Fay Anderson

My interdisciplinary research centres on Australian media history, with a focus on trauma, photography, crime, oral history, the Holocaust, biography, genocide, and memory. My latest project is ‘Australian Journalism, Trauma and Community’ [DP24010129], with colleagues, Dr Deb Anderson (Monash), Dr Stephanie Brookes (Monash), Professor Laura Jobson (Monash), and Professor Alex Wake (RMIT). My books, which relate to journalism safety, include Witnesses to War: The History of Australian Conflict Reporting with Richard Trembath (MUP, 2009), Shooting the Picture: Press Photography in Australia, co-authored with Sally Young (MUP, 2016), and The Holocaust and Australian Journalism: Reporting and Reckoning (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

Definition of journalists' safety

Journalism safety encompasses physical, psychological, and legal care, support, and protection. All journalists should be able to report with impunity and safely to be protected from intimidation in person and online, reprisal, harm, and death.

Future plans for research on journalists' safety

My new ARC-funded project is ‘Australian Journalism, Trauma and Community’ [DP240101293]. I'm the Lead Chief Investigator with the project team encompassing Professor Laura Jobson, Dr Stephanie Brookes, Dr Deb Anderson, and Professor Alexandra Wake. The project examines the professional and personal costs of reporting on trauma for Australian journalists and the communities they engage with by undertaking a groundbreaking historical study of journalists’ exposure to trauma over the past century. It seeks to generate new knowledge by transforming our understanding of the relationship between journalism and trauma and the broader implications for the profession and the public. Expected outcomes of this project include scholarly, educational and public resources in collaboration with media organisations, Everymind, and the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma.