Biography

Professor Peter Putnis PhD (Australian National University)

Professor of Communication

Peter Putnis, Professor of Communication, specialises in communication and media history with a strong emphasis on the history of international news networks. He is interested in the role of technologies of communication, and the networks they enable, in social formation and historical change. He is currently Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council funded project ‘Shaping the National Outlook: Overseas News in the Australian Press 1900-1950’.  This includes examination of the way the media helped construct apprehension of world events in Australia in this period. He is currently completing an edited volume, International Communication and Global News Networks: Historical Perspectives, which will be published by Hampton Press in 2011.

While his research specialism is media history, Putnis also has numerous publications on contemporary media topics including, media policy development, journalism ethics, the role of the news media in framing social and political issues, media and cultural diversity, and the development of the field of Communication and Media Studies in Australia. He is the co-author of a major textbook on professional communication principles and practices which covers areas such as interpersonal, intercultural and organisational communication, interviewing, working in groups, and negotiation. Between 1996 and 1999 he was Dean of the Faculty of Communication and, between 1999 and 2006, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Division of Communication and Education at the University of Canberra. He is on the editorial board of the journal Media History and, between 2004 and 2008, was co-chair of the History section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research.

Selected Publications

Putnis, P. (2010). News, Time and Imagined Community in Colonial Australia. Media History, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 153-170.

Putnis, P. (2010). Reuters and the British Government – Re-visited. Media History, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 295- 299.

Putnis, P. (2008). Indians in Fiji in the 19th century : An international communication perspective. In D. Gopal (Ed.), India-Australia relations: Convergences and divergences. Delhi: Shipra Publications, pp. 44-60.

Putnis, P. (2008). Share 999: British Government control of Reuters during World War 1. Media History, Vol. 14, No. 2., pp. 141-166.

Putnis, P. (2008). The Early Years of International Telegraphy in Australia: A Critical Appraisal, Media International Australia, No. 128, pp. 140-148.

McCallum, K. & Putnis, P. (2008). Media management in war time: The impact of censorship on press-government relations in World War 1 Australia, Media History, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2008, pp. 17-34.

Putnis, P. (2007). The British transoceanic steamship press in India and Australia. Journal of Australian Studies, No. 91, pp. 69-79; 183-86.

Putnis, P. (2007). Overseas news in the Australian press in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, History Australia 4(1), pp. 6.1-6.19).

Putnis, P. (2006). How the international news agency business model failed Reuters in Australia, 1877-1895. Media History. 12(1), 1-17.

Putnis, P. & Clark, E. (2005).  Copyright, media and innovation: Then and now.  Media International Australia, 114, 5-15.

Putnis, P. (2004).  The struggle over copyright in news telegrams in Australia, 1869-1912.  In S. Nolan (ed.) When journalism meets history:  Refereed papers from the Australian Media Traditions conference.  2003.  Melbourne:  RMIT Publishing Informit Library.

Putnis, P. (2004).  War with America:  The Trent Affair and the Experience of News in Colonial Australia.  Journal of Australian Studies, 81, 93-106.

Putnis, P. (2004).  Reuters in Australia:  the supply and exchange of news, 1859-1877.  Media History,  10(2), 67-88.

Other Topic Areas

Putnis, P. (2007). National perspectives in foreign news coverage: Australian reporting of French nuclear testing in the Pacific. In H. Nossek, A. Sreberny & P. Sonwalker (eds.), Media and political violence. Cresshill, NJ: Hampton press, pp. 143-58

Blood, R.W, Putnis, P., Payne, T., Pirkis, J., Francis, C, McCallum, K. & Andrew, D. (2002).  How the Australian Media Report and Portray Suicide, and Mental Health and Illness: The Case Studies. Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Health & Aged Care

Putnis, P. & Axford, B. (2002).  Communication and Media Studies in Australian universities.  Australian Journal of Communication, 29(1), 1-20.

Putnis, P. (2001).  Popular discourses and images of poverty and welfare in the news media. In R. Fincher & P. Saunders (Eds.), Creating Unequal Futures? (pp. 70-101). Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin

Putnis, P.& Petelin, R. (1999).  Professional Communication:  Principles and Applications, 2nd edition, Sydney, Prentice-Hall.

Putnis, P. (1996). Police-media relations:  Trends and issues. In D. Chappell & P. Wilson (eds.), Australian policing:  Contemporary issues, Sydney: Butterworths, pp.201-218.


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