Penny O’Donnell
Penny O’Donnell is Senior Lecturer in International Media and Journalism in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. She co-convenes the ARC Cultural Research Network’s The Listening Project with Dr Tanja Dreher (UTS), Dr Justine Lloyd (Macquarie) and Dr Cate Thill (Notre Dame).
Penny has been involved in research and teaching about improving Australian journalism standards for some fifteen years. She has published several book chapters and various articles on questions of change in journalism, including in the areas of reporting of Indigenous and cross-cultural issues, general news and current affairs, and global conflict. From 1998 to 2007, Penny held a Senior Lectureship in the Journalism Program at the University of Technology, Sydney, and achieved national recognition for her creative approach to teaching journalism studies. Prior to this, she had a successful career in radio journalism, culminating as a producer on ABC Radio National’s breakfast program. She has also worked extensively in book publishing, community radio and newswire reporting in Australia, Mexico and Nicaragua.
In 2009, she received ARC funding to investigate the future of quality journalism in the Internet Age.
Research projects and/or research interests
I am currently working on two research projects. The first project focuses on the media and listening. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges of the digital media revolution is the struggle to be heard over the cacophony of online media voices. There are at least two dimensions to this problem: first, media resources are unevenly distributed world-wide and, second, global mainstream media narratives and images systematically ignore or misrepresent many people, countries/regions and even religions. The Internet may well be a technology with global reach, but e-media, e-business and e-culture have a long way to go before they could be called truly multicultural. Media sociologist Nick Couldry says the West’s privileged position in global media makes it hard for us to imagine it from other, less privileged positions¹. A focus on listening offers a means of making the shift to analysing media practice from the Œother¹ side and of thinking about journalism as a platform for listening to unfamiliar voices, hearing dissent and creating meaningful dialogues across difference and disparity.
The second project focuses on the future of journalism and, in partnership with Dr David McKnight (UNSW) as well as Australian journalists and their professional organizations, aims to define and develop resources to support quality journalism as a global media practice. New York University¹s Professor of Journalism, Jay Rosen, says the challenge for journalists today is to develop new connections with audiences. He advocates Œcitizen journalism¹ as the best way for hacks to reinvigorate their craft. Yet participatory journalism is not as popular in Australia as the USA; this research is concerned to identify local perspectives on newsroom change as well as to identify initiatives directed at ensuring quality journalism has a future in this country. Eric Beecher, publisher of the independent online media site crikey.com, offers a useful departure point with his blunt question, Œdo enough Australians still want to consume quality journalism?¹
List of relevant publications:
- O’Donnell, Penny, Lloyd, Justine and Dreher, Tanja (2009) ‘Listening, pathbuilding and continuations: A research agenda for the analysis of listening’, Continuum, 23:4,423 ‹ 439.
- O’Donnell, Penny (2009) ‘Journalism, change and listening practices‘, Continuum, 23:4,503 ‹ 517.
- El-Gawley, Nadyat and O’Donnell, Penny (2009) ‘Listening, journalism and community voices – Nadyat El-Gawley in conversation with Penny O’Donnell‘, Continuum, 23:4,519 ‹ 523.
- O’Donnell, Penny and Thill, Catherine (2008) ‘Journalism, change and listening, Paper present to the annual conference of the Journalism Education Association’, 1-3 December, University of Wollongong.
- O’Donnell, Penny and Thill, Catherine (2008) The media and listening practices, Paper present to the Rights, Reconciliation, Respect, Responsibilities conference, 30 September ¬ 3 October, University of Technology, Sydney.
- O’Donnell, Penny (2008), Investigate the shouting‹Reflections on teaching for excellence in international journalism, Synergy, Issue 28, November,
pp. 32-33. - O’Donnell, P. (2006) ‘A colloquium on journalism and cultural diversity‘, Australian Studies in Journalism, vol. 16, pp. 189 -212.
Workshops convened:
Listening Practices (with Juan Salazar)