The Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) says it is “deeply concerned” at reports that Western Australian police are demanding the ABC hand over footage about climate protesters filmed as part of a Four Corners investigation.

“As researchers and teachers of journalism, we uphold the ethical obligation of journalists to honour any assurances given to protect sources,” said JERAA president Associate Professor Alexandra Wake in a statement.

“This obligation is imperative in supporting the Western democratic tradition of journalism and to investigative journalism in particular.”

• READ MORE: Media union condemns WA police demand for footage
• Escalation: Climate, protest and the fight for the future

The ABC case relates to an investigation due to be broadcast on Four Corners tonight: “Escalation: Climate, protest and the fight for the future”.

“I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life.” Video: ABC Four Corners

WA police are reported to have demanded footage via “Order to Produce” provisions of the WA Criminal Investigations Act. The law compels organisations to comply.

One of JERAA’s core aims was to promote freedom of expression and communication, said the statement.

“The association is concerned that the WA police action represents a direct threat to media freedom and the practice of ethical investigative journalism,” Dr Wake said.

“We join the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) in urging the ABC to stand firm and not hand over footage which could potentially undermine assurances by the Four Corners team to their sources.”

The union for Australian journalists said it was alarmed at the reports that WA police were demanding the ABC hand over footage featuring climate activists filmed as part of the television investigation before it had even aired.

• MEAA support petition for the ABC
• “Escalation” reported by Hagar Cohen goes to air tonight, Monday, 9 October 2023, at 8.30pm AEST on ABC TV and ABC iview.

Content warning: this article contains mentions of racial discrimination against First Nations people.

The ABC recently apologised to staff for racism and cultural insensitivity in its newsrooms. This came after Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse ABC staff told an internal group they felt unwelcome in their workplace, their ideas were not being listened to and they received online abuse from the public.

Unfortunately these issues are not unique to the ABC and exist at other media outlets and newsrooms.

• READ MORE: Media inclusion of Indigenous peoples is increasing but there is still room for improvement
• First Nations kids make up about 20% of missing children, but get a fraction of the media coverage
• For an Indigenous perspective on ‘Australia Day’, here’s a quick guide to First Nations media platforms

We also know media organisations can produce content that is racist or hostile towards First Nations people. Decades of research show, with few exceptions, many mainstream Australian media organisations have unfairly reported on First Nations Peoples over the years, and continue to do so.

This reporting has included racist cartoons, prejudiced stereotypes, questions of cultural identity and portrayals of First Nations people as either violent or victimised.

I experienced racism many times throughout my cadetship in 2019. At times it caused crippling anxiety to the point where I’d really have to psych myself up just to go into the office. A former colleague in a leadership role even went out of their way to ruffle my hair once. https://t.co/0osoUh3LNd

— Jedda Costa (@CostaJedda) June 16, 2022

Racist and inappropriate portrayals of First Nations people can also make newsrooms and other media outlets unsafe places to work for Indigenous journalists, as well as influencing how First Nations issues are covered and thought about.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Australians working in media can improve their cultural competency during their university education. This way, they can enter and contribute to workplaces prepared to ethically and respectfully interact with and report on stories outside their own cultures.

However, our new study shows many Australian universities with journalism programmes have significant work to do in including cultural safety in their curricula.

Australia needs cultural safety in its newsrooms
Journalists can help shape national conversations and can influence audiences’ attitudes through how they choose to report. That’s why it’s critical for these journalists to be culturally safe in how they communicate about communities and individuals outside their own culture.

Cultural safety aims to create a space where “there is no assault, challenge or denial of” Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s identities and experiences.

It is built through non-Indigenous people deeply listening to First Nations perspectives. It means sharing power and resources in a way that supports Indigenous self determination and empowerment. It also requires non-Indigenous people address unconscious biases, racism and discrimination in and outside the workplace.

First Nations groups and high-level institutions have been calling for more expertise and training in this area for decades.

The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report called for journalism education to consider

in consultation with media industry and media unions, the creation of specific units of study dedicated to Aboriginal affairs and the reporting thereof.

