Why Journalism Matters

Denis Muller is a leading expert on media ethics and worked as a journalist for 27 years, including as assistant editor at the Sydney Morning Herald and associate editor at the Age.

Since 1995, he has conducted independent social and policy research across education, health, environment and media fields. Dr Muller teaches media ethics for the Master of Journalism at Melbourne University and is the author of Media Ethics and Disasters and Journalism Ethics for the Digital Age. Denis is an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Advancing Journalism.

Dr Andrea Carson is a lecturer in Media and Politics at the University of Melbourne. She is also an honorary fellow at the University’s Centre for Advancing Journalism. Her main research areas are the relationship between news media and democracy; the role of investigative journalism; and political communication.

Andrea was previously a news journalist at the Age and has worked as a reporter, producer and broadcaster in radio (ABC 774, 3RRR) television (7.30 Report) and online (the Age, ABC). Before commencing her PhD, Andrea produced ABC 774’s morning radio program with Jon Faine.

She regularly contributes opinion pieces to the Age, the Conversation, the Drum, New Matilda, Crikey, the Citizen and has a regular guest commentator role on air at ABC 774.

Margaret Simons is Associate Professor in the School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University. In 2015, she won the Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism. Her recent books include Six Square Metres, Self-Made Man: The Kerry Stokes Story, What's Next in Journalism?, Journalism at the Crossroads and Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs, co-written with former Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser. The latter won both the Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011. 

In addition to her academic work, Margaret regularly writes for the Saturday Paper, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, Griffith Review, the Monthly and other publications.

Professor Helen Sullivan is Foundation Director of the Melbourne School of Government (MSoG) and a public policy scholar. Her research and teaching explores the changing nature of state-society relationships including the theory and practice of governance and collaboration, new forms of democratic participation, and public policy and service reform. Her latest book is Hybrid Governance in European Cities: Neighbourhood, Migration and Democracy (2013). She is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia.

Rodney Tiffen is Emeritus Professor in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His most recent book is Rupert Murdoch. A Reassessment (2014).  He is co-author, with Ross Gittins, of How Australia Compares.

Rod’s teaching and research interests are in the mass media, Australian politics, comparative democratic politics, democratisation and Australian relations with Asia. He is also author of Diplomatic Deceits: Government, Media and East Timor; Scandals: Media, Politics and Corruption in Contemporary Australia; News and Power; The News from Southeast Asia8; and numerous articles on mass media and Australian politics. He is editor of Mayer on the Media: Selected Essays on Australian Media, and co-editor of Australia’s Gulf War*.

Rod acted as an observer of South Africa’s media during that country’s first democratic election, and has worked on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s review of Radio Australia. He currently holds an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant to analyse changes in the Australian press’s political reporting over the last 50 years.