The citizens of Facebook, the self-described sixth largest country in the world, threatened to leave en masse when the social networking site tried to change its terms of use in 2009, suggesting ownership of all members' information. The backlash led to an interesting experiment for such a forum – the creation of a bill of rights and a promise to members that they could vote on policy changes. Tourism Australia saw Baz Luhrmann's epic, the historical romance Australia, as a handy marketing opportunity: interestingly, a subsequent poll by the company revealed that many Australians did not know that Japan attacked Darwin during World War II. The demands of business as usual saw the potential of the Rudd government's 2020 Summit for an engaged citizenry come up against policy hierarchies and budgetary constraints: but in terms of transparency and encouraging public participation, it was a start.

We are living in a media ecosystem defined by blurred boundaries. In an era when mainstream media and political communication often degenerate into sound bites, infotainment and spin doctoring, a willingness to blend once-distinct genres and vehicles into previously unimagined combinations is surely cause for optimism. The future of journalism in Australia depends somewhat on the rejection of the assumption that there are only two sides to any story. While journalism does need to take into account issues of balance, lack of bias and the translation of abstract ideas and specialist terms, conventions of news should not inevitably lead to oppositional propositions.