The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples notes Australian news outlets too often spread “myths and ill-informed or false stereotypes about Australia’s First Peoples, which in turn influence public opinion in unfavourable ways.”

This racism creates

a debilitating individual impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, devaluing their cultural pride and identity and having adverse impacts on their physical and mental health.

Acknowledging and apologising does not interrogate how whiteness is upheld in these spaces. The Australian media landscape has normalised cultural and institutional practices that stem from colonisation and continue to oppress people of colour within it. https://t.co/pYRVcDnmNY

— Alex Dorante (@babydorante) June 17, 2022

In 2009 The National Indigenous Higher Education Network recommended universities “systematically embed Indigenous perspectives in curriculum”.

In 2011, Universities Australia issued an expectation that “all graduates of Australian universities will have the knowledge and skills necessary to interact in a culturally competent way with Indigenous communities”.

Our study
In our study, we reviewed in 2021 more than 100 media/journalism assessments from a sample of more than 10 percent of Australian universities with journalism programmes. We found only one had an explicit focus on an Indigenous topic. Our interviews with 17 journalism students revealed how absent or minimal their education on Indigenous affairs has been.

In the words of a second-year university student:

There is definitely more that should be done because stories and issues concerning Indigenous people is, like, such a big topic. And it would be very useful for people becoming journalists to understand their role in communication and storytelling and the influence their words have on the public perception of Indigenous peoples as well.

The students we interviewed largely expressed desire for more training on Indigenous affairs in Australia. They stated this would help them achieve confidence in reporting on First Nations Peoples in respectful and culturally safe ways.

The students also thought their universities could integrate Indigenous content and perspectives in a more sustained and concentrated way. “It can’t just be that one week we talk about racism,” according to a third-year university student. More education on Indigenous affairs would also benefit First Nations students. One Indigenous participant from our study stated:

Even just having some more Indigenous journalists come through, you can talk to them, find out what it’s really like for them being like a black sheep, essentially, from a very white-dominated industry. I think that there’s a need to be able to put more perspectives and Indigenous knowledges in education in there.

Journalism training needs to include cultural safety
A possible solution could be increasing First Nations journalists in Australian newsrooms. However, the burnout rate for these journalists is high due to toxic workplace conditions. This contributes to the low proportion of Indigenous journalists in Australia.

Universities need to provide their staff and students with time and resources to thoughtfully consider how to work with and report on First Nations Peoples. This would allow for a more culturally safe way of working. This could also provide a safer space for Indigenous people wanting to pursue a role in journalism. It could hopefully address the burnout of these journalists when they join the media workforce.

The integrity of our media system and the way our nation engages with Indigenous affairs depend on it.

Dr T.J. Thomson, senior lecturer in visual communication & Media, Queensland University of Technology; Julie McLaughlin, senior lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, and Leah King-Smith, lecturer and academic lead (Indigenous) in learning and teaching in the School of Creative Practice, Queensland University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Journalism students from Australia’s Macleay College programme with 50 participants are saying their degrees have been cancelled just two weeks into the course.

Macleay is a private tertiary institution with campuses in Sydney and Melbourne. Macleay students say that on Friday afternoon they were sent an email saying their Bachelor of Journalism degree course would be cancelled due to low enrolment numbers.

The email states that first-year students can either switch to a digital media course or withdraw and receive a statement of attainment for their completed units.

• READ MORE: Macleay College student journalist stories on The Junction

Macleay College also requests that the students inform it of their decision by the census date on March 18.

This would leave the students with an extremely short time to make such an important decision.

Since the unexpected email on Friday afternoon, the university has not provided any further support to students, student Ezra Bell told Pedestrian.TV.

“There’s been no communication from the uni they’ve really just hung us out to dry,” she said.

“Why couldn’t they have said this to our faces?”

Bell doubted that enrolment numbers — about 48 are on the programme — were the reason for the shutdown.

