http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/stephen-harrington/ Stephen Harrington is a Lecturer in Media and Communication at the Queensland University of Technology, where his teaching and research has focussed mainly on television news and entertainment. He therefore enjoys reminding his father that, in fact, he was quite wrong when he firmly told Stephen that one’s career prospects could not be enhanced by watching The Simpsons religiously. You should follow him on Twitter (@_StephenH), because that will help to increase his sense of self-worth. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Turning-media-bolognese-into-a-fresh-pack-of-pasta/ I would bet that for probably 95 per cent of regular visitors to The Punch, media policy is quite a way down the list of topics of interest. Like, near the very bottom. Even below Tanya Zaetta. For the punters, it just isn’t the stuff of sexy reading. But, for the egg heads out there, yesterday’s release of the final report from the Federal Government’s Convergence Review is the latest chapter in what can only be described as one big, hot, steamy, media policy orgy. For some people (which does not include me… I am far too lazy, ahem, busy doing my job) wading through the various chunky reports is like taking Viagra. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Turning-media-bolognese-into-a-fresh-pack-of-pasta/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Turning-media-bolognese-into-a-fresh-pack-of-pasta/#item8375 Tue, 01 May 2012 00:50:26 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-campaign-that-gives-us-reason-to-be-optimistic/ So, we all know about Kony 2012, right? It’s rather extraordinary to think that you’re probably reading this just five days after the Invisible Children campaign exploded over the internet, and yet you’re probably already thinking “I’m so over it!”  A week really is an age in internet time. And yet, I still don’t quite know what to make of it all. On the one hand, the motives of the campaign are very simple: stop an evil bastard. And, of course, it’s hard to argue against that in any way. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-campaign-that-gives-us-reason-to-be-optimistic/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-campaign-that-gives-us-reason-to-be-optimistic/#item7980 Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:30:33 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/eight-simple-rules-for-losing-your-doctoral-virginity/ Right now, there are thousands of brand new PhD candidates entering universities around the country. Many of them will be highly anxious, knowing that they have a long, difficult journey ahead of them which, statistically speaking, they have less than a 75 per cent chance of completing successfully. Emma Jane last year described doing a PhD as “childbirth for the brain”. And, while I liked her sentiment, I don’t agree that the whole process really has to be so “mind-meltingly, stomach-churningly, sleep-deprivingly difficult”. Just as there are many things expecting or labouring mothers can do to make childbirth easier and more bearable – epidurals, controlled breathing exercises, gym balls, warm baths, happy gas, umm… taint massage – there are some simple rules Doctoral students should follow in order to deliver their baby without recourse to forceps or an episiotomy. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/eight-simple-rules-for-losing-your-doctoral-virginity/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/eight-simple-rules-for-losing-your-doctoral-virginity/#item7702 Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:40:31 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-obama-win-the-election-yes-he-can-maybe/ Barack Obama was always going to have a tough presidency. He set the bar so high for himself during the arduous two year lead-up to his election that he was always at risk of sailing right under it when it came time to start enacting the “Change we can believe in”. Indeed, back in 2008 there were times when it seemed his strategists took their cues from Napoleon Dynamite’s Pedro, as he essentially promised the electorate: “vote for me and all your wildest dreams will come true”. In the nearly three years since he took office, he has made some important steps – passing a (slightly watered-down) health care package, most notably – but so many of his promises have gone unfulfilled and, although it pains me deeply to say it, his presidency thus far has been a bit of a wet firecracker. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-obama-win-the-election-yes-he-can-maybe/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-obama-win-the-election-yes-he-can-maybe/#item7494 Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:50:36 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/icb-the-myth-of-rural-virtue/ Welcome to this week’s “I Call Bullshit”, which has been slowly percolating inside of me for many years. It’s about the myth that there is a deep divide in this country between people who come from the cities, and the people who come from the regions, and that the latter are somehow fundamentally different from everyone else; that they are in some way more “real” Australians than the people who live in the comfort of the suburbs. Somehow, we have accepted this notion that once you drive out of a big city, you cross some invisible line that maps out “real” Australia. It’s one great big construct that has no basis in reality. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/icb-the-myth-of-rural-virtue/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/icb-the-myth-of-rural-virtue/#item7389 Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:55:46 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-we-get-rid-of-this-fat-home-intruder-already/ Santa sucks. It recently occurred to me that everyone eventually arrives at that same conclusion one way or the other. I certainly did on Saturday, at precisely 12:36pm. Earlier that morning my wife and I packed up our two boys (one nearly 4 and the other 11 months) and headed off to our local shopping centre. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-we-get-rid-of-this-fat-home-intruder-already/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-we-get-rid-of-this-fat-home-intruder-already/#item7354 Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:50:16 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-letter-to-the-schoolyard-bully-who-never-grew-up/ Dear Kyle, I just want to let you know that I feel sorry for you, mate. I really do. I think people are too rough on you. Lots of people say that you have no talent, but I think you do. I’ve never listened to your show (except for those times that you’ve been played back on Media Watch), but I know that hosting a radio show does take skill, and you have certainly done that for quite some time. For that reason alone I hope that everyone goes a bit easier on you in the future. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-letter-to-the-schoolyard-bully-who-never-grew-up/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-letter-to-the-schoolyard-bully-who-never-grew-up/#item7228 Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:35:30 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-pointless-political-inquiry-that-misses-the-point/ I’d been mapping out a strong, passionate critique of the media inquiry on my computer for the past fortnight. It was going to be the best article ever; a high water-mark in awesomeness. I was going to suggest that yes, a lot of very ordinary journalism gets published in newspapers these days (“Hey, this bloke just sent us some old nudie pics of someone that sorta looks like Pauline Hanson! How about I run them on the front page?”), but that’s absolutely nothing new. And if we’re going to start investigating the state of journalism then we probably ought to start with the crap on Today Tonight (which is sometimes is the highest rating show on a weeknight), given the broadcasting spectrum, as opposed to paper, is a finite public resource. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-pointless-political-inquiry-that-misses-the-point/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-pointless-political-inquiry-that-misses-the-point/#item7197 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:50:00 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/playing-games-in-an-uncharted-golden-age/ It’s a real shame that so many people out there still see computer games as child’s play; something that people naturally ought to grow out of in due course. Indeed the idea that only kids, or those (mostly guys) in a state of arrested development, should care for interactive entertainment is a very common one. It’s a mindset that has dominated a great deal of resistance to the (now almost inevitable) introduction of an R18+ ratings category for games in this country. Basically, many people just assume that games are for juveniles, and there should be no reason to expose the young-ens to any more graphic violence and nudity than they alread receive. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/playing-games-in-an-uncharted-golden-age/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/playing-games-in-an-uncharted-golden-age/#item7084 Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:45:47 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fooi-11-listen-to-the-experts-they-know-their-stuff/ I remember vividly a very long (and unbelievably frustrating) conversation I once had with someone who was genuinely convinced that he was “playing it safe” by not wearing a seatbelt whilst driving. I told this man that seatbelts are one of the most simple-yet-effective life-saving devices ever invented in modern societies, and, backed-up by mountains of independent research, any road safety expert will tell you that you’re crazy not to wear one every time you get in a car. But, this clown thought that the experts were “idiots”, and that he knew better. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Harrington) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fooi-11-listen-to-the-experts-they-know-their-stuff/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fooi-11-listen-to-the-experts-they-know-their-stuff/#item6986 Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:00:11 +0000 Stephen Harrington | Author bios | The Punch