Matthew Ricketson
Biography
Dr Matthew Ricketson is a journalist and academic who has worked on staff at The Age, The Australian and Time Australia magazine, among other publications, and has run the Journalism program at RMIT for 11 years. Unlike 
many journalism academics who come to the academy after finishing a career in the news media, Matthew has moved back and forth between the two in his career, which began at the local newspaper chain, Standard News, in Melbourne, in 1981. He believes moving between industry and academy can and has been mutually beneficial to both parties. That is, he is able to bring fresh perspectives on journalism practice into the classroom and has also been able to apply his study of the news media in the newsroom, most recently in his position as Media and Communications Editor of The Age newspaper between 2006 and early 2009.
This recent newsroom experience coincided with a seismic shift in the newspaper industry, which is struggling to find a new business model to replace the one that has sustained it for close to two centuries, and with the rise of new media technologies that are transforming how journalism is being practiced, how people consume media and the relationship between news media and what Jay Rosen calls “the people formerly known as the audience.” As the inaugural Professor of Journalism at the University of Canberra, Matthew is committed to ensuring the journalism curriculum reflects these changes and, as far as possible, it prepares students for further changes to come.
As head of the discipline of Journalism and Communications, Matthew has overall responsibility for other professional practice courses – Advertising and Marketing Communication, Public Relations and Information Studies – as well as the more theoretically focussed Communications and Media Studies courses. In this role, Matthew is keen to develop the university’s postgraduate coursework offerings and to encourage postgraduate research whether at masters or doctoral level in journalism and the news media.
Matthew’s primary research is in journalism practice, whether its history, its future, its ethics or its broader role in society, and he welcomes inquiries from prospective postgraduate students interested in these fields.
His masters thesis was done by project and exegesis, at RMIT. The project was a journalistic biography of the Australian author, Paul Jennings, and the exegesis reflected on the professional practice issues that arose in researching and writing the book.
Matthew completed his PhD in April 2010. Entitled “Ethical Issues in the Practice of Book-length Journalism,” the thesis is about what happens when journalism is practiced at book-length. This area of writing practice goes by various names, such as narrative journalism, literary journalism, creative non-fiction and literary non-fiction, but by focussing on the extent to which such journalism is practiced at book-length, the thesis illuminates the particular issues that arise when journalists need to develop long-term relationships with their principal sources and when they write about people and events in a narrative mode. The thesis examines these issues through the work of leading Australian practitioners – John Bryson, Estelle Blackburn, Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper, Malcolm Knox, David Marr and Margaret Simons – and through two landmark works of book-length journalism, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s The Final Days.
PUBLICATIONS (since 2000):
BOOKS:
1. Paul Jennings: ‘The boy in the story is always me’, Viking, Ringwood, 2000.
2. Writing Feature stories: how to research and write newspaper and magazine
articles, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2004.
3. The Best Australian Profiles, editor, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2004.
BOOK CHAPTERS:
1. “Helen Garner’s The First Stone: Hitchhiking on the credibility of other writers”, in Bodyjamming, edited by Jenna Mead, Random House, Sydney, 1997.
An edited version of this book chapter was reprinted in Authority and Influence: Australian literary criticism 1950-2000, edited by Delys Bird, Robert Dixon and Christopher Lee, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 2001.
2. “Newspaper feature writing in Australia 1956-1996,” in Journalism: Print, Politics and Popular Culture, edited by Ann Curthoys and Julianne Schultz, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1999.
3. “True Stories: The power and pitfalls of literary journalism,” in Journalism: Theory in Practice, edited by Suellen Tapsall and Carolyn Varley, Oxford University Press, Sydney, 2001.
4. Co-author with Rick Snell: “Freedom of Information: threatened by governments, under-used by journalists - still a sharp tool,” in Journalism, Investigation and Research, edited by Stephen Tanner, Pearson Education Australia, 2002.
5. “Staniforth Ricketson and the rejuvenation of The Argus,” in The Argus: The life and death of a great Melbourne newspaper, 1846-1957, edited by Muriel Porter, RMIT University, Melbourne, 2003.
REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES AND REFEREED CONFERENCE PAPERS:
Summary: Eleven refereed journal articles and conference papers since 1990.
