Portfolio of live radio interviews with politicians ahead of the 2025 Australian federal election

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Background: The broadcast political interview has long been considered core to journalism’s role in democracy (Feldman, 2022; McNair, 2000). However, its effectiveness in holding politicians to account has waned in the digital age (Jewell, 2018). Community radio – which remains a popular source of news for many Australians – offers a space for experimenting with an approach to political interviewing that contributes to an informed citizenry, but avoids some of the tropes of political journalism that deters audiences (Ben-Porath, 2010). This portfolio, comprising four live long-form radio interviews with 2025 Australian election candidates, seeks to fill a gap in understanding about the democratic value of Australian community radio (van Vuuren, 2006). It responds to the question: “How can political interviews on community radio best serve listeners and contribute to an informed citizenry?”

Contribution: ‘Meet the candidates’ is a series of interviews with politicians ahead of the 2025 Australian federal election, broadcast live on Melbourne radio station Triple R between February-May, 2025. Informed by my 11 years broadcasting experience, it aimed to engage politicians through hybrid interviews (Hutchby, 2017) involving both pointed policy questions and those of a more personal nature. It also involved live interactions with a text line, with listeners invited to pose questions to the interviewees, and one of the interviews took the form of a community forum recorded in front of a live audience. This added to the interviews’ democratic value by involving community radio’s ‘listening publics’ (Lacey, 2013) in policy discussions.

Significance: Triple R is Australia’s largest community radio station, with approximately one million monthly listeners (McNair, 2019) Triple R’s Programming Coordinator Bec Hornsby endorsed the interviews and provided feedback (peer review) on each of them. Hornsby attests to the interviews’ significance for Triple R’s election coverage, and to the quality and popularity of my radio show (Appendix B). Community radio can struggle to be recognised for quality political journalism, so it was significant that I managed to interview and extract new information from high-profile politicians. Endorsements from individual listeners and civil society groups such as Save Our Arts (Appendix A, C) further attests to the interviews’ role in the public sphere.