Ms Felicity Biggins

Biography

Felicity Biggins began her career as a Journalist at the Newcastle Morning Herald in the late '70s. After completing her cadetship and graduating with Honours in Drama in a BA at the University of Newcastle, she moved to the UK, gaining an MA in Theatre Studies from the University of Leeds. Returning to Australia in 1986 she secured a position in ABC Radio, working first in the national news room before transferring to Current Affairs Radio, reporting for such programs as AM, PM and The World Today. In 1992 she and her young family moved back to Newcastle, where she worked as a producer at 1233 before gaining a permanent position at 2NURFM as a producer and announcer. For seven years she presented the Morning Program at the station before resigning to take up a full-time position as a Lecturer in Communication at the University of Newcastle. With her husband playwright Carl Caulfield she runs a small theatre company called Stray Dogs.

Qualifications

• Master of Arts (Drama and Theatre), University of Leeds - UK, 1984
• Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment & Training, TAFE (NSW), 2007
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Newcastle, 1983

Research

Research keywords

• Journalism
• Narrative journalism
• Radio
• creative non-fiction
• media production

Research expertise

My area of research interest is creative non-fiction writing, a form of journalism whereby a writer uses the techniques of literary writing to tell a factual story. I am enrolled in a PhD in at the University of Canberra under the supervision of professor Matthew Ricketson. My other main area of research interest is the impact of technological change on pedagogy in Journalism and Media Production, especially relating to Radio Studies.

Collaboration

My colleague Christina Koutsoukos and I have worked together for the past three years on the need for Journalism education to keep pace with the rapid change affecting the media industry in Australia, in particular its impact on the high-level technological skills reporters will need to have to survive. We are looking into how students cope with the technological demands of cross-media reporting while they are also being asked to acquire all the traditional skills of the journalist and all in a 13 week course.

Fields of Research

Memberships

Body relevant to professional practice.

• Member - Journalism Education Association of Australia

Teaching

Teaching keywords

• feature writing
• journalism
• media production
• radio

Teaching expertise

I teach into the Journalism major and the Media Production major in the Communication program in the School of Design, Communication and IT. The courses I co-ordinate and teach into include Introduction to Professional Writing, Introduction to Journalism, Feature Writing, Introduction to Radio, Media Production Radio, Radio Journalism and Journalism.