This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Why is billionaire Kerry Stokes funding the media defamation action of Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith against Nine Newspapers?
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Bot armies, fake tweets and hashtags are the new front in propaganda wars. A groundbreaking study, exposing a massive anti-Russia social media disinformation campaign, has been effectively ignored by the Western establishment media, writes Peter Cronau.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Regional businesswoman and Order of Australia recipient Julia Spicer has been named Queensland’s new Chief Entrepreneur, replacing incumbent chief Gerard Wayne in the voluntary role. Ms Spicer, who is the fifth Chief Entrepreneur to be appointed since the government role was launched 2016, will take over from Mr Wayne when he finishes his 18-month stint…
The post Fifth Queensland Chief Entrepreneur appointed appeared first on InnovationAus.com.
This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.
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As excuses for poor performance pile up, Qantas is planning to play on our patriotism and better judgment in its push to thwart competitors.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Musk and a team of advisers have been weighing a range of scenarios for job cuts and other policy changes
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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The Crime Commission report found rampant money-laundering in pubs and clubs, yet days later NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has caved in on his pokies reform. Is this NSW reprising the Rum Rebellion? Michael West reports.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Citing people with knowledge of the situation, the report said that some managers were being asked to “draw up lists of employees to cut
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Musk’s comments came a day after he completed the USD 44 billion acquisition of the social media giant
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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After he sought to terminate the sale, Twitter filed a lawsuit to hold Musk to the agreement he inked to purchase the social media giant
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Advertisers trim budgets amid jitters over World Cup host’s human rights record and appearing ‘tone-deaf’ to austerity
There will be no Christmas TV advertising boom this year as jitters over associating with the World Cup host Qatar’s human rights record and the cost of living crisis put paid to the annual battle of the big-budget extravaganzas that traditionally bombard the public over the festive season.
UK companies will still spend a record £9.5bn in the run-up to Christmas, known as the “golden quarter”, when many retailers make the lion’s share of their annual profits and sales, but the amount targeted at traditional TV, newspaper and radio outlets will decline this year.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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World Uyghur Forum brings high court challenge against government agencies over Xinjiang cotton imports
UK government agencies have broken the law by not investigating the importation of cotton products manufactured by forced Uyghur labourers in China, the high court has heard.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is challenging the home secretary, HM Revenue and Customs and the National Crime Agency (NCA), claiming a failure or refusal to investigate imports from Xinjiang, allegedly home to 380 internment camps, was unlawful.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Security guards for the powerful pokies lobby threw reporter Callum Foote out of the ClubsNSW annual meeting Friday afternoon but not before members were told Clubs would be signing up both Premier Dominic Perrottet and Opposition leader Chris Minns to another favourable deal on poker machine regulations. Callum reports.
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Russia has sharply curtailed natural gas shipments to Europe in retaliation for sanctions that the West put in place after Ukraine invasion
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It is important to differentiate between distortive subsidies and targeted support to the vulnerable households, Nirmala said
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Transform Trade charity says British-based companies are among main bringers of cases based on bilateral investment treaties
UK companies operating overseas are afforded far greater legal protections than the citizens of the countries they invest in, leading to corporations getting away with human rights and climate change abuses, a report has found.
The Transform Trade charity says the majority of UK bilateral investment treaties (BITs) contain no mention of climate change, the environment or human rights, meaning companies are not held accountable for violations.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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Exclusive: Meetings while in Saudi Arabia undisclosed due to ‘administrative oversight’, says business department
The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, held undisclosed meetings with senior executives of Saudi Arabian firms when he was the business secretary, documents acquired by the Guardian show.
The meetings occurred in January, when Kwarteng visited the kingdom for a two-day trip under his previous ministerial role.
