2024 Brian Johns Lecture

The 2024 Brian Johns Annual Lecture features guest speaker, author and journalist Nick Bryant on 'Donald Trump, American authoritarianism and how journalists should cover it'.

Nick will draw on his distinguished career with the BBC, much of which was spent covering US presidential politics, to describe how Donald Trump taps into an authoritarian tradition in American politics. Nick questions how journalists should cover such a norm-busting and rule-breaking political figure, in an insightful and thought-provoking discussion in a US election year.

This event is presented in partnership with Macquarie University’s Centre for Media History.

During a distinguished career with the BBC, much of which was spent covering US presidential politics, Nick Bryant came to be regarded as one of its finest foreign correspondents. He is the author of a number of books including The Rise and Fall of Australia: How a Great Nation Lost its Way and, more recently, When America Stopped Being Great: A History of the Present, which Joe Biden keeps in the Oval Office. He has written for The Economist, The Washington Post and The Atlantic, and is now a regular columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is also a regular contributor on the ABC and to Channel Ten’s The Project. He is a history graduate from Cambridge University, who holds a doctorate in US politics from Oxford University. His new book, The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself will be published in June.

The Brian Johns Lecture was established by the Centre for Media History and the Copyright Agency to honour the legacy of Brian Johns AO (1936-2016), a true industry leader in broadcasting, digital media, literature and the arts. He held many esteemed roles throughout his career, including Managing Director of the ABC, CEO of SBS, and Director of the Copyright Agency. Presented by notable figures at the forefront of the Australian media and cultural industries, these lectures aim to track key moments in our country's media and cultural history, while also offering fresh ideas and inspiration for the future.  Brian Johns was a media pioneer who upheld the crucial role of the media in a democracy, as Nick Bryant will also emphasise in this year’s Brian Johns Lecture.