Professor Colleen Murrell researches international newsgathering and teaches broadcast journalism at DCU. Colleen has a PhD in communications from the University of Melbourne and a Master’s degree in international journalism from City, University of London. Her PhD thesis and a subsequent book (Routledge, 2015) were on the role of fixers in international newsgathering.

Colleen is interested in evolving trends in global news, transnational broadcasting and digital and social media. Her most recent work has included research into philanthropy in the media, terrorism coverage and journalists’ online media engagement with the public. She is keen to find pan-European partners for joint research projects in the areas of digital media, oral history, media production and broadcast news. 

In 2021 she is the project lead of a FUJO team working jointly with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), overseeing the Irish end of research for the annual Reuters Digital News Report (DNR), a global research study into the habits of digital news consumers. The other FUJO researchers are Dave Robbins, Dawn Wheatley and Kirsty Park. Colleen is also writing a book for Palgrave MacMillan on BBC newsgathering. Alongside her work at DCU, she is an external examiner at Queen’s University in Belfast and an adjunct fellow at Swinburne University of Technology.

Colleen has held visiting research fellowships at the University of Oxford (Reuters Institute), LSE and City, University of London. She is on the editorial boards of the Australian Journalism Review, Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics and the Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies. Colleen has published widely and presented at conferences run by the ICA, IAMCR, JERAA, WJEC and the biennial Future of Journalism Conference in Cardiff. Her non-academic work has been published in The Conversation. 

Before arriving at DCU in 2020, Colleen worked at Monash University, Deakin University and Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne where she taught courses in radio, television, international news and research methodology.

Before joining the academy, she worked as a senior journalist at a number of international news organisations, including the BBC, ITN, Associated Press, TF1, CBC, SBS and ABC Australia. She has travelled widely for work, including in many countries in the Middle East, and speaks fluent French and workaday Spanish.