Centre for Advancing Journalism
Faculty of Arts
The Centre for Advancing Journalism exists to foster and encourage journalism that is useful to people in being informed and engaged citizens.
News and events
-
Quality journalism has never been more important in this time of COVID-19 pandemic
News -
Jack Banister and Wing Kuang report on the possible toll the coronavirus travel ban will take on Chinese students studying at the University of Melbourne.
News -
Jack Banister talks to Blues coach about last year's grand final defeat, and the position of responsibility he is in.
News -
Master of Journalism student Wing Kuang argues it is critical not to racialise the cause of the epidemic.
News -
Connor Webster reports on research which shows vulnerable LGBTI+ people are often reluctant to reach out for help.
News -
Current CAJ student Else Kennedy writes about a florescent pink slug found only on an extinct volcano with carnivorous snails.
News -
A great story from current Master of Journalism student Jessica Greenan about the crafting group helping to care for wildlife affected by the bushfires.
News -
Heartbreaking story about the impact of bushfires on East Gippsland's birdlife by CAJ data journalism lecturer Craig Butt.
News
The Centre exists to foster and encourage journalism that is useful to people in being informed and engaged citizens. We advance journalism through our innovation in teaching, research and engagement. We see opportunities in the power of the new tools for informing and being informed. We are a hub of thinking, conversation and creativity. We embrace the opportunities in change, even as we heed the threats. We will harness the unprecedented potential for a more engaged citizenry.
Our fundamental aim is to advance the practice of journalism at a time of great change. Through the triple helix of teaching, research and engagement, we seek to play a constructive role in the future of news media.
The Centre for Advancing Journalism (CAJ) was established in 2009 within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. In 2015, the Centre joined the School of Culture and Communication (SCC).
For regular updates on what’s happening at the Centre, subscribe to our e-news.
We are constantly evaluating what we teach. Student Experience Surveys and our rapidly changing industry continuously influence the content of our program.
To view sample course plans for our Masters please see the Master of Journalism What will I study? and Master of International Journalism What will I study? web pages.
Master of Journalism
Become a journalist of the future. The Master of Journalism degree builds the skills you need to redefine your profession and is designed and delivered by teaching staff who are outstanding professional practitioners. Gain a theoretical and practical grounding in issues such as civics, governance, citizenship, the impact of new technologies, social media and new practices, including data journalism. Investigate key concepts that frame recent developments in fields such as media law, management theory, globalisation, health policy, and climate change.
More information on our flagship degree is available on the Study Master of Journalism web page and the Handbook entry for this course.


Master of International Journalism
The Master of International Journalism is targeted at students interested in understanding and producing journalism in an international field of practice, where it is important that key skills are complemented by an understanding of different professional traditions, conventions, cultures and challenges.
The degree combines an emphasis on key skills – news gathering and news writing, video, audio, digital and social media production – with an international outlook on how different media operate in different cultures and markets.
More information on this degree is available on the Study Master of International Journalism web page and the Handbook entry for this course.
Graduate Diploma in Journalism (Advanced)
The Graduate Diploma in Journalism (Advanced) develops your advanced and practical understanding of how news stories are put together to ensure you can critically reflect on the challenges media professionals face in journalism.
The diploma is associated with the Master of Journalism and comprises four compulsory subjects and four related electives. Together these represent basic journalistic skills and understandings with the opportunity to study a limited number of subjects at a more advanced level. At the conclusion of their study students can choose to articulate into the full Master of Journalism program.
More information can be found on the Study Graduate Diploma in Journalism (Advanced) web page and the Handbook entry for this course.


Graduate Certificate in Journalism (Advanced)
The Graduate Certificate in Journalism (Advanced) refines your practical understanding of how news stories are put together and be equipped too critically reflect on writing challenges that journalists face across different media – print and digital.
The certificate is associated with the Master of Journalism and teaches the basic and fundamental skills and understandings of journalism. It is suitable for students with little or no experience in journalism. At the conclusion of their study students can choose to articulate into either the Graduate Diploma in Journalism (Advanced) or the full Master of Journalism program.
More information can be found on the Study Graduate Certificate in Journalism (Advanced) web page and the Handbook entry for this course.
