Tracie Edmondson







'Guess and go': The ethics of the mediatisation of professional sport in Australia

This paper highlights ways that changes in the emerging digitised media and communication landscape that envelopes professional sport in Australia influence the ethics of journalism practice. The approach was adopted in the context of mediatisation research as a study of the 'transformation of everyday life, culture and society in the context of the transformation of the media' (Krotz 2017: 108-109). It uses the notion of mediatisation to help conceptualise media change and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance's Journalist Code of Ethics as a benchmark for ethical practices in Australia. Findings indicate that routine violations of core ethical standards of Australian journalism - such as 'striving for accuracy', doing the 'utmost to give a fair opportunity for reply' and achieving 'fair correction of errors' - are occurring as a result of the pervasive digitised 24/7 news cycle (MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics 2017).

Keywords: mediatisation, sport communicators, journalism, digitised media


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Note on the contributor

Tracie Edmondson is a sports media communications specialist with 32 years' experience in the sport-media industry having worked as a sports journalist and a senior communications executive in professional sports organisations in Australia. She has also worked on major sporting events including four Olympic Games (2000, 2004, 2012, 2016), two Rugby League World Cups (2008, 2017) and the AFC (soccer) Asian Cup (2015). She is currently working full-time as Head of Public Affairs for New South Wales Rugby League (Australia) and is a doctoral candidate (Communication) at Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, Australia.