News and Events Archive

N&MRC NEWS

February News

25 February: Congratulations to HDR students Nadrah (Supervisor: Sora Park) who completed their Confirmation Seminar, and Natalie Larkins (Supervisor: Caroline Fisher) who completed their Introductory Seminar.

22 February: Caroline Fisher featured in 'Democratic dilemma': Concerns over political ads on social media article by Katina Curtis for The Sydney Morning Herald.

15 February: Sora Park & Kerry McCallum featured in UC's industry partnership with SBS to evolve multilingual community research article by Elly Mackay.

10 February: Kerry McCallum featured in Is there a future for local and regional news? Going digital amid a changing media landscape post-COVID article by Stephanie Boltje for ABC News.

9 February: O'Neil, M., Khan, I., Holland, K., & Cai, X. (2022). Mapping the connections of health professionals to COVID-19 myths and facts in the Australian Twittersphere. Information Communication and Society, 1-23.

7 February - 4 March: Sora Park will be on an SBS Industry Placement in the Audience Insights & Data Team working on multicultural audiences.

1 February: NEW AWARDED PROJECT: Mapping DEI Across News in APAC – Sora Park, Kerry McCallum & Janet Fulton (Category 3 = Internews; 1 February 2022 – 30 April 2022).

1 February: We welcome new Research Assistant Sonia Curll to the Centre. Sonia will be working with Sora Park, Jee Young Lee, Caroline Fisher & Kerry McCallum on our Heartbeat of the Regions Survey project with Australian Community Media (ACM).

January News

31 January: We welcome two new Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students into the Centre; Sue Atkinson (Supervisor: Kerry McCallum) & Pinker Yao (Sora Park) who is also the scholarship recipient for The rise of mistrust: Digital platforms and trust in news media ARC project. This takes our total number to 23 HDR students in 2022.

28 January: Caroline Fisher featured in Regional news needs subscribers to thrive, parliamentary inquiry hears article by Harley Dennett for The Canberra Times.

28 January: Kerry McCallum, Sora Park, Caroline Fisher & Kieran McGuinness submitted  to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts Inquiry into Australia's Regional Newspapers.

21 January: NEW AWARDED PROJECT: Understanding gambling harms in the digital age – Kate Holland, Kerry McCallum, Caroline Fisher, Raechel Johns, Catherine Ordway, Naomi Dale, Tricia Brown, Michael Roache, Amanda George & Rachel Davey (Category 2 = ACT Gambling & Racing Commission; 21 January 2022 – 30 April 2024)

17 January: NEW FUNDED PROJECT: Wakul and remote Indigenous media: amplifying Indigenous news through a digital listening tool – David Nolan, Alanna Myers, Peter Radoll, Kerry McCallum & San Hinton (Non-HERDC = ANU CV – DTF; 17 January 2022 – 31 October 2022).

13 January: Mathieu O'Neil & Laure Muselli presented at the Centre Internet et Société Seminar, CNRS, Paris on Network and institutional approaches to the co-production of digital infrastructure by companies and projects.

1 January: NEW AWARDED PROJECT: Digital media literacy for building resilience in Indonesia's unprecedented pandemic crisis – Jee Young Lee, Didin Hidayat, Maya Defianty & Ummi Kultsum (Category 3 = Indonesia Ministry of Religious Affairs; 1 January 2022 – 31 December 2022).

1 January: NEW AWARDED PROJECT: Valuing News: Aligning Individual, Institutional and Social Perspectives – Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Terry Flew, Derek Wilding, Tim Dwyer & Aljosha Schapals (Category 1 = Australian Research Council; 1 January 2022 – 1 January 2025).

1 January: We welcome and welcome back six N&MRC Adjuncts for 2022: Jack Latimore, James Mahoney, Jennifer Lees-Mashment, Michelle Dunne Breen, Peter Fray & Tom Greenwell.

January: Gaber, I., & Fisher, C. (2022). “Strategic Lying”: Or How the Conservatives Dominated the Campaign News Agenda. In D. Wring, R. Mortimer, & S. Atkinson (Eds.), Political Communication in Britain: Campaigning, Media and Polling in the 2019 General Election (pp. 103-114).

January: Holland, K. (2022). Marketing mental health: Critical reflections on literacy, branding and anti-stigma campaigns. In Elliot, C., & Greenberg, J. Communication and Health: Marketing, Media and Risk. Palgrave: Basingstoke, UK.

January: Mathieu O'Neil, Laure Muselli, Fred Pailler & Stefano Zacchiroli co-authored an article titled What to do to counter the predation of digital giants? Looting the free software community which was featured in Le Monde diplomatique.

N&MRC EVENTS

March Events

Thursday 17 March - Tuesday 22 March (4 Day Visit, UC Campus): 2022 FAD Distinguished Fellow Visit with Dr Scott Brooks (RMIT University), hosted by Dr Jee Young Lee.

Friday 25 March (TBC; Ann Harding Conference Centre): Difficult Conversations UC/Ulster University Symposium - Professor Kerry McCallum in Conversation with Maureen Hartcher, Karen Monument, Dr Megan Deas and Kerry Martin titled Revelation, Reckoning and Recovery: Continuing the critical conversations around child sexual abuse in Australia in the wakre of the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCICSA) (2013-17).

February Events

Tuesday 1 February (9am - 4:30pm; UC Campus): N&MRC 2022 Planning Day - Facilitated by Professor Kerry McCallum and Peta Sinclair, and attended by all N&MRC Centre Members.

Monday 7 February (10:45am - 11:15am; UC Campus): N&MRC 2022 HDR Welcome Back Morning Tea - Facilitated by Professor Kerry McCallum and attended by all N&MRC Centre Members & HDR Students.

N&MRC NEWS

May News

26 May: Sora Park radio interview with Hilary Harper (Life Matters, ABC Radio National) on misinformation. Listen to the interview here.

26 May: Sora Park discusses  Australian Regional Journalists: what they need and how they see the future  with Faculti. Download the article here.

