Dr. Florencia Melgar Hourcade
My current research explores the complexities of diversity within media organisations, particularly addressing the risks of "editorial assimilation", which might occur when organisations hire diverse staff but struggle to address structural racism within editorial processes, ultimately leading to assimilation into established norms rather than meaningful inclusion.
By critically examining existing structures and practices, I seek to offer options that contribute to the advancement of rigorous and ethical journalistic practices within inclusive media environments.
Through editorial thought leadership, I help media organisations to review and improve editorial standards, and to increase transparency, accountability and inclusivity in editorial practice.
With a PhD in collaborative cross-cultural journalism, I effectively manage editorial teams within and across media organisations. This ensures that diverse journalists are genuinely part of the editorial process, and that anti-racism principles are embedded in editorial practices.
As a multi-awarded investigative journalist, I've led impactful storytelling and investigations that have significantly advanced the pursuit of justice, both in Latin America and Australia.
Currently, I lead editorial standards for news and current affairs at SBS and manage the SBS News and Indigenous cadetship programs. Previously, I spent seven years in SBS's multicultural content division and chaired the Multicultural group within the SBS Inclusion Council. These roles have provided me with valuable industry insights into the needs of multicultural and multilingual communities which continue to inform my work and strategic thinking.
By critically examining existing structures and practices, I seek to offer options that contribute to the advancement of rigorous and ethical journalistic practices within inclusive media environments.
Through editorial thought leadership, I help media organisations to review and improve editorial standards, and to increase transparency, accountability and inclusivity in editorial practice.
With a PhD in collaborative cross-cultural journalism, I effectively manage editorial teams within and across media organisations. This ensures that diverse journalists are genuinely part of the editorial process, and that anti-racism principles are embedded in editorial practices.
As a multi-awarded investigative journalist, I've led impactful storytelling and investigations that have significantly advanced the pursuit of justice, both in Latin America and Australia.
Currently, I lead editorial standards for news and current affairs at SBS and manage the SBS News and Indigenous cadetship programs. Previously, I spent seven years in SBS's multicultural content division and chaired the Multicultural group within the SBS Inclusion Council. These roles have provided me with valuable industry insights into the needs of multicultural and multilingual communities which continue to inform my work and strategic thinking.
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (8)
Uploads
Books by Dr. Florencia Melgar Hourcade
This is exactly the point of this article: while most professional journalists would agree that context is fundamental in factual storytelling, in practice, it still seems to be treated as optional.
This omission of context can lead to gaps in understanding that audiences instinctively fill with assumptions based on their understanding of the world, sometimes accurately, but increasingly shaped by misinformation. Stories that omit context can unintentionally endorse biases or stereotypes.
This understanding should also influence media decision-making when delivering complex content on social media. When the format and/or audience consumption habits do not allow for longer content, complex information should not be oversimplified to fit the platform. Instead, choose a different platform.
Contextual Accuracy is a commitment to ethical and responsible reporting by prioritising understanding over information dissemination.
The exegesis discusses how this TIJM can facilitate a transition, between traditional individualistic journalistic practices to an inclusive, collaborative, cross-cultural model that fits the complexity and needs of contemporary transnational journalism.
The empirical corpus of this PhD by project includes interviews with more than 40 investigative journalists and researchers from three continents. The challenge of proposing a methodology required the inclusion of views, voices and experiences of professionals from around the globe in order to build the TIJM as a collective construct that could work as a framework to find a common ground when investigating together.
The diversity of professional voices interviewed reflects the diverse narratives in the story-building process: how the story is framed, what voices are included and the tone.
Their diverse views reflect on their professional practices, bringing to the research a multicultural dimension - in the ideological-normative sense.
The research process behind the design of the proposed methodology involved identification of the main elements that are integral parts of the production process in journalistic investigations involving more than one country.
Driven by the increasing number and impact of global investigations like Al Jazeera's three-year investigation `How to sell a massacre' (2019) into the US gun lobby, which has just uncovered how officials from far-right Australian political party One Nation sought 20 million dollars in political funding in exchange for softening of Australia's 1996 anti-gun laws, as well as the 2016 Panama Papers and the 2015 Swiss Leaks.
