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This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author. Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field.

This entry examines journalism education outside of universities. It reviews the types of non-university education; advantages and disadvantages of the approaches; recent trends and developments in journalism training; and an introduction to the mix of approaches in different regions of the world.

This chapter considers the implications of the rise of global media for local journalism and the ethical values which underlie it. Despite many variations, there is considerable evidence that in many parts of the world this form of journalism plays a central part in community building and contributes to local meaning-making. The chapter argues that this role is especially potent when audiences see themselves as part of a “community,” real or imagined, under threat or under challenge. As a result, the relationship between morality, ethics and journalism practice at the local level is more complex than generally acknowledged. The chapter suggests that the notion of the common good, with some recalibration, can facilitate our understanding of this complexity and its implications. Further, the chapter argues, viewing local journalism as a moral centre and meaning-maker through a Bourdieusian lens can help balance issues of media power and self-interest against notions of community, social and moral order and tradition.

Media accountability in Australia and New Zealand rests on a framework that has much in common with other advanced Western nations. This framework extends from political and legal instruments to self-regulation and monitoring. However, neither country’s system is perfect, and Australia’s form of media accountability, in particular, has some serious flaws. After the catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fate of the various forms of accountability existing in Australian and New Zealand journalism is very much an open question.

Debates about the asymmetries in global scholarly production have highlighted the problems that hound African scholarship, ranging from the political economy of publishing to epistemological bias among peer reviewers. Surprisingly little research has, however, been devoted to the views of the journal editors who play such a central role in the process of dissemination of scholarship, and setting and maintaining the boundaries of disciplines, as well as their perspectives on the imbalances of global knowledge production. This article reports on a pilot project which set out to shed some light on these views. As editors of two peer-reviewed journals in the fields of journalism and journalism studies, the authors initially drew upon their own experience to identify common issues facing journal editors. Their approach was also informed by perspectives acquired from the personal experience of their own global positioning – one located on the periphery of the Global North and the other in the Global South. An online questionnaire was distributed to the editors of 24 journals in the fields of communication, journalism and journalism studies. The article reports that the responses received suggest that journal editors are not only conversant with a plethora of complicated and vexing problems, but have also developed a range of successful strategies for responding to them. At the same time, however, publication – or, rather, non-publication – of papers authored in the Global South is a contentious issue which produced divergent responses. The authors conclude that this is the issue most likely to become politicised in the future. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Despite many obstacles, investigative journalism continues to flourish in Australia. A significant part of the explanation for this appears to lie with universities which have journalism programs. Investigative journalism has a strong presence in these programs across Australia, a presence which is increasingly being felt at postgraduate level. As a result, an increasing number of journalism graduates have the skills and understanding necessary to embark on serious investigative work, and several institutions have embarked on projects with innovative approaches to collaborative investigative work. However, the wider context in which Australia’s tertiary institutions operate is far from benign, and journalism programs*and thus the teaching of investigative journalism*are subject to many pressures. The paper finds that, although university journalism programs are increasingly taking responsibility for educating their students about investigative journalism, thereby picking up a key responsibility which would once have been borne entirely by the industry, there are also forces at work which limit their capacity to do this. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

© Media International Australia Editorial Board. A number of studies have examined why students choose to study journalism at university, but overall, this area is still relatively underexplored. Yet, understanding why students choose journalism, and what career expectations they hold, is important not only for educators but also for wider society and public debates about the future of journalism and the value of tertiary journalism education. This article examines the motivations of 1884 Australian journalism students enrolled across 10 universities. It finds that hopes for a varied lifestyle and opportunities to express their creativity are the most dominant motivations among students. Public service ideals are somewhat less important, while financial concerns and fame are least important. These motivations also find expression in students' preferred areas of specialisation (referred to in Australia as rounds): lifestyle rounds are far more popular than politics and business rounds or science and development rounds.

This article reports a pilot study which investigated the relationship between regional journalism and social capital in two regional locations in the Australian state of South Australia, and one in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The study aimed to explore the role of local media in facilitating community communication and understanding, and, through this, to shed light on their possible contribution to regional social capital. Although social capital is a contested notion, the article argues that most definitions can be placed into one of three broad categories, and that the results of the study suggest that local media facilitate connectivity in terms of each of these understandings. A number of themes emerged during the study which help to clarify and illuminate the role of regional media in setting the communication context for social capital. At the same time, however, the ways in which local journalists approached their work raised a number of professional and ethical issues. The article concludes that, despite these difficulties, local media at the sites studied appear to facilitate communication between different sections of the community to the benefit of that community, and to contribute to the development of social capital.

