As well as looking for insightful angles that are not necessarily ‘newsworthy’ in a mainstream sense, a notable thing about Ira Glass as the host of TAL is that he shares the techniques of making good radio.

There was one (probably among many) critical and seemingly obvious point when viewing Adam Curtis’s documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. Namely, that there are many important relationships, connections and consequences from all the actions and developments that shape our lives. Adam Curtis’s television essay journeyed from Ayn Rand to global financial […]

It seems somehow amiss to ponder the mystery of how music may move and motivate us to action when so much of the planet and its people are in unimaginable crisis. Yet I will share this anecdote, as I am sure it is somehow linked to an ongoing process of thinking and acting that can […]

‘Can you really teach rebellion?’ my friend asked after spotting the cover of the book on my table. ‘Yes, I think you can,’ was my reply. When Eleuterio, Sara, Hugo, Carmelina and other compañeros provide their account of the popular Mexican uprising in Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca, we can learn […]

Many years ago, I worked as a community worker in a drop-in centre. One day, a wonderful young man – who struggled physically and mentally in life – collapsed. A violent incident had shattered his fragile sense of peace and security in the world. Two female colleagues and I went to tell his parents he […]

Reporting Conflict: new directions in peace journalism Johan Galtung and Jake Lynch UQP Most of us are familiar with media treatments of wars with a focus on violence, and winners and losers. Jake Lynch and Johan Galtung call this the ‘low road’ of war journalism. They contrast it with the ‘high road’ of peace journalism […]

International Day of Mourning on 28 April each year is a good time to be thinking about the workers. Mid morning at No. 4 Jetty Port Kembla, Wollongong workers gathered to think about the devastation that comes for the families and communities of the more than a million workers who are killed at work each […]

You may be a member of a union. But have you ever been approached by some other union – approached as a member of the community – and invited to join a campaign or activity broader than wages and conditions? For example, have you been encouraged to attend meetings about the closure of local services, […]

Recent International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrations raised the question of what is the appropriate balance between celebrating successful Australian women, and the noteworthy achievements of women elsewhere who face great hardships. Along with many others, I had the opportunity to celebrate the bravery and resilience of women depicted in a series of short films called […]