Written by Michael Brown

• Michael Brown
• Media Skills

Normally—as one Australian reporter on the West Coast put it—we eat sausage without knowing what goes into making it. What happened at Pike River mine has forced us to notice what goes into making a news item when tragedy strikes, particularly the actions of reporters, good, bad and ugly.

I feel strongly about this because I was a reporter on the Erebus disaster, when the families got the final, crushing news. The phrase ‘media vultures’ was used then, as it is now.

Read more ...