Kay Nankervis
Lecturer in Journalism
BA (Communication - Journalism) CSturt, GradCert. - Writing
Kay Nankervis
Bio
Kay Nankervis joined the School’s permanent staff in 2004 after twenty years as a broadcast journalist for ABC, SBS and commercial networks in Australia and overseas. Kay began her career in commercial Sydney radio as a reporter and newsreader before moving to the ABC where she filled reporting, producing and presenting roles in radio and television. She has worked for ABC programs in Sydney, Melbourne and London - including AM, PM, The World Today, Australia Today, ABC Radio News and ABC Television News. When not working at ABC Kay has filled permanent and casual roles with news services 2WS Sydney, 2CA Canberra, SBS World News Australia (Television), Independent Radio News, London, 2MMM-Sydney (filing from London), Network Ten News, Capital Television, BSkyB News, London, and SBS Radio News.
Kay also trained professionally as an actor in Australia and London and has a number of stage, screen and television drama credits. Kay uses the voice training she gained as part of her acting studies – along with her own experience as a presenter and reporter – to advise students on how to develop and protect their broadcast voices.
Since 1999 Kay has worked as a journalist consultant on media relations campaigns and for media training companies – mostly in Sydney. She works with the School’s Organisational Communication staff to help deliver media skills training to School clients. She also does her own private media training and consulting in the NSW Central West region – mostly for government departments, NGOs and locally-based private corporations.
Teaching
Kay is Deputy Presiding Officer on the School of Communication Learning and Teaching Committee. She is subject coordinator of JRN303 Broadcast Journalism 3, JRN309 Broadcast Journalism Workshop and JRN101 Newswriting (Internal) within the undergraduate journalism degree and subject coordinator of JRN521 News Reporting in the post-graduate journalism degree programs. JRN309 and JRN 303 are core final year subjects for students specialising in broadcast journalism – and have a strong emphasis on television reporting. JRN101 is undertaken by all first year journalism students and students enrolled in the Organisational Communication and Commercial Radio degree programs. Kay is also an occasional guest lecturer for COM130 Media Production and Presentation and occasional guest tutor for COM213 On Camera Performance.
Subject Descriptions
In JRN303 Broadcast Journalism 3, students learn how to construct quality television journalism to industry standard. They are encouraged to find the best ways to tell their news and current affairs stories using pictures, sound, interview material and research information they collect in the field. They also are given opportunities to contribute as field reporters to the local radio news service broadcast on radio 2MCE-FM. In this subject students are able to polish their approaches to television and radio reporting gained in second year – both in the quality of their story-telling and in the depth of their journalism research.
In JRN309 (Broadcast Journalism Workshop) students revisit the program-making skills they developed in second year but with the emphasis shifting from radio news to television news and current affairs and radio documentary. They work in teams to produce and present television news and information programs streamed across the University. They also work to produce longer form radio documentary programs about the local region for broadcast on 2MCE-FM.
JRN101 is one of the introductory writing subjects provided for first year journalism students and students studying organisational communication and commercial radio. Building on understanding developed in first semester subjects, JRN101 Newswriting raises student understanding of “news sense” and writing for reading, viewing and listening audiences. Students learn about how to incorporate information into readable copy for delivery platforms that include radio, television, newspapers, magazines and online sites.
JRN521 News Reporting is a core subject within post-graduate journalism degree courses the School offers by distance. Students work at their own pace through radio, television, print and online reporting tasks while critically examining the output of current journalists. Kay also delivers the main components of the Residential School the students attend as part of subject requirements, enabling them hands-on access to the School’s television and radio facilities.
Research
Kay’s main area of research has been in television journalism skills. She has interviewed senior managers, heads of news and current affairs and news directors across all Australia’s free-to-air television networks, along with pay television’s Sky News Australia, on the attributes they look for in their recruits. These responses have been compared with surveys of rank and file journalists and with those of undergraduate students. Kay’s latest findings have been incorporated into her teaching and a recent review of the undergraduate journalism degree course at Charles Sturt University.
Recent publications and Conference papers
Nankervis, K (2008) “How skills rate in television newsrooms: comparing attitudes between
working journalists and broadcast journalism graduands.” Paper presented to the Journalism Education Conference, University of Wollongong, December 2008.
Nankervis, K (2007) “Hirers and firers in Australian television news: using oral history to
mark generational change.” Refereed paper presented to the Australian Media Traditions conference, Charles Sturt University, November 2007, published on AMT website, 2007.
Nankervis, K (2006) “Recruiting for television news: how the hirers decide.” Australian Studies in Journalism, (No 16), pp 129-146, 2006.
Nankervis, K (2005) “Skill needs for today’s television journalists: What Australia’s TV chiefs want most from the new generation.” Refereed paper presented to the Journalism Education Conference, Griffith University, 29 November – 2 December 2005, published on JEA conference web-site, 2005.
Nankervis, K (2005) Book Review: Richards, I Quagmires and Quandaries: Exploring Journalism Ethics UNSW Press 2005. Review published in Australian Studies in Journalism 2005 No 14.
Creative Works Projects
In 2008 Kay took several months study leave to research and write a stage play, The Sand Dwellers, investigating ethical dilemmas facing journalists in the shrinking world of Australian television journalism. A production is planned for the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre later this year. She is also working on a screenplay, Coast Town, exploring themes of exclusion and difference, reprieve and retribution and small community values.
