Siobhan McHugh
University of Wollongong, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, Associate Professor, Journalism (Honorary)
My research examines the aesthetics and impact of crafted audio storytelling and analyses podcasting as a distinctive new medium. I am also an international award-winning maker of podcasts and documentaries, oral historian and acclaimed non-fiction author. My book, The Power of Podcasting: Telling Stories Through Sound, was published Feb 2022 by New South; a Columbia University Press edition in Oct 2022 covers US, Europe and all zones outside Aust/NZ. My award-winning podcast collaborations include three with The Age newspaper in Melbourne: Phoebe’s Fall (2016), about the bizarre death of a young Melbourne woman in a garbage chute, Wrong Skin (2018), which examines the collision between culture and power in a remote Aboriginal community, and The Last Voyage of the Pong Su (2019), about an unlikely drug heist involving North Korea and Australia. I consult on narrative podcast production: most recently on queer true crime/history podcast, The Greatest Menace, Audible 2022, described as 'Australia's S-Town'. It won gold for Best Social Justice Podcast at New York Festivals. I am also concerned with using oral history and orality to capture marginalised voices and promote social inclusion. To this end, I have advised organisations such as the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Committee to Protect Journalists (US), Rutas del Conflicto (Colombia), the Australian War Memorial. As part of a major Australian Research Council project (2015-17), I recorded oral histories on crosscultural aspects of the production of Aboriginal art and converted them to an ABC radio documentary, The Conquistador, the Warlpiri and the Dog Whisperer (2018) and a podcast series, Heart of Artness , http://heartness.net.au which won another gold at New York Festivals. I am Founding Editor of RadioDoc Review, an open access journal that uniquely brings together scholars and practitioners to develop in-depth critical analysis of the audio documentary/feature and narrative podcast form. My MOOC, The Power of Podcasting for Storytelling, with Future Learn (2018-2020), had over 35,000 participants from 150 countries. Other podcasts I've been consulting producer on: Gertie's Law, from the Supreme Court of Victoria, and Motherlode, a history of early hacktivists including Julian Assange.
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Videos by Siobhan McHugh
Awarding it Best Audio Documentary, the jury of the Australian International Documentary Conference noted: “Patrick Abboud’s investigation into the world’s only ‘gay prison’ combined forensic reporting with personal insight to tell a story by turns shocking, heartwarming, funny, and gripping. It carefully excavates a dark history full of painful truths about systemic homophobia… The makers demonstrate an expertise in the form, and it was the sort of series that reminded us of why we love audio storytelling.”
Papers by Siobhan McHugh
This article is an in-depth critique of three narrative podcasts, analysing aspects from production/structure and craft/sound design to editorial/research, hosting, script and storytelling. Hosted by female journalists with a Chinese background, all provide strong context on Chinese history and politics but focus essentially on an individual: The King of Kowloon (produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) memorialises an eccentric graffiti artist called Tsang Tsou-choi, his art seen in the context of Hong Kong’s shrinking democracy. Both The Prince (by The Economist) and How To Become A Dictator (by The Telegraph) zero in on Xi JinPing, President of the People’s Republic of China.