“What’s the real reason because we all know low enrolments is not the case.”

This point was echoed by another Macleay journalism student, Kelsey Richmond. Richmond claimed that student enrolment numbers had actually increased.

Macleay students have taken to Twitter to vent about the experience.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) confirmed on Saturday that the degree had been cancelled. The union estimated about 48 students would be impacted.

Student Chelsea Caffery claimed the college told students to reach out to psychologists if they need it. But the university’s mental health services do not re-open until Monday.

Chelsea further alleged that staff were not aware that the degree was going to be cancelled.

“To be told on a Friday afternoon after hours is really heartless,” Chelsea told news.com.

“The head of Journalism [Sue Stephenson] only found out minutes before the students did… after 5pm… on a Friday.”

After spending the day at @MacleayCollege just found out that my journalism degree has been canned two weeks in due to “low enrolments”. Absolutely devastated. 1/2

— Ezra Bell (@ezrabell_) March 11, 2022

The college has not released a statement about the situation yet, but it is already copping flack online.

Macleay College advised the dumped journo students to reach out to the psychologist if needed. Funny that. The psychologist isn’t open until Monday morning, and we were informed of the cancellation Friday afternoon. So I guess mental health can just wait til Monday, right?

— Chelsea Caffery (@ChelseaCaffery) March 11, 2022

As pointed out by Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) president Dr Alexandra Wake, most universities have now closed their enrolments.

It’s a very difficult time for this decision to have been made with first semester enrolments now closed at most universities – and it’s a long weekend in Victoria. Not sure what offer other unis can make but am looking into it.

— Alexandra Wake, PhD (@WakeinFright) March 11, 2022

This means it could be really hard for those students to re-enrol in other degrees.

On top of everything else, Macleay college’s degree in journalism is not cheap.

It costs $54,000 to complete all 24 units so the potential financial burden on students is high.

The private university is owned by fashion entrepreneur Sarah Stavrow. She told news.com that she would not be commenting.

Asia Pacific Report adds: A statement by the Australian Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) said it was seeking further information about Maclean’s decision and support that was being offered to affected students to complete their studies.

“The timing and manner of how this was communicated by Macleay College to their students is also of concern to TEQSA,” said the statement.

It added that if there had been a breach of the Higher Education Standards Framework, “appropriate enforcement action” would be taken to protect the students’ interests.

Kathleen Farmilo and Sweeney Preston are writers for Pedestrian.TV. Republished with permission.

News Corp Australia and Google have announced the creation of the Digital News Academy in partnership with the Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne. It will provide digital skills training for News Corp journalists and other media outlets.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

The academy won’t provide full degrees, just certificates and a chance to upgrade digital skills in a fast-changing media environment.

• READ MORE: More than protection, Australian journalism needs better standards
• The news media bargaining code could backfire if small media outlets aren’t protected: an economist explains

Many companies in various industries have partnered with universities to deliver what used to be in-house training programmes. Strengthening the links between industry and the academy has been welcomed in many sectors and certainly encouraged by governments for many years.

Why then are we as journalism academics concerned?

There are several reasons. The first and most obvious is the incursion of a high-profile and controversial media company into the higher education sector and the extent to which that is funded by a large disruptive digital search company.

Antagonism towards academia
It is telling that the Digital News Academy will be housed in the University of Melbourne’s private arm, the Melbourne Business School, rather than its Centre for Advancing Journalism within the Arts faculty.

Australia’s largest commercial media company has long criticised university journalism education, and journalism academics, including each of the authors of this article and many of our colleagues.

The company even once sent an incognito reporter into a University of Sydney lecture to uncover criticism of News Corp in the classroom. That reporter, Sharri Markson, is now investigations editor at The Australian and a member of “the panel of experts” that will oversee the Digital News Academy.

So it comes as no surprise that News Corp has avoided journalism programmes.

News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman Michael Miller has said part of the academy’s role will be building a stronger Australia by keeping society informed through “strong and fearless news reporting and advocacy”.

