Re-imagining public journalism for community radio news-gathering

This paper explores the use of public journalism within a community radio news context. It argues that, the central tenets of the public journalism movement can help to frame, more adequately, a news gathering and production approach Tailored to the needs of community media. . Community radio stations generally enjoy strong relationships with their listeners and play an important role in the formation of the community itself (Lowrey et al., 2008). This paper argues that such strong community ties, in conjunction with public journalism news gathering approaches give community radio stations a strong opportunity to produce relevant, local news sourced driven by their listeners. In this regard ,this paper examines a particular case of public journalism used within the The Wire, a national, daily current affairs program broadcast on community radio. In the case study examined here ,public journalism informed story production that were designed to better meet the needs of community radio stations and their audiences.

The impact of the public library as a creative place in the community: A contextual review

This review examines recent literature on the public library as a creative place and the ways in which socio-cultural impact is being measured in assessments of cultural value. Inputs such as funding and staffing are frequently measured against outputs such as visitor numbers and lending frequencies, but qualitative measures (outcomes and impacts) are minimal in the literature because of the lack of persuasive evaluative frameworks and the difficulty of designing and facilitating the evaluations at local and national levels. Nevertheless, when combined with data about outputs and outcomes, the impact on individuals and their communities can be measured effectively and reported persuasively (Poll 2012, p.124). This contextual review provides an overview of current thinking about public libraries and creative spaces with particular attention paid to the rise of so-called makerspaces and Fab Labs. This includes discussion on the types of creative activities that are occurring in the public library context, and an outline of the rhetoric and reality of the public library as a community space. These outlines are reconsidered in a discussion of the evaluative frameworks that have been employed by libraries in the past, followed by an account of some prominent creative spaces that have been formally evaluated. The existence of creative spaces in public libraries is in a state of constant flux, and the development and redevelopment of evaluative frameworks will ensure that published reports will continue to appear throughout 2015 and beyond. This review provides a brief snapshot of the state of the field as it is in the first quarter of 2015.

Two worlds apart: Indigenous community perspectives and Non-Indigenous teacher perspectives on Australian schools

Our evaluation studies of Indigenous school reform begin from a different starting point: listening to, hearing and engaging with the commentaries, voices, narratives and analyses of Indigenous community as they discuss and recount their experiences and current encounters with Australian state schools. Here we undertake a contrastive documentation of the views of Indigenous community members, Elders, parents, education workers, and young people and, indeed, of the views of their non-Indigenous teachers and school principals. This is a dramatic picture of two distinctive cultural lifeworlds, communities and worldviews in contact, of two very different ‘constructions’ by participants of a shared, mutual experience: everyday interaction in the social field of the Australian school. Taken together, our Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants repeatedly confirmed and corroborated a key theme: that Indigenous peoples continue to be viewed and ‘treated’ through the lens and language of cultural, intellectual and moral ‘deficit’.

Influences on sleep-wake behaviour in older adults and community dementia care: Light exposure and partner impact

This project described sleep-wake behaviour in community-dwelling older adults and in community dementia care. It examined the applicability of a newly presented conceptual model (the Multifactorial Influences on Sleep Health model) to evaluate factors influencing sleep in ageing, with a particular focus on the importance of daytime light exposure and the impact of partners.

Place making for knowledge generation and innovation: Planning and branding Brisbane’s knowledge community precincts

Knowledge generation and innovation have been a priority for global city administrators particularly during the last couple of decades. This is mainly due to the growing consensus in identifying knowledge-based urban development as a panacea to the burgeoning economic problems. Place making has become a critical element for success in knowledge-based urban development as planning and branding places is claimed to be an effective marketing tool for attracting investment and talent. This paper aims to investigate the role of planning and branding in place making by assessing the effectiveness of planning and branding strategies in the development of knowledge and innovation milieus. The methodology of the study comprises reviewing the literature thoroughly, developing an analysis framework, and utilizing this framework in analyzing Brisbane’s knowledge community precincts—namely Boggo Road Knowledge Precinct, Kelvin Grove Urban Knowledge Village, and Sippy Downs Knowledge Town. The analysis findings generate invaluable insights in Brisbane’s journey in place making for knowledge and innovation milieus and communities. The results suggest as much as good planning, branding strategies and practice, the requirements of external and internal conditions also need to be met for successful place making in knowledge community precincts.

Blurring the physical boundaries of the city: Media architecture and urban informatics for community engagement

Architecture focuses on designing built environments in response to society’s needs, reflecting culture through materials and forms. The physical boundaries of the city have become blurred through the integration of digital media, connecting the physical environment with the digital. In the recent past the future was imagined as highly technological; 1982 Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is set in 2019 and introduces a world where supersized screens inject advertisements in the cluttered urban space. Now, in 2015 screens are central to everyday life, but in a completely different way in respect to what had been imagined. Through ubiquitous computing and social media, information is abundant. Digital technologies have changed the way people relate to cities supporting discussion on multiple levels, allowing citizens to be more vocal than ever before. We question how architects can use the affordances of urban informatics to obtain and navigate useful social information to inform design. This chapter investigates different approaches to engage communities in the debate on cities, in particular it aims to capture citizens’ opinions on the use and design of public places. Physical and digital discussions have been initiated to capture citizens’ opinions on the use and design of public places. In addition to traditional consultation methods, Web 2.0 platforms, urban screens, and mobile apps are used in the context of Brisbane, Australia to explore contemporary strategies of engagement (Gray 2014).

