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If you have any enquiries, feel free to email us at info@womeninmedia.com.au
Facebook. Twitter.11 May 2012
More than 75 women from the WA media industry gathered at the spectacular State Theatre Centre to learn more about arts in WA and to enjoy the world premiere of Aiden Fennessy’s play about the Balibo Five, National Interest.
The May 8 event was the first Women in Media night to include a play as well as the trademark drinks and nibbles and the chance to meet with other women in the industry.
Arts writer and Women in Media committee member Victoria Laurie introduced the evening and made a plea for more journalists to report on the vibrant arts community in Perth and for the state and federal governments to increase funding to WA arts.
“A capital city without creativity is a dead one,” Laurie said.
She said theatre in WA received far less government funding than cities in the eastern states.
Laurie introduced Black Swan State Theatre Company artistic director Kate Cherry who explained that she had commissioned playwright Aidan Fennessy to tell the story of the five journalists killed in East Timor from the perspective of the journalists’ families.
“I was very moved by what happened at Balibo,” Cherry said. “Two of my collaborators in Melbourne have also lost family members that were journalists.”
After witnessing the passion of Shirley Shackleton, the widow of Greg Shackleton who was also killed in Balibo, Kate’s vision was for the play to be from the women’s point of view.
“It is very powerful to watch Shirley and her family members keep the story alive,” she said.
Cherry, who worked in Melbourne before coming to Perth, is positive about theatre in Western Australia.
“There is a unique freedom in WA, a willingness for people to let you take chances and artists really think outside the box,” she said.
Cherry said Black Swan’s main aim was to create work about Australians, by Australian people.
“Telling stories about our country is at the heart of what we do,” she said.
National Interest is, she said, ‘the perfect piece’.
The story of the Balibo Five has become well known after almost 37 years of media coverage as well as through books, films and documentaries.
A group of five journalists from Channel Seven and Channel Nine went to Portugese Timor to report on the civil conflict that was unfolding to make it real for Australians sitting at home in their living rooms.
They were killed during Indonesian incursions prior to the invasion that killed more that 100,000 East Timorese.
The Indonesian government claimed the men were killed as a result of cross-fire, however a 2007 coronial inquest found this to be a lie. The five men were deliberately murdered by the Indonesian military.
For award-winning playwright and director Aidan Fennessy, this incident hits very close to home. His cousin Tony Stewart, a sound recordist for Channel Seven, at 21, was the youngest of the Balibo Five.
Following four years of work, Fennessy’s play National Interest has made it to the stage. The co-production between Black Swan and Melbourne Theatre Company stars renowned Australian actress Julia Blake as June Stewart.
Although June’s character shares the same name as Tony’s mother and Aidan’s aunt, she is a completely fictitious character, created for the stage.
There was barely an empty seat as the WIM group took their seats in the Heath Ledger Theatre, which was only opened at the beginning of last year. At the end of the play, the cast returned to the stage twice before the applause subdued.
Fennessy was pleased with the performance as well as with how the audience received it.
“Tonight was the first time I’ve seen the play from the front of the audience, and it was a very different experience,” he said.
National Interest is playing until May 20 and is part of Black Swan’s coming of age as they celebrate their 21st anniversary season.
18 Apr 2012
The Women’s Leadership Institute Australia has launched a free contact directory of 100 female Australian business leaders available to provide media comment on business, finance and social issues.
The site, designed for journalists, aims to promote greater female representation in business and finance news commentary.
Visit www.womenformedia.com.au
18 Mar 2012
Broadcaster, comedian and disability campaigner Stella Young loves getting hate mail, as a teenager had ambitions of being a Play School presenter and advises all journalists to be braver when interviewing disabled people.
Above all, she has a desire for the media to reconsider the way it reports on, and represents, disability.
Stella, the editor of the ABC’s website Ramp Up, was the guest speaker at the 22nd Women in Media event on February 29. Women from the WA media industry gathered at the Telethon Institute for Child Research to hear a candid discussion between broadcaster and National Disability Insurance Scheme campaigner Geraldine Mellet and media commentator Stella Young.
Stella said disabled people were largely invisible to the broader community because the media, in all forms, rarely chose to represent disabled people as part of society.
“I want there to be a regular character on Neighbours who is a wheelchair user, or short-statured, or blind, where disability isn’t the central story line of everything they’re involved in,” she said. “I want someone who is a mother, or a wife, or who works at the coffee shop. Harold would employ them, he’s a nice guy.”
When the media did represent disability they often did it badly, she said.
Stella’s experiences, from childhood through to her work in the Australian media, are indicative of the way the media can get it wrong when reporting on disability.
