Australian Media Traditions Conference

Location

Hosted by the School of Humanities and Communication and supported by the Centre for Heritage and Culture (CHC), the 13th Australian Media Traditions (AMT) conference will be held in-person at the Toowoomba campus of the University of Southern Queensland from Wednesday 20 to Thursday 21 September 2023. 

Overview

The conference theme is media 'beyond boundaries'.

Many media move beyond boundaries, whether national or international. Media has been a driving force of globalisation. Print may be distributed widely, cable services connect nations, broadcasts do not stop at borders, and the Internet connects world-wide.  

As Ashforth, Kreiner, and Fugate remarked in 2000, “the concept of boundaries has been used in numerous disciplines to refer to the physical, temporal, emotional, cognitive and/or relational limits that define entities as separate from one another”.  

Boundaries can therefore include nation state borders, cultural, political, legal, regulatory, personal, social and temporal boundaries, and boundaries between media platforms themselves.  

Australian Media Traditions 2023 invites scholars to share research perspectives on media’s historical movements beyond boundaries, both within Australia and internationally. 

Conference to cover areas including media institutions (newspaper, magazine, radio, television, and cinema), advertising, audiences, book publishing, digital gaming, journalism, libraries, media preservation and archiving, policy and regulation, publishers and printers, convergence and technological developments. Although offers connected to the theme of “beyond boundaries” are encouraged, all proposals for papers and panels will be considered.

Keynote speaker: Professor Elizabeth Leane (UTAS)

Professor Elizabeth Leane (Elle) is based in the School of Humanities in the College of Arts, Law and Education, University of Tasmania. She holds degrees in physics and literary studies, and her early research was in science communication. More recently, she has focussed on cultural aspects of human engagement with Antarctica, past and present. She is interested in how people form their ideas of Antarctica both through cultural texts and lived experience of the environment, and how these two ways of knowing the region interact. She has visited Antarctica as a writer-in-resident, an educator and a researcher, with the Australian, New Zealand and Chilean national programs. Elle has published seven books, including Antarctica in Fiction, South Pole: Nature and Culture, Anthropocene Antarctica and Performing Ice. She is currently working on projects related to arts, tourist mediation and public engagement in relation to Antarctica, in collaboration with industry and government partners.

K.S. Inglis Address

Naomi Moran, CEO, Koori Mail and Co-Chair, First Nations Media Australia (FNMA)

Naomi is a Dunghutti and Nyangbal/Arakwal woman of the Bundjalung nation, who grew up on the New South Wales north coast region.  Naomi’s career in Indigenous media spans over 20 years, including the Koori Mail, NITV, the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association, and the National Indigenous Radio Service.  Naomi also has a strong background in developing and delivering culturally appropriate mentoring programs to support Indigenous youth with their education and employment pathways, and also dedicates her time to mentoring and supporting Indigenous women and girls in the workforce. In 2016 Naomi returned to the Koori Mail when she was appointed to the position of General Manager, and now leads the organisation as CEO. Naomi is a strong advocate for Indigenous media, and recently was invited to join the Australian Governments newly established First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group. 

Founded in 1991, the Koori Mail is a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander newspaper and Australia’s only 100 percent Aboriginal-owned, self-funded media outlet. 

Special early-bird prices are available until 30 June 2023. 

The main airport is the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport (WTB), formerly known as Brisbane West Wellcamp, which is situated approximately 25 minutes via car to the Toowoomba CBD.

You may also choose to fly into Brisbane which is approximately 1 hour 40 minutes drive to Toowoomba. You can travel from Brisbane to Toowoomba via car, bus, or services such as The Airport Flyer. 

Learn more about UniSQ Toowoomba, including our available parking options and to view our campus map. 

September is Carnival of Flowers month in Toowoomba and peak tourist season. Accommodation is often booked out during this period. Please book your accommodation as early as possible to avoid disappointment. 

Local accommodation options

Toowoomba has many accommodation options available, from hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts or caravan parks with onsite cabins you’re sure to find somewhere suitable. You are also welcome to stay on-campus at the UniSQ residential colleges. Try browsing accommodation options online but please reserve your booking early as places do go quicky at this time of year.  

The university campus is just over 6 kilometres from the centre of the city.  You may choose to be close to the CBD and Queens Park, where there are many restaurants and cafés, or you may choose to be closer to the campus.  Either way, it’s a short car ride to get around the city.

We have listed some suggestions below, but there are many others available:

Stay in UniSQ Colleges

UniSQ Toowoomba Campus has residential colleges available to conference delegates at affordable prices.  https://www.unisq.edu.au/accommodation/colleges/mcgregor

Please email Emma on accommodation@unisq.edu.au. to secure your booking.

Hotels in the CBD area (alphabetical listing):

Burke and Wills Hotel: https://burkeandwillshotel.com.au/

Oaks Toowoomba: https://www.oakshotels.com/en/oaks-toowoomba-hotel

Potters Hotel: https://pottershoteltoowoomba.com.au/

Quest serviced apartments: https://www.questapartments.com.au/properties/qld/toowoomba/quest-toowoomba

Short walk to CBD:

Grammar View https://www.grammarview.com.au/

Others:

City Golf Club Motel: https://citygolfmotel.com.au/

Or check out the range of accommodation options online.