Gail Phillips

Vision Australia Radio (VAR) is part of the Australian Radio for the Print Handicapped (RPH) community radio network providing a radio reading service to listeners with a vision impairment. Like mainstream media, it faces the challenge of ensuring the service is fit for purpose in the digital age. There is little preexisting research on the behaviour and interests of the vision-impaired as a discrete audience demographic. This paper reports on a survey of listeners to VAR in Perth, Western Australia, which gives an insight into their current listening habits and identifies some of the challenges in meeting their future needs.

During the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, the financial press attracted criticism for its coverage: specifically that it did not provide any forewarnings to the general public; that it lacked sufficient scepticism when reporting on financial and economic trends; and that reporters were too close to the sources they used for information. This paper argues the GFC represents only the latest manifestation of dissatisfaction with the financial press, with similar concerns being raised in previous financial crises such as the recession of the late 1990s and the Dot Com boom in 2000. The paper presents the results of a longitudinal tri-nation quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the reportage in three mainstream newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia across three decades, along with industry insights provided by interviews with reporters in each of the countries studied. The interviews and empirical evidence indicate there has been a decline in mainstream financial journalism standards since the 1980s, as the media have faced increasing institutional, ideological, and industrial pressures.

Margaret Page and Ted Grant grew up in the blue asbestos mining town of Wittenoom in Western Australia in the 1950s. Both died from mesothelioma decades later. They remembered playing in the asbestos tailings that were everywhere and spoke about the betrayal they felt later when they realized the impact of that exposure: … we used to climb up on the piles of tailings and slide down… and find the little bits of asbestos fibres in the tailings and…peeling the fibres to see how many fibres we could get out of this. If we had known the danger or our parents were told of the dangers, no way would they have let us children do those things. (Page, 2008) There was nothing ever said, nobody knew. And then I find out in later years that in 1898 they knew about it, in 1926 they had a symposium, in 1936 they also had another one. So they knew in 1956 the dangers of asbestos and they were still mining it.(Grant, 2008)

In the fallout of the 2008 global financial crisis, the financial media were criticised for failing to fulfil a watchdog role, for boosting the global asset boom that contributed to the crisis, and for exacerbating the crisis when it happened. Among the strongest accusations was that financial journalists had been captured by the small coterie of elite sources they used for information, and by a newsroom culture that favoured free markets and encouraged a pro-business attitude. The corollary of this was that perceived doomsayers and others providing alternative viewpoints and warnings were left out of the debate. While people have called out these trends, there has been little hard evidence measuring the extent of the problem.

Purpose – This paper aims to demonstrate how action research methodologies can help to define and clarify the pedagogical role of the supervisor in production-based research (PBR). A major challenge in supervising practice-related research is trying to disentangle and articulate the theory embedded within practical projects. In journalism, which is still a relatively new discipline in academe, supervisors and students are often operating in under-theorised areas with no pre-existing theoretical roadmap. Action research has shown itself to be a useful methodology for structuring and explaining practice-related research, which in journalism would encompass PBR in the field. This paper shows how the action research paradigm is equally useful in describing and clarifying the supervisor’s role in these sorts of projects. Design/methodology/approach – The paper looks first at practice-related research and the main challenges for candidates and supervisors in trying to align PBR with academic paradigms. Using examples from the author’s experience in supervising journalism research, it then illustrates how the main supervision tasks of project management, research mentoring and the writing-up process fit into the action research model. Findings – In reflecting on the dynamics between candidates and supervisors in PBR, this paper shows how supervision of production-based PhDs is a dynamic research process in itself, presenting opportunities for pedagogical reflection. Originality/value – The paper helps to clarify the role of the supervisor in this specialist research area which is still trying to establish itself within academe. It provides one way for supervisors to conceptualise their experiences and so contribute to a corpus of knowledge on which others can draw and build. By showing how the action research methodology applies to the supervision process in production-based research (PBR), this paper articulates a way for supervisors to understand and manage their role in this still-evolving research area. Building on previous scholarship and applying this knowledge to journalism production, the paper shows how action research may provide a way of addressing many of the issues and dilemmas others have encountered and identified in their pedagogical practice.

Australian Broadcast Journalism combines theory and practice to provide students with the knowledge required to work in a changing media landscape. The third edition has been extensively updated to provide a current overview of the industry with a focus on social media and citizen journalism, and includes up-to-date coverage of media regulation and legal issues. From this firm theoretical grounding, students are given a comprehensive introduction to critical production skills in both video and audio for broadcast and online. Written in close collaboration with industry practitioners and educators, Australian Broadcast Journalism takes students inside broadcast studios, newsrooms and new production spaces to give them valuable insight into current Australian media practice.