Discursive Australia : Public discussion of refugees in the early twenty-first century
- Rodan, Debbie, Mummery, Jane
- Authors: Rodan, Debbie , Mummery, Jane
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Sydney : 27th - 28th September, 2004
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper interrogates recurring discourses in Australia’s public domain with regards to the issue of refugees and Australianness, and how they have been used to ratify notions of inclusion and exclusion with regards to what being Australian - or indeed being un-Australian - does and should mean. The unpacking of these primary discursive positions will be based on an analysis of the letters to the editor published in both The Australian (Australia’s national newspaper) and The West Australian, covering one key period from 22 January to 28 February 2002 (a period encompassing the Woomera hunger strike).
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003001231
- Authors: Rodan, Debbie , Mummery, Jane
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Sydney : 27th - 28th September, 2004
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper interrogates recurring discourses in Australia’s public domain with regards to the issue of refugees and Australianness, and how they have been used to ratify notions of inclusion and exclusion with regards to what being Australian - or indeed being un-Australian - does and should mean. The unpacking of these primary discursive positions will be based on an analysis of the letters to the editor published in both The Australian (Australia’s national newspaper) and The West Australian, covering one key period from 22 January to 28 February 2002 (a period encompassing the Woomera hunger strike).
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003001231
Mediating legal reform : Animal law, livestock welfare and public pressure
- Mummery, Jane, Rodan, Debbie, Ironside, Katrina, Nolton, Marnie
- Authors: Mummery, Jane , Rodan, Debbie , Ironside, Katrina , Nolton, Marnie
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Annual Conference
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Legal protection of animal welfare in Australia is problematic with livestock (defined here as all animals farmed for use and profit, including poultry and aquatic animals) being effectively excluded from the majority of animal protection statutes. Such legal exclusions, joined with the inherent challenges of legal reform in this field – significant issues to do with standing, costs bearing and jurisdiction – have increased the difficulties of successful litigation. Despite explicit recognition of the necessity for reform in Australian animal law – in 2008 the Australian Law Reform Commission journal, Reform, took as its subject the ‘next great social justice movement’ of animal welfare and animal rights – a number of legal strategies for reform have been summed up by the Principal Solicitor for the Pro Bono Animal Law Service (PALS), the national legal referral service for animal law operating between 2009 and 2013, as having been exhausted. Specifically, the challenges of standing and costs bearing have meant that many meritorious animal welfare matters have not been able to be pursued within the legal domain. Alternative strategies for the achievement of legal reform in this field are thus required, and at this point in the history of the Australian animal welfare movement, one significant strategy is arguably emerging: that of strategically using social media to develop public interest in these issues and to focus this interest into effective pressure in the political, social and industry domains. This paper thus carries out an analysis of this development and focusing of pressure by animal welfare organisations through their use of social media, specifically considering a) the social media strategies utilised by such peak animal welfare bodies as Animals Australia and Voiceless, and b) the recently released Animal Effect smartphone app. More generally, this is a paper outlining and analysing the architecture of social media and public pressure being conjoined in the service of the livestock law reform movement. This paper is part of a larger project in which we record and analyse how animal welfare issues are conceived, articulated and argued within the public domain.