April News

13 April: Sora Park will be hosting at the National Film and Sound Archive the Australian Media Literacy Symposium.

March News

22 March - 26 March: David Nolan & the Centre will be hosting FAD Distinguished Fellow Professor Lisa Waller.

21 March: Caroline Fisher has been invited to speak to Friends of the ABC about the State of Journalism.

15 March - 17 March: Sora Park & the Centre will be hosting FAD Distinguished Fellow Professor Stuart Cunningham.

March: Sora Park, Caroline Fisher & Jee Lee published Regional news audiences' value perception of local news.

March: Yoonmo Sang, Patricia Aufderheide & Minjeong Kim published Fair Use in Practice: South Korean Film Directors' Copyright Understanding.

February News

24 February: Facebook's message to media industry is clear: don't rely on us article on the Guardian by Antoun Issa featured comments from Sora Park and data from the Digital News Report: Australia 2020.

24 February: Facebook's news ban 'experiment' is almost over. Here's what we've learnt article on ABC News by James Putrill featured comments from Caroline Fisher and data from the Digital News Report: Australia 2020.

23 February: Kerry McCallum was a guest lecturer for the Communicating Politics PG unit. Kerry presented on Formulation of Public Opinion.

21 February: Kate Holland published Teaching Journalists About Violence Against Women Best Reportage Practices: An Australian Case Study.

19 February: Mathieu O'Neil was quoted in the article by James Cook and Laurence Dodds for the Daily Telegraph titled India, Canada and US set to join fight with Facebook over Australian news block.

18 February: Caroline Fisher, Kerry McCallum, Kieran McGuinness & Sora Park published an article for The Conversation titled As Facebook ups the ante on news, regional and elderly Australians will be hardest hit.

17 February: Mathieu O'Neil was an author with Christian Pentzold & Sophie Toupin on a landmark publication titled The Handbook of Peer Production. Congratulations Mathieu & co! You can find out more about the publication here.

17 February: Yoonmo Sang published with Pawel Popiel on Platforms' Governance: Analysing Digital Platforms' Policy Preferences.

15 February: Catherine Page Jeffery & Susan Atkinson presented the first FAD Seminar Series for 2021 which was hosted by the Centre. You can view the seminar titled Safe Online Together Project: An Integrated Approach to Navigating the Risks and Opportunities of Digital Media for Families and Young People here.

12 February: Caroline Fisher sat down with Michelle Grattan for This Week in Politics.

11 February: Sora Park, Caroline Fisher & Jee Lee published Regional news audiences' value perception of local news.

10 February: Kerry McCallum was a guest speaker with Lisa Waller at the workshop for Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity, University of Melbourne. Kerry & Lisa spoke on Indigenous Policy and Media.

5 February: Welcome to our two new PhD candidates; Xiaolan Cai (supervised by Mathieu O'Neil & Barbara Norman)  & Jing Su (supervised by Sora Park & Jee Lee) who has also been awarded the N&MRC Stipend Scholarship for 2021.

January News

24 January: Alanna Myers, Lisa Waller, David Nolan & Kerry McCallum published Expanding Boundaries in Indigenous News: Guardian Australia, 2018-2020.

24 January: Jee Lee, Sora Park & Scott Brook published Selection and survival in the field of cultural production: a longitudinal study of the Australian census.

11 January: Sora Park appeared on ABC Radio NSW with Laura Tchilinguirian discussing Doomscrolling.

4 January: David Nolan & Lisa Waller published An uncritical incident? Journalism and Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia.

January: Congratulations to PhD candidate Mona Chatskin who was successful in a 2021 RTP Stipend Scholarship!

January: Susan Atkinson, Chris Kim & Jee Lee published Facebook as an official communication channel in crisis.

January: Sora Park, Kerry McCallum, Kate Holland, Caroline Fisher, Jee Lee & Kieran McGuinness were successful in a funding from the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) for research titled Australian News and Misinformation Longitudinal Study.

N&MRC EVENTS

December Events

Thursday 3 December (TBA; TBA): 2021 N&MRC Policy Forum. Further Information TBA.

Wednesday 1 - Thursday 2 December (TBA; TBA): JERAA Conference, hosted by N&MRC. Further Information TBA.

November Events

Tuesday 30 November (TBA; TBA): JERAA Pre-Conference for HDR/ECR. Further Information TBA.

October Events

Monday 18 October (1:30pm - 2:30pm; TBA): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by TBC titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Thursday 7 October (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by TBC titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

September Events

Thursday 16 September (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dr Ian Buchanan titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Monday 13 - Friday 17 September (TBA; TBA): 2021 Faculty of Arts & Design Research Festival, University of Canberra. Further Information TBA.

Monday 6 September (1:30pm - 2:30pm; TBA): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Dr Mathieu O'Neil titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Thursday 2 September (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by TBC titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

August Events

Monday 30 August (1:30pm - 2:30pm; TBA): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Dr Jee Young Lee & Ms Susan Atkinson titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Thursday 19 August (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dr Hsuan-Ting Chen titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Monday 2 August (1:30pm - 2:30pm; TBA): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Dr Kieran McGuinness titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

July Events

Monday 19 July (1:30pm - 2:30pm; TBA): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Dr Amanda H A Watson titled Telephone hotlines in Papua New Guinea: a review of three research projects - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Monday 12 July (1:30pm - 2:30pm; TBA): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Dr Glen Fuller titled Tesla and Making Sense of the Energy Transition - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

June Events

Tuesday 22 June June (TBA; TBA ): Digital News Report: Australia 2021. Further Information TBA.

Monday 21 June (1:30pm - 2:30pm; TBA): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Dr Christine Wallace titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Thursday 17 June (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dr Greg Jericho titled TBC - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Wednesday 9 June (6pm - 7pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Report Launch: The coproduction of open source software by volunteers and big tech firms. Head to EventBrite to register.

