I started an academic career in 1979 at what became the University of Technology, Sydney, teaching a practice-based radio major focused on journalism in the undergraduate Communications program. 

The signature requirement of students was that none of their work would be assessed unless it had been broadcast, which effectively meant students had to become members of program collectives on community radio, which was just getting started in Sydney.  It infused a hugely creative and exciting journalism into community media, and led to many successful careers, in all media and particularly the public broadcasters ABC and SBS.

From the mid-1980s my teaching started to shift as I developed subjects and courses engaging with the critical literature about journalistic method, practices and their social/industrial context. 

This was essential for any courses taught in a university context but provoked hostility from conservatives – academics and industry professionals alike.  Students took these ‘studies’ units alongside their ‘practice’ or ‘production’ units, and largely embraced the scholarly material, particularly because a common assessment requirement was to produce a theoretically-informed analysis of some aspect of their own journalistic practice – a mind-expanding experience. 

Over time, this ‘studies/practice’ approach to method and methodology extended from undergraduate courses into Honours, postgraduate and eventually doctoral programs. 

In 2008 I moved to Monash University, where we started a PhD (Journalism) program, the first of its kind in Australia and indeed the world to our knowledge.  It attracted strong student demand, but considerable opposition nationally from the Communication discipline in a classic academic turf war.  The confirmation of journalism’s status as a discipline was resolved in 2020 by the Australian Research Council, but turf wars continue in Journalism schools in Australia and around the world.

I retired from university teaching in 2017.  To teach is an enormous privilege, and I remain grateful to students especially and to colleagues for the stimulation, engagement and collaboration.