This research identifies transnational investigative journalism (TIJ) as one of the most significant new paradigms in contemporary journalism, and uses the built capacity and experience to understand how coverage of critical transnational wrongdoings can contribute to a more accurate and in-depth approach to storytelling that reflects the interconnectivity and diversity of the societies we live in.
It will also play a significant role in building good global governance and increasing the levels of transparency with audiences.
https://researchrepository.rmit.edu.au/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Transnational-investigative-journalism-towards-a-methodological/9921864072801341
Esta iniciativa recopila textos de varias figuras de la cultura nacional, en las casi 130 páginas se pueden descubrir pasajes de Washington Benavides, Mario Delgado Aparain, Beatriz Flores Silva, Claudio Invernizzi, Beethoven Javier, Victoria Julien, Sylvia Lago, Carlos Liscano, Circe Maia, Ignacio Martínez, Virginia Martínez, Florencia Melgar, Tabaré Rivero, Ariel Silva, Raúl Olivera, latejapride y Daniel Viglietti.
La comisión convocó a varios testigos, incluyendo a una mujer que en abril de 1986 decía haber oído la confesión de un militar de que era el asesino.
La comisión aseguró a los testigos -y a la ex pareja del supuesto asesino- que tendría todas las garantías, desde el secreto de sus dichos hasta su propia identidad.
Pero una crónica de prensa reveló públicamente las declaraciones de ambas testigos -que en su momento varios consideraron clave para el caso- aportando elementos que permitían identificarlas.
La comisión continuó sus actuaciones pero ya no hubo aportes testimoniales significativos.
¿Por qué tomaron estado público las declaraciones que debían ser secretas?
¿De dónde vino la orden?
¿Quién proporcionó la información al periodista que la divulgó?
¿A quién le servía desacreditar la comisión para invalidarla?
¿Quién es responsable del sabotaje?
La autora entrevistó a las personas involucradas, cotejó documentación y ofrece los resultados de la investigación en este libro.
who escaped from trial in Chile where she is accused of seven cases of torture and aggravated kidnapping and disappearance.
This petition followed what started a year earlier when Adriana Rivas was found by investigative reporter Florencia Melgar living in one of Sydney’s housing commission buildings. The Special Broadcasting Services’ report of her declarations triggered the reaction of human rights movements and political activists in Chile and Australia and the extradition request. These groups are manifestly against the presence of Chilean violators of human rights living in the same land where they, as refugees, were welcomed after Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état in 1973.
The fact that Adriana Rivas has been living for decades in Australia might not be a mere coincidence or plain misfortune. According to author Mark Aarons, there have been hundreds of war criminals hidden in Australia since 1945. Aarons has said that the war criminals living in the country come from many places and organisations, including Chile’s DINA, the Directorate of National Intelligence, the dictatorship’s secret police between 1973 and 1977. These security officers who found “sanctuary” in Australia, Aarons added, are guilty of “torture and summary executions”. More tellingly, Aarons argued that a number of those people were brought to Australia “as intelligence assets by our intelligence services and resettled here for purposes of ongoing intelligence operations by our own services”.
The current presence of a former intelligence agent in Sydney might show another aspect of the practices of support of the Australian secret services to the same Chilean forces that unleashed the coup d’état and sustained a violent dictatorship.
As ambiguously revealed in Australia during the years after the coup, the secret services of Australia worked in Chilean territory to undermine the democratic government of Salvador Allende (1970-1973). This chapter looks into how Australia’s involvement in Chile’s coup four decades ago remains under a cloak of secrecy, encouraged by the same secret services that seemed to have worked above government and parliament powers. Together with the contentious issue of transparency in today’s world, this four-decade old history is still prominent and continues to haunt thousands of Chilean-former refugees
living in Australia and many others in Chile that were victims of DINA and other secret services.
