, power, and the relationship between First Nations people and the Australian state.

Time-stamps:

01:00 Eddie's history, story and connection to regulation.

15:54 What "regulation" means to First Nations, colonisation, and what that means for race-relations.

29:20 Regulation as a tool or machinery to reinforce power relations.

35:45 The criminal justice system as an example of structurally racist regulation of conduct.  

38:00 The Australian Constitution as providing the legal architecture for regulating race relations.

44:30 The Uluru Statement from the Heart and how Voice, Treaty and Truth could better regulate a just relationship amongst Australians.

59:30 The differences between a legislated voice to government and a Constitutional voice to Parliament, and why the latter is needed.

71:45 What listeners can do after hearing you talk.

Show notes:

Write to your MP: https://ulurustatement.org/write-to-your-mp 

Eddie’s personal website: https://www.edwardjsynot.com/

Eddie’s Conversation articles: https://theconversation.com/profiles/eddie-synot-458565/articles

Eddie’s twitter: @eddiesynot

Eddie references his colleague Professor Megan Davis, see more: https://www.indigenous.unsw.edu.au/about/pro-vice-chancellor-indigenous

Including Professor Davis’ report on out-of-home care: https://www.familyisculture.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/726329/Family-Is-Culture-Review-Report.pdf

Eddie’s screaming child Arthur is available for comment.

Rules to Reality is a podcast that highlights how regulation shapes, or fails to shape, our daily lives.

In Rules to Reality we will hear from experts in climate change, Constitutional recognition, prison reform and abolition, human rights advocacy, mental health reform, and more.

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