Platforms and activism : Sharing 'My Make it Possible Story' narratives
- Rodan, Debbie, Mummery, Jane
- Authors: Rodan, Debbie , Mummery, Jane
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Annual Conference
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Although livestock welfare issues were once barely visible to mainstream consumers, animal welfare activists now combine traditional public media advocacy with various media platforms to spread their campaign message as widely as possible. For instance, Animals Australia’s ‘Make it Possible Campaign’ has used billboards, print media, television, radio, YouTube, Facebook, blogs, website stories, and Twitter to make livestock welfare issues visible to consumers. Such variety of platforms make it possible for animal activist groups such as Animals Australia to not only hail and mobilise consumers in a way that was not possible previously, but also to attract supporters, advertise their campaigns, and raise awareness of issues in the broader community on a grander scale than in the past. Activists activate multi-platforms as a way of promoting subsequent collective awareness and action, and bringing about both social and legal reform. The focus of this paper is on the mobilising of personal stories uploaded into the ‘My Make it Possible Story’ website. Content analysis of these stories will be overlaid with analysis of the timings of story uploading and their relation to other media activity carried out by Animals Australia will be examined. Attention will also be paid to the occurrence of what we term ‘media spikes’, where these spikes describe significant increases in public engagement with Animals Australia’s re-framing and re-posting of mainstream news items on their various websites, Facebook and Twitter. For instance, the highest number of stories posted in the ‘My Make it Possible Story’ website, on 21 October 2013 (1,065), coincides with several media spikes encompassing multiple media domains. Our examination of Animals Australia’s ‘My Make it Possible Story’ website demonstrates the kind of results activists can achieve using platforms such Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We make the case that such activation of multiple platforms promotes engagement and participation through facilitating affective communicative investments and exchanges, a form of exchange fundamental, we argue, to the success of calls for social change and the reshaping of citizen and consumer attitudes. This paper is part of a larger project in which we record and analyse how animal welfare issues are conceived, articulated and argued within the public domain.
The development of critical thinkers : Do our efforts coincide with students’ beliefs?
- Mummery, Jane, Morton-Allen, Elise
- Authors: Mummery, Jane , Morton-Allen, Elise
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 32nd HERDSA Annual Conference : The Student Experience, Proceedings, Darwin, Northern Territory : 6th-9th July 2009 p. 306-313
- Full Text:
- Description: Critical thinking is one of the key attributes that crops up regularly in discussions concerning the role of tertiary education. In particular, it manifests in discussions about graduate and employability attributes: along with disciplinary content and skills, stakeholders contend that graduates should emerge from their tertiary studies with enhanced abilities in critical thinking, decision making, problem solving, logical reasoning and so forth. Indeed, excellence in teaching is seen to be tied to students’ development of these skills just as much as to their building of discipline-specific knowledge. So, given that the development of these skills is thought to be an essential part of students’ university experiences, what are they, how might we go about fostering them, and how do our students perceive our efforts? What are their perceptions of not only critical thinking, its importance, development and transferability to other subjects in their education or aspects of their lives, but of our attempts to inculcate it in their education as a core value and set of skills? Hence, rather than expounding on the importance of critical thinking skills or outlining the various strategies I have developed as a philosophy lecturer to best facilitate students’ acquisition of these skills, this paper tells another story. Specifically it presents highlights from the results of a recent research project (carried out in 2008 and involving philosophy students at the University of Ballarat) that analysed students’ own beliefs regarding their development as critical thinkers.
- Description: 2003008034
- Authors: Mummery, Jane , Morton-Allen, Elise
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 32nd HERDSA Annual Conference : The Student Experience, Proceedings, Darwin, Northern Territory : 6th-9th July 2009 p. 306-313
- Full Text:
- Description: Critical thinking is one of the key attributes that crops up regularly in discussions concerning the role of tertiary education. In particular, it manifests in discussions about graduate and employability attributes: along with disciplinary content and skills, stakeholders contend that graduates should emerge from their tertiary studies with enhanced abilities in critical thinking, decision making, problem solving, logical reasoning and so forth. Indeed, excellence in teaching is seen to be tied to students’ development of these skills just as much as to their building of discipline-specific knowledge. So, given that the development of these skills is thought to be an essential part of students’ university experiences, what are they, how might we go about fostering them, and how do our students perceive our efforts? What are their perceptions of not only critical thinking, its importance, development and transferability to other subjects in their education or aspects of their lives, but of our attempts to inculcate it in their education as a core value and set of skills? Hence, rather than expounding on the importance of critical thinking skills or outlining the various strategies I have developed as a philosophy lecturer to best facilitate students’ acquisition of these skills, this paper tells another story. Specifically it presents highlights from the results of a recent research project (carried out in 2008 and involving philosophy students at the University of Ballarat) that analysed students’ own beliefs regarding their development as critical thinkers.
- Description: 2003008034
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