01 Mar 2012
Women in Media are delighted to announce the date of the next event - Tuesday, 8 May.
Save the date now for this special event with the Black Swan State Theatre. More details to come.
30 Jan 2012
Following up on a 1996 survey by the Alliance, more than 1000 female journalists will next month participate in online research to investigate women’s news room experiences.
The study by Monash University senior journalism lecturer Louise North will cover issues including discrimination in recruitment and promotion, working conditions, job segregation and sexual harassment in print, online and broadcast media and wire services.
Women journalists who do not receive the email survey and would like to participate can email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
13 Dec 2011
This year saw Women in Media tackle some hard-hitting issues in the industry, but the last night of November proved to be a more light-hearted and fun affair. Among peers, colleagues and friends, WIM members took the opportunity to ring in the festive season, enjoy some Australian art, and celebrate another successful year.
Warm smiles, gourmet nibbles and Lamont’s wine greeted 110 guests at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, the cultural heart of the University of Western Australia’s lush campus. Guests had a chance to view the latest exhibition, Recent Past, hear about the UWA’s new Cultural Precinct and preview plans for the relocation of the Berndt Museum collection. As WIM committee member Liz Carey said, “Australian art is the Christmas gift” on this night of merriment and networking.
Recent Past showcases paintings and prints from 1969 to 1990, by Australian artists including Sydney Nolan, Carol Rudyard and Jeremy Kirwan-Ward. Each is an impressive and unique representation of Australia, born in a time of change, not only within the artistic world, but also in wider Australian society.
Nolan’s Flower Panels [Paradise Garden] print series provides a large scale burst of colour and visual texture. The representation of Australian wildflowers covers three gallery walls and attracted the most attention on the night. From kangaroo paws to herringbone ferns, each distinctive Australian flower is represented by a set of four individual pieces. The series grounds the collection by providing a well-established and recognisable link between Australia, its flora and nature.
Later paintings in the collection use more abstract and surrealist styles. Fete III (1978) by Susan Norrie renders Donald Duck in oil paints, and the scattered, colourful work The Lonesome Traveller (1989-1991) is still more abstract. Each artwork, bold in its own way, contributed to an interesting, colourful backdrop to the end-of-year festivities. The curatorial result of the collection reflects the Australian aesthetic of the era and cultural change over the 21-year period.
UWA’s Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research, Professor Robyn Owens, said an engagement with culture underpins the academic work of the University of Western Australia. “It is such a uniting force across all of our disciplines, and is such a source of inspiration and creativity,” she said.
As the media is such a significant aspect of modern culture, she said media professionals have an important role to play. The media is vital in publishing new knowledge so that it can be useful to society – a process she calls “socialising” knowledge.
“A lot of young scientists know how to work, most of them don’t know how to finish, and almost all of them don’t know how to publish,” Professor Owens said. “For our researchers to get knowledge out into the community, I’m encouraging them to think about other ways of socialising what they do. This is where you are my colleagues in this venture.”
Dr John Stanton, Director of UWA’s Berndt Museum and representative of the new Cultural Precinct (which includes the Lawrence Wilson Gallery), shares this opinion. “As the media, you are at the interface … you are the prime conduit for the information exchange,” he said. “We rely on you, the professionals, the help us develop the way we tell the story.”
Dr Stanton said the real value of the current exhibition and the Berndt Museum collection is in community relations, and the purpose of the UWA Cultural Precinct is to involve and engage the WA public. The Janet Holmes à Court Gallery, within the Lawrence Wilson gallery, will become a dedicated, accessible public space for the Berndt collections. Six monthly exhibitions, drawn from the 13,000 Indigenous artworks and cultural artefacts in the collection, will show a variety of what the Berndt museum has to offer, rather than being hidden away in storage.
The relocation of Ronald and Caroline Berndt’s collection was a painstaking process, Dr Stanton said, and this process will become the basis for the first exhibition in February 2012: Relocate and Rediscover.
But even the Janet Holmes à Court gallery will only be a temporary home. Well-known architect Gus Ferguson will design a purpose built facility to permanently house the Berndt museum on the UWA campus. He said the space will allow a wider audience to share in the extensive Indigenous collection.
A collection of never-before-seen Jimmy Pike illustrations will form the second exhibition, opening in the second half of 2012. Dr Stanton called on the media to help share the experience of this “special exhibition of 50 exquisite drawings” from the prominent artist. “You [media professionals] are a resource for us, but we [the university] are also a resource for you. We’ve got lots of stories, and we need your help to tell them to the public.”
