All female panel panel on Q&A. In November last year, economist Andrew Whitby ran a statistical analysis of Q&A episodes from February 2009 to November 2013. He was interested in the gender makeup of Q&A panels, and found the average was for 2.8 men and two women to appear (the host, Tony Jones, is not included, and there are usually five panellists). That said, the men received 50% more opportunities to talk, accentuating their slight advantage. Female panellists uttered only 1200 words per appearance; the men spoke for 1800.
Maybe Whitby should update his research, because Crikey reckons it’d look far healthier over recent weeks. While we haven’t analysed the words spoken, the ABC’s leading panel show appears far more gender-neutral of late. On March 10, three female panellists were featured. The following week, two women and three men, and the same the week after that. March 31’s show had three women and two men, and last night, the program boasted an entirely female panel, who refreshingly weren’t asked questions relating primarily to women. — Myriam Robin
A gong for The Guardian and Snowden. The Guardian US took out a public service Pulitzer prize overnight for its coverage of the Edward Snowden leaks. The full list’s here. No prize was given out for the feature writing award, and while the winners are a who’s who of America’s journalistic titans, The Wall Street Journal missed out on a reporting award — for the seventh year in a row.
ACMA seeks leave to appeal to High Court. In some late-breaking news, Mumbrella reports the Australian Communications and Media Authority has said it wants to appeal its its 2DayFM case to the High Court, in the last appeal possible. The case is about whether ACMA has the right to accuse 2DayFM of having broken the law in its report on the royal prank incident after which a British nurse took her life. The case has been making its way through the lower courts for some time.
Where’s that style guide got to? It’s been a few months since BuzzFeed launched in Australia, and already it seems to be infecting Australia’s media outlets with its particular style of journalism. An opinion piece in yesterday’s Australian by federal parliamentary secretary Josh Frydenberg was about the 10 ways Julia Gillard gave the unions what they wanted. While the bulk of the piece was a list, at least its title was the more demure: “We all pay for Labor’s mates”.
It wasn’t the only internet-speak in yesterday’s Oz — a piece by Michael Bodey on Ten’s programming troubles began with: “It was Ten’s OMG moment”. So far, the subs at the Oz seem to be holding strong on traditional headlines. It’s a battle seemingly lost at Fairfax, where The Age‘s national politics reporter Jonathan Swan gave us “Five things you didn’t know about Arthur Sinodinos” a few weeks back. — Myriam Robin
Captain Tony to the rescue. The Daily Telegraph is blowing its own trumpet over the news that Tony Abbott now backs a second Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek (The Sydney Morning Herald technically had the story up first last night). Its digital wizards have had fun with the issue before, and in this morning’s effort Abbott is piloting a plane bound for Badgerys, with Joe Hockey his able co-pilot. But the image had us initially thinking the story was about MH370 …
Front page of the day. Former Tasmanian senator Brian “I cannot” Harradine died yesterday, aged 79. The Mercury farewells the controversial politician …
With regard to the Daily Telegraph front page, they’ve got Joe Hockey sitting in the captain’s seat. Right hand seat is for the co-pilot.
Never mind that they’ve got their crew in the wrong seats (although maybe Hockey really does call the shots?), what’s that idiot doing on the runway? And the tree? Oh I know, they’re actually driving a Sydney suburban train out to Badgerys Creek. They don’t need tracks or an actual airport because it’s all just an aspiration.
I wonder how many words Christopher Pyne uttered on his appearances on Q&A. I expect that it would have been a lot more than 1800.
After all that KY before the election, it’s time to bend over Western Sydney, and block your ears, Toady’s got a Jumbo for you.
As for Q&A ever timed Rumpole Turnbull’s waffle-on?