Defining the Decade

Defining the Decade

news.com.au marks the “End of the Noughties”

Asks Australians to vote for the defining moment of the decade

Readers invited to rename “The Teens”

The editor of news.com.au, David Higgins, today announced the launch of news.com.au’s “End of the Noughties” multimedia special (news.com.au/momentofthedecade), which explores key moments from the past ten years.

With just a few months of the Noughties left, news.com.au is enlisting Australians to help define the decade’s top moments and name the next decade. Every Monday and Thursday over the next six weeks, news.com.au readers will be presented with themes from the past ten years, culminating in a judgement of the decade in ten areas:

• Celebrity
• Sport
• War & Terror
• Fashion & Design
• Science & Technology
• Money
• Pop culture
• Natural Disasters
• Love & Sex
• Heroes & Villains

Mr Higgins said key events that occurred during the Noughties influenced the world today, more so than many of the preceding decades did for their time.

 “The Noughties were very different to what we expected. The free-wheeling “Fin de Siecle” period at the end of the Nineties gave way to an age of terror that began on September 11, 2001.

“But there were many other defining moments, including the dot com bust, the global financial crisis, the rise of Facebook and the iPhone and celebrity moments such as the jailing of Paris Hilton and the death of Michael Jackson. Key moments in sport occurred with Sydney hosting the 2000 Olympics and popularity for football was reinvigorated with the Socceroos winning their first ever game in the World Cup.

 “The “End of the Noughties” feature summaries the last decade in 10 categories and I’m confident our readers will enjoy re-living the last 10 years with us.

“I encourage readers to get involved by voting for the defining moment in each of the categories and then, out of the most popular moment from each category is identified, the absolute defining moment of the decade.”

 Readers will also have a chance to win $2010 by naming the next decade, now known simply as The Teens.

Mr Higgins continued: “We would love to know what our readers think next big thing will be that will define our lifestyle in the next decade, and encourage them to come up with a creative name for it.”

The competition to name the next decade will launch on Friday 30 October.