I recently visited Christmas Island to investigate the role of the Serco-run prison for asylum seekers.
Very few journalists visit the place due to its isolation and cost but in this Crikey piece today, referencing a discussion on SBS TV last night, there is a remarkable admission:
Former Channel Ten Producer Jim Carroll blames the pressures of a 24/7 news cycle coupled with dwindling resources on the continuing the convenient asylum narrative.
“It cost us more than $100, 000 to send us a crew up there [to Christmas Island],” Carroll says. “If you want depth and analysis that’s when commercial broadcasters go to the shock jocks.”
More than $100k? I simply can’t understand how a visit there could have cost this much. If this is the corporate media’s rationale for becoming increasingly parochial, then they should seriously examine why reporting on an island so close to Australia presumably requires such a large team.
It doesn’t.