Yet partnering with a journalism programme would have facilitated that. It might also have helped assuage News Corp critics, some of whom have been active online during the week with reminders about News Corp’s unethical conduct during the hacking scandal and its disregard for scientific evidence in its reporting on climate change.

University journalism courses teach ethics and critical thinking alongside practical skills such as new digital ways of fact checking, gathering information and telling stories.

Google Australia already offers free tutorials to journalism programmes about smart ways to use its search engine to find and check investigative stories.

University journalism programmes also distinguish between training and education; the former is predominantly about skills, the latter places those skills in context and teaches students how to think critically about the industry and environment in which they work.

By placing this course in a business school and not a liberal arts or humanities faculty, the venture gets the kudos of the University of Melbourne’s backing without the challenging academic culture News Corp dislikes.

News Corp and Google are corporate clients, paying the university for these courses, so the capacity for independent criticism of Australia’s most dominant newspaper company is eroded even further.

What will the Digital News Academy do?
All we know so far about the academic credibility of the Digital News Academy comes from its promotional announcement, in press releases reported in the Media section of The Australian (published by News Corp).

The publicity says the nine-month course will take 750 enrolments from journalists at News Corp Australia, Australian Community Media (the stable of 160 regional publications formerly owned by Fairfax) and smaller media partners.

A “governance committee” will select candidates (who nominate themselves or are put forward by their employers). These students will be expected to use the Google suite of tools as they collaborate online at the Melbourne Business School, to generate, build and sell stories to the course’s “Virtual Academy Newsroom”.

Each year there will be what is being billed as a major journalism conference and a US study tour for a select group of trainees.

There are no public details yet of the academic credentials of the certificate programme but the academy has drawn on a “panel of experts”, almost all of whom come from inside News Corp and Google.

Google gains influence
It’s easy to see why Google was motivated to fund a News Corp training academy above and beyond what it is required to do as part of its bid to stop further intervention in its workings by the Australian government under the terms of the News Media Bargaining Code.

But there are some deeper questions about why a company that has such a stranglehold on the new digital economy is involved. By funding the academy Google may be undercutting full university degrees specialising in journalism.

Relying on Google to make up the shortfall in news organisations’ training budgets is a problem. It allows Google to shape curriculum while appearing to be a champion of the same journalism industry it has been accused of undermining.

As journalism academics we respect the need for specialised training and skills development. But journalism programmes should never be captured or constrained from being critical of the industry for which they prepare students.

They should continue to embed ethics in their courses. The aim, after all, is to improve journalism, for everybody’s benefit.

As it is often said, news is not just another business. While studying journalism often involves the study of business, business imperatives should not drive the study of journalism itself.

Dr Andrew Dodd is director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne; Dr Alexandra Wake is programme manager, journalism, at RMIT University, and Dr Matthew Ricketson is professor of communication at Deakin University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Dr Dodd has worked as a journalist at The Australian newspaper and has provided in-house legal and news writing training for News Corp. Dr Wake has provided in-house training for the ABC and for Australian Provincial Newspapers. She is the elected president of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA). Professor Ricketson has worked on staff at The Australian, among other news outlets. He was a member of the Finkelstein inquiry into the media and media regulation which was sharply criticised in News Corp Australia publications. His appointment as the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s representative on the Press Council was also criticised by News Corp Australia. Full disclosures at The Conversation.

Australia’s leading journalism education advocacy body has marked World Press Freedom Day by condemning attacks on journalism education and research, including individual academics.

President Dr Alexandra Wake of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) said such attacks had a real impact on press freedom, adding: “I call on all those who want quality journalism in Australia to flourish, to support our work within the academy”.

In a statement released today, she said that in the past year:

• the cost of journalism degrees had increased by 110 percent,
• universities had been “ditching journalism programmes”,
• headlines about job losses were encouraging “our best and brightest students” to choose other courses of study, and
• some parts of the media continued attacks on universities and individual academics.

“Journalist watchdogs, like all other professionals, must be trained,” she said.

