Mary-Anne Romano

This paper examines the role of ritual in journalism through the lens of the high-profile Claremont serial killings, one of Australia’s longest-running criminal investigations. Drawing from James Carey’s ritual model of communication and ethnomethodological analysis, the study explores how journalistic practices shape public memory, construct social realities, and influence narratives surrounding crime. By analysing news texts from The West Australian and ABC News Perth from 1996 and 1997, alongside interviews with journalists, this research highlights the media’s role in reinforcing cultural norms, victim hierarchies, and gendered discourse. The findings reveal how framing choices, linguistic patterns, and the repetition of symbolic narratives contribute to collective perceptions of crime and justice. Ultimately, this study underscores the ethical responsibilities of journalists in shaping crime discourse, advocating for more nuanced and equitable reporting.

This report is the culmination of three years of investigation into the culture and practice of administering the Freedom of Information (FOI) Acts across the Victorian, South Australian and Western Australian states, as well as the culture of implementing information access systems overall. This includes the processes of managing information (records management (RM)).

In September 2018, the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University co-hosted a research roundtable with the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) with participants from Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Commonwealth and a representative from the international access to information body, the Open Government Partnership. The research roundtable identified what research was needed to aid the participating Information Commissioners and ombudsmen in their quest to improve the practical functionality of FOI and Right to Information (RTI) systems in Australia. Functionality in this case is defined as how well the laws and systems deliver access to government-held information from a FOI/RTI user’s point of view.

A pilot study was commissioned by OVIC to determine if the culture of implementing access to information could be captured. The study was executed by A/Professor Lidberg in 2019 and the conclusion was that the culture could be captured. In 2021, a second study expanded on the pilot study and widened the data capture from five to 30 Victorian agencies. This 2021 study design was used as a foundation for this project, expanding the study once again to include close to 30 agencies across the three participating states, as well as a broadening to encompass the university sector and include state government ministers with portfolios as participants.

The study was conducted across three years, 2021–2024, and was funded by the Australian Research Council and the Information Commissioners in Victoria and Western Australia and the SA Ombudsman.

The research team would like to thank the OVIC, OIC WA and the SA Ombudsman for their leadership in FOI and access to information development in Australia. Sincerest thanks also to all the FOI practitioners, executives and principal officers of government agencies, who openly and frankly shared their views, feedback and interpretations of FOI in this project.

Independent access to government held information is crucial for public interest journalism. Big data analysis and visualisation tools are powerful and have significantly enhanced journalism in the last decade. But these tools are still dependent on access to quality information. The long-held notion: poor information in – poor story out is still relevant. This is why well-functioning Freedom of Information (FOI)/Right to Information laws are crucial.

In 1990 there were 13 FOI laws globally (Banisar 2006), in 2023 that number is 135 and counting (GRIR 2023). The development has been phenomenal and expectations of extensive access to government held information is great. Unfortunately, many laws do not deliver what they promise. This hampers citizens’ participation in political processes and the ability of journalists to hold governments to account. Prominent examples of this are Australian FOI laws. This project aimed to find out why three Australian FOI regimes display such poor functionality in practice.

In 2022 Australia’s first FOI laws turned 40. This paper reports on a study comparing the implementation of FOI laws in the Australian states Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. The research team gained unprecedented access to FOI officers, government agency executives and government ministers by partnering with the Information Commissioners in the three jurisdictions. The project was funded by the Australian Research Council.

The study tested the hypothesis that the culture of implementing FOI sat at the core of the functionality problem, rather than the design of the laws. The research questions were addressed by a mix of online surveys, followed up by focus groups and individual interviews. The sample of government agencies (95 in total across the three states with 254 interviews conducted) was large enough to be able to generalise the findings across the entire public service sectors in each jurisdiction.

Accountability theory was the conceptual base for the project and was used to interrogate and analyse the findings (Przeworski et al 1999, Olsen 2017). This framework is closely connected to holding societal powers to account, making this paper highly relevant to the conference topics of democracy and media, information and communication based on the keywords for the two topics.

The principal findings of the project was the pivotal importance of the executive level in government agencies for building and maintaining an information access culture that prioritises information access facilitation, rather than information access gate keeping. A second crucial finding was the close to complete disinterest in access to information issues among government ministers in all three jurisdictions. Third, the state of record keeping and management was vital to the practical functionality of access to information systems. The project contributes new knowledge for future national and international comparative studies of the functionality of access to information systems.

After almost 25 years of mass media coverage on the Claremont Serial Killings, Perth audiences were informed in December 2020 that Bradley Robert Edwards would serve two life sentences for murdering two of the young women. This article draws on interviews with journalists to discuss media practices in the case that shocked Perth while shaping audience understandings of women as victims. The article describes how the term ‘serial killer’ came into use to bolster the importance of Western Australian news; how the status and resources of victim’s family influenced media coverage and, consequently, the police investigation; and, how the position of a journalist as an unbiased observer became untenable in the case.

Adelaide Fringe is the largest arts festival in the southern hemisphere. Internationally, it is second only to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (EFF). A non-for-profit and open access festival, Adelaide Fringe aims to encourage ambition and artistic excellence amongst the artists and performers that take part. Inspiring audiences and patrons alike, Adelaide Fringe is well known as being culturally diverse and inclusive. This cultural diversity extends to disability inclusion in two key areas. First, a commitment towards education in areas such as disability accessibility. Second, Adelaide Fringe is dedicated to, investigating barriers that could be preventing artists and performers from taking part in Adelaide Fringe itself. This report details findings of the research project Adelaide Fringe: reducing barriers of participation in the independent Arts (Fringe) for artists and performers with a disability. The three-month APR Intern funded project investigated environmental, systemic, and attitudinal barriers preventing those living with a disability from accessing and connecting with fringe arts opportunities. As part of this project, 118 individuals took part in an online survey, and a further six were interviewed via Zoom.