So You Want to be a Journalist?

Andrew Dodd is the director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne. He has been a journalist for more than 25 years, working in radio, TV, print and online. 

He was a broadcaster at ABC Radio National, where he presented many of the network’s programs and founded the Media Report. He was a national reporter at ABC TV’s 7.30 Report and a business and media reporter at the Australian newspaper. He is co-host of the Media Files podcast for the Conversation.

Margaret Simons is Associate Professor in the School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University. In 2015, she won the Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism. Her recent books include Six Square Metres, Self-Made Man: The Kerry Stokes Story, What's Next in Journalism?, Journalism at the Crossroads and Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs, co-written with former Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser. The latter won both the Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2011. 

In addition to her academic work, Margaret regularly writes for the Saturday Paper, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, Griffith Review, the Monthly and other publications.

Julie Posetti is a Journalism Lecturer at the University of Canberra, and a social media researcher/consultant who is writing a PhD thesis on ‘The Twitterisation of Journalism’.

Ian Royall is a senior reporter and the trainee program co-ordinator at the Herald Sun.  Ian joined the paper 18 years ago and has worked on the city, education, consumer and aviation rounds, as well as being deputy chief of staff. He started his career 30 years ago at the Toowoomba Chronicle and also worked in England, covering news and sport.