JERAA Conference 2025

‘What Now?: Towards Restorative, Reparative and Rights-based Journalism’

A quarter of a century into the new millennium, journalism is no closer to regaining its footing. Evisceration of newsrooms continue to create news deserts, particularly in the regions. Relentless technological disruption threatens to push journalism into reactive conformity, constantly reshaping narratives to fit the latest platform trends. Journalists face an ongoing battle against misinformation and spin in what has become commonly referred to as the ‘post-truth era’, challenging their ability to hold power to account and ultimately diminishing public trust. As attention spans shrink, funding dries up, and public trust erodes, journalism must embrace bold new approaches that restore trust, repair harms inflicted in the pursuit of profit, and place human rights back at the centre of its mission. But what does this look like to contemporary journalists, and what concepts and innovations can journalism studies scholars look to, to deliver interventions? Without a fairly radical shift, journalism risks becoming little more than a tool for entertainment, propaganda, and algorithmic manipulation, leaving democracy itself vulnerable.

­The 2025 JERAA Conference asks, What Now? and is a call to action to draw a line and highlight research that embraces how we might repair and restore journalism.

The JERAA Conference 2025 will begin with a welcome reception on the evening of Sunday, 30 November. A professional development workshop for early- and mid-career researchers will take place that afternoon, prior to the reception. The main conference will run from Monday, 1 December to Wednesday, 3 December. The conference dinner and Ossie Awards will be held on Tuesday 2 December.

To join JERAA and receive membership benefits, including discounted conference pricing, please click here.

Please note that the JERAA website is experiencing intermittent issues with the membership page. If you have any problems, please register for the JERAA Conference at the member price and email the JERAA Treasurer <jeraatreasurer@gmail.com> to update your membership as soon as possible.

For more information, please contact: jeraaconf2025@griffith.edu.au

Conference Organising Committee

Kasun Ubayasiri | Susan Forde | Heather Anderson | Bridget Backhaus

JERAA 2025 is proudly supported by Griffith University's School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science and the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research.