Thursday 3 June (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Ms Prue Robson titled "You're not going to listen to me anyway": exploring young people's attitudes towards local government communication and stakeholder engagement in the ACT - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

May Events

Monday 17 May (1:30pm - 2:30pm; 1A21 & Online Platform): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Dr Nicole Curato titled 'Thank you for sharing': Overcoming Disinformation through Democratic Deliberation - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Monday 3 May (1:30pm - 2:30pm; 1A21 & Online Platform): FAD Seminar Series (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Professor Ariadne Vromen & Professor Darren Halpin (ANU) titled Crowdsourced politics: the rise of online petitions & micro-donations - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

April Events

Tuesday 13 April (10:45am - 3:30pm; Theatrette, National Film & Sound Archive): Australian Media Literacy Research Symposium. Head to EventBrite to register.

Thursday 8 April (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dr James Meese titled Platforms, publishers and the future of news: Treating journalism as critical democratic infrastructure - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Thursday 1 April (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dr Irfan Khan, Dr Mathieu O'Neil, Dr Kate Holland & Xiaolan Cai titled COVID-19 online: Health professional engagement with rumour-based and factual hashtags on Twitter - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

March Events

Thursday 25 March (12:30pm - 1:30pm; 1A21 & Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Professor Lisa Waller titled Institutional Alliances and International Accreditation: Networks in the production and resourcing of fact-checking - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Tuesday 16 March (5:30pm - 6:30pm; 1A21 & YouTube Live Stream): FAD Distinguished Fellow Public Lecture (hosted by N&MRC) presented by Professor Stuart Cunningham titled Don't mention the i-word - head to EventBrite to register or email nmrc@canberra.edu.au for the YouTube Live Stream link.

N&MRC NEWS

November News

Well done to Sora Park and Caroline Fisher, along with Professor Terry Flew and Professor Uwe Dulleck on their successful ARC 2021 Discovery Project application titled The rise of mistrust: Digital platforms and trust in news media. Read up on their success here.

A huge congratulations to Mathieu O'Neil who appeared on ABC's Late Night Live with Phillip Adams 18 November, discussing Fact, fiction or fake: How Australians perceive their news.

October News

Well done to N&MRC Associate Irfan Khan who competed and won research funds in the UC's Big Research Pitch Competition on Thursday 29 October. Irfan pitched for funds for his research around Fighting the Infodemic in the age of COVID 19.

Sora Park spoke with contentgroup CEO David Pembroke on 26 October about the rapidly changing media market during and post the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of effectively communicating throughout. Click here to listen to the discussion.

Congratulations to Yoonmo Sang, Jee Young Lee and Sora Park on the launch of their report Podcast Trends and Issues in Australia and Beyond: Global Perspectives Thursday 22nd October at 9am. Media stories for this report can be viewed below:

• 26th October: Canberra Weekly article - download here.
• 22nd October: Radio Info article.

21st October, Sora Park and Caroline Fisher were featured in a CNET article by Jackson Ryan titled How COVID-19 infected the world with lies.

On the 7th October, Caroline Fisher and QUT's Terry Flew featured on The J Word podcast discussing how journalists can understand the issues of media trust today and pose solutions for how newsrooms can regain audiences' attention, interest, and trust in changing economic and social times. Part 1 of this episode can be found here.

Congratulations to Catherine Page Jeffery, Kerry McCallum and Yoonmo Sang who have been awarded an Australian Government Online Safety Grant, led by the eSafety Commissioner on 2nd October 2020. The eSafety Commissioner media release can be found here and the UC media release can be found here.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 2nd October discussing the upcoming budget and the pressure from the Prime Minister to open up our states.

September News

23rd September, Catherine Page Jeffery published an article in LSE Parenting for a Digital Future titled ‘Is that appropriate?’ Parental judgements about the risks and opportunities of teenagers’ digital media use.

The latest University of Canberra Research Newsletter (23rd September) featured Kate Holland as the 'rising star in the Faculty of Arts & Design'. Congrats Kate!

Sora Park was interviewed by Patrick Wright for ABC Life around the COVID-19: Australian news and misinformation research report. The news article titled What to do if you can't stop 'doomscrolling' bad news can be found here.

21st September, Caroline Fisher featured in an article by Ivor Gaber for Independent titled Politicians are using 'strategic lies' to grab attention - and it's working.

The Canberra Times' Caitlin Cassidy published an article on 20th September for Caroline Fisher research project around News and Wellbeing: Older Generations and News Consumption. Be sure to check out the article titled Lack of digital literacy in elderly Australians a health issue.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 17th September discussing the government announcing a $1.9 billion package to promote a move towards new and emerging energy technologies over the next decade. the premiers and the federal government will be discussing the potential arrival of Australians seeking to return home, and the unemployment figures.

The N&MRC launched their latest research report titled News and Wellbeing: Older Generations and News Consumption on Thursday 3rd September. A special thank you to COTA ACT who hosted the event, and a special congratulations to authors Caroline Fisher, Sora Park, Jee Young Lee, Kate Holland and HDR candidate Emma John.

August News

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 26th June discussing The Liberal party's Branch Stacking allegations, Scott Morrison's questions during question time this week regarding deaths in aged care, the government announcing it will introduce legislation to allow the federal government to cancel agreements states and territories enter into with foreign governments, the JobReady Graduates legislation, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announcing he will extend the state of emergency in Victoria by 12 months, and  the virtual element of parliament.

Mathieu O’Neil was invited to present at the Digital Infrastructure: Labor, Roles and Incentives webinar on Friday 21st August. The webinar was hosted by the Ford Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and featured key speakers, along with Mathieu, Kaylea Champion (University of Washington, USA), Stuart Geiger (UC Berkley Institute for Data Science, UC & UCONN, USA), and Stephen Jacobs (Rochester Institute of Technology), USA.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 20th August discussing the COVID 19 vaccine to potentially come out of Oxford, the discussion in Parliament about the difficulties at the border, and lastly the Chinese government is investigating the Australian wine industry.

Kerry McCallum featured on a podcast on 20th August titled Listening to Institutions. Check out the video here.

On 13th August, Inside Story published an article by Sora Park and Caroline Fisher titled Here is the news (good and bad) for local readers. Be sure to check it out here.