“They do not learn their skills by osmosis in understaffed news organisations, stripped of senior staff.”

• READ MORE: Fiji drops three places in RSF press freedom index over gagging critics
• World Press Freedom Day 2021: Hostility towards journalists on rise

Dr Wake’s statement said:

Focus on attacks on journalism education

“On World Press Freedom Day 2021 I would like us to focus on how attacks on journalism education and research, including on individual academics, have a real impact on press freedom in Australia. I call on all those who want quality journalism in Australia to flourish, to support our work within the academy.

“In the past year we have seen the cost of journalism degrees increase by 110 percent, universities ditching journalism programmes, headlines about job losses encouraging our best and brightest students to choose other courses of study, and some parts of the media continuing their attacks on universities and individual academics.

“However, it is within Australia’s universities that much world-leading research is happening, seeking out answers for our ailing industry, not just around financial viability, but also around important social issues – from the need for greater diversity, equity and inclusion to ethics and artificial intelligence, misinformation and regional security issues.

“It is also within our universities that budding journalists are trained in all the skills of journalism: from fact checking and verification to data analysis and analytics, while still learning to write and broadcast news stories which ask the tough questions of the rich and powerful.

“Journalist watchdogs, like all other professionals, must be trained. They do not learn their skills by osmosis in understaffed news organisations, stripped of senior staff. At universities we not only teach new recruits to be watchdogs, we ask them to consider themselves as guide dogs showing audiences which issues are worth the investment of their time, and even therapy dogs to help build and rebuild communities.

“Journalists within the university system work in all kinds of roles, sometimes in traditional modes, with others experimenting with new styles and theories of journalism. In fact, some of the highest quality journalism currently taking place is produced by students and academics. It is often under the guidance of academic staff, most of whom were long-time journos, that students have won the highest local, national and even international journalism awards.

“Journalism programmes clearly don’t just result in jobs in journalism. But such a course of study does give students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills, to build their knowledge of the world, and it gives them the time to think deeply about the issues that need changing in the world.

“Many of our graduates have thanked us for their training in journalism even those who later choose careers in medicine, engineering, politics and international development.

Vital life-long skills
“Undergraduate journalism degrees certainly give students vital life-long skills of media literacy, while graduate diploma and masters programmes in journalism result in highly-skilled and deep thinking journalists.

“I do not claim that all of Australia’s journalism programs are perfect, but all those who work in journalism within the academy are constantly reviewing curricula and upskilling for the current and future industry requirements.

“Journalism programmes aren’t stuck in what some newsroom leaders learned in the 1980s, or 2000s. Today’s classes are filled with tools and skills to debunk ‘deep fakes’ and edit incredible sound. Industry professionals are brought in to ensure the students know what is expected in the modern workforce.

“But with so many newsrooms now devoid of senior staff with the time to guide younger recruits, in many cases, that role has reverted to their academic.

“More than ever before new journalists find that the only people available to support them, particularly when they are under siege as freelancers, or are within an unwelcoming newsroom is their former lecturer.

“Although this year I am raising concerns about a lack of support for journalism education and research as a key press freedom issue for Australia, I do not overlook the serious issues faced by Australian journalists working on the front line of covid-19, under the gaze of an unsympathetic public.

Australians in jail
“We also remain concerned about the Australians who are in jail in China (Cheng Lei) and the UK (Julian Assange), the very difficult work conditions faced by women, particularly Indigenous women, women of colour and those with disabilities. These are issues which fill our classrooms and conversations with students and all have been heighted during covid.

“As covid-19 continues to wreak havoc around the world, I would like to call on all those who support excellent journalism – university leaders, newsroom bosses, parents, and philanthropists – to be more vocal in their support of journalism education and research, the overlooked but vital supplier of current and future talent, ideas and solutions.”

Dr Alexandra Wake
President
Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia

How disappointing to read another opinion piece in Australian papers repeating time-old arguments that fail to acknowledge the excellent education in journalism provided by universities around the country, an education many working journalists – and therefore readers – have benefited from.

