The impact of spin on Australian real estate journalism : a Queensland study

Regardless of ‘bear’ or ‘bull’ markets, the great Australian dream remains to own your own home. Central to this dream of home ownership is unflagging interest in the property market, reflected in bulging real estate news sections of newspapers in South East Queensland, the focus area for this thesis research. While there has been much scholarly research into other areas of public relations spin and its impact on news-gathering processes, there appears to be next to no research on real estate spin, how it is prepared and by whom, and journalism’s attitude to and the managing of the spin. Real estate spin remains an under-researched topic requiring further investigation not only in South East Queensland but Australia-wide given the ‘big bucks’ allotted to the promotion of real estate and the income it generates for news media outlets, particularly newspapers. This thesis examines the influence of public relations practitioners and journalists specialising in real estate spin through interviews, content analysis, and how real estate spin envelopes itself in today’s society. From content analyses and observations of journalism in the real estate rounds of the two major newspapers in South East Queensland, I found that journalists were using massive quantities of real estate spin supplied by PR practitioners and other associated industry sources. This spin is supplanting investigative newsroom journalism, thus allowing newspapers to operate with minimal staffing levels yet still able to publish large weekly real estate news sections. My research also revealed growing commercialisation of real estate news through increasing outsourcing of journalistic work to a writing bureau, which could jeopardise both the professions of journalism and public relations in the future.

Whatever it takes : an exploration of writing tools and strategies for completing a novel

This thesis consists of a novel written with the express purpose of exploring what practices and strategies are most useful in writing novel-length fiction as well as an exegesis which discusses the process. By its very nature, an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing is broad and general in approach. The Creative Writing undergraduate is being trained to manage many and varying writing tasks but none of them larger than can be readily marked and assessed in class quantities. This does not prepare the writing graduate for the gargantuan task of managing a project as large as a single title novel which can be up to 100,000 words and often is more. This study explores the question of what writing tools and practices best equip an emerging writer to begin, write and manage a long narrative within a deadline.

State of the arts and innovation : before and after the review of the national innovation system

This article examines the relationship between the arts and national innovation policy in Australia, pivoting around the Venturous Australia report released in September 2008 as part of the Review of the National Innovation System (RNIS). This came at a time of optimism that the arts sector would be included in Australia’s federal innovation policy. However, despite the report’s broad vision for innovation and specific commentary on the arts, the more ambitious hopes of arts sector advocates remained unfulfilled. This article examines the entwining discourses of creativity and innovation which emerged globally and in Australia prior to the RNIS, before analysing Venturous Australia in terms of the arts and the ongoing science-and-technology bias to innovation policy. It ends by considering why sector-led policy research and lobbying has to date proved unsuccessful and then suggests what public policy development is now needed.

In Bed with Autobiography: Unravelling the Fabric of Gender and Genre in Women’s Bed(room) Confessions

This thesis consists of a confessional narrative, What My Mother Doesn’t Know, and an accompanying exegesis, And Why I Should (Maybe) Tell Her. The creative piece employs the confessional mode as a subversive device in three separate narratives, each of which situates the bed as a site of resistance. The exegesis investigates how this self-disclosure in a domestic space flouts the governing rules of self-representation, specifically: telling the truth, respecting privacy and displaying normalcy. The female confession, I argue, creates an alternative space in women’s autobiography where notions of truth-telling can be undermined, the political dimensions of personal experience can be uncovered and the discourse of normality can be negotiated. In particular, women’s confessions told in, on or about the bed, dismantle the genre’s illusion of self and confirm the representative aspects of women’s experience. Framed within these parameters of power and powerlessness, the exegesis includes textual analyses of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), Tracey Emin’s My Bed (1999) and Lauren Slater’s Lying (2000), each of which exposes in a bedroom space, the author’s most obscure, intimate and traumatic experiences. Situated firmly within and against the genre’s traditional masculine domain, the exegesis also includes mediations on the creative work that validate the bed as my fabric for confession.

Artful shaping : the ethics of fictionalising oral history

The paper documents the development of an ethical framework for my current PhD project. I am a practice-led researcher with a background in creative writing. My project invovles conducting a number of oral history interviews with individuals living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I use the interviews to inform a novel set in Brisbane. In doing so, I hope to provide a lens into a cultural and historical space by creating a rich, textured and vivid narrative while still retaining some of the essential aspects of the oral history. While developing a methodology for fictionalising these oral histories, I have encountered a derserve range of ethical issues. In particular I have had to confront my role as a writer and researcher working with other people’s stories. In order to grapple with the complex ethics of such an engagment, I examine the devices and stratedgies employed by other creative practioners working in similar fields. I focus chielfy on Miguel Barnet’s Biography of a Runaway Slave (published in English in 1968) Dave Eggers’What is the what: The autobiography of Valentino Achek Deng, a novel (2005) in order to understand the complex processes of mediation invloved in the artful shaping of oral histories. The paper explores how I have confronted and resolved ethical considerations in my theoretical and creative work.

The monster chronicles : the role of children’s stories featuring monsters in managing childhood fears and promoting empowerment

Children’s fascination with monsters is a normal part of childhood development. Children’s literature reflects this with a wealth of stories featuring monsters, ranging from fairy tales to picture books to books for independent readers. These stories can raise concerns from educators, parents and other sections of the community such as political and religious institutions on the basis that they could be disturbing or harmful to children. In contrast, there is evidence to indicate the potential for managing fears and enhancing feelings of empowerment in children through the reading of stories featuring monsters. A reappraisal of these stories from a predominantly therapeutic perspective reveals that they may act as agents of positive change in six ways – catharsis, naming, taming, integration, transformation and moral empowerment. Two of these functions, transformation and moral empowerment, are examined further in three case studies of stories for the older reader that feature monsters, Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver, Monster Blood Tattoo, Book One: Foundling by D.M. Cornish and my manuscript, ‘The Monster Chronicles’. The insights from this research have been used to inform the writing and editing of ‘The Monster Chronicles’ and inherent to that, my goal of creating a children’s story featuring monsters that is sensitive to children’s fears and their desire for empowerment.

