Announcing the 2025 Anne Dunn Scholar: Prof Colleen Murrell
The Journalism Education and Research Association (JERAA) and the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association (AANZCA) are delighted to announce that the 2025 winner of the Anne Dunn Scholar Award is Prof Colleen Murrell, School of Communications, Dublin City University.
Murrell said upon receiving notification of the award, “I am deeply honoured and thrilled to be given this award. Anne Dunn was such an important scholar at a vital time for the growth of journalism in the Australian academy. Years back when she was president, she pushed me to apply for a JERAA research grant, which happily I won, and which helped seed some of my early research projects. Anne was a great leader of the JERAA executive, which I later joined. The work that JERAA and AANZCA carry out provides such a positive support to their members and I am happy to note that so many younger academics are now coming through to continue the great work of previous scholars in the field.”
Murrell’s work – in both her broadcasting and her academic career – has mostly focused on international newsgathering and comparative public service broadcasting. As a journalist she worked for a number of international organisations including the BBC, ITN, AP, ABC Australia and SBS. During her time as a producer, reporter, presenter and news editor, she travelled extensively in Europe, the Middle East and the US.
After her arrival in Australia and a maternity break, she was a reporter on SBS’s radio programme ‘World View’ and a newsreader and reporter for ABC’s radio programming into the Asia Pacific, ‘Radio Australia’. After a year of sessional work at Deakin University (2002-3), she was employed as a full-time lecturer and then senior lecturer (2003-2016) and later moved to further positions at Monash University (2016-18); Swinburne University of Technology, as an associate professor (2018-19) and from there to Dublin City University as a full professor of journalism (2020-to present). At DCU Colleen teaches and convenes modules in international news, TV, radio, and podcasting. Murrell’s latest book, BBC Women Reporting the World: Conversations with Foreign Correspondents, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in September. It looks at the challenges women have faced inside the corporation on their way to achieving fulfilling international careers.
Murrell has always worked hard for her students and has been rewarded by student success and teaching prizes. While at Deakin she helped set up a mentoring programme for NESBY and refugee journalists at SBS and has been a consultant in Ireland for the John Schofield Trust, another mentoring programme promoting diversity in hiring practices of young journalists. She has successfully supervised PhD students from India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and Ireland. In 2024-5 she was invited to be an academic mentor for the national ‘Preparing for Academic Advancement (PAA) Programme’. Over the past few years in Ireland she has participated as a PhD examiner for students from Australia, NZ, Ireland and the UK.
Murrell has helped build bridges between the academy and industry by taking part in judging media prizes, working pro bono for many years as a judge for the United Nations of Australia Media Freedom Awards, plus for the Canadian Mindset Awards and the NewsBrands Ireland Awards. Her work as the lead author of the annual Reuters Digital News Report Ireland has constituted an important piece of research for industry as its detailed data (100+ pages) contains valuable information as market research and it has been translated into countless media articles over the years. Murrell writes regularly on international news topics for The Conversation UK. She is the chair of the Conversation’s editorial committee and a pro bono trustee.