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All’s not fair at the warfare Expo, where taxpayer-funded arms merchants hobnob with military types by invitation only. “Aggressive” journalists not allowed. Persona non grata Callum Foote reports on Land Forces 2022, Australia’s biggest War Fair.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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ClubsNSW is dragging a dying man through the courts, and media identity Friendly Jordies too, but its own house is hardly in order
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Every time an advertiser pays Big Tech for an ad in your social media feed, your data is the selling point. The data you give them for free.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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No matter what happens with customer discontent and employee unrest at Qantas, chief executive Alan Joyce can’t lose.
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By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatch presenter
There is mounting pressure on tech titans Google and Facebook to pay local news media to carry their news online.
Google has already done deals with some for its News Showcase, but other big names in news are still trying to get the platforms to pay — and the government is hinting it could force the issue soon.
“Are you putting the hard word on them to secure deals to pay for content? Are you going to legislate?” Newshub Nation host Simon Shepherd asked Willie Jackson last weekend, putting the hard word on the broadcasting and media minister.
“Are you putting the hard word on them to secure deals to pay for content? Are you going to legislate?” Newshub Nation host Simon Shepherd asked Willie Jackson a week ago, putting the hard word on the broadcasting and media minister.
“I’m trying really hard. I have said to them, [in] three months let’s see the deals in the marketplace,” the minister replied.
For years local news media have griped about getting very little from the platforms distributing their stuff to huge audiences — and profiting from it.
The thing most likely to persuade the tech titans to pay local newsmakers is the likelihood of the government forcing the issue with legislation — and this was the first time that a government minister had set any kind of deadline publicly.
‘I want to see fairness’
“I want to see some fairness. I want to see all these Kiwi news organisations looked after . . and these big players have the funding and the resourcing to be able to do that,” Willie Jackson told Newshub Nation.Some of the deals that have been done were revealed earlier this month when Google launched the local version of its News Showcase service, now available via Google’s websites and apps.
The first Kiwi outlets ever to get regular payments from Google for that include The New Zealand Herald’s owner NZME and its subscriber subsidiary BusinessDesk, RNZ, online sites Scoop and Newsroom and the Pacific Media Network. There is also a handful of local outlets too like Crux, which serves the Southern Lakes region, and Kapiti News.
“It’s part of our commitment to continuing to play a part in what we see as a very important shared responsibility to ensure the long term sustainability of public interest journalism in New Zealand,” Google’s local country representative Carolyn Rainsford told RNZ’s Gyles Beckford recently.
Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson described that as “a good start, but not enough” — while the Spinoff’s founder Duncan Grieve was also underwhelmed.
He reckoned it was actually Willie Jackson that Google had in mind with the Showcase launch “to create a sense that Google is now a solid and public spirited ally to the news industry”.
Deal “close” report on NZME and Google. Image: Mediawatch/RNZ For now, Google News Showcase is far from a comprehensive or compelling service for Kiwis. It offers nothing from our biggest national news producer Stuff or other big names in news like TVNZ and Newshub — or smaller outlets such Allied Press and The Spinoff.
Bargaining collectively
Several publishers — including Stuff — have banded together with the News Publishers Association to bargain collectively with Google and Meta (the parent company of Facebook).Earlier this year the Commerce Commission gave them permission to negotiate a deal for a 10-year period.
So how’s that going?
“We can’t comment much on the status, but we are engaging with the NPA,” was all Google’s regional head of partnerships Shilpa Jhunjhunwala would tell RNZ earlier this month.
A recent report by the Judith Nielsen Institute estimate Google and Facebook paid Australian media companies about A$200m last year.
“Unfortunately an interview won’t be possible,” Google New Zealand told Mediawatch last week (without explaining why).
Instead they gave us a statement attributable to Caroline Rainsford, country director Google New Zealand:
“We are proud of the launch of Google News Showcase and continuing our conversations with other local news media businesses.”
“We can’t give you any kind of commercial numbers because they’re all commercial and in confidence,” Google’s regional head of partnerships Shilpa Jhunjhunwala told RNZ’s Gyles Beckford earlier this month.
When pressed, she said Google’s global commitment to News Showcase was $1 billion over three years.
“But beyond that, we’re not able to share anything specific to New Zealand,” she said.
