The New Beats project will be discussed at two sessions of the Journalism Education Association of Australia conference at the Sunshine Coast on Monday 2 December.
The first of these, held straight after lunch, is the “Current and Future Trends in Journalism” session, where Lawrie Zion will present the findings of the project’s pilot survey conducted in September in a paper he co-authored with Merryn Sherwood, who has been working as a research assistant with the project. Responses from 95 journalists who became redundant in 2012 were received for this survey, which asked respondents about their experience of redundancy and their current work status.
Later on Monday afternoon Penny O’Donnell (one of the five chief investigators working on New Beats) will chair a session devoted to discussion about the project entitled “New Directions in Australian Journalism”. Fellow panelists include former Sydney Morning Herald editor Peter Fray, who now heads Politifact Australia, and Liz Minchin, who is Queensland editor of The Conversation, as well as New Beats team members Matthew Ricketson, Andrew Dodd, and Lawrie Zion.