1. “Why journalists should use and cover Freedom of Information laws”, Australian Journalism Review, vol. 12, 1990.
2. “Ten years of Freedom of Information: what has it meant?” FOI Review, issue 53, October 1994.
3. “Freedom from information”, FOI Review, issue 63, June 1996.
4. “Freedom of Information and authors: an unsung treasure trove”, FOI Review, issue 94, August 2001.
5. “The slow-release fertiliser theory of journalism education”, Journalism Education Association conference, Griffth University, December 2005. Accessible at http://live-wirez.gu.edu.au/jea.
6. “Reassessing Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murderer”, Australian Journalism Review, vol.28, issue 1, 2006.
7. “The practice of book-length journalism: re-framing the debate”, Australia and New Zealand
Communications Association conference, old Parliament House, Canberra, Thursday
8 July 2010.
8. “The vibrant state of book-length journalism in Australia,” Australian Journalism Review, vol
32, issue 1, 2010.
9. “Truman Capote and the world he made,” Meanjin Quarterly, vol 69, issue 3, Spring, 2010.
10. “Not muddying, clarifying: towards understanding the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction.” Text, vol 14, no 2. Text is an “A” ranked journal.
11. “Is quick, is good. Or is it? Perils of the 24/7 News Cycle.” Communications Policy Research Forum, The Auditorium, Sydney, Monday 15 November 2010.
CONFERENCE PAPERS:
Summary: Ten conference papers since 2000.
1. “On writing a journalistic biography”, Journalism Education Association conference, Coolum, Queensland, December 2000.
2. “The Geoff Clark case and The Age”, Journalism Education Association conference, Perth, 2001.
3. “Wilfred Burchett and the bombing of Hiroshima: the story behind the story”, Australian Media Traditions conference, Melbourne, November 2003.
4. “Dumbing up can work: what The New Yorker experience can show Australian editors”, Journalism Education Association conference, Sydney, December 2003.
5. Melbourne Press Club annual conference, October 2004. Gave a paper about The Best Australian Journalism of the 20th Century project, focussing on Wilfred Burchett’s story on the bombing of Hiroshima.
6. “John Bryson’s Evil Angels: 20 years on”, Australian Media Traditions conference, Canberra, November 2005.
7. “Revisiting Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murderer”, Journalism Education Association conference, Griffith University, December 2005.
8. “The Ethics of Book-length journalism: Reframing the Debate.” Journalism Education Association conference, at University of Wollongong, 1-3 December 2008.
9. “The Historical Development of Book-length journalism in Australia.” Australian Media Traditions conference, at Sydney University, 23-25 November 2009.
10. “Writing media releases disguised in narrative form? A comparison of the work of Bob Woodward and Mark Danner”, Australian and New Zealand Communications Association conference, old Parliament House, Canberra, Wednesday 7 July 2010.
INVITED LECTURES and ARTICLES:
Summary: 27 invited lectures and articles since 2000.
1. “Is narrative dead?” Participating chair in a session of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s
freelance journalism conference, April 2000.
2. “Health promotion and the news media”. Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics conference on Adolescent Health and Ethics, June 2000.
3. “A Life’s work”. Participating chair in a session at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, August 2000.
4. “Spotlight on Paul Jennings” and “The Biographer’s torch”. Speaker at two sessions at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival, October 2000.
5. “The Art of Writing Lives” and “Getting a life for books: do reviews make a difference?” Participating chair in one session and speaker in another session at the Australian Centre for Youth Literature “Reading Matters” conference, June 2001.
6. “What’s right and what’s wrong with Journalism schools?” Speaker at a session for the Melbourne Press Club conference, October 2001.
7. “There’s a fraction too much fiction”. Speaker at the School Libraries Association of Victoria conference, November 2001.
8. “The value of journalism for secondary school students”. Speaker at Viewpoints magazine’s “Reading for Real” conference, Melbourne University, April 2002.
9. “The art and craft of writing feature stories”. Speaker at the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance freelance journalism conference, April 2004.
10. “Racism and the news media”. Speaker at a B’Nai Brith Anti Defamation League seminar, May 2004.
11. “Privacy, the media and the cult of celebrity”. Speaker at Melbourne University’s Centre for Media and Communications Law seminar, August 2004.
