Broadsheet Example: Jamie Pandaram

In contrast, broadsheet newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald included an article by journalist Jamie Pandaram, in which he wrote about the difficulties involved in changing the group-sex culture within rugby league. Using a current National Rugby League (NRL) representative on the condition on anonymity, Pandaram veered away from the ridiculous attention devoted to Johns and instead focused on the views of a different source. Not only did this prevent another unfair attack on Johns’ character, it revealed that current players are being told stories from former players about group-sex, which gives an insight into how long such activities have been taking place. Pandaram’s article sparked significant attention, with ‘The Footy Show’ interviewing him about the player’s comments.

Rugby league guru Phil Gould stated on the show that he felt the individual undermined what the code was trying to achieve in terms of educating players about respecting women. Thus, the obvious research undertaken for the article and lack of bias resulted in a large amount of positive publicity. Whilst Pandaram was also exploiting the public interest in the scandal to a certain degree, his approach in looking at the problems within the code before the group sex incident seven years ago, is to be applauded. It has shown other journalists such as Singer that it is possible to be recognised without resorting to underhanded tactics.

Pandaram on 'The Footy Show'