Why is there no deal with other New Zealand news publishers yet?
‘No serious offers on table’
“Those negotiations are underway, but neither of those companies have put any serious offers on the table,” Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher told Mediawatch.She said the Australian deals were their benchmark.
“What we produce is very similar kind of content and we operate in very similar markets. We’d be looking for payments that equate to more like NZ$40 million to $50 million a year into the industry here,” she said.
“I think the government and Minister Jackson have made clear that the government expect fair deals to be done — and that they are prepared to legislate in the near term to ensure that happens,” she said.
“The only way to materially address this is to create an environment where we can negotiate fair commercial payment from these giant multinationals who have built their businesses entirely off content created by other people,” she said.
“You could think of any search term and put it into Google and look down the results and see that a new story created by somebody is part of the results. What we are focused on negotiating a commercial payment for that content in the same way that you would for any other product,” she said.
“If you invested in a car and someone started running it as a taxi, you would expect them to compensate you for that — not to build their own business without recognising your investment,” Boucher told Mediawatch.
“Our problem is that these platforms are very reluctant to come to the table and have a fair negotiation. That’s why the sort of legislation has been needed in Australia and other countries and also here in New Zealand,” she said.
The tale across the Tasman.
ACCC regulator chair Rod Sims … called “the man who forced Google and Meta to pay for news.” Image: ACCC/RNZ The man who forced the platforms to pay up
Rod Sims has been called “the man who forced Google and Meta to pay for news.”For more than a decade, he chaired the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Australia’s competition regulator.
“It was fraught at times, but we presented the report to government in mid-2019 and they accepted the recommendation to have a News Media Bargaining Code six months later. It was legislated in February 2021. That’s pretty quick in terms of policy development in Australia,” Sims told Mediawatch.
“Google’s done a deal with essentially all media businesses. Meta has only done a deal with media businesses which that employ 85 percent of (Australia’s) journalists. It’s crucial that . . . it’s widely shared and you need legislation so that everybody has the ability to bargain.
“I know for a fact that the payments were well in excess of A$200 million — so NZ $40 million to $50 million sounds absolutely the right number to be spread across all media,” he said.
“Google and Meta were required to bargain with all eligible media businesses — and if they could not reach agreement, then arbitration would come into place. The threat of that evened up the bargaining power,” he said.
“The second component was that if Google and Meta did a deal with one media player, then they were required under law to do a deal with all media players. So their choice was either have no media content on their platform, or do deals,” he said.
“They chose to do deals with media companies because there’s value to them,” he said.
Arbitration threat needed
“I’m a bit concerned that in New Zealand you don’t have arbitration at the end of the negotiation period negotiations fail,” he said.A Google officer once told me struggling news media pleading for “compensation” were like redundant drivers of horse-drawn carriages and rickshaws expecting today’s taxi drivers to pay them.
“No, that’s completely wrong. This is not like the car taking the place of the horse and carriage or smartphones taking the place of Kodak film because Google and Facebook don’t produce any journalism. So they haven’t taken the place of media, because they’re just not in the media business,” Rod Sims told Mediawatch.
“For Google to be a good search engine, it needs to bring in media into its search just about every time. But they don’t need any particular media company. So only by the News Media Bargaining Code could you even up the bargaining power,” he said.
“Unless we get payment for media that’s being taken and used for free, we’ll have a lot less media and less media harms society,” he said.
“It’s not up to me to tell the New Zealand government what to do, but my advice would be to pass the Australian News Media Bargaining Code,” he said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
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FM expressed concerns over an issue of payment of dues to micro, small, and medium enterprises and asked big corporates to clear their dues
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Big tech wants us to think we control our own data, but we don’t. Our relationship with technology begins with deceptions and lies.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Some of the readers of The Creative Independent might not be familiar with the techniques you use to create garments and objects. I was hoping you could start by telling me a bit about the things you make and how you make them.
