Timothy Marjoribanks

Mediated multiculturalism: newspaper representations of Sudanese migrants in Australia

While multiculturalism has been central to the Australian political and social landscape since the 1970s, it has been recently challenged, with the (re)emergence of discourses of ‘social cohesion’ and ‘integration’. In this paper, we engage with these contests by focusing on newspaper coverage of Sudanese Australians around the time of the 2007 Federal Election. We ask: how did the Australian print media represent Sudanese people during this period? In addition, what do such representations suggest about contemporary media discourses around multiculturalism? Drawing on a content analysis of 203 newspaper articles published in The Age, The Herald Sun and The Australian, we argue that dominant media discourses are both influenced by and contribute to integrationist agendas that situate Sudanese Australians as outsiders to the Australian mainstream, thereby providing a significant challenge to contemporary multiculturalism.

Changing professions - General Practitioners' perceptions of autonomy on the frontline

Professional autonomy is a much-used concept which has operated with scant empirical attention directed at understanding its meaning among practitioners. This study investigates how General Practitioners (GPs) understand their professional autonomy, and what they perceive to be the main threats to it. Four focus groups were attended by 25 GPs in Melbourne. We found that GPs aspire to an ‘ideal type’ of professional who has the freedom to determine what is best for patients, but they believe their autonomy is threatened by financial constraints, greater accountability requirements, and more demanding patients. These findings reveal how GPs understand autonomy in their practice, and indicate that their concerns may have little to do with the deprofessionalization and proletarianization theses. Micro-level studies of GPs in the workplace, combined with greater understandings of different aspects of professional autonomy, appear useful in understanding how GPs’ work and autonomy is changing.

Representing Australia: race, the media and cricket.

Sport and representations of sport in the media are key sites for political and social struggles around race and nation. In order to explore how meanings of race are constructed in a sporting context, we undertook a discourse analysis of Australian print media coverage of two incidents of alleged racial vilification in sport. In one, Australian cricketer Darren Lehmann was suspended for racially vilifying the Sri Lankan team. In the other, Pakistani cricketer Rashid Latif was accused of racially vilifying an Australian cricketer. Our research suggests the following: first, there was strong condemnation of racial vilification; second, despite this, print media representations reflect a white versus black divide in world cricket; third, a Lehmann as victim/reverse racism theme emerged. We conclude that race is being mobilized as a potent but contested symbol of both inclusion and exclusion within Australia.

Sport and society in the global age

Introduction: Sport and Society in the Global Age PART I: UNDERSTANDING SPORT AND SOCIETY Theorizing Sport and Society Researching Sport and Society PART II: SPORT AND SOCIETAL PROCESSES Sport, Race and Racism Sport, Gender and Sexuality Sport, National Identity and Nation Building Sporting Bodies PART III: REGULATING SPORT Governing Sport: The Club, League and Global The Politics of Sport Regulation Sport and Social Justice PART IV: GLOBAL CULTURES OF SPORT The Global Athlete The Transformation of Fandom The Media and Consumption of Sport PART V: CONCLUSION Conclusion: Sport, Society and Sociology Glossary

Working for less: the aftermath for journalists made redundant in Australia between 2012 and 2014

ABSTRACT While media organisations continue to lay off journalists in Australia, the long-term outcomes of mass redundancies are just beginning to unravel. A key finding from a survey sample of 225 Australian journalists who exited their jobs between 2012 and 2014 is that while just over 60% of respondents continued to work wholly or partly in journalism roles, income loss was significant across the board. This is partly explained by the precarity of work experienced by many participants post-redundancy. But lower incomes were also noted amongst those who remained in full-time journalism positions: indeed, those who moved to full-time roles in other professions were likely to be earning more. Meanwhile, the finding that those aged over 50 faced the most significant drop in income points to particular problems faced by older workforce participants.

THE FUTURE OF “RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM”: Defamation law, public debate and news production

If the future of newspapers includes online and transnational platforms, the influence of defamation law on journalism deserves close investigation. A key concern for international publishers remains being sued in defamation in the United Kingdom or in other countries following its legal tradition. However, UK law has developed in recent years so that it now protects “responsible journalism” and many other commonwealth countries have seen similar developments. These changes offer real potential to support wider public debate, but they also contain challenges for law to understand and evaluate journalistic practices. This paper draws on a three-year study of news production and defamation law in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. It explains the difficult position facing journalism under traditional defamation law, outlines the key legal developments that change that law, and considers how journalists and other media staff perceive defamation law within their everyday practice.

