Details
   Research and Supervision

I currently supervise in the areas of journalism and journalism history, mass media including visual media and new media.

I have extensive teaching and course development experience, formerly at QUT (in Australian Studies), Griffith University (in Media Studies) and University of Queensland (Australian History) in a part-time capacity and, full-time from 1990 to the present, at Central Queensland University, in the fields of Communication and Media, and in Australian Studies.

My interdisciplinary background in Australian Studies has been a valuable component of my teaching and supervision. From 1990-97, I co-ordinated a number of courses on Australian society in the areas of politics, history, society at CQU as well as in mass media and journalism.I would be capable of contributing to such interdisciplinary courses, were I required to do so.

Additionally I have supervised at Honours level for a decade and was awarded Supervisor of the Year at CQU in 2001. I am currently Co-ordinator of the Communication Honours Program and have developed and teach the core Research Methods unit for Honours as well as other media electives. I also have been regularly called upon by external institutions, including the University of Queensland, to examine postgraduate theses in the field of Journalism History, most notably on Queensland topics.


I have extensive experience as a researcher, having been awarded the Researcher of the Year at CQU in 1994. To date I have authored and edited six books and am currently co-editing a seventh for UQP, based on the successful national seminar and conference, Australian Media Traditions: Continuity and Change, which I organised and co-ordinated at CQU in June 2001. I have a good track record in journal publication, including the Australian Studies in Journalism (UQ) to which I was an editorial advisor and regular contributor and for Media History (UK) to which I contributed a special 2002 issue on Australia and New Zealand as co-editor.

In 2001, I submitted an ARC application entitled Empire and Antipodes: Australian-New Zealand involvement in the Empire/Commonwealth Press Union (1909-1970) which was placed in the top third of Discovery applications.. In summary:
This project will investigate the role and changing significance of the Empire/Commonwealth Press Union (1909-1970) focussing on its regular international conferences and the communication issues raised by the Australian-New Zealand delegations which attended. Drawing on the work of Harold Innis on the history of communication across empires and using the E./C.P.U as a case study, the project seeks to investigate the ascendancy and decline of British imperial communications in terms of old/new media and British/antipodean communications. Key debates and concerns of the A/NZ press delegations, including press freedom, cable technology and the advent of broadcast media, will be examined within the shifting contexts of private/public monopoly and imperial/national loyalty.

Since 2001, I have assessed ARC research applications at national level in the field of Communication and Media Studies, and, since 2002, I have been requested to do so on a more formal basis.

In 2004, I was awarded an ARC Discovery Grant with a Co-Researcher in the UK to embark upon a major study of the Press Union and of the Australian and New Zealand sections in particular. I have also been preparing a major project in News Limited operations, especially in relation to print media and the Australian Newspaper in particular.

At the same time, I have continue to research regional media, including visual media, and have successfully supervised a PhD to completion on the success and longevity of the British ‘The Bill’ police Series.