Last week I foreshadowed further discussion of the 'journalism of empathy', which Eureka Street has aimed to practise during my ten years as editor. I thought it was a term I'd invented, but it turns out that it's used in journalism schools, particularly in the US.
Journalism academics recognise that many of the best fiction and non-fiction stories eschew hard facts and egocentricity in favour of imagining the world through other people's eyes.
Objectivity is really not what they're about. Journalists get paid for accurate reporting of events, and indeed there has been a number of journalistic fact checking initiatives in recent years. But that's not where it ends.
The news is produced for consumption in a human context by readers who often care deeply for the wellbeing of other people. Media consumers will turn off or react negatively when there is insensitive reporting. For some media it's a commercial decision, but for us it's a matter of mission.
We learned a lesson in our early days online when we were feeling our way and insensitively used the death of 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin to implicate him in the exploitation of animals for the entertainment of humans.
Over the years we have received many quality articles analysing the dynamics of national and international politics that have overlooked the human dimension. We've often declined or sent them back to the writers for revision. Our main interest in Australia's taking part in bombing missions in Syria, for example, is not whether we're likely to contribute to the 'taking out' of ISIS, but in how our actions affect civilians on the ground.
Obviously our approach has been affirmed by Pope Francis' resolute adoption of mercy as his modus operandi, which involves less emphasis on teaching doctrine in isolation from human need. It underlies our decision to give so much space to addressing the situation facing asylum seekers and how they are received by the countries that they hope will welcome them.
I was also prompted to think about empathy by some recent political events, including the Abbott Government's decision to take 12,000 Syrian refugees in addition to the regular quota. Whether or not the motivation was political, it's actions that count. Which was indeed the case with the Immigration Minister's display of negative empathy in his joke about the precarious climate plight of Australia's friends who live in Pacific Island nations.
I won't be part of the future of Eureka Street but I know there will be continuity in its carrying out of its mission, largely because its direction over the past decade has been a function of our team as much as it has been from me as an individual. I like to think that the secret of our success is that we all like each other and our personal ambitions are modest. We are only to happy to share this with politicians from the parties that struggle to maintain unity.
The current members of our team are myself (editor 2006-15), Tim Kroenert (assistant editor 2007- and acting editor from Monday 21 September), Andrew Hamilton (consulting editor, 1991-), Fatima Measham (consulting editor 2015-). Past Eureka Street online team members are James Massola (2006-07) and Ray Cassin (2013-14).