An investigation into how the imagining of the nation is affected by understandings of the Internet

My research is located in an abiding concern with the nation and takes a special interest in the predictions and expectations surrounding the impact of the Internet on how this institution is lived. It is my hypothesis that the effects of the Internet are not limited only to those who are users but extends even to those who may never have witnessed its workings. The research question I began with: how is the imagining of the nation affected by our understandings and expectations of the Internet, developed through the writing of the first three chapters to: how is the living of the nation affected by the Internet’s inflection on lived time and lived space?

Turn-around pedagogies: improving the education of at-risk students

Internationally, normative discourses about literacy standards have rapidly proliferated, and spaces for teachers to engage in serious intellectual inquiry seem to be shutting down. Our concern about the impact of these forces on teachers led us to design a cross-generational teacher research project across two states of Australia to tackle some of the toughest challenges teachers face in their workplaces, including the issue of unequal outcomes in literacy achievement. In this article we report on how the project design sustained an intellectual community of inquiry and fostered ‘turn-around pedagogies'. We include excerpts from recent teacher writing (Comber and Kamler, 2005) to illustrate how teachers used technology and popular culture to reengage their most at-risk students. We argue that crossgenerational models of practitioner inquiry hold great promise for improving the learning engagement of students, the productivity of schools and the professional renewal of the teacher workforce.

The Certainty of Yellow

Novel excerpt and discussion, as presented at the creative writing panel at Ignite! 2010

Developing reflective practitioners online: The business of blogs in work integrated learning

Reflective practice is widely considered across discussions around educational psychology, professional identity, employability of graduates, and generic or graduate capabilities. Critical reflection is essential for providing a bridge between the university and the workplace, and for ultimately preparing work ready graduates (Patrick et al, 2008). Work integrated learning, particularly through internships and work placements for students, is viewed as a valuable approach for students developing skills in reflective practice. Reflective journals are one of the tools often used to encourage and develop student reflection. Shifting the reflective journal to an online interface as a reflective blog presents opportunities for more meaningful, frequent and richer interaction between the key players in a work integrated learning experience. This paper examines the adoption, implementation and refinement of the use of reflective blogs in a work integrated learning unit for business students majoring in advertising, marketing and public relations disciplines. The reflective blog is discussed as a learning and assessment tool, including the approaches taken to integrate and scaffold the blog as part of the work integrated learning experience. Graduate capabilities were used as cornerstones for students to frame students’ thinking, experiences and reflection. These capabilities emphasise the value of coherent theoretical and practical knowledge, coupled with critical, creative and analytical thinking, problem solving skills, self reliance and resilience. Underlying these graduate capabilities is a focus on assessment for learning matched with assessment of learning. Using specific triggers and prompts as part of the reflective process, and incorporating ongoing feedback from academic supervisors, students moved from descriptive levels of reflection, to more meaningful and critical reflection. Students’ blogs are analysed to identify key themes, challenges and achievements in the work integrated learning experience. Suggestions for further development and improvement, together with a model of best practice, are proposed.

The pitfalls of publicizing ethics research

What happens to our research once it hits the popular media? Do marketers know how to promote our research in a way that is understandable and complete, while still capturing an audience? This case study follows the dissemination of the results of a consumer ethics study via a single press release, along with the resulting media coverage, interviews and audience comments. Perhaps in their quest for a touch of controversy, the story picked up by the popular press was not the one intended by the authors. If getting the public story right is important, marketing academics need to spend as much time carefully crafting their press releases as they do writing journal manuscripts – they may not be able to rely on the ethics of media sub-editors who choose controversial headlines.

The promise of computational journalism.

There are at least four key challenges in the online news environment that computational journalism may address. Firstly, news providers operate in a rapidly evolving environment and larger businesses are typically slower to adapt to market innovations. News consumption patterns have changed and news providers need to find new ways to capture and retain digital users. Meanwhile, declining financial performance has led to cost cuts in mass market newspapers. Finally investigative reporting is typically slow, high cost and may be tedious, and yet is valuable to the reputation of a news provider. Computational journalism involves the application of software and technologies to the activities of journalism, and it draws from the fields of computer science, social science and communications. New technologies may enhance the traditional aims of journalism, or may require “a new breed of people who are midway between technologists and journalists” (Irfan Essa in Mecklin 2009: 3). Historically referred to as ‘computer assisted reporting’, the use of software in online reportage is increasingly valuable due to three factors: larger datasets are becoming publicly available; software is becoming sophisticated and ubiquitous; and the developing Australian digital economy. This paper introduces key elements of computational journalism – it describes why it is needed; what it involves; benefits and challenges; and provides a case study and examples. Computational techniques can quickly provide a solid factual basis for original investigative journalism and may increase interaction with readers, when correctly used. It is a major opportunity to enhance the delivery of original investigative journalism, which ultimately may attract and retain readers online.

Thelma and Disease : Susan Gilman's Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven [A Review]

In the nineteenth century, when female travel narratives of miss(adventure) were still read as excursions rather than expeditions, it was common for women travellers to preface their writing with an apology or admission of guilt—a type of disclaimer that excused the author for engaging in such inappropriate activity and bothering the reader with their trivial endeavours. Susan Gilman’s Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven offers no such thing. Instead Gilman begins her memoir with a confession about its lack of lies, half-truth and spin. ‘This is a true story,’ she writes, ‘recounted as accurate as possible and corroborated by notes I took at the time and by others who were present.’