Maralinga and the Journalists: Covering the bomb tests over generations

Abstract

The British nuclear bomb test program held in Australia in the 1950s and early 1960s is a fascinating tale of nuclear colonialism that also reveals a generational change in how journalists approach a big science story. The test series included especially dangerous scientific experiments that left significant radioactive contamination at the Maralinga desert test site in South Australia. The nuclear tests are among the most significant events in this nation's history not to have been subjected to media scrutiny and analysis befitting their importance until many years after they took place. Without media scrutiny, government activities do not become part of public discussion and informed public consent cannot be given. While this case study shows firstly how media practitioners in the 1950s and 1960s who were not attuned to science in public affairs failed to report and interpret the test series, it also shows generational change in the capacity of the Australian media to deal with challenging scientific and technological subjects. The journalists from the later era of bomb test coverage, particularly between 1978 and 1993, did a far better job of making the Australian government accountable for the extraordinary events at Maralinga than the earlier generation. By then, those journalists who took on the Maralinga story had developed greater knowledge and understanding of the importance of science in the public sphere.This evolutionary process led to a more probing, investigative culture in the later generation of reporters and far greater capacity to report the bomb tests in full.