Rate My Professor Stephanie Brookes

Dr. Stephanie Brookes is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism in the School of Media, Film and Journalism, Faculty of Arts, at Monash University. She also holds the position of Deputy Director of the Constructive Institute Asia Pacific Hub. Brookes obtained her PhD in Media and Communications from the University of Melbourne, completing her doctoral studies from 2006 to 2009. She joined Monash University's Journalism Program in July 2013, teaching Journalism Studies and pursuing research centered on media, journalism, and politics. Her academic interests include election campaigns, political journalism and journalistic identity, fact-checking, editorial cartoons, identity and belonging in news media and political discourse, political communication, celebrity politics and populism, humanitarian and development journalism, national identity, and coverage of Australian and US politics and media.

Currently, Dr. Brookes serves as a Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council Discovery Projects: 'Cartoon Nation: Australian Editorial Cartooning - Past, Present and Future' (DP230101348), led by Associate Professor Richard Scully from the University of New England, and 'Australian Journalism, Trauma and Community' (DP240101293), led by Associate Professor Fay Anderson at Monash University. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, including co-editing the May 2018 special edition of Media International Australia on press gallery and political journalism in Australia. Her monograph, Politics, Media and Campaign Language: Australia's Identity Anxiety (Anthem Press, 2017), examines identity themes in Australian political campaigns. Recent publications include '“Creativity, Innovation, Wit and Style”: Editorial Cartoons as Boundary Objects in Australia’s Journalism Awards, 1958–2024' (Journalism Practice, 2025, accepted/in press), 'Communities of practice in the production and resourcing of fact-checking' (Journalism, 2023), '“For Gorsake, stop laughing: this is serious!”: Australia’s fragile cartooning archive' (Journal of Australian Studies, 2023), 'Communication research and teaching: the Australian Communication Association at 40 years' (Media International Australia, 2023), and 'Ceding ground as a strategic concession in fact-checking: Shifting practice to shift power' (Media International Australia, 2022). Previously Reviews Editor from March 2013 to March 2014, she is a long-standing member of the Australia and New Zealand Communication Association since 2013 and the Australian Political Studies Association since 2007, actively contributing to journalism studies and political communication scholarship.