5 August 2009

Senior ABC News and AusAID representatives are amongst the members of an eminent jury panel which will meet in Brisbane on August 14 to judge UQ’s 2009 Communication and Social Change Award.

The jury for the fourth Communication and Social Change Award includes Peter Cave, Foreign Editor of ABC News in Sydney; Annmaree O’Keeffe, AusAID Deputy Director General (Pacific, PNG and Policy Division); and Hugh Leonard, a former Secretary-General of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.

Joining them to select the best entries from a strong international field of 19 nominations will be jury Chair Professor Ken Wiltshire AO, UQ Business School’s JD Story Professor of Public Administration; the Head of the School of Journalism and Communication (SJC) Professor Michael Bromley; Associate Professor Pradip Thomas of the Centre for Communication and Social Change; and Dr Zala Volcic, an SJC Lecturer who is currently on secondment to EMSAH (the School of English, Media Studies and Art History).

The prestigious annual Communication and Social Change Award, launched in 2006, honours outstanding contributions by individuals or organisations to the theory and practice of Communication for Social Change (CSC).

Award nominations for 2009 have come from organisations or individuals based in Bangladesh; Burundi; Canada; the Congo; New Zealand; Nigeria; Papua New Guinea; the Philippines; Fiji; India; Rwanda; Sierra Leone; Uganda; and the USA.

“The fact that UQ’s Communication and Social Change Award now attracts a global spread of entries is a very encouraging sign for the whole stature of the Award itself, and for the on-going future of the Award process,” said the Director of the Centre for Communication and Social Change, Associate Professor Martin Hadlow.

Last year’s Communication and Social Change Award was won by distinguished Malaysia-based independent publisher and expert in participatory development and communication processes, Mr Chin Saik Yoon. In addition, reflecting the high calibre of 2008 Award entries, Nigerian CSC activist John Dada was honoured with a special Meritorious Commendation for Communication and Social Change Award.

The Award is administered by the Centre for Communication and Social Change in the School of Journalism and Communication.

Media: Ms Marsali MacKinnon, Centre for Communication and Social Change. Email: m.mackinnon@uq.edu.au telephone: +61 7 3346 3092.