Access, agenda building and information subsidies: Media relations in professional sport.

While much research has examined the composition of sport media and those charged with constructing it, namely sport journalists and editors, far less has explored an essential set of actors in the construction of news: sources. This study aimed to explore the construction of the sport media agenda from arguably the most important sport news sources: sport media relations managers. In particular, this paper asked: how do media staff in sports organisations influence the production of news? To answer this question, this paper is based on a qualitative, observational study of a professional Australian Rules football club in Australia, involving interviews, observations and document analysis. Research within a professional Australian Rules football club found that the club delivered high-quality information subsidies that met sports journalists’ newswork requirements. However, media access was almost solely limited to these information subsidies, which are highly subjective and negotiated, which in turn allowed the professional football club to significantly control the subsequent media agenda.

Controlling the Message and the Medium?: The impact of sports organisations’ digital and social channels on media access

Sports organisations’ recently acquired ability to deliver their own news—through social and digital platforms—represents a potential paradigm shift in the once symbiotic relationship between sports organisations and the media that cover them. While sports organisations once needed the media to deliver their messages, they now have their own media. This study examined the impact of sports digital and social platforms, such as websites, Twitter and Facebook, on sports journalism through 37 interviews with public relations staff in Australian sports organisations and one targeted case study in a professional Australian Rules Football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL) in Australia. It found that while public relations staff in Australian sports organisations still value traditional media coverage, they also signalled that their own platforms were increasing in value as distribution channels. The case study of the professional AFL club found that the club selectively chose to distribute some stories on their own platforms instead of through traditional media. These stories were not simply delivered on the club’s own platforms, but the public relations staff actively framed the narrative of these stories for strategic benefit. These results have significant implications for sports journalism, as it suggests the rapid development of sports organisations’ social and digital media platforms has the potential to irrevocably alter the once symbiotic relationship between sport and media.

Media and the politics of belonging: Sudanese Australians, letters to the editor and the new integrationism

ABSTRACT Nolan, Burgin, Farquharson and Marjoribanks focus on media as a significant site through which a politics of belonging is played out, focusing particularly on coverage of Sudanese Australians. To this end, they analyse letters to the editor that concern Sudanese Australians in three Victorian newspapers in 2007, a highly significant year in which this group became the focus of significant levels of (predominantly negative) media coverage. Through textual and thematic analysis, the authors demonstrate how such letters worked to reiterate and extend a politics of ‘integrationism’ that, without entirely departing from Australias commitment to multiculturalism, has rearticulated the latter along neo-assimilationist lines. In doing so, they show how, in many letters, Sudanese Australians are problematized for their failure or refusal to ‘integrate’ in ways that involve an explicit or implicit process of racialization. In the process, the article also critically considers the important role performed by media in the politics of belonging, particularly through their reiteration and contestation of the politics of race and multiculturalism in Australia. Rather than simply a matter of reproducing a hegemonic politics, it shows how such processes, despite the marked limitations of their framing within a ‘race debate’, also serve to demonstrate significant fault lines in the politics of belonging.

Contesting competence: Chief executive officers and leadership in Australian Football League clubs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate around conceptualising competence in sport organisations by analysing club leadership and management in the Australian Football League (AFL) at a time of professionalisation. The paper asks: what were considered appropriate activities for newly professionalised AFL clubs, and how was the role of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as a competent leader in delivering these activities conceptualised in the clubs? Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 38 senior club managers in the AFL. A thematic analysis was undertaken. Findings – The paper finds that perceptions of core activities of clubs expanded with professionalisation, and that the role of the CEO emerged as the outcome of internal organisational contests. CEO competence is not only a set of technical skills, but is social, relational and “essentially contested” (Good, 1998, p. 205). Research limitations/implications – The qualitative methodology adopted means findings cannot be generalised to other sporting leagues, however, because all clubs participated they do reflect conceptualisations in the AFL at the time. The findings are suggestive of issues that may be relevant to other sporting competitions. Practical implications – The paper provides evidence that CEOs in sporting organisations should not be appointed only on the basis of technical skills. Social and relational skills are critical to organisational success. Originality/value – This paper enriches understandings of AFL clubs and of CEOs as leaders in sport organisations, and contributes to theoretical debates around the organisational construction of competence.