It is kind of a complicated process with many steps. But basically, I mix a viscous water solution that I’m able to float paint on top of. Then I mix all of my paints to lighten them a little bit and help with their spreadability. Then I take that paint and I apply it to the surface of this buoyant liquid. Then I manipulate the paint to create patterns and imagery. Then I can take paper or wood or fabric, and lay it on top of the surface of the water and it transfers onto whatever material I’m printing. I take that material and turn it into all sorts of products and designs and artworks, from wearable clothing to home goods to prints on paper. My whole practice, pretty much, is rooted in that certain technique.
How did you arrive at that method?
I originally studied sculpture, but I’ve always made my own clothing and I’ve always manipulated clothes and done tie-dyeing or applique or…
Are you self-taught with sewing?
Totally self-taught, but I’ve always been really into clothing as a form of self-expression, and cutting things up from the thrift store and putting things back together. I was on this deep exploration of textile techniques and I tried marbling, I just fell in love with it. Because it’s so fluid and you don’t have that much control. So, it feels like this really nice push and pull of you manipulating it, and it sort of pushing back. It’s very freeing in that way.
I think I’d been looking for a technique that was freeing for me, because I was always living in these tiny, tricky little spaces and making work that felt really constricted and small, like tiny drawings. To be able to feel really open and expressive with the material that I couldn’t control too much was this ‘aha!’ moment for me.
What parts of your upbringing or your early adulthood do you think were key in preparing you to do the things you’re doing now?
This is a funny question, because I had a pretty intense upbringing and have an extremely high level of endurance because of it. So, I think that has helped me be very committed and really work hard. Also, not having a lot of support or money or anything. It’s like, “I am doing this and no one else is going to do this for me, so I have to just make this work on my own.”
But I also grew up with creative parents and we lived completely off the grid in rural Maine and we would just make everything. My parents’ approach to life was like, “We can make whatever we need.” They didn’t want to rely on anyone or anything. So, there was no electricity, no running water, build your own shelter, grow your own food, make your own clothes, that kind of mentality. I think that also has its pros and cons. But being raised with the idea that you can make something from nothing, and you can make something beautiful out of something hard or ugly or raw, is something that just continues to inspire me. It keeps me going to this day and I’m very grateful for that part of my childhood, for sure.
In terms of running your business and making the work that you make, what are some of the things you feel like you’ve had to unlearn from whatever you were taught in school or from family?
I think, connecting to what I just said, [the idea that] you can do anything. Unlearning that and actually asking for help with things that don’t come naturally to you has been something I’ve really struggled with. I’m getting so much better at reaching out and saying, “Actually, this would be more efficient if I reach out to someone who’s really good at this and ask for help and bring them in.” That has been a pivotal change in my practice.
Would you mind giving a specific example of a time you’ve done that?
I had my friend Jackie come in and help organize my studio, because I am extremely messy and disorganized. She loves organizing spaces and is so thoughtful and enjoys that. That was absolutely a game-changer. I had my friend Ariel help me—she just got a master’s in graphic design and helped me with website rebranding stuff. I am very analog, I’ll be there getting so frustrated and irritated. Then I’m like, “This doesn’t need to be what I’m putting energy into.” She needed the work and is really good at it. Then I just had all that space in my mind free up for other work. Even having my friend Perry who works with me part-time, having her come in and help me do shipping and stuff. I don’t need to be doing everything.
Reminding yourself that things can get done if you don’t touch every single thing.
Yes. And it’s okay. And it doesn’t mean that I’m incapable or whatever. The myth of the one woman show, that’s based in ego and it’s unrealistic. I think growing up being so endurant and doing so much on my own made me feel like that was part of my identity. Then, as an artist and a business owner, wanting to uphold that in some way, because that’s how I felt proud, and needing to really shift that narrative, because it was actually stopping me from growing.
What does success look like to you now?
