Breaking Silences

Emeritus Professor Kerry McCallum was Director of the News & Media Research Centre (N&MRC) at the University of Canberra from 2019-2025. Her research in Political Communication specialises in the relationships between changing media and Australian social policy. Kerry has a strong record of grants management, publication and research translation, having been the recipient of five Australian Research Council grants.

Associate Professor Tanja Dreher is a Scientia Associate Professor in Media at UNSW Sydney. Tanja’s interdisciplinary research examines media and social justice through the lens of the politics of listening in the context of settler colonialism, Indigenous sovereignties, intersectionality and anti-racism. She works with community and activist media and has collaborated on media interventions with underrepresented communities.

Professor Kristy Hess is based in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University, where she examines the future of local news, media policy and audience engagement in a digital world. Her research explores how media-related practices inform understandings of news sustainability and how people shape perceptions of, connect and engage in local and civic settings.

Professor Lisa Waller is Associate Dean of Communication in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. Lisa’s research centres on journalism, and has also explored how a ‘rural imaginary’ shapes media representations of regional Australia. Her book publications include: Local Journalism in a Digital World (Palgrave) and The Dynamics of News and Indigenous Policy in Australia (Intellect) with Kerry McCallum.

Professor Eli Skogerbø is based in the the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo. She is co-director of POLKOM – the Center for the Study of Political Communication. Eli researches political communication in Norway and internationally, with expertise in foregrounding overshadowed voices in media reporting on truth-telling commissions and public inquiries.

Dr Megan Deas was a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the Breaking Silences project. With research expertise in visual communication, she focussed on the visual story of the Commission as it was depicted in the national press. Megan’s role on the project encompassed project management and liaising with research participants and partners.

Dr Alanna Myers is based in the School of Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne. Her research is interested in the relationship between media representation and social outcomes. Alanna’s research for the project focussed on local journalism’s role in instigating the Royal Commission and sharing its impact and findings with audiences.

Dr Poppy de Souza is the Bridging Hope Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Big Anxiety Research Centre at UNSW Sydney. Poppy’s scholarship is concerned with the politics of voice and listening—broadly defined—in conditions of inequality and injustice across a range of contexts with a focus on sites and practices of struggle and resistance.

Samantha Joseph is a highly experienced Aboriginal practitioner with over 14 years’ experience working in legal, policy and management roles for not-for-profits and NSW human service agencies. She worked in the policy unit at the Child Abuse Royal Commission prior to joining the Breaking Silences project as the Indigenous Research Associate.

Mona Chatskin completed her PhD at the News & Media Research Centre in 2025. Her research examines mediatised public crises and their impacts on the secondary subjects of such events, specifically focusing on groups and voices typically underrepresented in media. Mona’s dissertation focused on the Malka Leifer case study of institutional child sexual abuse.

Emma John joined the Breaking Silences project as the ARC-funded PhD student in 2019. Her doctoral research adopted a critical discourse analysis of the ABC’s coverage of the Royal Commission. Alongside her PhD dissertation, Emma worked as a Research Assistant with the News & Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra.