Martin Newman Wins JERAA Award for Outstanding Teaching in a Journalism Program
By Jeanti St Clair, JERAA Vice-President Awards
December 2, 2025
Martin Newman, University of Technology Sydney, has won the 2025 JERAA Outstanding Teaching Award in a Journalism Program for innovations in his role over the past five years as coordinator of UTS’ Journalism Lab Student Newsroom and as publisher of Central News.
Over this time, Martin has evolved the student newsroom into a dynamic, student-led learning environment that integrates authentic journalistic practice, reflective inquiry, and ethical awareness within a news writing environment that has seen GenAI tools begin to transform newsroom practices.
The 2025 JERAA teaching award was judged by Honorary Professor Trevor Cullen of Edith Cowan University, Professor Andrew Dodd of the University of Melbourne and Associate Professor Caroline Graham of Bond University.
The judges commended the strength of Martin’s application and its distinct innovations to the well-established model of WIL publication partnerships.
“We were impressed by the inclusion of a student AI Editor, the awarding of an annual prize to participants and the nature of experiential collaborations, which have resulted in a doubling of pieces published by students, who are often working in a voluntary capacity,” they wrote.
“This is a comprehensive, well-integrated program of work with a strong track record of student success, and which supports regional media.”
Martin described his approach “integrating practice, reflection, and social responsibility”.
“By giving the students agency and fostering autonomy, ethical engagement, and professional readiness, the newsroom – both collaboratively and individually – empowers students to become confident, adaptive journalists equipped to shape the future of the media industry,” he said. “Its success ultimately is not measured in readership or awards but in its function as a frontline teaching resource.”
JERAA’s Outstanding Teaching Award attracts a $2000 prize.
The judges have also highly commended La Trobe University’s Brigid McCarthy submission: “A well-argued case for WIL and authentic publication-based scaffolded learning. Some aspects of the way it is taught are novel, such as the legacy letter concept, which underscores the student-centred approach that the La Trobe program brings to the teaching hospital model for journalism pedagogy. What is evident in this application is the passion for the subject and for knowledge transfer through engaged adult learning.”
Entries to the 2026 Outstanding Teaching Award will open in the new year.
Best Lightning Presentation
Winner of the popular vote at the 2025 JERAA Award for Best Lightning Presentation on Teaching Journalism is Alysson Watson of the University of Newcastle.
The Lightning presentations follow the Ignite model with 20 slides auto-advancing over five minutes. The JERAA Best Lightning Presentation award includes a $1000 prize.
Alysson’s presentation explored the design and outcomes of “a real-time, real-world journalism experience that nudges students outside their comfort zone to boost skills and confidence to work in news media”.
As an assessment, it allows for authenticity in journalism practice, as students find and write stories under deadline conditions for potential publication with a local partner, the Newcastle Weekly. It is also Generative AI-secure. However, the task of writing to deadline in a simulated newsroom would still benefit students even without publication.
Over the course of four two-hour tutorials, 23 students wrote 85 stories (350 words each). Of these, 58 were submitted for publication and 51 were published on the Newcastle Weekly website, with one also printed in the magazine. Student work performed well for the Google-accredited outlet, with website analytics showing five stories were read between 8000 and 10,000 times, and one was read 12,000 times.
The activity involved engagement between students and our community, demonstrating the value of our small journalism program to potential students.
Students were collegial yet competitive and incentivised by the possibility of publication. Feedback indicates that many are motivated towards news media careers, while holding realistic expectations of journalistic and newsroom practice.
