Politics/Media Conference
The University of Melbourne - 12th & 13th February
The Politics/Media Conference held at the University of Melbourne on 12-13 February was organised by Dr Sally Young, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne as part of her ARC Discovery Project (project number DP0663208) on the political reporting of Australian election campaigns and with support and resources kindly provided by the Media and Communications Program, the School of Culture and Communication and the Arts Faculty at The University of Melbourne. Three key events of the conference were the keynote speech, a practitioner’s view and a workshop.
Participants in the conference are listed in the programme below. Thank you also to attendees and referees including Philip Bell, Michael Bromley, Peter Browne, Simon Cottle, Sean Cubitt, Mark Gibson, Jock Given, Carol Johnson, Trish Payne, Murray Goot, Samantha Lipscombe, David McKnight, Sarah Miskin, Marian Sawer, Florian Deffner, Ansgard Heinrich, Ingrid Volkmer and Ian Ward.
Conference administration services were provided by Mary Helen McIlroy, Stephanie Younane and Saskia Bourne. Stephanie Younane was a co-editor of the proceedings along with Sally Young.
Papers from the conference can be accessed by clicking on the link below.
*Please note: Copyright remains with the authors. All papers were refereed in line with the requirements of the Australian government's Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). Each paper submitted for refereeing was subject to blind review (ie the identity of the author(s) was not made known to the referee). Written comments were requested from each referee for each paper and forwarded to the author for revisions, if required.
The Conference Program
Refereed Papers
Information About The Conference
Brian McNair delivered the keynote speech. Professor of Journalism and Communication at the University of Strathclyde, Brian is the author of ten books including An Introduction to Political Communication (2007), News and Journalism in the UK (2003), Journalism and Democracy (2000), The Sociology of Journalism (1998) and Cultural Chaos (2006) among other key works. He is also the author of more than thirty scholarly essays on a wide range of media and culture-related topics including journalism, political communication, sexuality and the media, and journalism in the former Soviet Union and Russia. His books have been widely translated. Two of his books are in their 4th revised editions, and have become standard texts on media studies courses throughout the world. He has held grants from the Economic and Social Research Council, the Australian Research Council, the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Carnegie Trust, and acted as a Media Adviser to the UK government's Know How Fund. He is a regular contributor to the press and broadcast media in the UK, including the Guardian, the Sunday Herald and Scotland On Sunday.
Michael Gawenda provided us with a practitioner’s view on political reporting. Michael is the inaugural Director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Advanced Study of Journalism, set to open in 2009. The Centre will be a separate entity in a new Graduate School of Journalism - opening in the University’s Faculty of Arts in 2009. Michael is an award-winning journalist including a three-time winner of the Walkley Award for journalism. Michael began his career at The Age more than 30 years ago. He served as Editor and Editor-in-Chief of The Age for seven years until stepping down in 2004 to return to writing as a special correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He has been described as “an editor’s editor” who provided superb leadership to The Age and “embodied the values of quality, independent journalism”. His observations and experiences while based for three years in Washington, but travelling extensively in the United States, are captured in American Notebook published by Melbourne University Press earlier this year.
Rodney Tiffen led a methodology workshop on methods and techniques for researching media/politics. Rodney is Professor in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney and one of Australia’s leading scholars of the media. From his groundbreaking work News and Power (published in 1989), he has used various methods in his research from interviews to content analysis. His other books include Scandals: Media, Politics and Corruption in Contemporary Australia (1999); How Australia Compares (co-authored with Ross Gittins, 2004) and Diplomatic Deceits. Government, Media and East Timor as well as numerous articles on mass media and Australian politics. He acted as an observer of South Africa’s media during that country’s first democratic election, and has worked with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reviewing Radio Australia. He currently holds an ARC Discovery Grant to analyse changes in the Australian press’s political reporting over the last 50 years.
Inquiries: Sally Young (03) 8344 3348 or s.young@unimelb.edu.au.
