ECU student Dane Mepham nominated for WA Youth Award
Thursday, 19 September 2024
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Dane Mepham's podcast he created for his course work has lead to a nomination at the WA Youth Awards.
ECU student Dane Mepham is a nominee at the 2024 WA Youth Awards. He's up for the Charmaine Dragun Memorial Award.
The Information Overload Podcast was created by Dane. Aired on the university's radio station and ABC Radio Perth, the podcast investigates the effects of information overload on the brain, especially in young people. Highlighted - with the help of medical professionals - were solutions including social media limitations. The piece led to public discussion in media and organisations alike.
The Charmaine Dragun Memorial Award recognises an outstanding journalist, photographer, blogger or media contributor under the age of 25 who has committed to fair and balanced reporting on young people or youth issues.
The award acknowledges the role the media play in forming public opinion about young people and youth issues in the community. The awards encourage the media to take a lead by responsibly reporting on young people and youth issues.
Charmaine Dragun was a recipient of a WA Youth Media Award for an outstanding journalist under the age of 25, and this Memorial Award has been created in her honour. Dragun also studied at ECU and went on to have a career at Perth radio stations 6PR and 96FM before joining Network 10.
Dane recently chatted about his podcast project.
Tell us about the project you did that led to the award nomination, what was it about?
For one of my assignments this semester we had to make a small informative podcast, only about a couple of minutes around a news topic or current affairs.
What drew you to wanting to explore the challenge of information overload?
Originally it was something I started to notice myself. You probably know the feeling after extended amount of interaction with social media or TV news there just seemed to be this burnout I felt, especially if the news was overwhelmingly negative.
Because there is simply just so much happening and it’s so accessible. As someone studying journalism myself this was probably truer now than it used to be.
So, it basically started as a topic that I was interested in myself for my own reasons, and I thought if I’m feeling like this and asking these questions then there are probably a lot of others feeling the same way, and there wasn’t much information around it that I could find so I said why don’t I go find out?
I’m also someone who coaches kids sport and it then became an extension of if I’m like this how does it affect the growing brain. So, as I was exploring the topic and started to lean into that aspect as well.
What did you learn through undertaking this project?
The big takeaway really was that kids don’t filter information properly as they haven’t learned, and their brains aren’t capable of deciphering what is important information and what isn’t.
While adults are better at this there is still a level of too much information can cause the same problems, so being able to switch off is going to become a pretty vital skill.
What are you currently studying, and what’s your aspiration when you graduate?
I’m currently doing my Graduate Diploma in Broadcasting here at ECU, I’m hoping to work in entertainment TV, but I would like to start out on radio hopefully here in Perth.
You’ve been nominated for the Charmaine Dragun Memorial Award, did you know much of Charmaine’s story before being in this category?
Unfortunately, I don’t have much recollection of her as a broadcaster as I was a bit young but I’m fortunate to have learned a lot of her story from those who knew her. As a graduate from our course our coordinator Andrea Burns has always had great things to say about her as a person and professional.
I was lucky enough to have a brief chat with Jo McManus who also taught her and again Charmaine obviously left a lasting impact on everyone she knew in the industry. Based on how people remember her I know I’m very lucky to be nominated for an award in her honour.
What are youlooking forward to on the big night of the awards?
It’s actually been a while since I’ve been to an awards evening so I’m looking forward to getting out the house for once, and of course free food and drinks doesn’t hurt. But realistically it’s just a nice acknowledgement of the work myself and others have done and a nod that I’m heading in the right direction.
The 25th WA Youth Awards will be announced on Friday 20 September. Best of luck to Dane and all the nominees.