The effects of community attachment and information seeking on displaced disaster victims’ decision making

This paper uses original survey data of the Great East Japan earthquake disaster victims to examine their decision to apply for the temporary housing as well as the timing of application. We assess the effects of victims’ attachment to their locality as well as variation in victims’ information seeking behavior. We additionally consider various factors such as income, age, employment and family structure that are generally considered to affect the decision to choose temporary housing as victims’ solution for their displacement. Empirical results indicate that, ceteris paribus, as the degree of attachment increases, victims are more likely to apply for the temporary housing but attachment does not affect the timing of application. On the other hand, the victims who actively seek information and are able to collect higher quality information are less likely to apply for the temporary housing and if they do apply then they apply relatively later.

Screening for partner violence among family mediation clients: Differentiating types of abuse

Family mediation is mandated in Australia for couples in dispute over separation and parenting as a first step in dispute resolution, except where there is a history of intimate partner violence. However, validation of effective well-differentiated partner violence screening instruments suitable for mediation settings is at an early phase of development. This study contributes to calls for better violence screening instruments in the mediation context to detect a differentiated range of abusive behaviors by examining the reliability and validity of both established scales, and newly developed scales that measured intimate partner violence by partner and by self. The study also aimed to examine relationships between types of abuse, and between gender and types of abuse. A third aim was to examine associations between types of abuse and other relationship indicators such as acrimony and parenting alliance. The data reported here are part of a larger mixed method, naturalistic longitudinal study of clients attending nine family mediation centers in Victoria, Australia. The current analyses on baseline cross-sectional screening data confirmed the reliability of three subscales of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2), and the reliability and validity of three new scales measuring intimidation, controlling and jealous behavior, and financial control. Most clients disclosed a history of at least one type of violence by partner: 95% reported psychological aggression, 72% controlling and jealous behavior, 50% financial control, and 35% physical assault. Higher rates of abuse perpetration were reported by partner versus by self, and gender differences were identified. There were strong associations between certain patterns of psychologically abusive behavior and both acrimony and parenting alliance. The implications for family mediation services and future research are discussed.

Vaccination status of Australian community pharmacy

From the moment Queensland's Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young, laid down the gauntlet to Queensland pharmacists kicking off the Queensland Pharmacists Immunisation Pilot (QPIP) for the 2014 influenza season, community pharmacy in Australia was never going to be the same.

Family mediation and women’s services: Towards effective referral

Central to Government’s strategy for separating families is the management and resolution of disputes away from courts and litigation processes wherever this is achievable. A key group of players in facilitating this vision are workers within the wide range of women’s services. This study surveyed workers at a number of Victorian women’s services that provide advice, support, and referral for women and explored their understanding of mediation processes and outcomes. The results indicate that, while generally supportive of mediation as a process that could assist their clients, workers were concerned about its appropriateness when family violence was an issue. Some of these concerns appeared to be based upon a good understanding of the limitations of mediation practices, but it is also apparent that some concerns were influenced by a misunderstanding and limited knowledge of contemporary mediation practice. It is recommended that family mediation services work proactively with women’s services in order to better inform each other of the possibilities and constraints in working with postseparation disputes.

Aaishah’s choice: Choosing home education in the Muslim community

In Australia, the decision to home educate is becoming increasingly popular (cf. Townsend, 2012). In spite of its increasing popularity, the reasons home education is chosen by Australian families is under-researched (cf. Jackson & Allan, 2010). In addition, the decision to home educate among minority groups, such as Australian Muslim families, is absent from the literature. This paper reports on an interview with one Muslim mother who chose to home educate her children. An in-depth, qualitative interview was conducted with Aaishah (pseudonym), a mother who lived in one of Australia’s most populated cities. Data were analysed using the Discourse Historical Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis revealed that there were similarities between the discourses of Christian parents described in the literature, in terms of the reasons Aaishah had given for her decision to home educate. In particular, analysis reveals Aaishah’s fears about schools, their negative experiences on her children and her hopes for her children’s futures.

Techno Teacher Moms: Web 2.0 Connecting Mothers in the Home Education Community

Home education is on the rise in Australia. However, unlike parents who choose mainstream schooling, these parents often lack the support of a wider community to help them on their educational and parenting journey. This support is especially lacking as many people in the wider community find the choice to home education confronting. As such, these parents may feel isolated and alienated in the general population as their choice to home educate is questioned at best, and ridiculed at worst. These parents often find sanctuary online in homeschool groups on Facebook. This chapter explores the ways that Facebook Groups are used by marginalized and disenfranchised families who home educate to meet with others who are likeminded and aligned with their beliefs and philosophies. It is through these groups that parents, in relation to schooling it is especially mothers, are able to ask for advice, to vent, to explore options and find connections that may be lacking in the wider community.