Significant applied outcomes are achieved by closely linking research to our program of public activities.
Each project culminates in a workshop, seminar or other public presentation aimed at journalists, media executives and the broader community. This provides an opportunity for those working in the industry, and the interested public, to discuss the research findings and explore potential improvements in the way the media interacts with its community.
A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- Overview
- 2020 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2019 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2018 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2017 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2015 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2014 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2013 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2012 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2011 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2010 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2009 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- 2008 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
- More information
Overview
Arthur Norman Smith was a founder of the Australian Journalists’ Association, served as its first general president and for five years as its general secretary. Thanks to a generous bequest from the Smith family, the prestigious A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism is presented each year by a leading authority on some aspect of journalism.
The first annual AN Smith Lecture in Journalism was held in 1938. The lecture is presented by a leading authority on some important aspect of journalism.
A University Trust Record governs the use of the bequest fund.
2020 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
Saving the Australian Associated Press: re-making an Australian media institution
Emma Cowdroy and Jonty Low, AAP
The Australian Associated Press is a fundamental part of the Australian media landscape. For 85 years it’s provided coverage on almost all aspects of Australian life and supplied reliable news and information for media outlets across the country. When the consortium of major media companies announced it would close in June, AAP looked doomed. But since then there has been an awakening of interest and support; now AAP not only exists, but has a renewed mission to tell new kinds of stories, as well as provide an important journal of record coverage. Join AAP’s new CEO, Emma Cowdroy, and new chairperson, Jonty Low, for a discussion of how AAP was saved and the many challenges that lie ahead.
In the 2020 AN Smith Lecture in Journalism AAP’s new CEO, Emma Cowdroy, and new chairperson, Jonty Low, join in an online panel discussion moderated by the Director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism Associate Professor Andrew Dodd, for a discussion of how AAP was saved and the many challenges that lie ahead.
2019 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
Journalism versus the big banks: Reporting where regulators fear to tread
Adele Ferguson AM
The Royal Commission into the banking industry has demonstrated that regulators have failed us, while the role of protecting the public from corporate greed has often been performed best by journalism. This is despite the fact that the news media has faced major disruption and the kinds of financial constraints that make consistent and forensic analysis of big business much more challenging.
In her AN Smith lecture, investigative reporter Adele Ferguson – who many credit as the initiator of the Royal Commission – asks why it is that journalism stepped up while regulation failed? And what can be done to strengthen journalism to ensure it keeps on performing this vital role?
2018 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
From the Catholic Church to President Trump – Investigative Reporting vs. the Excesses of Power
Walter Robinson
For decades, American cardinals and bishops – and their peers across the Globe – engaged in an international criminal conspiracy to keep secret the sexual abuse of countless thousands of children. But investigative reporters exposed the crimes. Then in 2016, the economic and journalistic fortunes of US media could not have seemed bleaker – until Donald Trump unwittingly became the new patron saint of the First Amendment. His coarse attempts to undermine the Constitution have awakened the slumbering watchdogs of the Fourth Estate. Now, all the dogs are barking. And the public wonders: Without investigative reporting, without a strong and aggressive press, can Democracy survive? And if investigative reporting cannot hold powerful Popes and Presidents accountable, then who can?
Presented by Walter Robinson, Editor-at-Large of the Boston Globe and leader of the Spotlight Team’s investigations into abuse in the Catholic Church.
2017 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
Live and Dangerous: Journalism and the Real-Time Social Web
Emily Bell
Modern journalism is enabled by the reach and power of technology platforms and social networks to broadcast anything from anywhere in the world. Terrorist attacks become horrifying theatre, our attention drawn to events and their aftermath as they unfold, and the ‘breaking news’ organisation is anyone with a mobile phone and a social media account. As Facebook Live becomes the window on all events, and mobile technology turns anyone into a potential broadcasting unit, how do we decide what to report and what to edit? Who is in control and what is the role for legacy broadcasters and news organisations in this new world?
Emily Bell is the founding director of Columbia University’s highly regarded Tow Center for Digital Journalism and a leading authority on digital journalism.
