Applications are open until November 3 for the 2023 JERAA Teaching Awards.

In 2019, JERAA introduced a teaching award to recognise outstanding work undertaken by journalism educators. This is considered important in a discipline that encourages practical, outward facing, engaged, and authentic approaches to learning and teaching. This award recognises journalism educators who are improving teaching and learning experiences for students in a fast-paced media society.

This was extended in 2020 with an additional teaching award category focussed around innovation. In 2022, JERAA continued to offer this teaching award, with it transformed in recognition of a return to a more ‘normal’ teaching and learning environment. In 2023, this award is now the JERAA Award for Best Lightning Presentation on Teaching Journalism.

In 2021, Louisa Lim of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne won the  JERAA Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Journalism Program for the project, Podcast as Method: Student-led Cohort-Building through Remote Podcast Production.

The 2021 JERAA Teaching Award for Innovation in Online Teaching was won by Nadyat El Gawley and Asha Chand of Western Sydney University for their presentation on applying a solutions learning and constructive news model to build hope in Western Sydney during the COVID pandemic. More about the winning academics can be found below with information on how to apply for the awards.

Awards

JERAA Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Journalism Program ($2000 prize)

• Ongoing, fixed term, sessional and casual staff with at least three years’ experience teaching journalism who are members of JERAA may apply.
• Prize will be judged by a panel including JERAA executive board members and journalism academics with national teaching citations.

JERAA Award for Best Lightning Presentation on Teaching Journalism ($1000)

• A prize that recognises excellent and/or innovative journalism teaching ideas as demonstrated in a ‘lightning presentation’ – $1000 prize
• Finalists will give a  5-minute ‘lightning’ presentation with 20 slides at a session during the 2022 JERAA Conference in December in Perth.
• Finalists may be shortlisted by the JERAA Teaching Award Judging Panel.
• Finalists must must be members of JERAA and register for the conference to present.
• Presentations will be judged by popular vote by attendees at the 2022 JERAA Conference.

Who can apply?

• Ongoing, fixed term, sessional and casual staff with at least one year’s experience teaching in a recognised journalism program. This may be confirmed by a letter of support from a HoS or equivalent confirming the applicant’s role.
• Applicants must be a member of JERAA (you may join JERAA in order to apply).

Criteria

2023 JERAA Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Journalism Program

Applications will be evaluated by a panel of leading journalism educators on the basis of:

• Innovation, authenticity, impact and engagement in teaching techniques and/or projects that motivate students
• Fostering a deeper understanding of journalism through education, and contributing to broader society
• Demonstrating transformational approaches to understanding journalism and its practice, and/or the application of theoretical elements through journalism education
• Commitment to the growth of journalism education.
• The applicant’s reputation and standing within journalism education

Evidence to support the criteria can include (but is not limited to):

• Grants and/or publications that enhance the scholarship of learning in journalism education
• Support from Deputy VC (Education) or equivalent
• Recommendations on the innovation of the teaching techniques
• Peer and student feedback on the effectiveness of the learning activities

2023 JERAA Award for Best Lightning Presentation on Teaching Journalism

Applications may be shortlisted by a panel of leading journalism educators on the basis of:

• Innovation, authenticity, impact and engagement in teaching journalism and/or projects in that motivate journalism students
• Demonstrating transformational approaches to understanding journalism and its practice, and/or the application of theoretical elements through journalism education
• Adherence to the Ignite model of presentation (20 slides, auto-advancing every 15 seconds, and a 5-minute presentation).

Applications

2023 JERAA Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Journalism Program

The application should include:

• An overview of two pages (maximum) of the teaching techniques and/or project in response to the criteria.
• A brief budget of what the award will be spent on (for example, research or teaching related activities; conference attendance).
• A teaching-focused CV which outlines your teaching roles and responsibilities, publications, grants, and education history. (You may include publications that are forthcoming only if they have been ‘Accepted’ for publication.)