It is concerning that anyone would argue that there are thousands of journalism graduates in Australia each year. There are not thousands of journalism graduates in Australia, as anyone who has tried to hire one in regional Australia would well know.

At my own university, RMIT, we can barely graduate enough journalism students for the needs of the Victorian news industry.

READ MORE: Back to the future: It’s time to rethink the way we train journalists

Universities in the states also report excellent employment opportunities for recent and soon-to-be graduates.

Australian universities generally offer a more general communications degree that can be used for a range of careers beyond journalism. Very few programmes offer straight journalism degrees and even those that do provide students with a range of courses that give graduates a much greater range of skills than the vocational skills taught in the legacy news organisations of yesteryear.

Thirty years ago, there was some in-house training for journalism cadets. I am also a product of the “straight from high school” cadetship system of this period, and I am acutely aware of its deficits.

On-the-job training at legacy media was well-intentioned and concentrated mostly on correct grammar rather than the skills required for modern reporting.

Critical thinking, research skills
Today’s university graduates who want to become journalists are likely to have completed courses that allow them to manipulate data spreadsheets, create visualisations, fact check and verify information, capture photographs and audio, take photographs, and put together audio and visual packages. They also develop critical thinking and research skills, and learn about politics and the economy.

New technology has provided journalism students with opportunities far beyond what is offered by the legacy media. Media fragmentation and the speed of disseminating information and opinion present opportunities for graduates with a good understanding of how to leverage new technologies and platforms such as social media, digital and interactive TV, and how to produce rich mobile content.

I certainly agree with it would be fantastic to have entry-level journalism students paid while learning. For me, the legacy media is no longer in a position to provide sufficient in-house education to young trainees because they’ve been cut to the bone with no space for training and certainly cannot provide the depth of training that a university offers.

However, I’m sure all educators would welcome legacy news offerings offering paid journalism internships which are already an important part of a journalism university programme.

While some are pessimistic about the industry, I have no hesitation in encouraging anyone interested in a career in journalism to enrol in a university programme. Journalism is not only a fun-filled and exciting course of study, it is one from which, when our work is done well, every Australian benefits.

In short, our work is critical to and underpins civil society.

Dr Alexandra Wake is president of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA).

A new platform for storytelling and public interest journalism, showcasing the best work produced by Australian university journalism programmes, has been launched today.

The Junction is published by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) on behalf of Australia’s journalism programmes. It will also explore new ways for journalism students across the country to work together.

JERAA president Professor Matthew Ricketson said: “The Junction is an important new venture that JERAA sees as an integral to its mission of improving standards of teaching journalism and fostering innovation in journalism.”

Eleven Australian university journalism programmes have joined forces to create The Junction. They are: Edith Cowan University; Swinburne University; University of NSW; Southern Cross University; University of Canberra; University of Newcastle; University of Melbourne; University of Sydney; RMIT University; Deakin University; and Monash University.

Six Victorian universities are working together to cover the November 24 state election.

The Junction’s editor, Dr Andrew Dodd, said: “This is a great example of how the site can bring students together for the benefit of general audiences.”

Dr Dodd, director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne, said: “The publication provides a platform for universities to work together on projects and to cover issues and tell stories in new ways.

“Together we can do so much more than any one university can working alone. Together, the students and staff of Australia’s university journalism programmes make up the biggest newsroom in the country.

“The Junction will showcase the rich store of talent to be found in Australian journalism programmes and will become a means to draw readers from across the country back to the many fantastic publications being produced by respective journalism schools.”

Dr Kayt Davies, deputy editor and head of Edith Cowan University’s journalism major said: “The role of the editorial board is to steer the site and create opportunities for universities to work together to produce high quality journalism for general audiences.

“Australia’s journalism schools have highly experienced journalists serving as mentors and lecturers, so it is fitting that they use those skills to promote the best of their students’ work.”

• The Junction is owned and published by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia.
• The Junction’s Facebook page