Papers by Dr. Florencia Melgar Hourcade
The term "inherent editorial bias” embodies the editorial expression of a longstanding social paradigm that inevitably shapes editorial frameworks and practices.
Media organisations’ editorial paradigms are undergoing a historical transformation, but few have had the time to reflect on this process.
Progressive media organisations understand the ever-changing world and are striving to future-proof their relevance and industry leadership. They are implementing a series of editorial and recruitment practices and policies, which we refer to as the “inclusive editorial paradigm”. This approach aligns with contemporary societal expectations that increasingly emphasise equity, and respect for human rights, and inclusiveness.
**********************************************************************
September 11 is a date marked by violence and sorrow in the minds of many around the world. For Chileans, it is doubly so, because on that day, in 1973, the country's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende was overthrown in a brutal military coup.
What followed were years of repression, torture, forced disappearance, fear and for many Chileans, exile. This is the story of what happened in Chile, and the secret part Australia played.
condiciones aberrantes en Nauru, una isla del Pacífico en la que funciona uno de los centros australianos de detención, procesamiento
y reasentamiento offshore de refugiados. Así lo denuncia un informe
de las organizaciones Amnistía Internacional (AI) y Human Rights Watch (HRW) que se presentó la semana pasada.
This is exactly the point of this article: while most professional journalists would agree that context is fundamental in factual storytelling, in practice, it still seems to be treated as optional.
This omission of context can lead to gaps in understanding that audiences instinctively fill with assumptions based on their understanding of the world, sometimes accurately, but increasingly shaped by misinformation. Stories that omit context can unintentionally endorse biases or stereotypes.
This understanding should also influence media decision-making when delivering complex content on social media. When the format and/or audience consumption habits do not allow for longer content, complex information should not be oversimplified to fit the platform. Instead, choose a different platform.
Contextual Accuracy is a commitment to ethical and responsible reporting by prioritising understanding over information dissemination.
The exegesis discusses how this TIJM can facilitate a transition, between traditional individualistic journalistic practices to an inclusive, collaborative, cross-cultural model that fits the complexity and needs of contemporary transnational journalism.
The empirical corpus of this PhD by project includes interviews with more than 40 investigative journalists and researchers from three continents. The challenge of proposing a methodology required the inclusion of views, voices and experiences of professionals from around the globe in order to build the TIJM as a collective construct that could work as a framework to find a common ground when investigating together.
The diversity of professional voices interviewed reflects the diverse narratives in the story-building process: how the story is framed, what voices are included and the tone.
Their diverse views reflect on their professional practices, bringing to the research a multicultural dimension - in the ideological-normative sense.
The research process behind the design of the proposed methodology involved identification of the main elements that are integral parts of the production process in journalistic investigations involving more than one country.
Driven by the increasing number and impact of global investigations like Al Jazeera's three-year investigation `How to sell a massacre' (2019) into the US gun lobby, which has just uncovered how officials from far-right Australian political party One Nation sought 20 million dollars in political funding in exchange for softening of Australia's 1996 anti-gun laws, as well as the 2016 Panama Papers and the 2015 Swiss Leaks.
This research identifies transnational investigative journalism (TIJ) as one of the most significant new paradigms in contemporary journalism, and uses the built capacity and experience to understand how coverage of critical transnational wrongdoings can contribute to a more accurate and in-depth approach to storytelling that reflects the interconnectivity and diversity of the societies we live in.
It will also play a significant role in building good global governance and increasing the levels of transparency with audiences.
https://researchrepository.rmit.edu.au/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Transnational-investigative-journalism-towards-a-methodological/9921864072801341
Esta iniciativa recopila textos de varias figuras de la cultura nacional, en las casi 130 páginas se pueden descubrir pasajes de Washington Benavides, Mario Delgado Aparain, Beatriz Flores Silva, Claudio Invernizzi, Beethoven Javier, Victoria Julien, Sylvia Lago, Carlos Liscano, Circe Maia, Ignacio Martínez, Virginia Martínez, Florencia Melgar, Tabaré Rivero, Ariel Silva, Raúl Olivera, latejapride y Daniel Viglietti.
