Profile of Dr Jaron Murphy, Chair of the Judging Panel 2023
Dr Jaron Murphy is Principal Academic in Journalism and Literature at Bournemouth University. An award-winning journalist, he has extensive editing, production and management experience internationally. In 2018, he appeared on a list of the 238 most respected journalists following research commissioned by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) which asked journalists working in the UK and Ireland“which living journalist they felt most embodies the values of journalism that they respect and adhere to”. He holds a DPhil in Literature from the University of Oxford.
Since 2021, Dr Murphy has worked as an academic-practitioner advisor and judge for the Orwell Society’s Young Journalist’s Award, taking over as Chair of the judging panel following the retirement of Prof. Richard Lance Keeble (former Chair of the Orwell Society and founder of the Orwell Society’s Journalism Bursary in 2018.)
In 2022, Dr Murphy reconfigured the award so that it is practice-based and aligned not only to forms of journalism in which Orwell excelled but also the applied learning and professional standards expected of up-and-coming journalists in the UK. This practice-based approach has opened up the award, with new judging criteria and rules, to prospective entrants from a wide diversity of backgrounds. In 2022, Dr Murphy also successfully negotiated a new award partnership between the Orwell Society and the National Union of Journalists (of which Orwell was a member). At the heart of this partnership is both organisations’ commitment to excellence and inclusivity in journalism education and practice.
With this, the prestigious OS/NUJ Young Journalist’s Award has become the most generous award opportunity for student journalists and working journalists under 30 years old in the UK: the monetary prizes total £4000 and there are also free membership prizes gifted by the Orwell Society and NUJ.
In addition, Dr Murphy has attracted a range of outstanding journalists to join the judging panel, with the stellar trio of Prof. Gary Younge, Marverine Cole and Tam Hussein onboard for 2023. For further details, please see:
https://orwellsociety.com/bursary/the-orwell-society-nuj-young-journalists-award-2023-open-for-entries/
The Orwell Society would like to thank Richard Lance Keeble and Abramis Publishing for the permission to share Dr Murphy’s attached academic paper which has appeared in the George Orwell Studies journal. Underpinned by his archival research, Dr Murphy’s peer-reviewed paper highlights Orwell’s relevance to the training of student journalists on NCTJ-accredited courses in the UK and calls for increased utilisation of Orwell by educators across multimedia journalism teaching:
A Textbook Case: Aligning Orwell and NCTJ Teaching – Journal of George Orwell Studies