This is a question I ask myself a lot, actually, because I’ve grown up with this narrative that I’m going to be the one to make it. One of the first people to go to school in my family or have a career that’s actually with my creative work. This idea of “making it” is just so abstract. Have I made it because I have my own studio? And I’m selling work and I’m making a living just on my work, is that making it? Or can you ever make it, really? I don’t know. It’s just like, what is success really? For me, I think it’s being happy and fulfilled, and it’s not about money or space or acknowledgement. So, I think my goal when I will feel successful is when I’ve tamed my mind to a point where I’m not being bogged down with other little mental distractions or where I feel secure in myself.
Something that I think we maybe have in common to some degree is from existing in kind of a chaotic environment in early life, we’re maybe too comfortable with chaos sometimes. But I think it’s really interesting to talk about chaos and control in how it relates to creative work. I wonder if you could share a little bit of your thoughts on the utility of chaos or the pitfalls of it.
Yeah. My process is extremely messy and I get paint on everything and water all over the floor. I love being able to create in a space of chaos, because I think it has energy and electricity and there’s no part of your brain that’s like, ‘Oh, careful!’ You’re just going for it and you’re able to get in the flow and let go. That’s when I make my best work, when I access the flow, which is my favorite state of being.
It’s like a form of surrender.
Completely. I mean, it’s kind of like a disassociation also. It’s like therapy. You’re floating and it’s just pouring through you and you’re not overthinking it. I think it really helps me to be in a chaotic, messy environment, because I’m not worried about anything. It’s okay to get super messy.
Do you have any rules that you’ve made for yourself as a creative person or as a business owner?
Yes. In the last year and a half, I have been really trying to be disciplined and have a good work-life balance, because I’m a total night owl and I would be coming to the studio and I would forget to eat, I would forget to drink water, I would be here till 3:00 AM. I wasn’t making time for anything else in my life. So consumed by my work, to the point of severe burnout, which is super real. I went through that and it was really hard to bounce back from and I never want to go there again.
Now I try to do nine to five, and I try not to work weekends and I try to always have snacks here. Getting my dog, Wanda, has been really helpful, because she reminds me to take breaks and go for walks. My boyfriend is like, ‘I’m picking you up at 5:00 and you’re coming home with me. You can go out, do whatever, see your friends, whatever, but you’re done at 5:00.’
When you are working how do you approach structuring your time?
I try to get here early and have some quiet time to look at books or write ideas down, and get myself centered and organized, so I’m coming into the day with calm energy instead of feeling frantic. I often feel like I never have enough time. Trying to create a calm start to the day, where I’m not entering the work in frantic energy has been helpful.
But I still work in a very abstract way and I still jump from one thing to the next. I am trying to have more of a structured day, where I have a task and I try to complete it and not get too distracted. I hide my phone when I come to the studio. I put it somewhere that I can’t reach, take my ladder and put it up there [points to a high shelf] and then move the ladder. Because I do not want to waste my time. If I’m only here from nine to five, I need to make the most of this day. I can’t spend an hour on Instagram.
So, part of work-life balance is being very protective of your work time.
That is so true. I am so protective. I am like a mother lion when it comes to my studio practice, extremely protective. That can be tricky with friendships or wanting to go visit super old friends. But I really do think that I am where I’m at now because I’ve been so committed and I’ve been prioritizing my work above anything else really in my life. I think it pays off when you really commit.
Can you talk about some of your priorities as a business owner, or some of the challenges you’ve had in how to structure this as a viable business?
As someone that studied fine art and conceptual sculpture, and then wanted to make a living off my creative work for a long time, I felt guilt and shame around making functional objects, because it wasn’t living in the fine art world. It took me a long time to let go of these rules of what deserves this sort of a claim and what doesn’t.
I think the more potential I saw in creating a living for myself with my work, and the more joy that I saw people having by being able to wear my work, those divisions started fading away more. But that has definitely been something I used to struggle with and a boundary that I still want to work on smudging out. I want these things to be able to coexist and I’m really excited that I’m making more work that lives on a wall. That feels exciting to me. I would love to have a show of my prints, but I’m also excited by having wearables coexist in that space.
