The Public Interest Journalism Initiative is a non-partisan thinktank working to bring about a diverse and sustainable public interest journalism landscape in Australia.
It has outlined public interest journalism in technical reports, including one from which the definition below is taken.
The definition of PIJ
There are a variety of definitions of PIJ, and some of the details of what constitutes PIJ will be considered later in this report. For consistency with the recent work by the ACCC, we note the two following broad definitions.Public interest journalism has the primary purpose of recording, investigating and explaining public policy and issues of public interest or significance with the aim of engaging citizens in public debate and informing democratic decision making. (Public Interest Journalism Initiative).
And…
Journalism with the primary purpose of recording, investigating and explaining issues of public significance in order to engage citizens in public debate and inform democratic decision making at all levels of government.
(ACCC Digital Platforms Inquiry Final Report, p.285)
And in its FAQ, it summarises public interest journalism as follows:
Public interest journalism is a public good; it is the accurate, reliable news and journalism at the heart of public discussion, diversity of voice, open justice, accountability and informed decision-making.
I actually saved an earlier version of their definition – living proof that these definitions are rarely static – as follows:
Public interest journalism is the news and current affairs media that has the primary purpose of recording, investigating and explaining issues of public interest or significance. It plays a critical role in ensuring that the community is well, and fairly, informed. Without it, citizens’ ability to engage in public debate and informed decision-making becomes absent.
Public Interest News 