Leicester academic talks Journalism Down Under

Tor Clark (pictured), Associate Professor in Journalism in the School of Media, Communication and Sociology, has just returned from a speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand

Tor spoke to audiences in Perth, Melbourne and Wellington, during a two-week visit to the continent last month (August).

The visit was organised by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, a body which unites academic and governmental institutions around improving public governance.

Tor has recently co-edited two books about current issues in journalism, one about the crisis facing print journalism and the other about how journalism responded to Brexit, Donald Trump and the 2017 UK general election

At John Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, he gave a talk to an audience of journalism and politics academics and their students at the Curtin Institute for Public Policy on the future of print journalism.

At the ANZSOG headquarters in Melbourne, Victoria, he spoke to ANZSOG staff and alumni, as well as academics and journalists about how Brexit, Trump and the 2017 election had affected journalism

And finally, across the Tasman Sea in Wellington, he spoke to an audience of New Zealand government communications professionals and journalists about Brexit, Trump and the media.

Tor said: “It was excellent to be able to discuss these very topical issues with audiences from Australia and New Zealand. I had a very warm welcome wherever I went and the tour was superbly organised by ANZSOG.

“The talks helped to air these lively subjects and gave some good exposure to the University and School of Media, Communication and Sociology.”

During the visit, which took in five-cities and three time-zones, Tor was also able to spend time with Journalism academics at Deakin University in Melbourne, which has a well-established student exchange programme with Leicester.

  • Last Words? How Can Journalism Survive the Decline of Print? was published in December 2016 by Abramis academic publishing.
  • Brexit, Trump and the Media (including analysis of the 2017 UK general election) was published in July 2017, also by Abramis academic publishing.