A diverse, independent media is seen as central to a functioning democracy, yet Australia now has one of the most concentrated media environments in the Western world. The author asks how we got here in the first place and whether it even matters now that we're all online.

Referendums have become synonymous with failure in Australia, even when initial polling shows great support for a proposed change. Regardless of whether the stigma is warranted, this history is having a negative impact on the push to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution. The figures are well known: 44 referendums have been put to the...

Overview The trend of young people travelling from Australia and other western nations to fight in conflict zones in Syria and Iraq is causing a great deal of concern for our politicians, policy makers and society at large. However, this phenomenon is not a new one, nor is it solely linked to Islamic countries. Westerners...

Academic publishing is a multi-million dollar business dominated by just a few major publishing houses. Many academics and open access advocates believe that’s unfair—publishers simply take researchers’ work and sell it back to them, they say. Stan Correy takes a look at the state of play. • In 2001, I did a story for RN’s...

Rear Vision explores why the world of scholarly communication has become so divided over the control, access and cost of knowledge. The outsourcing of the production of the Medical journal of Australia has divided medical researchers because of the sacking of the editor in chief, Professor Stephen Leeder. At the centre of the controversy is...