Ronan gave us an entertaining and thoughtful insight into being a triple j journalist, the opportunities and limitations as a reporter for the national broadcaster, and the interaction of radio and online media.
Reporting for the Hack program, he would travel to remote towns and city streets. Hack speaks to a young audience and attempts to hit on issues that young people take to heart – music downloads, cyber-bullying, drugs. Ronan explained that the internet lets the Hack team monitor surges in interest in certain topics and use the email feedback from listeners to feed follow-on stories, be it pornography, working girls or truckies.
For Hack, Ronan would often interview people who felt they were maligned, ignored or misrepresented, yet he also needed to deal with mistrust of the ABC as ‘left-leaning’ especially in his chase for political stories.
The DE Talks audience threw in questions about radio’s future in this period of flux for traditional media. Ronan told us that interviews were increasingly augmented by video and photos for viewing online. He also insisted that though radio’s popularity continues, there is a need for recognition that young people with broadcasting tools at their disposal can set their own agenda.
When covering the Palm Island riots of 2005, he explained that traditional authority figures were not necessarily the best sources because of their wariness of journalists. Young people Ronan approached on the street more often spoke up and used the opportunity to talk about what they saw happening.
We rounded out the evening with discussion on how youth are highly attuned to the use and abuse of their public image, engaging in the conversation of their times on Facebook and MySpace and social networking enabling people to coalesce around their most important issues.
