About the author
Colleen Murrell is a Professor of Journalism at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland since January 2020. She researches international news gathering, crisis reporting, public service broadcasting, news production and digital and social media. Her book BBC Women Reporting the World was published by Palgrave Macmillan in September 2025.
In her previous career she worked as a producer, reporter and news editor for a number of international broadcasters including the BBC, ITN, AP, TF1, CBC and ABC Australia. In these roles she travelled extensively in Europe, and the Middle East.
She is the chair of the editorial committee of The Conversation UK and a trustee and was the research lead for the Reuters Digital News Report (Ireland) 2021-2024. She teaches audio visual broadcasting and international news and has won several prizes for her teaching and research, including an Australian national citation for teaching excellence and a Deakin University VC award for research. Colleen previously worked at Monash University, Deakin University and Swinburne University and was an examiner for Queens University, Belfast (2021-2023)
Professor Murrell holds a PhD in media and communications from the University of Melbourne and has held research fellowships at the London School of Economics (2015-16); The University of Oxford - Reuters Institute (2011) and City, University of London (2007).
Colleen is the author of a range of scholarly publications, including the book Foreign Correspondents and International Newsgathering: The Role of Fixers (2015: Routledge). She has successfully supervised a number of PhD and Masters by research students and has taught postgraduate research theory and methodology.
She is on the editorial boards of the following journals: The Australian Journalism Review, Ethical Space- The International Journal of Communication Ethics, and The Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies. Back in Australia she was also on the executive boards of the Journalism, Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) organisation, The Junction (a national student journalism platform) and was the executive editor of Swinburne University's journalism output The Standard. Colleen was a judge for the UNAA Media Awards from 2008-17, and in 2020 was a judge for the Canadian Mindset Award for Workplace Mental Health Reporting and the NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards (2020).
Colleen speaks fluent French, basic Spanish, and has a basic understanding of Italian.
***
Theme of the talk by Colleen Murrell
The BBC began as a public broadcaster in 1922, a few years before Grace Kelly, later to become Princess Grace of Monaco, was born in Philadelphia. In those early decades it was hard for women to make their mark and have an enduring career in these fields. In Hollywood, women were icons of male desire, but were often underpaid and mistreated by the big studios. Oscar-winner Grace Kelly was one of the exceptions.
In the media, women found it hard to secure jobs as reporters or presenters but were rather relegated to behind the scenes roles. In this talk, Colleen Murrell will discuss the findings of her latest book, ‘BBC Women Reporting the World: Conversations with Foreign Correspondents’. In the book she profiles 10 well-known BBC reporters from Kate Adie, through to Orla Guerin and Lyse Doucet. She examines the challenges they faced to gain admission to the field of foreign correspondence.
Orla Guerin in Eastern Ukraine in 2022 reporting for BBC News. The Irish woman is one of 10 female reporters of different nationalities that author Colleen Murrell interviewed and feature in her book published by Palgrave Macmillan in September 2025.
Photo copyright: BBC Archives
Often seen with a camera in her hand for family events, Princess Grace was an expert communicator with an eye for telling a story through images. In addition, her talent as an actress on the other side of the camera and later her role representing Monaco alongside Prince Rainier III, her Head-of-State husband, could read like the skills required for a role in reporting.
Photo credit: Getty Images/Bettmann