Sora Park was featured in an ABC News article titled Young Australians avoid COVID-19 news so traditional health messaging doesn't work on 7th August. This article was related to research on COVID-19 Australian news and misinformation that was conducted earlier with Caroline Fisher, Jee Young Lee and Kieran McGuiness.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 6th August discussing non-essential businesses in Melbourne requiring to close under stage 4 restrictions, the Morrison government's paid pandemic leave to cover Victorians, the Senate Committee into COVID-19 sat this week, questioning health department head Brendan Murphy and Minister for Aged Care Richard Colbeck, and Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton announcing a cyber-security package.

The N&MRC hosted an online N&MRC Masterclass: Qualitative Interview Analysis in Media Studies which was presented by Kerry McCallum and Kate Holland.

A special welcome to our newest HDR candidates to the Centre:

Mona Chatskin – "Cases of Alleged Jewish Institutional Child Sex Abuse in Australian Mainstream and Religious Media: Malka Leifer in News Landscapes " – Primary Supervisor is Kerry McCallum

Paul Conroy – "The Media's Role in the Politics of Contemporary Serious Police Misconduct in Australia " – Primary Supervisor is David Nolan

July News

Be sure to follow the new Twitter account Handbook of Peer Production @beyourownpeer that was created by Mathieu O’Neil.

Sora Park, Caroline Fisher published with Terry Flew (QUT) and Uwe Dulleck (QUT) in International Journal on Media Management titled Global Mistrust in News: The Impact of Social Media on Trust on 31st July.

On the 27th July, we welcomed our two HDR students for semester 2, 2020:

Mona Chatskin – "Cases of Alleged Jewish Institutional Child Sex Abuse in Australian Mainstream and Religious Media: Malka Leifer in News Landscapes – Primary Supervisor is Kerry McCallum

Paul Conroy – "The Media's Role in the Politics of Contemporary Serious Police Misconduct in Australia" – Primary Supervisor is David Nolan

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 24th July discussing the government unveiling their plan for its COVID support packages the economic and fiscal update, Josh Frydenberg description of the coronavirus crisis as ‘without doubt, the biggest shock this country has ever faced’. & Scott Morrison, commenting that parliament will not sit for the 4 August sittings.

In an article for The Conversation on 13th July, Michael Jensen has published an article titled How misinformation about 5G is spreading within our government institutions - and who's responsible. Congratulations to Mike for this research which has generated significant media attention globally.

Mathieu O’Neil published and article with Raissi and Turner in International Journal of Communication titled The case for asymmetry in online research: Caring about issues in Australian and Canadian online bee networks.

On 13th July, Yoonmo Sang, Jee Young Lee, Kerry McCallum, Sora Park, and Jing Su submitted a short paper for the IAMCR Online Conference.

9th July, saw the centre conduct a N&MRC Masterclass: Qualitative Interview Analysis in Media Studies which was presented by Kerry McCallum and Kate Holland. We also welcomed our new Vice-Chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon to the centre for afternoon tea, a brief tour and discussion of our current research and key performance indicators.

David Nolan was featured in the Faculty of Arts and Design online magazine, FAD Life, 3rd July. Read up on Amplifying Indigneous News: A digital intervention written by Bronwyn Watson.

Sora Park, Caroline Fisher and Jee Young Lee published with Terry Flew (QUT) and Uwe Dulleck (QUT) in Journalism Practice titled Improving Trust in News: Audience Solutions on 3rd July.

On Thursday 2nd July, Sora Park and Kate Holland attended the first University of Canberra Health Humanities Network Steering Committee meeting.

Media stories and interviews related to the Australian Regional Journalists: What they need and how they see the future:

1. The Northern Daily Leader (Meltwater) article, by Madeline Link - Tough story behind regional journalism.
2. The Armidale Express article, by Madeline Link - Australian regional journalists feel overworked, underpaid in vital public service: University of Canberra report reveals.
3. The Northern Daily Leader article, by Madeline Link - Australian regional journalists feel overworked, underpaid in vital public service: University of Canberra report reveals.

A special N&MRC welcome to our new Master of Communication interns Susan Atkinson and Pinker Yao. These internships have been extremely successful and will continue to be led by Jee Young Lee.

June News

Huge congratulations to Mathieu O’Neil and Kate Holland who have secured funding for their Health Professionals and Misinformation on Social Media research project.

Jee Young Lee recently publishe Digital trust gap, Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy in the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy with Gwangjae Kim.

Special mention to the N&MRC team for June. The ACMA has released a position paper titled Australian voluntary code(s) of practice for online misinformation. The paper cites the recent research reports from the N&MRC.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 26th June discussing the coronavirus outbreaks throughout Melbourne, Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has proposal to develop an ‘energy policy framework’ - to combat climate change, an investigation commissioned by the High Court regarding former High Court Judge Dyson Heydon, and the Eden-Monaro by-election.

Congratulations to Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Kerry McCallum, Jee Young Lee, and Kieran McGuinness who were invited to a briefing with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on 24th June on the Digital News Report: Australia 2020 .

The N&MRC wishes our newest PhD graduates Dr Kieran McGuinness and Dr Chris Kim a hearty congratulations on the conferral of their awards at the University of Canberra. Congratulations Kieran and Chris!

Plenty of coverage recently around the increase in tuition fees for any Humanities, Arts and Social Science (HASS) degrees. Read up on two open letters - ANZCA (Sora Park - President, ANZCA and David Nolan - Vice-President, ANZCA), and letter, with support of ANZCA.

Congratulations to Mathieu O’Neil, Michael Jensen and ANU's Professor Robert Ackland who presented at the Australian Parliament House to the Senate Committee on 22nd June, around Foreign Interference through Social Media. They also featured in The Canberra Times for WeChat the channel for China disinformation campaigns written by Kirsten Lawson, and in the Saturday Paper for Home Affairs extends reach in tackling foreign interference written by Karen Middleton.

