'Essential reading for those who care about journalism and its struggle to survive.'
—Nick McKenzie
Upheaval
Disrupted lives in journalism
When Fairfax Media announced in June 2012 that 1900 staff would be made redundant, a group of Australian academics quickly recognised that these redundancies marked a historical turning point — the end of a golden age in journalism — that needed to be studied and recorded. Upheaval, edited by Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson, attempts to tell the stories of those discarded by their employers often in the prime of their careers, and through their eyes tell a bigger story of what journalism was like in its heyday and how it has changed.
Brad's contributions
Chapter 11, 'Work-life imbalance', pages 145-154
Chapter 6. 'The constant undercurrent: Sexual harassment and discrimination' (with Penny O'Donnell & Merryn Sherwood), pages 89-101
Chapter 13, 'Pickets and payouts: Unions in the newsroom' (with Penny O'Donnell & Matthew Ricketson), pages 199-214
Praise for Upheaval
'I doubt there is anyone who has worked — or currently works — in journalism that would not have tears rolling down their cheeks as they read the stories of redundancy within Australia’s faltering news industry in this carefully edited collection. That’s not to say that Upheaval: Disrupted Lives in Journalism doesn’t also provoke laugh-out-loud moments at memories of newsroom antics or angry agreement about bullying, misogyny and blatant gender discrimination, but there is no getting around the fact that the central point of this book is tell the stories of the human impact of the brutal gutting of Australia’s media.'
— Pacific Journalism Review
'While the easier option would have been to tell the story through fewer narrators, the authors of this volume have given a masterclass in how to use oral history in a long form narrative. The result may read as though it were effortless, but I can attest that such an approach is not. Three longer profiles (Marr, Meade and Flip Prior) provide a deeper insight into the effect of the digital upheaval on individuals, and I suspect other interviews would have been equally as rich.'
— Australian Policy and History
'The early chapters lovingly describe the golden days of journalism at the peak of its influence. We are plunged into frenzied newsrooms with larger-than-life characters … At times, the stories read like the types of yarns, tinged in black humour, that journos would swap in the pub after deadline. But the authors do not shirk from the downsides of that newsroom culture as well: the lack of work-life balance, bullying and sexual harassment, and alcohol abuse.'
— Medium
This is undoubtedly a powerfully nostalgic book. But it also raises timely questions about the value that we attach to public interest journalism and whether we can find ways to sustain what is valuable in it.
— ArtsHub
'Essential reading for those who care about journalism and its struggle to survive. This book captures the essence of what it is to be a reporter amid tectonic shifts in the media and in the world that we strive to make sense of for our audiences. Anyone who follows the news and politics will be absorbed by Upheaval.'
— Nick McKenzie