Although education is a staple of news coverage, the reporting of school-based education rarely receives attention within journalism and media studies.Scholars in other areas, however, have argued that news coverage of education is highly influential and should be examined. The research consensus has been that education coverage is mostly negative and further, that teachers are frequently portrayed as to blame for perceived shortcomings in school systems. Such coverage is said to concern and affect schoolteachers. However, to date, very few studies have canvassed teachers' attitudes towards the reporting of education.This article contributes to this under-researched area by providing the results of a series of interviews with 25 Australian schoolteachers and principals about their perceptions of news coverage of education. The vast majority of the teachers interviewed considered news about schooling and teachers to be predominantly, and unfairly, critical. They described news reporting of education as frequently inaccurate and generally superficial. Many expressed a distrust of journalists and were wary about being interviewed. The implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for journalism practice and journalism education outlined.

The standardised testing of school children has been the subject of significant news media attention in recent years in many developed countries around the world. This paper examines the reporting of annual National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests in three major Australian newspapers, with a particular focus on the portrayal of schoolteachers in the coverage. Overall, teachers were presented as strongly opposed to NAPLAN and the publication of test results, yet the newspapers themselves supported the tests as an important accountability measure. Teachers were depicted as trying to influence the testing system through teaching to the test and cheating. They were presented as generally inadequate as teachers and were blamed for perceived failings in the educational system. These findings point to implications for teacher recruitment and retention, and for journalism education and training.

Although the proportion of female reporters has increased in almost all regions across the world in recent decades, news content continues to be dominated by male voices. Numerous studies from around the world have found that men generally comprise about 70 per cent of people quoted in news coverage. To date, these studies have focused on mainstream media coverage by established journalists. This article contributes to the existing literature by providing an analysis of student journalism from the Australian aggregated news site, The Junction. The analysis considered the gender of sources quoted, the function of the female sources and the inclusion of gender equality issues in the coverage. Overall, the student journalism was found to include a better gender balance, with females comprising about 44 per cent of overall sources and 46 per cent of expert sources. However, gender equality was the subject of very few stories, and almost all of these were all produced by female students. These findings are considered in relation to a growing body of research calling for gender education to be made compulsory for journalism students.

News media coverage on education plays a "uniquely important role in shaping public opinion", can influence educational policy, and can affect and concern teachers. Yet, research examining how teachers have been represented in the news is scarce. What is particularly scarce are investigations with a historical dimension. The study reported in this paper is offered as a contribution towards rectifying the deficit and pointing the way towards one of a number of avenues of research that other scholars in the field could take for various contexts (including different countries) and time periods. It is part of a much larger study whose aim was to provide a historical analysis of The West Australian newspaper's representation of teachers in its reporting of five major educational developments in the State of Western Australia that were the subject of sustained coverage at various times between 1987 and 2007. The specific topic which is the focus of the analysis presented in this paper is "standardized testing".

Tertiary educators across the globe are trying to identify the best way for students to complete their studies in a unit that synthesizes learning to date and prepares them to enter the workforce. The final unit, or capstone, has increasingly emerged as a key issue in higher education in recent years, and is the subject of a growing body of research. However, researchers have not reached consensus about the most suitable model for a capstone unit. The absence of a uniform approach is pronounced within the field of journalism education, where capstone units are not universal and a number of models are being used. In Australia, research has found that most undergraduate journalism programmes include a capstone unit, but that there are three models: the internship, the newsroom simulation and the project. The aim here is not to argue that one model is more effective than and preferable to others. Instead, this study contributes to the capstone literature by outlining student responses to a new project model capstone unit for journalism undergraduates at a Western Australian university. It evaluates the unit’s effectiveness against the stated purposes and principles of a capstone experience, and concludes that the project can achieve the dual aims of enhancing disciplinary skills and developing broader transferable abilities.