On the 12th June, N&MRC HDR students Emma John (Different Voices: A critical discourse analysis of the ABC's coverage of Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse), Lidia Kelly (Capturing Crimea, Construing Hong Kong: Challenges and constraints for foreign correspondents in territorial conflicts), Fawzia Alosaimy (Exploring the use of Snapchat in family life in Saudi Arabia) and Hang Tran (Representation of Indigenous Australians' welfare in Australian news media: How Indigenous voices are heard - Lessons learnt for Vietnam) presented at the Faculty of Arts and Design seminar series.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 19th June discussing The Prime Minister's announcement that Australia was under a Cyber attack, Foreign Minister Marise Payne's speech regarding Australia actively engaged in pushing reform of international institutions, Scott Morrison's broad agenda of reducing red tape, the unemployment figures, and alleged branch stacking in the Victorian Labor party.

Media stories and interviews related to the Digital News Report: Australia 2020:

1. University of Canberra feature article, by Elly Mackay - DNR Australia 2020: Australia wants impartial and independent news.
2. University of Canberra Twitter post - Digital News Report: Australia 2020.
3. The Guardian, by Katharine Murphy - Majority of Australians say social media platforms should block misleading political ads.
4. The Guardian, by Greg Jericho - Australia has a problem with climate change denial. The message just isn't getting through.
5. The Conversation, by Caroline Fisher and Sora Park - The number of climate change deniers in Australia is more than double the global average, new survey finds.
6. The Australian, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
7. The Canberra Times, by Kathryn Lewis - Digital news report 2020 finds most Australians want independent news, but not willing to pay.
8. Inside Story, by Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Jee Young Lee and Kieran McGuinness - How disasters are shaping Australians' news habits.
9. Caroline Fisher conducted a radio interview with Adam Shirley on ABC666.
10. News.com.au, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
11. Mirage News - Digital News Report Australia 2020: Australians want impartial and independent news.
12. In Queensland, by Finbar O'Mallon - Two tragic stories have built our trust in local news sources.
13. The Daily Telegraph, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
14. Cairns Post, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
15. Gold Coast Bulletin, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
16. Jimboomba Times, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
17. Geelong Advertiser, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
18. Herald Sun, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
19. The Advertiser, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
20. NT News, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
21. The Courier Mail, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
22. The West Australian, by Finbar O'Mallon - Bushfires, coronavirus sees news thrive.
23. Mumbrella, by Hannah Blackiston - Digital News Report shows Australian consumers want independence and impartiality in news and they're willing to pay for it.
24. SBS News, by Caroline Fisher and Sora Park - The number of climate deniers in Australia is more than double the global average, new study finds.
25. Financial Review, by Max Mason - The number of Australians paying for news doubles.
26. Canberra Weekly, by Danielle Meddemmen - Three in four Aussies would miss local news if gone.
27. Caroline Fisher conducted a radio interview with Scott Wales on ABC NewsRadio.

15th June, Caroline Fisher was quoted in VOGUE Arabia discussing female leadership. To read this article titled This is Why Female Politicians Make Better Leaders Than Men, Especially In A Crisis click here.

In an article for The Sydney Morning Herald by Chris Zappone on 14th June, Michael Jensen has been quoted discussing research around tweets for #BLM and #BlackLives. To read the full article titled #BlackLivesMatters momentum mostly free of bots click here.

On 12th June, Michael Jensen conducted an interview on ABC Adelaide's 'The Drive' around social media manipulation, bots and trolls, and foreign and domestic sources of media distortion.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 12th June discussing the protesters advocating police reform,  the treatment of indigenous peoples, and to show solidarity with the black lives matter movement, the high rate of incarceration amongst indigenous people, the PM and treasurer Josh Frydenberg calling for all state borders to be opened, the trans tasman bubble, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologising for the robodebt scheme.

Michael Jensen conducted an interview on 11th June with ABC News Radio on 'Fake News'.

3rd June, Caroline Fisher featured in the University of Canberra's UnCover digital magazine. To read this feature article titled News Corp shutdowns to affect more than just papers click here.

Kerry McCallum conducted an interview on 2nd June with ABC Capricornia on News Limited newspaper closures and the closing of Rockhampton printing press.

Staff of the N&MRC have been busy developing two short courses for the winter term. Catherine Page Jeffery and Glen Fuller will be presenting the Media Technology and the Family short course, and David Nolan along with School of Arts and Communication staff member Dr Don McCallum, will be presenting the Humanitarian Communication short course. Be sure to enrol fast as places are limited.

Well done to Caroline Fisher who has secured funding from the Judith Neilson Institute (JNI) for Journalism & Ideas to support her Asian News: State of News in Asia research project.

May News

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 29th May discussing the Jobkeeper program cost, the PM setting out the principles for a JobMAKER plan, the relationship between Sally McManus, the secretary of the ACTU, and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter and the Eden-Monaro byelection.

Congratulations to our N&MRC researchers who virtually presented at the International Communication Association (ICA) 2020 conference. Presentations were as follows:

1. The Wakul App: A Research Intervention in Indigenous News - David Nolan, Lisa Waller and Kerry McCallum
2. From Spokesperson to “Spokesbot”: Towards a Conceptual Framework of Journalist-Source Relations in the Age of AI - Caroline Fisher and Sora Park
3. Social News Use and Political Socialization: Generational Comparison - Yeji Kwon, Soeun Yang and Jee Young Lee
4. The Perceptions of Trust between Experienced and Inexperienced Users in a Developed Digital Environment - Gwangjae Kim and Jee Young Lee
5. Information Systems Division: Exploring the ethical implications of new media technologies: a survey on digital trust and privacy awareness - Jee Young Lee and Noor Al Khaldi (Master of Communication student & N&MRC Research Intern).
6. What drives hyper-partisan news sharing: Exploring the role of source, style, and content  - Weiai Xu, Yoonmo Sang and Chris Kim.

A special N&MRC congratulations to Noor Al Khaldi who has completed her research internship (10109 industry internships) at the Centre. While taking the Communication and Information Project (CIP) Unit (9107), she developed a project on digital trust and privacy awareness and completed a UC Ethics application, receiving a great result of high distinction for her assessments in the unit. She has continued furthering her research through the research internship under the supervision of the Centre, and has been involved in different elements of the research project from data collection through to data analysis and research output delivery. Noor is expecting to graduate this year.