JERAA Award for Best Lightning Presentation on Teaching Journalism

Upload your 20 slides and answer include the following:

• Name, title and university
• Email
• Mobile
• Presentation Title
• Summarize your topic in 140 characters (a “Tweet”)
• Tell us how you think this will help other journalism educators improve their online teaching (maximum 200 words).

 Submission details

Applications close on November 3, 2023. Please email your application to JERAA VP (Awards) Jeanti St Clair at jeanti.stclair@scu.edu.au.

Recent Winners

Christine Kearney, a lecturer in digital journalism at the University of Technology Sydney, has won the 2022 JERAA Outstanding Teaching Award in a Journalism Program.

Christine’s entry focussed on a work integrated learning project she founded and facilitated between UTS and SBS News. UTS Students pitched, reported and produced a Summer Series of Multimedia Feature stories. These were published in 2021-2022, and students were given the opportunity to experience integration into newsroom practices and were paid at standard journalist rates.

The project began in 2020 and was inspired by journalism academic discussions on the importance and growth of multimedia storytelling, as well as calls for more diversity inclusion in storytelling from the SBS charter, academic and not-for-profit media groups such as Media Diversity Australia, to better reflect the diverse landscape of communities and individuals in Australia.

In 2022, the project took up the banner of using ‘constructive journalism’ as a news philosophy and practice, as heralded by researchers such as Ulrik Haagerup.

“The 2022 series of feature stories addressed problems including women underpaid in professional sport, youth and refugee unemployment, teen pregnancy and female Muslim stereotyping, by turning the focus and tone toward positive and constructive storytelling,” Christine wrote.

The award attracts a $2000 prize. Christine has proposed to use the bulk of the prizemoney to support the project’s next delivery.

The 2022 JERAA teaching award was judged by Professor Trevor Cullen, Associate Professor Andrew Dodd and Dr Caroline Graham.

They selected Christine’s entry for its “innovative and constructive, solutions-focussed storytelling that has real outcomes for real audiences”.

They noted that “the partnership with SBS offered students valuable links with industry, an authentic learning experience and a published outcome for their portfolio. The program was well managed, well supported, grounded in the curriculum and passionately championed. Most importantly, it inspired students to create industry-standard work.”

The judges also wish to acknowledge the submissions by Rosanna Natoli (University of the Sunshine Coast) and T.J. Thompson (Queensland University of Technology) as highly commended.

Additionally, congratulations to Alysson Watson of the University of Newcastle who has won the 2022 Best Lightning Award on Teaching Journalism for her presentation on the Newsroom Project: A constructive student collaboration on domestic violence that triumphs in the face of course ‘optimisation’ and academic disestablishment.

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Louisa Lim of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne won the 2021  JERAA Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Journalism Program.

The project, entitled Podcast as Method: Student-led Cohort-Building through Remote Podcast Production, saw Louisa create a student-led system of remote podcast production, allowing students to learn how to podcast through a truly immersive and experiential process.

Harnessing the help of experts in the University of Melbourne Museums and Collections Department, they decided to do a local version of Marc Fennell’s podcast Stuff the British Stole.

The result was the Uncurated podcast series, which last night received the group innovation award at the 2021 JERAA Ossie Awards.

The judges thought this was a really innovative project, which was delivered remotely, and demonstrates great buy-in and learning from students and an exciting publication outcome.

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Sonja Heydeman of RMIT University won the 2020 JERAA Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Journalism Program for The News Corp RMIT Data Journalism Interdisciplinary Project.

This project takes an innovative approach to develop data-journalism skills, pairing interdisciplinary student teams via internships with an industry partner, News Corp.

Sonja’s project was commended by the judges “as was a new and innovative WIL project that used an interdisciplinary pathway to foster job-ready data journalism skills”.