Journalism education's role in shaping students' professional views has been a topic of interest among scholars for the past decade in particular. Increasing numbers of studies are concerned with examining students' backgrounds and views in order to identify what role exposure to the tertiary environment may play in socialising them into the industry. This study reports on the results of the largest survey of Australian journalism students undertaken to date, with a sample size of 1884 students. The study finds that time spent studying journalism appears to be related to changes in role perceptions and news consumption. Final-year students are significantly more likely to support journalism's watchdog role and to reject consumer-oriented and "loyal" roles. They also consume more news than first-year students. On the other hand, journalism education appears to have little impact on views of controversial practices, with only marginal differences between final- and first-year students Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Regional/rural journalism is often praised for connecting people and empowering local communities. For this reason, it appears to be closer to performing what Christians et al. (2009) call a facilitative role than most other journalistic forms. If this is the case, the news values which guide regional journalists differ from those underlying mainstream metropolitan journalism. However, the paucity of research in this area means the extent of any differences is far from clear. This paper reports a project which attempted to shed light on this situation by investigating the approach of journalists located in regional South Australia to the reporting of cultural and ethnic difference. The research was approached from three directions: local journalists, established residents, and a section of the population located at the cutting edge between diversity and inclusivity – recently arrived refugees. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the findings for regional journalists’ ability to perform a genuinely facilitative role. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Publication in peer-reviewed journals is the life-blood of academic existence. Yet surprisingly little research has been devoted to the views of the journal editors who play such a central role in this process. This essay reports a pilot project which set out to shed some light on these views. As editors of two peer-reviewed journals in the fields of journalism and journalism studies, the essay’s authors initially drew upon their own experience to identify common issues facing journal editors. Their approach was also informed by perspectives acquired from the personal experience of their own global positioning – one located on the periphery of the Global North and one in the Global South. An online questionnaire was distributed to editors of 24 journals in the fields of communication, journalism and journalism studies. The essay reports that the responses received suggest that journal editors are not only conversant with a plethora of complicated and vexing problems, but also have developed a range of successful strategies for responding to them. At the same time, however, publication – or, rather, non-publication – of papers authored in the Global South is a contentious issue which produced divergent responses. The authors conclude that this is the issue most likely to become politicised in future.

One of the more positive features of our discipline over the past decade or so has been a rise in self-confidence among those who labor beneath its umbrella. This has been reflected in a number of ways, including a rapid expansion in professorial appointments, important contributions to public debate by journalism academics and widespread acknowledgement of the quality of this journal. After decades of being on the outer, these and other developments suggest that, in Australia at least, the discipline is at last coming to terms with the sector and the sector is at last coming to terms with the discipline.

Australian journalism is practiced in an environment that is contextualized by a number of forces. One of these is the historic division between government and non-government media. Australia's first newspapers were, in effect, official information sheets servicing the needs of the administration of the six British colonies, which later united to form the nation of Australia. The earliest newspaper was the Sydney Gazette , established in the colony of New South Wales in 1803 by Governor Philip Gidley King to promulgate government orders and decrees (Lloyd 2002). While most early newspapers were dominated by administrative content, it has been claimed that there were examples of good journalism right from the beginning. For example, according to one study, the founder of The Gazette was "a marvelous journalist" and "his accounts of hangings and public events in Sydney of the highest standard" (Lloyd 2002: 6). With time, private individuals began establishing newspapers as businesses intended to make money, and thus a second theme emerged which remains influential today- the drive for commercial profit. Business considerations have played a major part in shaping the development of the Australian media, which for much of the last century have been dominated by a small number of media corporations and two media moguls- Rupert Murdoch and the late Kerry Packer. Today the level of concentration of media ownership in Australia is higher than in most other countries (Richards 2005). One side effect of this situation has been intermittent but ongoing tension between public and private media, especially since the establishment of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (later Corporation) in 1932, and the Special Broadcasting Service in 1978.

