Fiona Martin

Added December 2025

Associate Professor Fiona Martin from the University of Sydney was awarded life membership of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) in 2025 in acknowledgement of her many years of service to the association, most particularly as the Vice President Research.

Fiona is a former community and ABC radio broadcaster, multimedia sound designer and cross-media journalist. For over two decades she has been a journalism and media educator, with a focus on cross-media and online production. Her research explores digital journalism, public service media and the uses, politics and regulation of digital media. This has included study of the transformation of public service broadcasting online with a focus on the history and uses of dialogic interaction, including forums, blogs and social media.

Fiona is the co-author and editor of Digital Platform Regulation: Global Perspective on Internet Governance (Palgrave Macmillan 2022), co-author of Sharing News Online (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and co-author and editor of The Value of Public Service Media (Nordicom, 2013). Her most recent projects were Platform Governance: rethinking internet regulation as media policy (DP19010022) and the Facebook Content Policy Research on Social Media Platforms award: Regulating Hate Speech in the Asia Pacific.

Fiona is on the editorial board of Digital Journalism and the Journal of Digital Media & Policy. She has been an International Council member of the International Association of Media & Communication Researchers (IAMCR), co-chair of the IAMCR Public Service Media Policies working group and has served as Vice President Research of JERAA.

In her JERAA position she played a pivotal role in authoring a report on Non-Traditional Research Outputs, lead the writing and oral presentation of parliamentary reports, and provided mentoring and leadership for new scholars.

In announcing her life membership, JERAA president Alexandra Wake, said Fiona had been a fearsome warrior for journalism and journalism education.

“Fiona took into the academy all the best parts of broadcast journalism – the ability to stand up and question people in power. Although at times that meant she faced considerable heat from conservative forces as part of the so-called “Culture Wars”, her grace under pressure, and her single minded determination to continue and to create important research is something many of us looked upon with awe.”

JERAA Life Membership is awarded by the Executive to a small number of members who have made sustained and significant contribution to the Executive and Association over a sustained period of time.