This year’s teaching award judges were Professor Trevor Cullen of Edith Cowan University, Associate Professor Kristy Hess of Deakin University, and Assistant Professor Caroline Graham of Bond University.

The judges noted that this “student-centred project had clearly defined objectives, and connected students with another discipline, to work collaboratively with industry to learn and acquire key data skills and experiences.

“The project provides an excellent case study and exemplar for other journalism educators, especially in terms of cooperative learning, inquiry-based learning and experiential learning. It also created an authentic experience to build job-ready skills.”

Sonja said she intends to use the $2000 prize money for travel, accommodation and expenses for students to stay in regional areas and develop stories based on their data exploration. She has offered to share information on the project with other journalism educators.

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In 2019, Phil Kafcaloudes has won the inaugural JERAA Teaching Award for his outstanding work in coordinating the coverage of “Election 2019”.

RMIT Industry Fellow Kafcaloudes was the executive producer for the 120-strong team for the three-hour program that was broadcast on Community Television and The Junction’s website. The show included students from more than 20 universities across Australia.

The judging panel was comprised of national teaching citation and award winners Professor Trevor Cullen (ECU), Teaching Fellow Caroline Graham (Bond), and Associate Professor Kristy Hess (Deakin).

Kafcaloudes wins a $2000 prize for his work on “Election 2019”.

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The 2021 JERAA Teaching Award for Innovation in Online Teaching was won by Nadyat El Gawley and Asha Chand of Western Sydney University.

Nadyat and Asha’s presentation focussed on applying a solutions learning and constructive news model to build hope in Western Sydney during the COVID pandemic.

The WSU academics said the project became a means to “heal and provide reprieve during the COVID crisis especially in Western Sydney, where a majority of migrants, refugees and [WSU’s]  students live”.

“Using the power of the media to ‘comfort the afflicted’ and build hope, two online teaching projects – Community Voices and Communities in Cultural Transition (CiCT) – by third  year journalism students at Western Sydney University, facilitated community empowerment at the grassroots.

“The Community Voices project, a joint initiative with the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism Ideas, facilitated media training to a dozen young talents from under-represented communities. It enabled students to gain insight into the challenges these communities faced during COVID and lockdown.

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The inaugural 2020 JERAA Teaching Award for Innovation in Online Teaching has been won by Tito Ambyo and Janak Rogers of RMIT University.

This new award recognises innovations implemented in online teaching in journalism during the COVID-19 pandemic and attracts a $1000 prize.

Tito and Janak competed with four other journalism academics at a live presentation session on Friday morning at the JERAA 2020 Conference.

Participants gave a short 5-minute presentation with 20 slides, auto-timed to 15 seconds, in an online forum. The winners were selected by popular vote.

JERAA VP (Awards) Jeanti St Clair noted all presentations were of a very high calibre.

Tito and Janak’s presentation explored how two remotely-produced RMIT podcasts, Under Cover ​and ​The Kicker,​ ​demonstrated how innovation and adaptation with a range of digital tools used in collaborative spaces supported students to create high-value work in a fully remote environment.

“We created entirely new remote production processes and designed innovative assessments in response to the move to online teaching,” Tito said.

“Emphasising collaboration, the cultivation of a community and by giving students ownership of two audio storytelling assessments, we produced two successful podcasts that reached a wide audience; one of them reached the top 20 rank in the Australian iTunes’ Documentary category.

“We also used our experience in working with students from CALD backgrounds to tackle the feeling of isolation that students were at risk of feeling during the lockdown – a feeling that many students of colour have felt before the pandemic.

“We were then able to build on the insights gained from creating ​Under Cover ​in Semester 1 and further innovate in Semester 2 with the creation of The Kicker. We believe that we now have some useful online teaching tools and concepts for other journalism lecturers who are interested in building a sense of camaraderie and professionalism among journalism and media students.”

The competition was open to ongoing, fixed term, sessional and casual staff with at least one year’s experience teaching in a recognised journalism program.

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