Monash Journalism staff: Philip Chubb
Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Discipline
Philip’s career combines leadership positions in print, television and online media with publishing, business and communications technology. Prior to joining Monash as Associate Professor in 2008, his industry roles included Melbourne Editor of The National Times, leader writer of The Age and deputy editor of Time Australia; in television he was Executive Producer of The 7.30 Report (Victoria) and National Editor of The 7.30 Report. More recently, as a sign of his commitment to community broadcasting (Channel 31), for five years he oversaw production of a nightly news bulletin with journalism students as reporters and presenters and was also Executive Producer of a C31 half-hour weekly environmental sustainability program called Making the Switch. In 1994 he set up his own media company, which he has led to the forefront of electronic publishing in Australia.
Philip’s work as a reporter has included stints on The Age’s investigative reporting team, feature writer and state political editor for The Age. He was national and Asia Pacific correspondent for Time Australia, where he reported extensively from Canberra and also covered the stories of hope and despair in the emerging nations and economies of Australia’s neighbours, including the ethnic tensions and violence in places as disparate as Malaysia and New Caledonia.
Philip has also co-authored two books, Judging the World and One Destiny! While both won significant scholarly respect, the former achieved the unusual distinction of being quoted approvingly in a judgment of the International Court of Justice. The widespread praise for Judging the World, which was about law, politics and human rights, centred on what critics saw as its originality and the wide sweep of its journalism. More than 50 judges from 17 superior courts around the world were interviewed as part of the research process. Former Australian High Court Justice Sir Ninian Stephen described this as “proceeding not by dry dissertation but by the exciting and immensely demanding process of confronting judges with the problems that lie behind the outwardly serene façade of the justice systems of the world.”
Philip also wrote One Destiny!, which was part of a major, multi-faceted publishing project that is still going on today, 10 years later. The overall purpose of the project was to explain and improve the popular understanding of the politics of Australian federation. The first stage was the creation of an encyclopedic CD-ROM on the subject of Australian nationhood, which was launched by then Governor-General Sir William Deane at Old Parliament House. Philip was the executive producer of the CD-ROM, which involved leading a multimedia production team for more than two years. The Federal Government bought 25,000 copies to send to all schools in the country and recently has commissioned Philip to move the CD-ROM content online.
In 1993, Philip formed a Political Documentary Unit in ABC TV, with a staff of seven, specifically for one project: a series of five, one-hour TV documentaries on the Hawke and Keating governments. Philip was the originator, writer and interviewer of the acclaimed series Labor in Power, which was also run by the BBC – representing the first time ever the British had purchased a News and Current Affairs documentary from overseas. Labor in Power is still seen on pay TV and is regarded by many critics as a tour de force, the best documentary of its type to be made in Australia.
In the past five years, Philip has also shown a deep commitment to community broadcasting. He has trained around 50 journalism students in television news, creating for them the structures of a daily TV newsroom and has provided them with a crew/editor. He produced them each day from story conferences early in the morning to going to air on Channel 31 later that same day. Many of these students went on to jobs in mainstream TV.
In 2007, Philip also led a team that made Making the Switch — a 26-week, half-hour TV show on practical sustainable living for the 31 network around Australia. The show attracted up to 100,000 viewers each week and was highly commended by sponsors, viewers and TV critics.
Philip has won numerous awards as a journalist. These have included a Logie (best TV documentary), a Gold Walkley (best journalism), a Walkley (best application of journalism to the television medium), the Gold Media Peace Prize, the Golden Gavel award of the NSW Law Society, four national community television awards, including for best program, and numerous awards for multimedia and web design. Philip is also a past-president of the Australian Journalists’ Association (now MEAA) and is an AJA Gold Honour Badge holder.
