Kirsten Diprose pursued a career as a journalist with single-minded focus – until she fell in love.
In our latest Stories of Wonder episode, we spoke to Kirsten about about the death of local news, the rise of news podcasts and the divisions between regional and metropolitan Australia.
The business model for local news is broken, says Kirsten (BComm(Hons ‘20), a media industry veteran and Deakin PhD researcher.
‘A lot of local newspapers have shut down. They’re just no longer viable. Advertising revenue isn’t going to the local paper – it’s going to Meta or Google or another tech giant. No-one has yet cracked a way to make it work.’
Can podcasts serve as local news?
Local news plays a dual role of watchdog and community facilitator. Larger news outlets simply can’t cover local news to the same standard, because they don’t know the community. Kirsten believes podcasts could help fill the local news void in rural and regional Australia.
‘Podcasting is really harnessing what’s good about conversation: the storytelling that comes with a conversation, the ability to just follow the train of thought, to ask those questions that are a little bit off-script,’ she says.
But if a journalist becomes personally involved in their reporting, doesn’t that compromise their objectivity?
‘This notion of objectivity is something that I think isn’t perhaps as important as it used to be,’ Kirsten says. ‘And whether that’s a good or a bad thing, I’m not sure. But I don’t think objectivity has ever really been achievable.’
Kirsten’s PhD is part of a broader Deakin research project looking at local news sustainability.
‘I like the flexibility of Deakin and being able to research from home,’ she says. ‘When I was doing my undergraduate degree in Sydney 20 years ago, I remember spending all of my 10-cent coins on photocopying and borrowing books.’
She might rush out the library door to catch the last train home, only to realise she had only printed out half of what she needed. ‘But now you can access it all online. It’s amazing.’
A foot in the newsroom door
Kirsten knew she wanted to work at the ABC since she was 16.
‘I grew up in Western Sydney,’ she says. ‘I had no industry contacts. I thought, “How am I going to get into the media?”’
So from volunteering for community radio stations to seeking out a degree with an internship program, Kirsten took every opportunity to build up her portfolio and practical skills before landing a coveted cadetship with the ABC.
‘I got to work on 7:30 as one of my first jobs while still at uni, with legendary journalist Kerry O’Brien,’ she says. ‘I was responsible for printing off his questions. Arial Black size 20 is what he liked.’
Kirsten was one of five cadets that year. ‘They kept one in Sydney, and I think they moved me to Melbourne because I said that I loved theatre and the arts. It’s defined my life. Where I live now, where home is – it wouldn’t have happened if someone in that room hadn’t sent me to Melbourne.’
Friction between urban and rural Australia
Kirsten’s newsroom days are now behind her. She lives with her husband in tiny Caramut, in Victoria’s Western District, on a sheep, cropping and cattle property and works as a podcaster for hire and a casual ABC presenter.
She also produces her own podcast, Ducks on the Pond. ‘We talk about anything and everything related to what it’s like to be a rural woman.’
As more people spend their entire lives in the city, with no connections to the regions, divisions between city and rural Australians are growing, Kirsten says. People living in urban areas need reminders their lifestyles depend on farmers.
‘People in agriculture really love what they do and care about the food that they produce,’ she says. ‘They feel proud of what they do – and so they should – and sometimes they feel that city people don’t understand that.’
Farmers often don’t set the price they receive – or consumers are charged – for their products. And even when they want to change things up, they’re beholden to the weather, global markets and rusted-on industry structures. Sweeping changes amount to gambling with their livelihoods.
Kirsten wishes both sides could see each other more clearly.
‘I love Farmer Wants a Wife, and watch it religiously, but I cringe and feel horrible every time they make the women run around chasing sheep when they’ve never done it before, as if they should know how to do it.’
Embracing the unexpected
When she was studying journalism two decades ago, did Kirsten imagine she would one day run a podcast for rural women?
‘Well, podcasts didn’t exist then, for one,’ she says.
‘I knew that my career would be very different if I moved to the farm, but, look, I was in love, what was I supposed to do?’
She did have one non-negotiable: she wasn’t moving in until the internet connection was good enough.
‘This was before the NBN. He kindly did all sorts of strange things, rigging up something to the roof,’ Kirsten laughs.
Recent years have also opened up new opportunities for her.
‘COVID-19, as horrendous as that was, changed the whole culture,’ says Kirsten, who was teaching in-person journalism classes at Deakin in Geelong in 2020.
‘Deakin was ahead of the game,’ she says. ‘I was actually already teaching one online course, so it wasn’t too hard to shift.
‘I had to change some of the assignments. I’d normally say, “You can’t interview your mum.” And then, suddenly, I had to say, “Well, look, if that’s the only person you’re living with, then, okay, yes, you can interview your mum.”’
She acknowledges that even when we’re ambitious and driven, life rarely goes exactly to plan.
‘What you can do is build a great skill or expertise in something. And then that can take you to different unexpected places.’
Want to know more about Kirsten’s story? Watch the full Stories of Wonder interview on YouTube, or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.