Well done to Yoonmo Sang who presented at the Korean American Communication Association's professional development webinar on 25th May.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 15th May discussing Anthony Albanese's vision statement, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg economic update to parliament, the unemployment figures, China banning imports, Alan Jones announcing his retirement, and the relaxing of the lockdowns.

On the 12th May Kerry McCallum presented Mediating the National Conversation: Media and the Child Abuse Royal Commission 2013-17 at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance seminar series.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 7th May discussing Education Minister Dan Tehan &  Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews regarding school openings, the Eden-Monaro by-election, the "sustainable COVID-19 safe economy", New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern joining the national cabinet. and the proposal for a "trans-Tasman bubble" and Parliament sitting next week for the first time since April 8.

The N&MRC, led by Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Jee Young Lee and HDR student Kieran McGuiness, have launched their research on COVID-19 Australian news and misinformation in May. There are several links to news stories and interviews for this research when you Google search the "Aussies fatigued by constant COVID-19 news", so here are a few quick links: The Canberra Times, News.com.au , Research News Live, NewsGP, The Conversation , the Educator, RiotACT and SBS.

Yoonmo Sang published with Jiwon Kim and Sunyoung Park in the International Journal of Mobile Communications titled A longitudinal study on the effects of motivational mobile application uses on online news engagement.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 1st May discussing the government's contact-tracing app, the Australian government investigation into the outbreak, Twiggy Forrest inviting the Chinese Consul-General for Victoria to a press conference with Health Minister Greg Hunt, and Mike Kelly's resignation from parliament.

April News

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 24th April discussing the development in the coronavirus crisis, the attention turning to the government's plans for a business led economic recovery, the government  promoting it's planned contact tracing app, the "second-surge" of cases we are seeing in Singapore, the government's handling of the crisis,  China and the World Health Organization, the ACCC to develop a mandatory code of conduct between the media companies and digital platforms, and the release of Malcolm Turnbull's book.

Be sure to check out the new website for ARC Discover Project Breaking Silences: Media and the child abuse Royal Commission.  This project is led by Kerry McCallum, along with Lisa Waller (RMIT), Tanya Dreher (UNSW), Kristy Hess (Deakin), Eli Skogerbø (Oslo University), HDR student Emma John and Postdoctoral Research Associate Megan Deas.

Appearing on a radio interview with 2SER 22nd April, the Daily, Caroline Fisher discusses the Trust and Mistrust in Australian News Media with QUT.

Congratulations to Sora Park, Jee Young Lee, Yoonmo Sang, Gwangjae Kim (Hanyang Cyber University), Jason Bainbridge (UC, Faculty of Arts and Design, Dean), who were successful in the Korea Foundation Public Diplomacy Support Grant round.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 17th April discussing the coronavirus restrictions, the government announcement and rollout of economic packages, the debate about whether children should be going back to their schools, the government rejecting the course being taken by New Zealand, the government potentially using a new app to facilitate contact tracing by recording interactions between individuals and Malcolm Turnbull's soon to be released book.

'The Conversation' released an article 17th April titled How can we restore trust in the media? Fewer biases and conflicts of interest, a new study shows on the research report with Terry Flew, Caroline Fisher and Sora Park titled Trust and Mistrust in Australian News Media.

Congratulations to N&MRC associate Catherine Page Jeffery who was invited present, along with Faculty of Arts & Design Dean, Jason Bainbridge, and Associate Dean Education, Erin Hinton, at the Salon Canberra event around The Year of Living Remotely on 14th April. Catherine presented on how we can untangle the often-fraught relationship between families and the digital world.

Caroline Fisher appeared on The Week in Politics with Michelle Grattan on 9th April discussing the government's handling of the crisis, the $130B wage subsidy package, the government and opposition, have been co-operating during the crisis,  the "herd immunity" argument, the stringent measures being imposed, Australia's response in comparison New Zealand and America, and a post-virus Australia.

Yoonmo Sang, Jee Young Lee, Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, and Glen Fuller, published an article titled Signalling and Expressive Interaction: Online News Users' Different Modes of Interaction on Digital Platforms in Digital Journalism, Advanced Online on 9th April.

The N&MRC would like to welcome Irfan Khan from the Faculty of Business, Government and Law, as a new associate of the centre. Irfan will be working closely with Mathieu O’Neil.

The N&MRC wishes our newest PhD graduates Dr Morris Carpenter and Dr Liam Engel a hearty congratulations on the conferral of their awards at the University of Canberra. Congratulations Morris and Liam!

March News

Mathieu O’Neil successfully hosted the ‘Digital Concepts and Methods: issues/actors’ workshop as part of the Critical Conversations Lab on 27^th March. A special thank you to our expert presenters Mathieu, Michael Jensen, Kate Holland, Xiaolan Cai and from ANU Robert Ackland for your contributions to the workshop.

Congratulations to Kate Holland who has been invited to co-edit book on “Communicating COVID-19” with Dr Monique Lewis from Griffith University, and Dr Eliza Govender from University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

Zoe Samios from The Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Caroline Fisher on 23^rd March for a story titled The other viral problem in the COVID-19 pandemic: online misinformation.

Caroline Fisher and Michael Jensen presented on 23^rd March to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Inquiry into the 2019 Federal Election.

Kerry McCallum was asked by the Faculty of Arts and Design Research Office at UC to present at the launch/workshop of the 2020 FAD Mentoring Program on 20^th March. This program will be delivered by the FAD Research Office and led by Sora Park.

On 18^th March Mathieu O’Neil, Michel Jensen and ANU's Robert Ackland submitted to the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media: Internet Research Agency troll activity in the Australian political Twittersphere, 2015-2016.

Mathieu O’Neil , Laure Muselli, Mahin Raissi and Stefano Zacchiroli have published an article in ‘New Media & Society’ titled Open source has won and lost the war’: Legitimising commercial-communal hybridization in a FOSS project.

Kerry McCallum and Michael Jensen met with the delegates from the Japanese Embassy around the N&MRC and Foreign Interference research.