These plans for the Berndt collection contribute to what Professor Owens referred to as “a way to use the entire campus as an environment that fosters creativity and innovation.”
The plans for the Cultural Precinct offer many stories worth telling, and a gallery full of Australian art is just the beginning. Both WIM and UWA strive to encourage collaboration, publish and socialise knowledge, and develop the next generation, philosophies that are sure to make 2012 a fruitful year for both.
Door prizes provided by WIM’s sponsors
Secrets Sssh solid 14ct gold or white gold stud earrings, valued at $200, each went to Deborah Spittle, Miriam Borthwick and Kara Jecks.
Designer, leather-look handbags and wallets from Sassy Duck went to Hazel Bailey, Alana Buckley-Carr, Amanda Banks and Jeanette Murray.
Two free tickets from the Summer Supper Club at the Old Bakery, featuring intimate readings and acoustic performances, went to Ali Martin.
For photographs by photojournalism student Nicole Pfeifhofer of the evening, visit the Photo Gallery.
04 Dec 2011
The Eliminating Violence Against Women Media Awards honour journalists for excellence in the reporting of violence against women in print, television, radio and online media, and celebrate media contributions to the prevention of violence against women.
Entries for the 2012 EVAs are now open for media produced by journalists/media outlets for a Victoria-inclusive audience between 1st January 2011 & 31st December 2011.
Full details here: http://www.evas.org.au
01 Sep 2011
Media roundtable on responsibly reporting suicide and mental illness
September 5, 2011 - 6.30pm to 8.30pm
ABC Studios, 30 Fielder Street, East Perth
Reporting suicide can be done in a helpful way, but it can also be extremely harmful.
You’re invited to explore and discuss this contentious issue at a special forum designed specifically for WA journalists.
Supported by Lifeline and hosted by 720 ABC Perth Mornings presenter Geoff Hutchison; a panel featuring Lifeline WA CEO Amanda Wheeler, Minister for Mental Health Helen Morton, bereaved father Geoff Diver, Mindframe representative Jaelea Skehan and West Australian Newspaper Editor Brett McCarthy will discuss reporting suicide in the media.
The forum is designed as a professional and personal support for journalists as they navigate this challenging area of reporting.
We’ll hear from people with personal experience and give journalists the opportunity to ask questions about their role in reporting suicide responsibly and compassionately.
This is an invitation only event and spaces are limited, so for more information or to book your place please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
All media are welcome, including journalism students and tutors.
Lifeline counsellors will also be present. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
31 Aug 2011
Save the date for WIM’s last event for 2011.
When: Wednesday, 30 November, 6.00pm - 9.00pm
Where: Laurence Wilson Gallery, University of Western Australia
26 Aug 2011
Dixie Marshall will never forget the shock of male reporters and the general public when she began sports reporting in Melbourne in the 1980s. Marshall remembers being spat on and getting death threats in her first year covering Australian Football League games.
She says the first time she turned up in an AFL change room, there was chaos; overloaded switchboards and letters to the editor followed. All this, she says, “Simply because a chick wanted to have a crack at doing what the boys did.” She hadn’t played the game, so how could she possibly report on it?
She did report on it, and successfully. Over the next 25 years, Marshall won awards for sports reporting as she rose through the ranks at Channels Seven and Nine to become Channel Nine’s senior news presenter. She gave the game away earlier this year to become the WA Government’s media director.
Marshall had a tough time starting out as a young sports reporter. But how much has changed for women reporting sport in Australia?
These questions and more were raised when more than 70 media and sports-women, and a handful of men, gathered at Patersons Stadium on July 27 for Women in Media’s 20th event, Levelling the Playing Field: Women in sports broadcasting.
Warm and dry in the John Worsfold room, overlooking a rain-lashed football field, WIM members caught up and networked over wine and canapés before assembling to hear WIM’s Victoria Laurie welcome Marshall to lead the discussion.
Marshall represents a time in sports reporting that, at first glance, is far away from this evening; and women of both hers and a new generation were eager to hear what she and her panelists had to say.
She introduced panel members Roanna Edwards, from the ABC’s Grandstand, and Caty Price, sports reporter with Channel Ten – “the princess of the punt”.
“These girls weren’t born when I went to Melbourne in 1986,” Marshall joked, as she kicked off a discussion ranging over concerns about tokenism and role models, making decisions about which sports to cover and how to cover them, and women’s treatment of each other as sports reporters.
16 Aug 2011
Do any WIM women want to hear the ‘best of the best’ talking about Public Affairs reporting?
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and Walkley Foundation are holding the Walkley Public Affairs Conference on September 5-6 in Canberra.
