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The Changing Face of Journalism Research in Australia A new ERA? The changing face of journalism research in Australia Author Wake, Alexandra, Martin, Fiona R, Backhaus, Bridget Published 2020 Journal Title Australian Journalism Review Version Accepted Manuscript (AM) DOI https://doi.org/10.1386/ajr_00018_1 Copyright Statement © 2020 Journalism Education Association. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/396888 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au MUajrAustralian0810-26862517-620XIntellect42_1_art_Wake_et_al00July2020421375800000001216335500000000404375432ARTICLES2020 Journalism Review AJR 42 (1) pp. 37–58 Intellect Limited 2020 1. Australian Journalism Review 2. Volume 42 Number 1 3. © 2020 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajr_00018_1 4. Received 18 February 2020; Accepted 5 May 2020 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. ALEXANDRA WAKE 16. RMIT University AHead=BHead=AHead=BHeadAfterAHead 17. BHead=CHead=BHead=CHeadAfterBHead 18. FIONA MARTIN 19. The University of Sydney CHead=DHEAD=CHead=DHeadAfterCHead 20. Extract2=ExtracSource=Extract=ExtracSource 21. BRIDGET BACKHAUS AHead=Extract1=AHead=Extract 22. Griffith University 23. BHead=Extract1=BHead=Extract 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. A new ERA? The changing face 29. 30. 31. of journalism research 32. 33. in Australia Not for distribution. 34. Copyright Intellect Ltd 2020 35. 36. 37. 38. ABSTRACT KEYWORDS 39. In 2011, Michael Bromley and Regan Neal’s survey of Australian journalism journalism research 40. academics revealed low levels of critical research participation and productivity, journalism education 41. and the under-realized potential of younger, female journalism academics. Nearly journalism academics 42. a decade on, our 2019 snapshot study, inspired by Bromley and Neal, explores publishing 43. the current state of journalism research and education in Australian universities. ERA 44. It examines the changing profile of journalism staff, their publishing productiv- non-traditional 45. ity and the evaluation and funding of their research, as well as attitudes towards research outputs 46. applycharstyle "fig//italic" charstyle "_regular" non-traditional research outputs (NTROs) and engagement and impact assess- 47. ment. Our study indicates that early- and mid-career journalism researchers in applycharstyle "table-wrap//italic" charstyle "_regular" 48. Australia, particularly women, continue to need research training, mentoring 49. and support in securing competitive external grants, as well as encouragement 50. to collaborate and benchmark their research internationally. There is also a new 51. imperative to help researchers and their institutions recognize excellence and 52. www.intellectbooks.com 37 AJRV42N1_Text.indb 37 17-Jul-20 17:31:31 Alexandra Wake | Fiona Martin | Bridget Backhaus diversity in journalism NTROs and to understand measures of engagement and 1. impact. Finally, we flag the importance of monitoring changes to the classifica- 2. tion of journalism research following the Australian and New Zealand Standard 3. Research Classification review of field of research codes. 4. 5. 6. INTRODUCTION 7. 8. In the last decade, journalism work and journalism’s capacity to provide work 9. have changed radically in Australia, as elsewhere. Social media platforms 10. have usurped the media’s hold over advertising and information distribution 11. (Martin and Dwyer 2019; Wilding et al. 2018) and there has been increasing 12. competition to engage audiences’ attention (Myllylahti 2019), combined with 13. shifts in financing, business models and technologies (Flew et al. 2018) and 14. the destabilization of the profession itself (Hanusch 2013; O’Donnell et al. 15. 2016; Zion et al. 2016a). Yet, while there has been at least some local academic 16. attention to the changing forms of journalism practice (Bonfiglioli and Cullen 17. 2017; Bowd 2014; Carson et al. 2016; St Clair 2018; Stubbs 2018) and to jour- 18. nalism work (O’Donnell and Zion 2018; Zion et al. 2016b, 2019), there has 19. been no research on how the careers of journalism academics might have 20. altered during this upheaval. 21. This article explores the profile of journalism educators and research- 22. ers in Australia and how it has changed since 2011 when Michael Bromley 23. and Regan Neal surveyed journalism academics about their productivity 24. and publishing participation for this journal. Their study (Bromley and Neal 25. 2011) was triggered by the advent of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) 26. Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) scheme and universities’ increas- 27. ing focus on research output as a measure of academic value. At the time, 28. the implementation of the ERA scheme caused much angst for journalism 29. scholars (Hanusch et al. 2011; Bacon 2012) as scholarship – which was often 30. grounded in practice-based journalism – had not always been recognized 31. within the academy. Indeed, as Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner claimed in 32. his 2011 provocation to the field: Not for distribution. 33. Copyright Intellect Ltd 2020 34. There is virtually no ongoing tradition of academic research within jour- 35. nalism studies in Australia. Yes, there are very small pockets of excellent 36. critical and historical work, but mostly we have short-term commen- 37. tary, a little bit of empirical data-gathering and some low-level activity 38. in journalism education. 39. (Turner 2011: 6) 40. 41. Bromley and Neal’s article gives a clear account of why journalism and 42. academia have long had an uneasy relationship. In summary, on one hand, 43. journalism educators face academic suspicion that they are technicians and 44. teachers rather than scholars, while on the other, they often hear from indus- 45. try professionals that they are ‘out of touch with industry realities’ (Josephi 46. 2016: n.pag.; see also Harcup 2011). While the latter criticism may be less 47. applicable to those who have recently transitioned from industry into teach- 48. ing positions (see Zion et al. 2019: 11, 18), such professionals often have little 49. scholarly expertise. 50. In 2011, Bromley and Neal found that journalism academics’ research 51. participation and productivity, assessed through publications in peer-reviewed 52. 38 Australian Journalism Review AJRV42N1_Text.indb 38 17-Jul-20 17:31:31 A new ERA? 1. journals, were relatively low. However, much has changed in the research 2. field since that time. In 2020, universities are increasingly market-oriented, 3. with public funding strongly influenced by teaching and employability agen- 4. das alongside external research assessment exercises such as the ERA, and 5. direct government funding providing only 34 per cent of research revenues 6. (Whitchurch 2012; Norton and Cherastidtham 2018). Teaching revenues 7. increasingly cross-subsidize research, placing pressure on academics to ensure 8. the marketability of their courses, especially to full-fee paying international 9. students (Norton and Cherastidtham 2018). Emphasis on course marketabil- 10. ity and graduate employability places journalism academics in a challenging 11. position as they are also teaching students who face increasingly precarious 12. employment possibilities (O’Donnell et al. 2016); a problem that requires 13. greater attention to work-integrated learning and entrepreneurship. 14. In the 2010s, research engagement and impact also became the new 15. buzzwords for research achievement within universities here and in Europe 16. (Australian Government 2015, 2018; Benneworth et al. 2016). This shift 17. demands journalism academics provide evidence that they are interacting 18. with experts and the public to ensure the development and transfer of knowl- 19. edge about their research, and that they can report on its impact via evidence 20. of societal benefits, research recognition, returns on investment and further 21. funding, as evidenced in the Australian Research Council’s (2019) Engagement 22. and Impact Assessment exercise. Thus, rapid changes to both contemporary 23. industry and academic environments have significantly affected the work of 24. journalism educators and researchers, emphasizing their need to engage in 25. further professional and research development in their field. 26. Our current research was commissioned by the Journalism Education and 27. Research Association of Australia (JERAA) to ensure its work remains focused 28. on the career development needs of its 80+ members and their research 29. students. It updates Bromley and Neal’s investigation of academic research 30. profiles and publishing productivity, and further contextualizes the experiences 31. of journalism researchers and educators within the contemporary academy, in 32. the wake of JERAA’s own diverse research development strategies. Centrally, 33. we explore what has changed in Notthe research for distribution. lives of Australian journalists 34. over the past decade, Copyrightand what these Intellecttransformations Ltd suggest 2020 for JERAA’s 35. research development agenda. One thing we did hypothesize we might find, 36. given anecdotal reports of more women moving into the professoriate in the 37. last ten years than in the previous period, was that women’s research status 38. and productivity would have improved. For that reason, our research explores 39. gender-related issues
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