Media Treatment and Communication Needs of African-Australians: A Media Participation and Intervention Project

The AuSud Media Project was born out of concerns over media representations of Sudanese Australians, and a desire to find practical ways of addressing the issue. An Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) report published in 2009 (African Australians: A report on human rights and social inclusion issues) noted that "Unfortunately, the media usually focuses on crime or on political commentary about African-Australians - and has often been negative or critical, and sometimes misleading. This has contributed to general community confusion or concern about African-Australians, and has caused distress to many.”


The research team has received an ARC Linkage Grant (LP110100063) to implement a research based journalism training initiative for Sudanese Australians. Working with our linkage partners, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Australian Multicultural Education Service (AMES), we have developed a journalism training program taught by highly respected journalists. This project also includes media content analysis, focus groups with participants and interviews with journalists. This research will serve to tailor the training to the students’ needs as well as to provide a framework for future initiatives of its kind.


The aim is that through this training the students will build relationships with mainstream media, become sources for journalists when relevant issues arise, and eventually find their own voice by running and maintaining their own online news site. For more articles and news stories on the AuSud Project see CAJ in the media.

 

Journalism Training for Sudanese Australians

We will be hosting two 12-week training sessions in 2012. If you are interested in applying and would like to know more, please download the documents below:

The AuSud Team                        Email Us

Michael Gawenda
Centre for Advanced Journalism
The University of Melbourne (Michael's Profile...)

Dr David Nolan
School of Culture and Communication
The University of Melbourne (David's Profile... )

Associate Professor Karen Farquharson
Life and Social Sciences
Swinburne University of Technology (Karen's Profile... )

Professor Timothy Marjoribanks
The Graduate School of Management
La Trobe University (Tim's profile... )

Violeta Politoff
Centre for Advanced Journalism
The University of Melbourne (Violeta's Profile...)

 

AuSud Celebrates Achievements

students writings In November 2011, the Centre for Advanced Journalism celebrated the completion of a 12 week course in journalism for Sudanese Australians. The completion ceremony was the culmination of thirteen students’ participation in the AuSud Media Project, with the objective to gain valuable skills in journalism. The students were taught by some of Australia’s best journalists, writers and broadcasters, who also provided mentorship to the students.


Michael Gawenda said: “Our students embraced 12 weeks of media training including feature writing, editing, interviewing and ethics. To celebrate completing the course we compiled some of their writing into a small publication. They should be thrilled to see their work in print and be very proud of what they’ve achieved”.

Click here to view the 2011 Students' work

 

The AuSud Blog

The central aim of the AuSud Media Project is to facilitate Sudanese Australians in the development of their own voice. As part of this goal, participants of the AuSud Media Project are working on an AuSud Blog – a space where those who have been through the training can share their insights and perspectives to a wider audience. Click here to read their work.


 

The Research

As part of the AuSud project, the research team conducted a preliminary study of 8 months of mainstream news coverage of Sudanese people in Australia. This study was partly supported by a University of Melbourne Social Justice Initiative Grant. This research analysed coverage before and after the 2007 Federal election - a period which also coincided with the tragic bashing death of Liep Gony. The analysis of 203 articles found that while not all coverage was negative, the majority of stories represented Sudanese Australians in relation to violence and issues of integration. More information about this content analysis is available here.

 

Based on this research, the team has recently published an article in the Journal of Intercultural Studies:

Nolan, David, Karen Farquharson, Violeta Politoff and Timothy Marjoribanks (2011) 'Mediated Multiculturalism: Newspaper Representations of Sudanese Migrants in Australia' in Journal of Intercultural Studies 32 (6): 657-673.

 

Background 

The 2010 AuSud Pilot Training

With the support of the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Sidney Myer Foundation, the researchers of the AuSud Media Project were able to offer a pilot training program in 2010. This is what Kot Michael Monoah, a participant of the pilot training, had to say about the project:

"I feel the Journalism training has helped me learn the skills needed to express my news stories with confidence. Often media coverage of the Sudanese community is very negative. The journalism training program delivered by the Centre for Advanced Journalism imparted me with the skills to write a news story, be aware of the ethical obligations around writing news, and gain the skills required to be able to handle media interviews. I am glad that I have learnt these skills and am now in a position to respond to the negative media publicity of the Sudanese Community".


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