The N&MRC would like to welcome our new HDR student: Nabeela Asghar – "Youth and Hate Speech: Role of Religious Leadership in Shia-Sunni Conflict" – Primary Supervisor is Mathieu O’Neil

Catherine Page Jeffery published an article in ‘New Media & Society’ titled It’s really difficult. We’ve only got each other to talk to.’ Monitoring, mediation and good parenting in Australia in the digital age.

Terry Flew, Uwe Dulleck, Sora Park, Caroline Fisher and Ozan Isler published a research report with ‘BEST Centre, QUT, Brisbane, Australia’ in March titled Trust and Mistrust in Australian News Media .

February News

Caroline Fisher and Michael Jensen presented on 26^th February to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Inquiry into the 2019 Federal Election.

Kate Holland and Olaf Werder published in Crawford, P., Brown, B. & Charise, A. (Eds), The Routledge Companion to Health Humanities (pp. 215-229). Routledge: London UK titled “Australia and New Zealand: A circuitous path to health humanities”.

Sora Park conducted a radio Interview with ABC 666 (ABC Canberra Breakfast) Lish Fejer and Adam Shirley on 11^th February about Framing and Sharing News on Social Media.  Read up more on this research: Facebook data now accessible to UC researchers, in a feature article in 'The Educator' by Anna Mogato University gets access to Facebook data for research, and in an article by Adrian Rollins from The Canberra Times titled The online news habits of Facebook users to be the focus of world-first research.

N&MRC associate Catherine Page Jeffery published an article in ‘New Media & Society’ titled Parenting in the digital age: Between socio-biological and socio-technological development.

Mathieu O’Neil presented “Buzzkill: Why do matters of concern emerge in digital bee networks?” at the Social and Behavioural Dynamics of Attention Research Workshop for the School of Sociology at ANU on 14^th February.

Congratulations to Kerry McCallum, HDR student Prue Robson, Barbara Walsh, Minh Thu Pham Tran and Jiayi Wang on their final research report submission to the ACT Government on “Motivating ACT Youth Participation” on 12^th February.

HDR student Sonya Sandham & Glen Fuller have published an article in 'Continuum' titled The ‘Damore Memo’: what is the value of antenarrative in organizational communication?.

Sora Park was invited to a closed briefing on 12^th February to present to the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts on the “Inquiry into the deployment, adoption and application of 5G in Australia on ‘Exposure to fake news on digital platforms’”.

The N&MRC hosted a Welcome Morning Tea on Wednesday 12^th February for all our centre members, associates and HDR students. We also welcomed our new HDR students at the event:

Emma John – "Different Voices: Attribution Discourse and Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse" – Primary Supervisor is Kerry McCallum

Lidia Kelly – "Capturing Crimea, Construing Hong Kong: Challenges and Constraints for Foreign Correspondents in Contemporary Territorial Conflicts " – Primary Supervisor is Caroline Fisher

Natalie Larkins – "Disconnect Between Normative Ideals of Journalism and Practice in Australia - A Comparative Study " – Primary Supervisor is Caroline Fisher

Sarah Schofield – "How do Australian Government Agencies and Non-government Organisations Establish Trust?" – Primary Supervisor is Caroline Fisher

Hang Tran – "Amplifying Indigenous Voices in Australia's Digital Platforms by Utilising Digital Applications - Lessons Learnt for Vietnam" – Primary Supervisor is Kerry McCallum

Sora Park conducted a radio Interview with ABC 666 (ABC Canberra Breakfast) Lish Fejer and Adam Shirley on 11^th February about Overcoming the “One-Inch Tall Barrier”: What the Success of Parasite Tells Us About the Film Industry.

January news

Jee Young Lee conducted fieldwork early January for her project titled “Digital Media in West Papua: Understanding of Contextual Effects of Social Media on Tribal Societies”.

N&MRC EVENTS

November Events

Wednesday 18th November (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dan Andrew titled Buying the Audience: The role of advertisers in the audience marketplace - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Wednesday 11th November (2:30pm - 3:30pm; Online Platform): #FADFest20 N&MRC Panel Discussion titled News, Media and COVID-19: Insights from the N&MRC Research Response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Register for the event here.

Wednesday 11th November (1:30pm - 2pm; Online Platform): #FADFest20 N&MRC Report Launch with Dr Mathieu O'Neil and Dr Michael Jensen titled Australian Perspectives on Misinformation. Register for the event here.

Wednesday 11th November (12pm - 1pm; Online Platform): #FADFest20 N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Professor Michael Socolow (Director, McGillicuddy Humanities Center, The University of Maine, USA) titled ‘What the Hell is Going on at Newsweek?’: Misinformation Distribution by Journalistic ‘Ghost Brands’ in Contemporary and Historical Context - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Tuesday 10th November - Friday 13th November: Faculty of Arts and Design Research Festival (#FADFest20). Head to the festival page for a full list of events by clicking here.

Wednesday 4th November (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dr Jenny Davis (ANU) titled How Artifacts Afford: The Power and Politics of Everyday Things - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

October Events

Wednesday 21st October (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Mathieu O’Neil titled The Case for Asymmetry in Online Research: Caring About issues in Australian and Canadian Online Bee Networks - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Wednesday 7th October (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dr Wonsun Shin (UniMelb) titled Screen-Obsessed: Parenting in the Digital Age - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

September Events

Thursday 24th September (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Catherine Page Jeffery titled '[Cyber]bullying is too strong a word...' Parental accounts of their children's experiences of online conflict and relational aggression - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Wednesday 16th September (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Dr Yandisa Ngqangashe (ANU) titled Watching what they eat: a multimethod investigation of food media and adolescents - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Thursday 3rd September (1pm - 2pm; Online Platform): News and Wellbeing: Older Generations and News Consumption report launch presented by Caroline Fisher, Sora Park, Jee Young Lee and Emma John - view the online launch here.

August Events

Thursday 27th August (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by David Nolan titled Analysing innovation in Indigenous journalism: Deaths Inside  - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

Friday 21st August (4:30am - 5:45am (Canberra timezone); Online Platform by Ford Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation): Digital Infrastructure: Labor, Roles and Incentives - head to EventBrite to register for the webinar.