This is something that I think a lot of small businesses toeing the line of art and design are confronted by, because there’s such a division still between those spaces. But it’s exciting to be existing on the edge of both. I feel like I’m inspired by the potential that can come out of merging them.
Can we talk a little bit about the way you use color and what sort of feelings you hope people have when they wear or experience the things you make?
It’s funny because I feel like I’ve been saying for a number of years now, “I’m going to do a tan and ochre collection.” I really want to try that and I just can’t. I am just obsessed and in love with color, I love all color. It makes me feel excited and happy. I love combining tons of colors. It feels energetic and alive. I think if there’s one thing I’m trying to bring is fun and confidence, because they’re really bold and bright, the things that I make.
There’s also a childlike sort of thing going on, because they’re like how a child would just throw every color on the page. I love that feeling of being really free with it. I think that there’s just energy that happens with bright colors and colors mixing. There’s that kind of optical illusion that happens with certain colors and you put them next to each other. And also nature is full of neon color. I want to draw from the extreme and extroverted and eccentric parts of nature that are just like, “What is this crazy frog that is covered in neon dots or this wild flower that’s blooming out of a cactus.” That’s the feeling that I’m trying to evoke.
Yeah, my suspicion is that you make a lot of people really happy when they wear your stuff, because how can you be a grouch and wear a smiley face with heart cheeks in ten shades of neon?
Even when I’m approaching a trickier emotion, with the mixed emotion faces that I do, I’m injecting humor into it, because it’s done with super bright colors and it gets goofy. I think that feels really therapeutic to me. It’s like you can be sad, but there’s still this feeling of joy lurking within it. Or saying it’s okay to have these feelings, but also here’s something that’s going to make you feel happy.
What advice would you give to other artists on how to have more joy in their lives?
I think I would say, make a list of things that make you happy and prioritize those. Try to make time to prioritize them. If you feel nourished by going into nature, try to make time to do that once a week or once a month. And be kind to yourself. And find time to play. And nourish your inner creative child, because I think that’s where the source is for all of us. If that child is being neglected, then it’s harder to access joy. So, play.
Maisie Broome Recommends:
Adopting a pet (I found Wanda through True North Rescue, they bring animals up from Texas)
Digging for gems at Record Archive in Rochester, NY. One of the largest used record stores in the country.
Remote camping at Putnam Pond (rent a canoe and paddle to island campsites, pack light)
Always go for a swim when you get the chance, no matter how chilly it is.
Invest in systems that help organize your practice, from studio space or flat files to asking for help. Whatever you can do to make accessing your creative flow easier is always worth the investment.
This post was originally published on The Creative Independent.
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If he gets in the witness box, Lachlan Murdoch stands to win his defamation action against Crikey but the Australian news site is already triumphant. This thing is global and the money and subscriber support is rolling in.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Qantas international flights may become even more expensive as Airbus has issued a global directive concerning A380 wing cracks. Even “wet-leasing” aircraft is now being considered. Michael Sainsbury with this exclusive investigation.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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The revenues for the month of August 2022, registered 28 per cent increase than the GST revenues of Rs 1,12,020 crore collected in Aug 2021
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The beach-side mansion sits in the northern part of Palm Jumeirah and has 10 bedrooms, a private spa, and indoor and outdoor pools
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Prolonged bending to gather tea for James Finlay Kenya is argued to accelerate ageing of pickers’ backs by up to 20 years
More than a 1,000 Kenyan tea pickers who say that harsh and exploitative working conditions on a Scottish-run tea farm have caused them crippling health complaints can now pursue their class action in an Edinburgh court.
Lawyers acting for the tea pickers have won an order from the court of session, Scotland’s highest civil court, telling James Finlay Kenya Ltd (JFK) to abandon attempts to block the suit through the Kenyan courts.
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On one side, a small Australian media player. On the other, the world’s most powerful media moguls. Independent news outlet Crikey has just taken its fight with Lachlan Murdoch public