New speakers just confirmed for the conference include Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation Penny Wong, Commonwealth Ombudsman Allan Asher, senior journalist Lenore Taylor, and Karin Fisher from the ethics group at the Australian Public Service Commission.
View the program and book now at www.walkleys.com/publicaffairs
01 Aug 2011
The WIM Committee is busy planning the final event for 2011.
Have an idea for our next venue or guest speaker? Contact us.
30 Jun 2011
Join one of Australia’s first female sports television journalists, Dixie Marshall, in conversation with Network Ten sports journalist Caty Price and ABC sports broadcaster Roanna Edwards about what it’s like working in the sports arena today.
Is it a level playing field? Have we broken the grass ceiling? How have the off-field antics of sports stars altered sports reporting?
13 Apr 2011
The ultimate success is to find your own voice.
Geraldine Doogue, speaking at Women in Media’s first event for 2011.
Women journalists have come a long way since the days of Betty Friedan and Marguerite Higgins, but after all is said and done, journalism still appears to be a man’s world.
Despite the increasing success of women in journalism, international studies show that women comprise 33-38 per cent of newsmakers (that is, reporters and sub-editors) around the world, but hold just 0.1-0.9 per cent of the decision-making roles. Likewise, though Australian female students now heavily outnumber males in communications and media courses, and have done for the best part of a decade, women in the industry remain clustered in the lower-paid, low-status reporting roles.
While it is often a hard and frustrating way of life, there is quite a lot to be said by and about the women who choose to live it. One example is Geraldine Doogue, one of the nation’s most admired female journalists and broadcasters.
From the coverage of the Gulf War to the exploration of modern spirituality, she has sought to capture the challenges and opportunities facing Australians for more than 30 years, but few would be aware of the inherent struggle accompanying her success as a woman in the male-dominated media world.
Geraldine Doogue spoke to an assembly of more than 100 female journalists, public affairs professionals and communications specialists gathered at the ABC studios in East Perth on March 30 for Women in Media’s first event for 2011.
In discussion with former ABC journalist Miriam Borthwick, Doogue spoke candidly about her experiences as a woman in the media world. She focused on the ongoing struggle for equal treatment in the newsroom, while addressing topics ranging from parenthood to international assignments and occupational stability.
Reminiscing about her early years as a cadet journalist with The West Australian, Doogue reflected on the gender inequality that left decision-making in the newsrooms mostly to men. “When I first entered The West newsroom it was very patriarchal,” she said. “You had to learn to cop it, and not just cop it – be gracious about it. It was very much that you played by the men’s rules.”
25 Feb 2011
WA web design company and WIM sponsor, Red Tiki, has been selected as a finalist in the international South by South West interactive festival.
SxSW is a huge international festival showcasing the best new music, film & interactive work from all over the world.
Red Tiki will compete in the Business Category of the SxSW Interactive Awards with four other sites from around the globe, including that of international fashion giant Diesel.
This is the first time that an Australian company has been nominated for this award.
The winners in each category will be revealed at the 14th Annual SXSW Interactive Awards Ceremony on March 15 in Austin, Texas.
Good luck to Red Tiki from all WIM supporters!
21 Feb 2011
Renowned Australian journalist and broadcaster Geraldine Doogue has been confirmed as Women In Media’s first guest speaker for 2011.
This event is not to be missed. Book early to avoid disappointment as ticket numbers are limited.
09 Dec 2010
There was much to celebrate tonight at the Peggy Guggenheim: A Collection in Venice exhibition, when more than 140 WA media women gathered at the Art Gallery of Western Australia for Women in Media’s final event for 2010.
The Gallery’s art collection in the spacious foyer made a stunning backdrop to the assembled WA journalists, public affairs professionals and event sponsors (listed below) as they made and renewed connections, shared ideas and support, and heard of other women in the world struggling for basic rights and a voice.
The many remarkable women at the event also heard from Gallery director Dr Stefano Carboni on another remarkable woman—art collector Peggy Guggenheim.
Carboni spoke of successfully orchestrating the loan of the collection for the Perth gallery, the only gallery in Australia to be honoured with 35-40 specially selected works. He said he managed to bring this exclusive exhibition to Perth because of his contacts and networks.
After spending 16 years working as a curator for Islamic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Carboni had cultivated a network of peers and fellow art lovers. Through his connections, he was able to propose and execute the idea for an exhibition from Peggy Guggenheim’s Venice-based collection. He said these connections opened a lot of doors for him.
“I got to know a number of directors and curators in large institutions and the idea behind the great collections of the world is that we try to engage world renowned institutions to try and get a small sample of their collection and have a kind of exclusive agreement with them,” he said.
