Some reports argue that roughly 60 per cent of Australians report actively avoiding the news in the 2020s. Other reports show around 92% of Australian adults still consume news despite all the doom and gloom. Is there news avoidance and if so why and how? Are audiences craving more positive news? Can journalism be part of the solution with more “human” approaches and more transparency?

Ali Almond is a journalist, producer and self-described Professional Media Manipulator whose career has spanned journalism, public affairs and political communications across Australia and New Zealand. As a Media Advisor to The Hon Bob Katter MP and The Rt Hon Winston Peters, and later working alongside The Hon Christopher Pyne, Ali has helped shape political campaigns, government communications and national media coverage. She later joined the ABC, where she produced and reported across news, sport reporting, long-form sports feature writing and podcasts, telling stories from local communities to the international stage. Ali is also the creator of the critically acclaimed autobiographical podcast The Foster Files, which draws on her own Queensland government records to uncover the extraordinary story of growing up in foster care, identity and belonging. Whether she's covering politics, profiling elite athletes or exploring deeply personal stories, Ali is passionate about finding the human story behind the headline.

Renee Barnes is an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her research focuses on how and why and how people engage with the news and the broader information ecosystem. A recent project examined political news avoidance behaviours of citizens in liberal democracies and authoritarian nations. She is the cief investigator on an Office of National Intelligence funded project that is examing what makes Australian vulnerable to political deepfake videos .Prior to joining academia, Renee was a journalist of more than fifteen years Renee has worked for numerous media organisations including the ABC, The Age and Australian Associated Press. She is the author of two books, Fandom and Polarization in Online Political Discussion: From Pop Culture to Politics (Palgrave 2022) and Uncovering Commenting Culture: Trolls, Fanboys and Lurkers, (Palgrave Macmillan 2018).

For the past three years, Vivienne Wynter has published The Pineapple, an independent, digital news and creative writing platform based in Queensland. She champions constructive, solutions-focussed journalism as the way forward for news media. The Pineapple also platforms marginalised voices expressed in creative writing and the arts. Vivienne champions constructive journalism and will outline how to win back news audiences by focussing on solutions, fostering constructive dialogue and giving people a sense of agency around the problems in society. She is a journalist, publisher and creative writer. She read the news for ABC and commercial radio and has published news features in several capital city newspapers. She taught journalism and writing at Queensland universities for 20 years. Vivienne’s creative writing has been published in several anthologies. Her short story, I want Candy, was broadcast on ABC Radio’s Sunday Story. Hawkeye Publishing will release Vivienne’s autofiction novel, Sunny, about leaving your family and keeping them at the same time, in 2027.

Declan Humphreys is a philosopher of technology, who lectures in ethics at the University of the Sunshine Coast. His current area of research focuses on how artificial intelligence (AI) affects our ethics, culture, and society today and what it means for our future. He has written and talked about AI bias, deathbots, and human-AI relationships among other things. In 2025 he was a winner of the ABC's prestigious TOP5 media residency, and has since produced and appeared on a number of programs on Radio National. He is also host of a new independent philosophy podcast currently in production.

Discover more about the Eumundi Writers Festival here: https://eumundiwritersfestival.com.au/

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