12. “Researching and writing book-length journalism”. Speaker at Victoria University of Technology’s professional writing course, September 2004.
13. “Literary Journalism: its value and vices”. Speaker at the Victorian Writers’ Centre seminar, March 2005.
14. “Handling sensitive information: access, Freedom of Information and suppression orders”. Speaker at Victoria University Law School’s News Media and the Law conference, June 2005.
15. Three guest lectures for the Literary Journalism course in the Masters by Coursework program at RMIT in July and August 2006.
16. Guest speaker at the Australian Teachers of Media annual conference in Melbourne, in 2006 and 2007.
17. “Privacy and the media”. Speaker at Melbourne University’s Centre for Media and Communications Law seminar, October 2008.
18. “The common pursuit?” Participating chair for a panel including Philip Gourevitch, Julianne Schultz, Sally Warhaft and Michael Burleigh about small magazines at the Melbourne Writers Festival, August 2008.
19. “Writers at the Crossroads”. Speaker on a panel for the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s freelance journalism convention, March 2009.
20. “Fact and fiction: Navigating the Borderlands”. Participating chair in a panel for the Sydney Writers Festival, May 2009.
21. “The healthy state of journalistic books in Australia”. Speaker at announcement of the shortlist for The Walkley non-fiction book award, 9 November 2009.
22. “What will journalism look like in five years time?” Public lecture delivered at the University
of Canberra, 30 June 2010.
23. “Andrew Bolt, expert offender, expert victim”. The Drum, ABC, 8 April 2011.
24. “Leaks, sources and passing the salt”. Inside Story, http://inside.org.au, 29 June 2011.
25. “The Blind Side”, Griffith Review, “Such is Life”, issue 33, Spring 2011.
26. “In conversation, with William Powers, author of Hamlet’s Blackberry”, Melbourne Writers Festival, 28 August 2011.
27. “Life Stories in the Age of Terror”, panellist in a session at the Melbourne Writers Festival, 28 August 2011.
28. “The relationship between local government and local media”. Co-presented session for the Excellence in Local Government Leadership Program run by the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), 6 September 2011.
POSITIONS HELD:
1999-2006: Coordinator of the Best Australian Journalism of the 20th Century project
2001-2007: Editorial advisory committee, Meanjin Quarterly
2001-2007: Committee member, Free Speech Victoria
2011-: Adviser to the Independent Media Inquiry set up by the federal government to be chaired
by Ray Finkelstein, QC.
MEMBERSHIP OF COMMITTEES AND ASSOCIATIONS:
2007 : Member of a panel to review the Journalism program at the University of Technology,
Sydney.
2007 : Member of the selection panel for the inaugural professorship of journalism at Monash
University.
1982- : Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance
1995- : Journalism Education Association
2001- : Australian Society of Authors
2002-9 : Member of the Melbourne Press Club
2009- : Member of the National Press Club
2010 : Chaired an external committee reviewing the School of Journalism and Communications
at the University of Queensland
AWARDS (since 1990):
1. 1991: United Nations Media Peace prizes citation, for a co-authored cover story in Time Australia magazine about the Vietnamese community in Australia 15 years after the arrival of the first boat people.
2. 1994: George Munster national award for freelance journalism, for a profile of Geoffrey Blainey headlined “A Lone Wolf”, published in The Weekend Australian magazine.
3. 1995: Short-listed for a United Nations Media Peace prize for a feature about the impact of the Jewish Holocaust centre on schoolchildren.
4. 2004: Feature story on the role of science in Australia’s sporting success headlined “Born to win, with a little help” selected for The Best Australian Sports Writing 2004 anthology, edited by Garrie Hutchinson.
JUDGING OF AWARDS:
1. 2000, 2003, 2010: Judge of the Walkley awards for the best newspaper or magazine feature article.
2. 2001-2006: Judge of the annual Quills awards for the best Victorian journalism
3. 2005: Judge of the national John Iremonger award for writing on public issues, coordinated by Allen & Unwin
4. 2005: Judge of the inaugural Victorian Premier’s Literary award John Curtin prize for journalism
5. 2008: Judge for the print category of the inaugural Walkley award for Young Journalist of the Year.
6. 2009, 2011: Judge for the Walkley award for best non-fiction book.
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