December 13, 2024

Journalism students, health researchers collaborate on new podcast

Talking Health Innovations is where storytelling meets cutting-edge research

A creative partnership between University of Wollongong (UOW) journalism students and academics at UOW: Health Innovations  has sparked a brand-new health podcast.

Now streaming on Spotify, Talking Health Innovations is where storytelling meets cutting-edge health research. The podcast is an eight-part series that covers a range of health-related topics including topics such as  anorexia nervosa,  wearable technologies,  domestic violence and placement poverty.

Professor Caleb Ferguson, director of UOW: Health Innovations, said his team had a wealth of information and research they wanted to communicate, but many are in the early stages of their careers and have limited media experience.

“We are a newly established research entity at UOW and have many early career researchers doing impactful work that they want to communicate with a wider audience to have impact and community benefit,” Professor Ferguson said.

“But not all of our academics have media experience and wanted an opportunity to practice in a familiar environment before they engage more widely with journalists.”

^{Professor Caleb Ferguson is the Director of UOW: Health Innovations}

That’s where Dr Shawn Burns and his journalism students came in.

“Our students are responsible for broadcasting and producing content for UOW’s RadioU,” Dr Burns said.

“RadioU is part of the journalism program’s UOWTV initiative and our unique ‘one big newsroom’ cross-year approach to journalism education. We’ve got state-of-the-art radio and television studios available on campus, plus a treasure trove of academics and research at our fingertips.

“It made sense to bring together our journalism students, broadcast facilities and academics to work on a project that benefitted each other in different and positive ways.”

Dr Burns who is the Discipline Leader for Journalism and Visual Communication Design at UOW put his third year Editorial Leadership students to work. He tasked students with producing weekly long-form interviews with Health Innovations early career researchers. At the end of the semester the interviews would be collated into a podcast.

“The students were expected to research the background of each academic and their research and then interview individual academics live-to-air on RadioU,” Dr Burns said.

“Students had to develop engaging and thoughtful interview questions and deal with any hiccups along the way – whether this be last minute cancellations or audio challenges – which is exactly what happens once you’re working as a broadcast journalist after you’ve graduated.”

^{Dr Burns is the Discipline Leader for Journalism and Visual Communication Design at UOW}

Editorial Leadership is the journalism capstone subject and one of the final subjects undertaken by students at UOW. The subject gives students the opportunity to showcase the knowledge and skills they’ve developed across their three years of study.

“Working with the Health Innovations researchers was a great opportunity for our students to research interesting but often complex topics and practice their interviewing skills on live radio,” Dr Burns said.

“The process saw students take on various editorial leadership roles, including editor, chief of staff, producer, and director positions and the resulting podcast is something they should be very proud of.”

Professor Caleb Ferguson said the live interview format was a positive experience for the Health Innovations researchers and the resulting Talking Health Innovations podcast was an added bonus.

^{The podcast is now streaming on Spotify}

“This project gave our researchers a fantastic opportunity to hone their interview and media skills in a professional broadcast environment, while still sharing their research with a wider audience,” Professor Ferguson said.

“To see the podcast sitting on Spotify is a testament to the students' hard work and professionalism and speaks volumes to the effort our academics put in to share their knowledge and expertise, even if they’re not in a familiar environment.

^{Dr Colin Cortie with UOW journalism students and Dr Kelly Lewer during her RadioU interview}

“It isn’t always easy when you’re in the early stages of your academic career to put yourself out there, especially in a media environment, and I know our researchers found the experience beneficial.”

One of the researchers who took part in the Talking Health Innovations podcast was Dr Colin Cortie. Dr Cortie spoke to students about his research into Australia’s rural and regional health workforce.

“It was a great experience for me and gave me an opportunity to practice how to communicate data-driven research into bite-size information that is interesting and easily understood by others,” Dr Cortie said.

“A few weeks after the RadioU team spoke to me I was asked to do a television interview for WIN News and felt well-prepared – I had my key messages and examples ready to go.

“The interview experience with the journalism students was great preparation and I encourage other UOW academics to jump at any opportunities to be interviewed on RadioU.”

^{Dr Colin Cortie being interview by WIN News}

More information

You can listen to Talking Health Innovations on Spotify.

About UOW: Health Innovations

UOW: Health Innovations unites experts in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dietetics, nutrition, sports and exercise science, medical and health sciences, and Indigenous health to tackle different health challenges. The team is committed to advancing knowledge and addressing pressing health challenges through cutting-edge research, education, and consumer and community engagement.  

About UOWTV and RadioU

UOWTV and RadioU showcase University of Wollongong journalism, storytelling and creativity. Content is produced by UOW students, and is curated by UOW journalism students and staff. RadioU is part of the journalism program’s UOWTV initiative and our unique ‘one big newsroom’ cross-year approach to journalism education.

Find out more at the UOWTV website or listen to RadioU.