Piece-to-camera-script

What makes a story newsworthy? What type of story invented the universal expression ‘page
turner’? What type of image or phrase fuelled the ultimate clickbait online and what type of
headline stops you in your tracks when reaching for the remote to change the TV channel?

When we are talking news, the amount or lack of coverage of a news item is dealt within the
structured checklist of news worthiness such as popular appeal, proximity or impact.

For example, let me read out present-day sentences spoken or written by journalists and take
note of the theme, this is something I would like to explore with you all.

At the hands of a current or former partner, one female dies every week in Australia.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, one in six Australian women
experience physical or sexual abuse from the age of 15. And as cited on the ABC national
website, “so far today police in Australia have dealt with on average 394 domestic violence
matters”.

Today in Australia violence against women is proximate, real, impactful and sadly a popular
topic discussed in weekly news, thus making it newsworthy.

Shocking isn’t it. But we have heard it all before. Emotive, heartbreaking catchphrases
splashed over the front page of the news, depicting countless tragic deaths of innocent
women over the years. What one must fathom is whether these attacks are increasing in
numbers or increasing in coverage. How these stories are portrayed to the public is yet
another messy aspect of the debate. When will we stop reading news leads of police issuing
warnings to women walking alone at night and rather proactive steps for men to take to stop
raping women.

Aware of not repeating the Project’s Lisa Wilkinson’s powerful spiel on violence against
women, I want to explore what defines newsworthiness when it comes to victims of violence
for females. Ultimately I want to argue which stories news outlets give more weight and
scope to in their daily editions, by pointing out the discrepancy between the reality of what’s
going on behind the mesmerizing headlines.

First, we know the rare, shocking, entertaining, unusual or numbingly horrifying stories are
true testaments to newsworthiness. One should presume a story that is published in the
news has gone through a process of challenges, loops and holes to squeeze out some truthful
information into a dazzling spectacle that is journalism.

However, is there a glitch in how journalists and furthermore editors assess what makes a
story newsworthy? The truth is that measuring and evaluating the weight of a story can be
highly subjective and thus in terms of victims of violence, are all victims given enough justice?
For instance, one in four Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 or over have
been a victim to physical or threatened violence. Indigenous women are more likely to be
killed by domestic violence, with a shocking rate of twice the homicide rate in Australia.

Arguably, violence against women is not discriminatory of cultures, wealth, suburbs or ethnic
groups and is an international prevalent issue. There is International Day for the Elimination
of Violence against Women, Domestic and Family Violence Taskforce for Aboriginal people,
and White Ribbon Australia, that are all committed to raising awareness in an attempt
combat this major obstacle.

However, even with these initiatives there is barely any diversity in our news coverage of
women assaulted. This is even with the disproportionately high levels of violence within
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Does anyone remember the Indigenous female Debbie Combarngo who was assaulted and
died in an apartment in Toowoomba earlier this year? Guilty as probably all of you are, I
didn’t read about it properly until I did some research. She was assaulted and killed by nine
people, females included.

I would also like to highlight the discrepancy between young and older victims of violence
and how age is indistinguishably a factor of newsworthiness. Yes, Karen Ashcroft a loving
grandmother, aged 52 was fatally stabbed in her home by a middle-aged man that police
suspected was “on ice” at the time of the offence. Where was the outrage to follow a story
like this, when Karen ended up dying on the scene?

And what about 28-year-old woman Qi Yu who was murdered earlier this year by her male
housemate after she cut his lease short due to him owing money. The headline she received
was “dumped body formally identified missing woman Qi Yu”, with her ethnicity being a
recurring detail throughout the article, rather than a fight for justice for her.

To prove my point, the young and talented Eurydice Dixon was murdered in June this year
sparking an outburst of outrage from communities. Police issued warnings to females to
“take caution” in situations and rightly so, furious responses from the public jolted a debate
over how the incident was handled. And while Eurydice life is important and was important
to a putting a focus on ‘male rage’, she was the 31st woman to have been murdered this year.
And coincidently I can’t recall a name other than Eurydice Dixon in the total of over 60
women that have now been murdered in 2018.

Not all domestic and sexual assault victims elicit equal coverage of follow up stories, opinion
pieces and even ABC story investigations. Some don’t even get their stories mobilised and
published. And sadly, it is the news we receive as an audience that inherently persuades and
determines the amount of interest we give to a victim of a crime. Every female no matter
what age, ethnicity, religion or culture is a human and more so a mother, daughter, sister and
friend. The world might be a more depressing place if we report on every single case of
domestic violence but it may become a place that enacts more change. Every female victim
whether young or old, white or Aboriginal; should have their story heard and should be
newsworthy.