'Rodney Tiffen is Professor in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His main scholarly interests are in media and politics, especially Australian politics. His main areas within this have concerned the reporting of international news and conflicts; the development of scandals; and of the publicity interests and strategies of political sources. He also has an interest in comparative democratic politics and research methods. His major current research project is on how Australian press political reporting has changed over the last 50 years. While based at the University of Sydney, he has spent periods as Visiting Professor in Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo, undertaken reviews of Radio Australia for the ABC, and working with an NGO as an observer of media reporting during South Africa's first democratic election in 1994.' (Source: The Australian Academy of the Humanities website)