2015 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
Freedom from Information - Australia’s War on Transparency
Sarah Ferguson
When The Killing Season aired on ABC TV this year Prime Minister Tony Abbott lifted his arms to the press gallery and declared “Thank you to the ABC”. This was the ABC’s 4th landmark TV series on political leadership but will there be another? Will our current and future leaders feel the same obligation of history? Or will future leaders no longer trust their legacy to a media they don’t control?
Walkley Award winning journalist Sarah Ferguson, whose documentary series on the Rudd / Gillard years The Killing Season made waves earlier this year, presented the 2015 AN Smith Lecture in Journalism.
2014 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
The Net Effect: An Optimist in the News Business
Morry Schwartz
The disruption of ‘legacy’ newspapers by the Internet should be welcomed and celebrated. Morry Schwartz believes that this problem will be solved with the development of highly targeted and personalised advertising on the internet, and importantly with the advent of a paid-content model, which will bring with it many blessings. The greatest being that in order to be successful, media companies will need to offer such valuable and desirable content that people will be willing to pay for it!
Morry Schwartz, Publisher The Saturday Paper
2013 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
The rise of the reader: journalism in the age of the open web
Katharine Viner
In this globalised era, most news organisations have international ambitions, from Al Jazeera to Buzzfeed. Katharine Viner argues that journalism that is open to the web is the best way to make a global impact. But what does that mean? Who is our audience in such a world? What do they want from us? What kind of business models best serve 'post-industrial journalism'? And why is Guardian Australia here?
Katharine Viner is editor-in-chief of recently launched Guardian Australia and has been deputy editor of the Guardian worldwide since 2007. Having previously worked at London's Sunday Times, Katharine joined the Guardian in 1997 and has worked as a writer, editor of Weekend magazine, features editor, head of comment and Saturday editor.
Read the transcript (210kb pdf)
2012 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
The Future of News
Kim Williams AM
“We’re here tonight because we believe journalism matters. And one of the reasons it matters is that it’s one of the last bastions of idiosyncratic public individuals who say what they think without fear or favour. Journalism has always been populated by larger than life souls: often testy, frequently witty and hopefully always readable. They make life richer and more interesting and give us cheer, hope, fury and a sense of what it is to be part of the cavalcade in society’s affairs.”
Kim Williams, AM, Chief Executive of News Limited.
Read the transcript (130kb pdf)
2011 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
If you ask me about the future of newspapers you have asked the wrong question
Greg Hywood
Greg Hywood, CEO Fairfax Media
2010 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
The end of journalism as we know it – and other good news stories
Annabel Crabb
The media landscape is changing rapidly. Newspapers are under increasing financial pressure. The old paradigms for journalism are under threat and in the middle of this media revolution, no-one can say what the future of journalism looks like.
Annabel Crabb, ABC Online’s Chief Political Writer.
Read the transcript (430kb pdf)
2009 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
The Fall of Rome: Media after Empire
Mark Scott
ABC Managing Director, Mark Scott discusses the future of journalism in an age when the media moguls have fallen, private equity dominates and increasing numbers of people access news and entertainment online.
Read the transcript (135kb pdf)
2008 A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism
Do newspapers have a future? And how long is that future?
Michael Gawenda
Do newspapers have a future? And how long is that future? Well, I ask you to imagine Melbourne without The Age and the Herald Sun or Sydney without The Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph. Imagine Australia without The Australian. If you can imagine such a future, in my view, that’s in part because of our failure to produce newspapers which attract the sort of fierce and life-long loyalty they once attracted.
Read the transcript (165kb pdf)
More information
The first A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism was presented in 1938
Details of previous lectures from 1997-2011 are available on the University’s Speeches and presentations A. N. Smith Lecture in Journalism web page.
Contact
Mailing address
Centre for Advancing Journalism
The Faculty of Arts
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010 AUSTRALIA
Annemarie Levin
School Administrator
School of Culture and Communication
Email: alevin@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 5507
Master of Journalism course enquiries
Email: arts-gradadmissions@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: 13 MELB (13 6352)
Website: Master of Journalism
Location
School of Culture and Communications
Level 3, West tower, John Medley (Building 191)
The Faculty of Arts
The University of Melbourne