What happens when a city defines itself by one industry, and that industry closes shop? The Port Kembla steel works, south of Wollongong, in 1965. Via Flickr/lindsaybridge Like Newcastle, Pittsburgh and Sheffield before it, Wollongong may be about to lose the steel industry to which its identity has long been tied. Unlike Newcastle, at least, this […]
It’s been some time since I’ve written about my PhD – I’ve been far to busy actually writing it instead (and teaching). In that time, the whole concept has shifted quite a bit – somewhat under its own weight and somewhat due to my own interests. This is a ‘catch-up’ post, partly to keep me […]
UOW conducted an open day yesterday, and thankfully the rain held off, unlike the rest of the weekend.
In 2003, Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa bought a local newspaper, Grocott’s Mail. The Uni set it up as an experiential training centre for students and plough any profits back into student bursaries. It reports your average local news stories; on the website front page today are two articles about the local council, Makana Muncipality.
I have settled on a case-study approach to my PhD research. It will focus on five local governments in the greater Illawarra region of New South Wales, considering how they form and react to public issues via participatory media. The five local governments, Wingecarribee Shire, Wollondilly Shire and Wollongong City, Shellharbour City, and Kiama Municipality, have been […]
The extraordinary developments at Fairfax have been well-covered throughout the Australian media and blogosphere. In particular, the Jonathan Green on The Drum, Andrew Jaspan in The Conversation and Eric Beecher in Crikey are very good articles, full of insight and context. But, if Fairfax falls, what will become of rural and regional papers? Or, perhaps […]
I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Wollongong (and the broader Illawarra) over the past five years – recreationally and for study. But I’ve never really thought about what a tourist might be looking for. In the last few weeks, I have had to approach the city from that angle because I’m organising a national […]
I have set this post to auto-publish at around the moment I will be graduating from my undergrad degree. The ceremony starts at 2:30pm! For the duration of this post, I’m going to ignore the fact that I have just applied to do an hounours year, and focus on celebrating the completion of my first […]
As I near the end of my undergraduate degree, I have started to consider whether to add honours to my qualification. I have been encouraged by a number of my lecturers to consider honours. I have good marks and I’m interested in further, research-based qualifications in the future. Nonetheless, at the moment, I wonder whether pursuing […]