The art of mentoring: examining some practices of media mentorship in culturally diverse Australia

The Art of Mentoring project combines written thesis with creative production to investigate some of the practices of media mentorships in culturally diverse Australia. Current and previous governments have developed programs that support students from culturally diverse groups enrolled in tertiary education media subjects to promote equality of opportunity and increase participation. This practice is intended to support, develop, and ultimately change the current look and feel of local media to reflect more accurately the diversity of Australian culture. There are questions, however, about the principles underpinning these programs and whether they have been sufficiently founded in research. This project addresses the gap in knowledge by asking: What is mentoring? With a substantive definition in hand it goes on t o consider: What, in particular, is media mentoring? What is the role of media mentorships in a culturally diverse Australia ? This project aimed to examine some of these practices of media mentorships in culturally diverse Australia and to highlight the benefits and drawbacks that have led to the successes and failures of mentorship programs locally. The methods used to answer these questions were practice - based enquiry and qualitative critical analysis of existing research. The written thesis builds upon current research that investigates the association between diversity and mentorship in culturally diverse Australia. Accompanying the 10,000 - word thesis is a 10 - minute documentary video interviewing mentors and mentees, exploring some of the ways that mentoring and mentorships have personally influenced their careers. The outcomes of this research are a synthesis of knowledge about general mentoring, highlighting specific roles of culturally diverse media mentoring in Australia; and a video resource documenting insight from successful mentors and mentees. Both offer some foundational guidelines that may support the development of programs locally.