La comisión convocó a varios testigos, incluyendo a una mujer que en abril de 1986 decía haber oído la confesión de un militar de que era el asesino.
La comisión aseguró a los testigos -y a la ex pareja del supuesto asesino- que tendría todas las garantías, desde el secreto de sus dichos hasta su propia identidad.
Pero una crónica de prensa reveló públicamente las declaraciones de ambas testigos -que en su momento varios consideraron clave para el caso- aportando elementos que permitían identificarlas.
La comisión continuó sus actuaciones pero ya no hubo aportes testimoniales significativos.
¿Por qué tomaron estado público las declaraciones que debían ser secretas?
¿De dónde vino la orden?
¿Quién proporcionó la información al periodista que la divulgó?
¿A quién le servía desacreditar la comisión para invalidarla?
¿Quién es responsable del sabotaje?
La autora entrevistó a las personas involucradas, cotejó documentación y ofrece los resultados de la investigación en este libro.
who escaped from trial in Chile where she is accused of seven cases of torture and aggravated kidnapping and disappearance.
This petition followed what started a year earlier when Adriana Rivas was found by investigative reporter Florencia Melgar living in one of Sydney’s housing commission buildings. The Special Broadcasting Services’ report of her declarations triggered the reaction of human rights movements and political activists in Chile and Australia and the extradition request. These groups are manifestly against the presence of Chilean violators of human rights living in the same land where they, as refugees, were welcomed after Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état in 1973.
The fact that Adriana Rivas has been living for decades in Australia might not be a mere coincidence or plain misfortune. According to author Mark Aarons, there have been hundreds of war criminals hidden in Australia since 1945. Aarons has said that the war criminals living in the country come from many places and organisations, including Chile’s DINA, the Directorate of National Intelligence, the dictatorship’s secret police between 1973 and 1977. These security officers who found “sanctuary” in Australia, Aarons added, are guilty of “torture and summary executions”. More tellingly, Aarons argued that a number of those people were brought to Australia “as intelligence assets by our intelligence services and resettled here for purposes of ongoing intelligence operations by our own services”.
The current presence of a former intelligence agent in Sydney might show another aspect of the practices of support of the Australian secret services to the same Chilean forces that unleashed the coup d’état and sustained a violent dictatorship.
As ambiguously revealed in Australia during the years after the coup, the secret services of Australia worked in Chilean territory to undermine the democratic government of Salvador Allende (1970-1973). This chapter looks into how Australia’s involvement in Chile’s coup four decades ago remains under a cloak of secrecy, encouraged by the same secret services that seemed to have worked above government and parliament powers. Together with the contentious issue of transparency in today’s world, this four-decade old history is still prominent and continues to haunt thousands of Chilean-former refugees
living in Australia and many others in Chile that were victims of DINA and other secret services.
The term "inherent editorial bias” embodies the editorial expression of a longstanding social paradigm that inevitably shapes editorial frameworks and practices.
Media organisations’ editorial paradigms are undergoing a historical transformation, but few have had the time to reflect on this process.
Progressive media organisations understand the ever-changing world and are striving to future-proof their relevance and industry leadership. They are implementing a series of editorial and recruitment practices and policies, which we refer to as the “inclusive editorial paradigm”. This approach aligns with contemporary societal expectations that increasingly emphasise equity, and respect for human rights, and inclusiveness.
**********************************************************************
September 11 is a date marked by violence and sorrow in the minds of many around the world. For Chileans, it is doubly so, because on that day, in 1973, the country's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende was overthrown in a brutal military coup.
What followed were years of repression, torture, forced disappearance, fear and for many Chileans, exile. This is the story of what happened in Chile, and the secret part Australia played.
condiciones aberrantes en Nauru, una isla del Pacífico en la que funciona uno de los centros australianos de detención, procesamiento
y reasentamiento offshore de refugiados. Así lo denuncia un informe
de las organizaciones Amnistía Internacional (AI) y Human Rights Watch (HRW) que se presentó la semana pasada.