Meet the School of Communication and Creative Arts

Today we speak with Jennifer Martin: Jennifer is an experienced print and broadcast journalist who teaches feature writing and journalism at Deakin. Here she shares what she has learnt about her own creative practice, her influencers, gaining her PhD later in life, and connecting with students to enable them to realise that their writing and reporting matters and can make a real difference to the community.

What do you teach at Deakin? 

Jennifer: I teach all things journalism, which includes local and community journalism, journalism in society, feature writing and multimedia journalism. I have a passion for long-form features and a fascination with podcasts which can be traced back to my career as a print and broadcast journalist.

How would you describe your creative practice?

Jennifer: Well that is like trying to unmake a cake! I approach my creative practice, which can take the form of writing academic or mainstream articles, or writing my book (which is consuming me at the moment), planning lessons, conducting interviews and creating podcasts, with a simple motto: ‘If I don’t do it it isn’t going to get done’. What this means is that I do not and cannot wait for inspiration to hit. I have to trust in the process, my process, every day. This means turning up to the page, doing the preparation, overcoming the fear of failure and doing the work. Then turning up the next day. But guess what? I’ve discovered the hard way that none of that can happen if I don’t eat, sleep and have ‘white space’ on the calendar to daydream. So it’s a constant creative work in progress that I ‘practice’ as well as I can, as much as I can.

Who has been your biggest influence on your career to date?

Jennifer: I have been very fortunate to have had some excellent mentors who have given me great encouragement and sage advice just when it was most needed. The biggest influence on my career to date has been my wonderful Deakin colleagues who have gone out of their way to help me find mine when their time was extremely pressured and it would have been much easier for them not to. So my biggest influence is a ‘posse’ (that includes Professor Matthew Ricketson, Assoc. Prof. Kristy Hess, Dr Katrina Clifford, Dr Emily Potter, Assoc. Prof. Kristen Demetrious and my former colleague, Professor Lisa Waller. I would not be here, doing a job I love, without their collegiality and that is not something that I underestimate in the highly competitive university sector.

What do you consider your greatest achievement in life?

Jennifer: What an unnerving question! I don’t think I’ve done it yet? So tempting to say my children and yes, that is true, because having my two sons and my daughter changed, and continues to change me, in ways I would never have imagined in my twenties. Which is a very good thing indeed. So beyond that I think one of the things I am the most proud of is getting my PhD later in life as a single Mum, which then opened the door to a full-time career as a scholar. But watch this space because I’m sure I’ll have other ‘greatest achievements’, I just don’t know what they will look like!

Walkley Digital Archive Pilot. Available at: http://omeka-s.deakin.edu.au/s/walkleyarchive/page/home

What has been your favourite Deakin experience?

Jennifer: It is hard to find a way to say this without it sounding cliche so I’m not even going to try. It’s connecting with the students. That moment when teaching, or talking before or after class or in a ‘catch-up’ coffee when I can see the light-bulb go off over their heads and the excitement on their faces when they ‘get it’. Sometimes that may be a difficult theory, sometimes it is how to structure an argument for an essay or pull together vision and sound for their assignment but other times it is the realisation that they not only can do this thing called ‘journalism’ or ‘writing’ but that they are doing it and doing it well. And that their writing, their reporting, matters and can and will make a real difference to the community.

How would you describe the Deakin learning experience for students?

Jennifer: The learning experience is defined by the dedication of the teaching staff and those teachers will do all that they can to help you become a self-directed learner. And what that means is that you will, for the rest of your life in whatever career or direction you choose will be able to find out what you need to know, when you need to know it and you’ll be able to share it with others in a way that will make a difference. Students learn at Deakin what it is like to be respected for your intellect, for your hard work and diligence in learning difficult things so that you can become a better citizen. And these are lessons that don’t end at graduation.

What is your best advice for someone looking to enter a creative career?

Jennifer: Don’t underestimate the courage that it takes to have a creative career. Respect yourself for embarking on a path that will challenge you every time you turn up to it. Be kind to yourself but never stop turning up and seeing how much more you have to give. Know that only you can do the work. But most importantly, remember the ‘white space’ – look up and walk away from the work to ‘fill the well’ of what makes you, you. Because that is what we want to see in your creation. You.

What is it like teaching and studying your discipline online?

Jennifer: It has its challenges, like classroom teaching. The eternal bug-bear of poor wi-fi and technology glitches take on a whole extra dimension of terror when you’re teaching multi-media and the connection keeps dropping out! But I’ve found I’ve had some wonderfully engaged students online and some of the most interesting and engaging group presentations, despite the challenges these students often face, such as holding down full-time jobs or trying to study remotely with wi-fi that makes a tin can and a bit of string look hi-tech. I also love that moment when I phone my ‘Cloud’ students to welcome them to the subject and they nearly fall over with surprise – in a good way – that I am asking them to tell me about themselves. As for studying my discipline online – that is heaven. Having begun my undergrad Arts degree at Melbourne Uni in 1987 I am so grateful to have pdfs of articles and e-copies of books at my fingertips. Although I can still be found wandering ‘the stacks’ in the library because that is my idea of a good time.

Dr Jennifer Martin teaches Journalism at Deakin