From The Editor's Desk - Thursday, December 17, 2020

This week sees our last edition of 2020, an interesting year that is for sure.

Reflecting

The year has brought with it a full array of opportunities, challenges, lessons, and joy, much like every year. 

No matter the year or the season, we all individually face things that upset our apple cart. The choice becomes how you adapt. 

In philosophy, there is an analogy that describes the challenges we face as a storm. No matter what we as individuals do, we cannot stop a storm. The choice we do have is to be the tree – fighting the storm and losing limbs attempting to stop the unstoppable, or to be the grass, waving in the breeze... Same storm, different experience. 

The year 2020, for myself, has highlighted the role the media plays in our lives, the direction of our nation and the storms we face.

I recently heard an analogy by polarising comedic journalist, Friendlyjordies of how the media is just a magnifying glass. It intensifies the attention given to a subject, narrative, or potential storm. 

The question then becomes who directs the magnifying glass? Our Australian media landscape has been drastically reshaped through buy ups, closures and job losses. That, to me, is a big concern.

As economic conditions for media tighten, I see several key risks. The time to investigate, time to shift through the PR department propaganda, and the independence of reporting.

Issues are complex, people are complex, and politics is a horrendous game. Who would have imagined the best way to solve our most critical issues as a nation, is to lie, deflect, blackmail, scheme and obtain enough votes to stay in power, rather than consider the issues on their merits?

If we are going to continue with politics to ‘save us,’ is it better having an equally weighted system, where different geographical locations, physical realities and communities are considered on their merits? Or is it better to have a system where a state’s affairs can be dictated by the population living in maybe 20% of the land mass? 

Politics is a numbers game. The only way to have the numbers is to disconnect from metro areas and manage your own resources and environment. How would your storms look then?

The Future

If the media is just a magnifying glass, how do we wield it to best effect? 

The things I love about our communities is the diversity. We have great stories, great people doing amazing things, challenges that deserve advocacy, industries to be proud of, a rich history and a wonderful natural world around us to celebrate, improve and protect. 

I consider then our magnifying glass must be broad, but also effective. I shall never please everyone. Every person has an individual mind and unique life experiences. That being said, I am considering some opportunities for The Bridge to improve serving the community. 

We will have some new faces appearing in 2021 to add diversity of thought and coverage. 

Traditionally, papers are reliant on advertising revenue to be sustainable, and still very much are. This poses several challenges. Competition from foreign owned social media giants and to ask uncomfortable questions to propaganda peddlers, often leaves you on the naughty list. 

There have been recent success stories of independent country papers being sponsored by their community, to reinvest in covering and promoting their region, and supporting community groups. 

What is possible for an independent country publisher? More journalism, more journalists, digital video production, area promotion, free community group notes, more variety?

The thinking caps are on!

Thank You

Much like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a wide range of collaboration and support to put a paper together for 50 weeks of the year. 

Thank you to our wonderful customers and supporters. 

Thanks to the amazing and slightly mad staff who bring so much to the table, and humour my madness.

Thanks to all those who submit notes, scores, stories, and photos.

I wish you all an incredibly happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.