Do you ever scroll through the news and think… what the hell is going on? How can we possibly live, work, create and stay up-to-date during this bizarre new chapter of late-stage capitalism!?
For Jan Fran and Antoinette Lattouf – award-winning journalists, former ABC colleagues, and ‘even longer-suffering friends’ – doing something about their cold rage and lukewarm feelings about the state of the world meant starting their own independent media company, ETTE Media.
As people’s trust in traditional news outlets continues to dissipate, ETTE Media and its flagship podcast We Used To Be Journos are part of a new wave of independent, anti-establishment journalism that’s rising up to fill the gap and cut the spin.
‘The mainstream media is no longer the gatekeeper or the sole arbiter of the narrative,’ Fran tells ArtsHub. ‘There are other narratives that emerge, and they shed light on some of the agendas, the tropes and tactics that the media uses to get the message across.’
The decision to found their own censorship-free platform was also spurned by a certain highly-publicised incident where Lattouf was unlawfully fired from the ABC for sharing a post from Human Rights Watch about the use of starvation tactics in Gaza, and the very costly court case that followed it.
‘It kind of became clear that, well, the ABC was not really a place at that point in time that I really felt hugely comfortable working in. Exploring options, it also became apparent to us that audiences were ready for something new and different, in a way that I don’t think they were five years ago,’ says Fran.
It’s A No From Me tour – quick links
We Used To Be Journos podcast goes on tour
Less than six months in, this experienced duo’s sharp, frank and often funny approach to dissecting the headlines is clearly striking a chord.
We Used To Be Journos is gaining a steadily growing listenership, more than 45,000 are following along on Instagram, and their debut live show tour It’s a No From Me is poised to hit the stage in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra, promoted as ‘an evening of sharp, frank and funny witticism and criticism in a world turning to shiticism’.
‘This is going to be something a little bit different to what the podcast is,’ Fran says. ‘So if people are expecting a podcast record, I can 100% guarantee you that it is not that. It’s a much more varied show.’
She adds: ‘What we wanted was a space where people could come together to take stock of the world and what to do about it, basically. It’s a variety show – we have comedians, we have musicians, we have gorgeous guests, good chats.’
Those ‘gorgeous guests’ include the likes of Nazeem Hussein and Gabbi Bolt in Melbourne, Claudia Karvan and L-Fresh the Lion in Sydney, Myf Warhurst and Anisa Nandaula in Brisbane, and Tom Ballard and Independent Senator Fatima Payman in Canberra.
Jan Fran’s advice for artists when the world is a mess
In addition to measuring facts with frankness and curiosity and warmth, another key component of the ETTE Media duo’s charm is a respect for the role of artists. The admiration goes both ways too, with Aussie rappers like Mudrat and the aforementioned L-Fresh the Lion both name-checking Lattouf in recent songs for speaking truth to power.
We asked Fran for her advice to artists and writers – and anyone, really – on how we can continue to work, create and live while grappling with all the heaviness in the world right now. Here’s what she had to say:
‘The number one thing, and it’s incredibly important to remember – you cannot do this alone. You cannot hold this alone. You cannot contain the world alone. So, you need to find community. It needs to be deliberate, it needs to be consistent, and it needs to be an action.
‘What really brings community together, and these two tend to go hand in hand, is solidarity. And solidarity is not empathy. Solidarity is risking something for yourself to stand with someone. That is what builds strength within communities, and that is what gives people the space and the safety – the mental safety, the physical safety, the emotional safety, and the professional safety – to be able to create.
‘If you’re an artist and you’re feeling like you’re struggling, and you’re feeling like it’s too much and you can’t contain it, of course you’re feeling that way because you’re probably a beautiful person! If I know artists, I feel like they absorb more of the world that the layperson does. But you cannot do it alone – so really think about the community that you want to build around you, and the type of community that you want to be for other people.’
