Staff profile

Dr Lawrie Zion

Associate Professor, Journalism Coordinator

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry

HU2 215, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA (Hons-Melbourne) PhD (Monash).

Membership of professional associations

JEA (Australia). Assoc for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. IAMCR. The Australian and New Zealand Communication Association.

Area of study

Creative Arts
Creative Writing
Global Communications
Journalism
Media Studies

Brief profile

Lawrie Zion is one of the coordinators of the Master of Global Communications degree, and editor-in-chief of the online magazine, upstart (www.upstart.net.au) which showcases student writing, and provides a forum for emerging journalists. Articles written by Lawrie Zion for upstart on can be found here.

Lawrie Zion graduated in History from the University of Melbourne in 1981 and went on to write a PhD at Monash University examining the pop music scene in Australia during the 1960s. He has over 20 years of experience in the media, including a nine-year stint at ABC radio, where he was based at Triple J. His radio documentaries include a two-part feature on Barry Humphries, and a profile of Crowded House while the band was touring the USA in 1994. He has worked as a writer, researcher and interviewer for ABC TV documentary series ‘Long Way To The Top’ and ‘Love Is In The Air’. In 2006, he worked on the Crowded House Farewell to the World DVD, hosting the commentary track and conducting interviews.

From 2004 to 2006 he was the film writer for The Australian, prior to which he wrote for a range of publications including The Age, the US-based trade paper The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone Australia and HQ. He was also a regular guest on the Ten Network's The Panel. He continues to appear regularly on ABC radio and on ABC TV’s News Breakfast.

During 2006 he joined forces with Princess Pictures to write and research a one-hour documentary about the Australian accent called The Sounds of Aus. The program, which was presented by John Clarke, was broadcast on ABC TV on November 8, 2007, and is available on DVD. In 2008 The Sounds of Aus won Chicago's Hugo prize for best international documentary and was nominated for a Logie. It was also a finalist in the category Best Documentary Social & Political Issues in the 2008 Enhance TV ATOM Awards.

In May 2012 he launched a new blog ‘Best Practices: An upstart blog about best practices in digital journalism’.

Research interests

Journalism Studies

- Emerging journalism

- Journalism education

- Journalism ethics

- Journalism practice

Media Studies

- Cultural Studies

- Documentary production

- English in Australia

Teaching units

  • JRN1TEJ – The Emerging Journalist
  • HUS1TIN - The Interview.
  • JRN3AJP - Advanced Jouranlism Practice
  • JRN5TWJ – The Working Journalist

Recent publications

  • ‘Best Practices” in the Journalism Ethics Frame: A Comparative Study’, #ISOJ Journal (The official journal of the International Symposium on Online Journalism), 2(2), 2012, 71-99.
  • ‘“Best Practices” in the Journalism Ethics Frame: A Comparative Study’, published on the International Symposium on Online Journalism 2012 conference website.
  • ‘Sport Media and Journalism: An Introduction’ co-authored with Matthew Nicholson and Ramon Spaaij, Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, No. 140, Aug 2011: 80-83.
  • ‘A Profile of Australian Sport Journalists (Revisited)’ with Matthew Nicholson and David Lowden, Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, No. 140, Aug 2011: 84-96.
  • ‘Upstart: An innovation to facilitate student publishing.’ Refereed article based on paper presented at the International Association for Communication and Media Research conference, Braga, 21 July 2010. Published in Refereed JRE On-Line Journal 2010, published by Journalism Research & Education Section, IAMCR.
  • ‘(Up)start from scratch: Program blog offers platform for portfolio development.’ Scholastic Source, AEJMC Scholastic Journalism Division, March 2010, pp. 3 & 5.
  • Interview with Andrew Donohue, the editor of the online news site, Voice of San Diego. This interview was broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Future Tense on 21 April, 2009
  • ‘Building audiences into research' in Ian Donaldson and Mark Finnane (eds) Taking Stock: The Humanities in Australian Life since 1968, UWA, 2012, pp. 301-7.