Jeannine Baker

This article is about the historian. For the children's book author and artist, see Jeannie Baker.

Jeannine Baker is an Australian historian. She specialises in feminist media history and is a Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Newcastle, Australia. ^[1]

Life

Baker completed a BA in Mass Communications from Macquarie University and an MA in Public History at the University of Technology, Sydney. She completed a PhD in Australian history at the University of Melbourne in 2014. Her thesis, on Australian women war reporters during World War II, was awarded the Dennis-Wettenhall Prize for the best postgraduate thesis in Australian History. ^[2] It was later published as Australian Women War Reporters: Boer War to Vietnam. ^[1]

Baker has also worked as an oral history interviewer and made historical documentaries for television and radio, including Our Drowned Town (SBS TV, 2001) about the flooding of the New South Wales town of Adaminaby for the Snowy Mountains Scheme , Holding a Tiger by the Tail: Jessie Litchfield (Earshot, ABC Radio National, 2015), about the Darwin newspaper editor and journalist Jessie Litchfield. ^[3] and Fler and the Modernist Impulse (Hindsight, ABC Radio National, 2011), about Melbourne furniture design firm Fler and the influence of modernism on the Australian home. ^[4]

Jeannine Baker was a recipient of the International Federation of Television Archives Media Studies Grant in 2021, which she used to conduct research and publish about the role of women in early Australian television production for the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. ^[5] The project won the 2022 Media Award from Oral History Australia. ^[6] Baker also co-curated the '100 Voices That Made the BBC: Pioneering Women' website for the BBC and Sussex University. ^[7]

Publications

• Baker, J. Australian Women War Reporters: Boer War to Vietnam. Sydney: NewSouth, 2015 ^[8]
• Arrow M, Baker J, and Monagle C (eds), Small Screens: Essays in Contemporary Australian Television. Melbourne: Monash University Press, 2016. ^[1]
• Baker, J. (2021). The Women Who Made Australian Television: The Beginnings of Television. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/women-who-made-australian-television-1-beginnings-television
• Arnold, S., McCabe, J., Andrews, K., Badenoch, A., Baker, J., Ball, V., Hendriks, E., Jackson, V., Murphy, K., Sahu, I., Skoog, K., Terkanian, K., & Warner, H. (2025). Women’s broadcasting histories and the archive: National, transnational and transmedial entanglements. Critical Studies in Television, 20(2), 240-266. ^[9]

References

1. "Dr Jeannine Baker - University of Newcastle". University of Newcastle. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
2. "History Alumni Newsletter 2014" (PDF). The University of Melbourne - Faculty of Arts. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
3. "Holding a tiger by the tail—Jessie Litchfield". ABC Listen - Earshot. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
4. "Fler and the Modernist Impulse". ABC Listen - Hindsight. 12 October 2025.
5. Baker, Jeannine. "The Women Who Made Australian Television". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
6. "OHA Media Award". Oral History Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
7. "Pioneering Women". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
8. "Australia's pioneering female war reporters". Radio National. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
9. Arnold, Sarah; McCabe, Janet; Andrews, Kylie; Badenoch, Alec; Baker, Jeannine; Ball, Vicky; Hendriks, Elisa; Jackson, Vanessa; Murphy, Kate; Sahu, Ipsita; Skoog, Kristin; Terkanian, Kate; Warner, Helen (1 June 2025). "Women's broadcasting histories and the archive: National, transnational and transmedial entanglements". Critical Studies in Television. 20 (2): 240–266. doi:10.1177/17496020251330853. ISSN   1749-6020.