Free Gay Community Newspapers: Advertising Synergies Led To Expansion

In the 1990s a key shift occurred in Australian gay publishing with the rapid expansion of free city-based newspapers. These increasingly commercialized free newspapers adopted a business model based on seeking more readers in order to attract more advertisers. Their success was such that the overall national print run of gay and lesbian publications increased six-fold between the start and the end of the decade, 90% of which were free newspapers. This expansion coincided with the growth of a visibly more diverse gay and lesbian community. Newspaper publishers adopted building and defending this community as their primary political project that allowed a range of synergies to develop between the newspapers and the growing number of community groups, events and businesses. Each helped the other grow which led to greater knowledge of the community's activities and its political aspirations.     

Barabas and Shylock against a background of Jewish history in England

This article examines the history of the Jews in England up to and including Elizabethan times in order to add to our understanding of Shakespeare's Shylock. The examination also compares Marlowe's Barabas with the Bard's characterization in order that a fuller dimensionality of the Elizabethan concept might be made manifest. Such an examination should be helpful to those who seek additional information on the proper interpretation of these characters.     

Involving a village: student teachers' sense of belonging in their school-based placement

Educating a student on teaching placement involves a ‘village’, just as it takes a whole ‘village’ to raise a child. Creating a ‘village’ around each student teacher gives them greater agency, a sense of belonging and being valued as a member of that professional ‘village’. Participating students, teachers and lecturers share their perceptions of experiences in the one-day school-based placement that student teachers are required to undertake in a University of Waikato distance programme. Opportunities, relationships and a sense of inclusion are identified as influencing characteristics, “the all important human infrastructure that provides the opportunity for learners to succeed” (Campbell-Gibson, 1997 Campbell-Gibson, C. 1997. Teaching/learning at a distance: A paradigm shift in progress. Distance Education in North America, 1: 6–8.  [Google Scholar], p. 8) rather than any modern technologies. Findings indicate that where the school acted as the ‘village of learning’, the perceived suitability of the placement as a site for learning teaching was conceptualised through a developed sense of belonging, accomplishment and inclusion. It is argued that greater effort should be made by initial teacher education providers to locate such ‘villages’ for student teacher placements.     

Digital Technologies for Book Publishing

This paper is based on an Australian government-funded research project looking at the implications of digitization for the book publishing industry, which was originally completed in 2008 and later extended to cover up to the present day. Although Australian-based the project and subsequent research has wider implications for application elsewhere. The paper initially provides a snapshot of Australian book publishing in a global context, and then summarizes our findings on the current and potential future impact of digital technologies. The original research employed an interpretive research paradigm, using a mixed methodology design, including an online survey of book publishers and the conduct of 14 case studies. The extension of the original research project led to its being given a more global dimension. In reporting this new research, the paper discusses in detail the diverse range of technologies, their limitations and the risks and opportunities they offer to the book publishing industry. This includes insights into the business as well as technical issues confronting the industry.