Journalism

I have worked as a journalist and editor since 1992. I have written widely about visual art, architecture, film, health, religion, politics and gay and lesbian issues.

Before becoming a full time academic I was Editor in Chief of SSO Media a small alternative media company which publishes Sydney Star Observer Australia’s oldest and largest circulation gay and lesbian weekly newspaper. I was appointed editor of the Star in 1999 before that I was editor of OutRage a national gay lifestyle monthly.

I in the early 90s I was Melbourne editor of Monument – one of Australia’s leading architecture and design magazines and movies editor of SBS television’s subscriber magazine, Ariel.

The articles below are a small sample of articles in key areas that are available online.

Politics & Popular Culture: The Conversation

I regularly contribute to The Conversation an initiative funded by a consortium of universities to get academics to comment on key issues of the day. I contributed to their 2013 election media panel and regularly write on politics, film and LGBTI issues.

Gay Media and Politics

SYDNEY STAR OBSERVER TURNS 25

Sydney Star Observer – Issue 741 – Published 25/11/2004
To celebrate the Star’s 25th anniversary, editor Marcus O’Donnell takes a look back at the way it chronicled and shaped Sydney’s gay and lesbian culture

THE MARRIAGE WARS

Sydney Star Observer- Issue 687 -Published 6/11/2003
The same-sex marriage debate is not going to go away and it might get ugly.

A SHARED LIFE OF BREAKING TABOOS

Sydney Star Observer- Issue 634 -Published 31/10/2002
Kerryn Phelps and Jackie Stricker have been lesbian role models since they came out nearly five years ago. Marcus O’Donnell talks to the couple about their new biography.

Religion

PLAYING PAPAL POLITICS

Reportage – Posted April 11 2005
As the world’s media go into rhetorical overdrive about the reign of Pope John Paul, Marcus O’Donnell asks: Was he a uniter or a divider?

IT’S ABOUT JUSTICE

Sydney Star Observer– Issue 609 -Published 9/05/2002
The controversial Catholic gay and lesbian rights group The Rainbow Sash is set for a launch in Sydney this month. Marcus O’Donnell takes a look at their philosophy and impact.

NEW POPE DECLARED GAYS “EVIL”

Sydney Star Observer – Issue 761 – Published 21/04/2005
The man on Tuesday elected pope, German cardinal Josef Ratzinger, was the chief architect of the Vatican’s war on homosexuality.

FAR FROM HEAVEN

Sydney Star Observer- Issue 650 -Published 20/02/2003
Marcus O’Donnell talks to Chris McGillion, editor of a new book on the state of the Catholic Church in Australia.

CHURCH IN CRISIS

Sydney Star Observer- Issue 604 -Published 4/04/2002
This Easter, American churches were addressing the death and resurrection… of their own organisation. Marcus O’Donnell takes a look at the sex scandal that is tearing the church apart.

Art & Architecture

LIGHT AND DEATH

Architectural Review Spring 1996
In Craig Rossetti’s Sale Funeral Parlour an acute sense of light, scale and surface effects force the visitor to confront the reality of life and death

MAN RAY’S EXPOSURES

Sydney Star Observer- Issue 706 -Published 25/03/2004
The Art Gallery of NSW’s Man Ray exhibition shows the ongoing influence of the french-based photographer. Marcus O’Donnell takes a look.

Film & Literature

BAD EDUCATION

Sydney Star Observer – Issue 757 – Published 24/03/2005
Pedro Almodovar’s film is rich in its political and cultural references but most of all it is marked by the director’s rich multi-layered approach to storytelling.

IT’S ALL ACTING FOR IAN MCKELLEN

Sydney Star Observer- Issue 695 -Published 1/01/2004
Sir Ian McKellen talks to Marcus O’Donnell about his Sydney Festival production Dance of Death, gay actors and mutants.

RUBY’S DIRTY SECRETS

Sydney Star Observer- Issue 666 -Published 12/06/2003
Feminist and queer film critic B. Ruby Rich talks with Marcus O’Donnell about queers, film and our changing world.

COLM TÓIBÍN: MAKING UP LIVES

Sydney Star Observer- Issue 728 -Published 26/08/2004
Colm Tóibín’s new novel The Master has been winning him pretty much universal acclaim even from critics who have been harsh on him in the past. He’s the first to admit that the reception has been “fantastic” but he is also quick to warn of the dangers of too much exposure.

Classical Music

REVIEWS

A selection from a regular classical music reviews column in the Sydney Star Observer

Performance

SYDNEY FESTIVAL RIDES HIGH

Sydney Star Observer – Issue 747 – Published 12/01/2005
Robert Wilson, understands that theatrical communication is much more a technical skill than a brazenly unleashed idea. And last week’s premiere of Wilson’s directorial tour-de-force, Black Rider, was an inspiring start to the 2005 Festival.