Carboni unknowingly touched on the very purpose of the Women in Media event—to build strength through networks and connections.
Women in Media guests flocked to the exhibit, some moving gradually through, others pausing in studious reflection. The gift shop was similarly crowded with devotees, where everything from vibrantly coloured umbrellas to mysterious rubber cylinders were passed around.
Peggy Guggenheim, art collector and heiress, was born in 1898. As she realised her passion for art, she began dedicating much of her fortune to supporting and promoting a wave of surrealist and abstract artists. Among them were Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp and Jackson Pollock.
The exhibition itself is a marvel of shape and colour, the arrangement of pieces saying much about Guggenheim’s diverse interests as an art collector. Duchamp’s much admired portrait of a Sad Young Man on a Train caused many an onlooker great intrigue, some even moving to look at it from across the room, where one bears witness to the terrible emptiness in the evocative painting.
Pollock’s vivid Enchanted Forest also proved popular, and one can easily appreciate that she captured an era of art that had brilliant range and unsurpassed imagination.
Carboni said the collection was not merely celebrating these artists, but their honourable and generous patron, who harnessed her passion by helping artists realise their potential.
The same can be said for the WIM evening, where the creative female talent of WA’s one of the toughest industries around came together to engage and share their journeys in a network brimming with possibility.
WIM thanks the Art Gallery of WA and Lamont’s winery for their generous sponsorship. Thanks also to the Richardson Hotel, Secrets Shh and Perth singing duo, Doris all of whom donated gifts won by women on the night
Click here to see the photos from the night.
26 Nov 2010
Reel Women…WA producers making their mark in film and TV
WA film and television producers, Celia Tait, Sue Taylor and Rikki Lea Bestall, revealed their success stories to a diverse group of women at the second Women in Media event for 2010.
The event was held at the WA Screen Arts Academy on Wednesday August 4 with talks from three women who have succeeded in the national and international screen industries.
After some delicious drinks and nibbles, the WIM attendees eagerly filed in to hear the women talk of their journeys breaking into film, the growth of Western Australia’s industry and roles for females.
Sue Taylor interested WIMers with stories from over 25 years experience as an independent producer.
Sue initially produced television documentaries in the 80s when she realised she wanted to do fiction and began to develop children’s drama projects.
“Documentaries were too close to the bone and as a newer producer it was easier to get into fiction through children’s drama,” she said.
She then established Taylor Media which has produced various children’s series, mini series, documentaries and feature films.
These include The Last Train to Freo, The Shark Net and 3 Acts of Murder.
“I kept taking risks and chances. Mostly I kept doing things and getting out there. When a door opens that much, I grab it.”
Her most recently co-produced film, The Tree, was selected to close Cannes Film Festival in 2010 and is in the running for best feature at this year’s Australian Film Institute Awards.
WAAPA film and television graduate Rikki Lea Bestall was another inspirational speaker at the event.
Rikki talked about how hard it was to find work experience after completing university.
“It was extremely hard being an independent producer in Perth…10 years ago in WA there was no work experience in film,” she said.
She then moved over east and worked behind the scenes on Australian series Neighbours and Blue Heelers to get her foot in the door.
12 Nov 2010
WIM would like to acknowledge the outstanding female winners at the 2010 WA Media Awards.
- Cathy O’Leary, The West Australian - Feature on Health-Related Issues Award for Playing with the odds.
- Claire Nichols, ABC - Culture and Art Report – the A.H Kornweibel Arts Award for Charlie
- Frances Pratt, The West Australian - Resources Report Award
- Linda Callaghan, Post Newspapers - Environmental Report Award for the Dolphin poison series
- Nikki Wilson-Smith, ABC - Feature in Electronic Medium Award for Family Violence
- Paige Taylor, The Australian - Print News Report Award for the Christmas Island Series.
- Phoebe Wearne, Albany Advertiser - New Journalist or Cadet Award
- Sarah Ferguson, ABC TV: Four Corners – Consumer Affairs Report for Over the Edge
- Sarah Quinton, The West Australian- Matt Price Award for Best Columnist
Posted: 11th May 2012
More than 75 women from the WA media industry gathered at the spectacular State Theatre Centre to learn more about arts in WA and to enjoy the world premiere of Aiden Fennessy’s ...
Posted: 09th May 2012
The WIM Committee are busy working on the final event for 2012.
Details will be released soon.
Posted: 18th April 2012
The Women’s Leadership Institute Australia has launched a free contact directory of 100 female Australian business leaders available to provide media comment on business, ...