The news media are often accused of fostering cynicism and mistrust, thereby undermining community values and contributing to the erosion of social capital – the social “glue” that holds society together. Such criticisms frequently rest on a conceptualisation of “the media” as large, corporate and city-based; seldom do they acknowledge the role of media outlets in regional and rural areas. Yet in Australia such outlets have been a central part of local news and information networks since the early days of European settlement. This paper reports on a pilot study which examined the part played by local media in fostering a sense of community in two South Australian regional towns – the remote desert mining township of Roxby Downs and the provincial centre of Mount Gambier. The qualitative study was guided by research questions which focused on the implications of media reporting about community developments when communities are moving through challenging times. The paper reports that the themes which emerged during the study help to illuminate the role of regional media in setting the communication context for regional sustainability and social capital. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Community is a term that is widely used but which presents definitional challenges. Its use in contexts from academic discourse through politics to everyday usage suggests a wide variety of interpretations and understandings, to the extent that some scholars have argued it should be abandoned. Nonetheless, the fact that it is so widely used suggests it is a term with resonance for many people, and that, as Kenny (1999) suggests, it should be used with caution rather than abandoned. As part of a wider study of communication and social capital in regional Australia and Canada, participants including journalists and community leaders were asked about their understandings of community, and about relationships between community and local media in their area. The responses suggest that local media help to build and maintain community, and through this to support the benefits often associated with social capital. Community, location and the kinds of human relationships indicative of social capital are closely linked, and are reinforced by local media through their focus on local news and information and on the concerns and interests of residents. And social media are extending this connection by providing an additional means through which people are able to communicate and participate and organisations exchange and share viewpoints and ideas with stakeholders and broader communities. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The opinions of a member of ERA 2010 Humanities and Creative Arts Research Evaluation Committee, on the quality control of academic research institutions in journalism are presented.

All citizens have the potential to be caught up in a situation which will render them vulnerable to the media; some of the most serious implications are for those who lie at society's margins. Such individuals are especially vulnerable to journalistic exploitation or misrepresentation, with the attmdant risks of public embarrassment, humiliation Or psychological trauma. When dealing with society's most vulnerable, journalists are walking a tightrope between reporting as comprehensively and accurately as possible and treating their news subjects with respect and dignity. The paper argues that professional codes do not provide sufficient guidance through the ethical complexities inherent in this situation, and refers to an Australian project which has demonstrated that reporting with sensitivity and understanding does not mean muting the journalistic voice. The paper concludes that, when the marginalised become news subjects, it is important for journalists to minimise harm to the greatest extent possible and, in those cases where harm occurs, to be able to justifY it in ethical terms. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Despite best intentions, various codes of ethics and extensive public attention, journalists are repeatedly seen to behave in ways that are less than edifying. With refreshing candour, Ian Richards, journalist and academic, examines the reasons why this particular profession is, apparently, so ethically challenged.

Stories involving personal tragedy in dramatic circumstances are an essential part of news, Beyond the editorial imperative to go out and get the story, journalists have little to guide them when interviewing the sources of these stories, the victims and their families. Some choose to ignore them, relying solely on official sources; others confront them, pushing to get an emotional response on camera. In the interests of better, more accurate and useful coverage, this article suggests journalists treat these sources as they themselves would like to be treated in similar circumstances.

Any serious analysis of journalism ethics needs to take into account the corporate context in which most journalists operate, and in which most ethical decisions are made. This paper argues that one promising path to deeper understanding of this context lies with the notion of levels of influence. Using this notion, the paper suggests a number of ways in which newsrooms can be managed so as to develop and foster ethical awareness and sensitivity on the part of those who work in them. The paper also suggests a number of potential avenues of influence for inducing those who control these newsroom:; to facilitate such development, as well as measures for equipping individual journalists to undertake 'an appropriate role in the process

Thesis (PhDSocialScience)--University of South Australia, 2001.

Journalism ethics is facing a crisis of theory and a challenge of application. Not only is there confusion over what constitutes 'journalism ethics', but despite the development of codes of ethics, various codes of practice and so on one key aspect remains virtually ignored. This is the link between the individual and the corporation. For the reality is that most Ausualian jour- nalists are employees of companies and corporations motivated primarily by the desire to maximise returns to shareholders. Thus while journalists are ultimately responsible as individuals, they are responsible as individuals in a corporate setting. There is a need for those concerned with journalism ethics to develop a theoretical approach which accommodates professional ethics, individual ethics and the role of the media corporation as moral agent.