The New Front Page: New Media and the Rise of the Audience

A provocative, timely account of the changing face of journalism from a pioneer of the new-media revolution

For a long time, media organisations have controlled the news, treating their audiences as products for advertisers. Yet as journalism has moved online and behind paywalls, the public is demanding more say in how the news is created. They are using blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to share stories, and selecting their sources to create their own ‘front page’.

In this lively, biting critique, media commentator Tim Dunlop explores the rise of the audience, and how unprepared the mainstream media has been for this changing balance of power. Drawing on his experiences as a prominent political blogger, he argues that the future of meaningful journalism ― the sort we need in order to be informed citizens ― will increasingly rely on journalists and editors taking the audience into their confidence and working with them, rather than against them.

The New Front Page is a passionate plea on behalf of those tired of being talked down to by the fourth estate. Perceptive and illuminating, it asks audiences and media to work together to hold the powerful to account, and to produce the sort of news and analysis that enriches public debate.

Tim Dunlop was a pioneer of political blogging in Australia. He ran the internationally successful independent blog The Road to Surfdom and was the first Australian blogger to be hired by a mainstream media organisation (News Limited, for which he wrote the political blog Blogocracy). He has a PhD in communication and political philosophy, teaches at Melbourne University, and writes regularly for a number of publications, including The Drum. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and son, and tweets at @timdunlop.