Friday 7th August (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Masterclass: Qualitative Interview Analysis in Media Studies presented by Kerry McCallum and Kate Holland.

July Events

Thursday 9th July (1:30pm - 2:30pm; 9C25): N&MRC Masterclass: Qualitative Interview Analysis in Media Studies  presented by Kerry McCallum and Kate Holland.

Thursday 2nd July (9:30am - 11am; Online Platform): Regional News Briefing: New Research and Panel Discussion for Local News Consumers and Australian Regional Journalists: What they need now and how they see the future presented by Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Kerry McCallum, Saffron Howden, Aaron Larkin, Megan Brownlow, Anna Draffin and Lee O'Connor - view the online launch here.

June Events

Tuesday 16th June (12pm - 1pm; Online Platform): Digital News Report: Australia 2020 report launch presented by Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Kerry McCallum, UC Vice-Chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon, FAD Dean Professor Jason Bainbridge, Richard Aedy, Anna Draffin and Creina Chapman - view the online launch here.

April Events

Thursday 30th April (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Online Platform): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Mathieu O’Neil titled Do we need Peer Production Studies? - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

March Events

Friday 27th March (1:30pm - 4:30pm; Online Platform): Digital Concepts and Methods Workshop presented by Mathieu O’Neil, Michael Jensen, Kate Holland , Xiaolan Cai and Rob Ackland (ANU).

Wednesday 4th March (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Clive Price Suite 1C50): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Mr Chris Kim titled Being co-producers in time of crisis: a case study of Christchurch, NZ - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

February Events

Wednesday 19th February (12:30pm - 1:30pm; Clive Price Suite 1C50): N&MRC Seminar Series presented by Michael Jensen titled Illiberal Media: WeChat, Identity Politics, and National Security - head to Seminar Series page for further information.

December News

The Digital News Report: Australia 2019, published by the N&MRC, has been named the top resource for 2019 by Analysis & Policy Observatory (APO) in its annual list of most-viewed content. In addition to being the most-viewed resource overall, the report was also the top resource for the Communication subject area.

November News

The N&MRC invites applications from outstanding candidates to undertake a PhD funded by an N&MRC PhD Stipend Scholarship. Applications close on December 15, 2019 for commencement in 2020.

October News

The N&MRC congratulates our core member Dr Yoonmo Sang, who participated in the University's Pitch for Funds competition on Thursday 24 October. Yoonmo was awarded $1,000 in funding towards his research project investigating young people's experiences of image-based abuse.

Congratulations to N&MRC PhD candidate Dan Andrew who has been elected as the Student & Early Career Rep of Media Industry Studies Interest Group of the International Communication Association for 2020-2022.

On Wednesday 23 October the N&MRC will be hosting a workshop titled Challenging media text analysis in an age of big data. The half-day workshop will bring together experienced and emerging researchers to scrutinise media text analysis in a time of seismic change in the media industries. Registrations are open now via the link.

September News

On Thursday September 12 the N&MRC hosted John Bergin, Project Manager for the Google News Initiative at the Walkely Foundation. John presented a seminar for Masters students on the suite of programs available from Google to collate and visualise publicly available data.

Welcome from the new N&MRC Director, Professor Kerry McCallum

July News

The N&MRC, together with the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research in the Faculty of Arts & Design, is delighted to host the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) annual conference at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. Held from 3-5 July, the conference brings together researchers from aross the region for a lively three days of disucssion and debate. We are also hosting a pre-conference for PhD students and early-career researchers on the University of Canberra campus.

N&MRC PhD candidate shares her multidisciplinary journey of discovery

June News

On June 12, the Digital News Report team launched the Digital News Report: Australia 2019 in Sydney at the Mint. The report's lead author Dr Caoline Fisher provided an overview of its key findings for an audience of UC Alumni, media industry professionals and academic colleagues. You can read the key findings and download the report here.

N&MRC is pleased to announce that Professor Kerry McCallum has taken up the role of N&MRC Director after acting as co-Director of the Centre alongside Dr Caroline Fisher since January.

Media Files Podcast: Australians’ trust in news media is falling as concern over ‘fake news’ grows

March News

The N&MRC wishes our newest PhD graduate Dr Jayan Kurian a hearty congratulations on the conferral of his award at the University of Canberra's March graduation ceremonies. Congratualtions Jayan!

N&MRC Researcher attends 'Unconference' in New York City

February News

In February 2019 the News & Media Research Centre’s Mathieu O’Neil took part in a meeting at the Ford Foundation in New York City with other grantees of the Alfred P. Sloan and Ford Foundations Digital Infrastructure grant.

The N&MRC welcomes visiting Fulbright Fellow Dr Michael Socolow from the University of Maine, USA. Dr Socolow is a media historian whose research centers upon America’s original radio networks in the 1920s and 1930s. During his six month fellowship he will be collaborating with N&MRC members and academics from UC RISE, and presenting a seminar during the N&MRC seminar series.

January news

Five N&MRC members have had their paper submissions to the International Communication Association (ICA) 2019 annual conference accepted. Congratualtions to Sora Park, Caroline Fisher, Yoonmo Sang, Jee Young Lee and Dan Andrew, who will be travelling to Washington D.C in May to take part in the international conference. Their paper titles are:

• Caroline Fisher and Sora Park ‘From spokesperson to ‘spokesbot’: Towards a conceptual framework of journalist-source relations in the age of AI’ Journalism Studies Division
• Jiwon Kim, Yoonmo Sang and Sunyoung Park 'Meta-analysis on News Media Trust and Public Discussion' Journalism Studies Division
• Yeji Kwon, Soeun Yang and Jee Young Lee ‘Social News Use and Political Socialization: Generational Comparison’ Children, Adolescents & Media Division
• Dan Andrew ‘The Economics Of Fake News’ Media Industry Studies Interest Group

Past News

November News

Congratulations to our N&MRC members who were recognised for their research excellence at the 2018 Research and Teaching Excellence awards. Senior Research Fellow Kate Holland was awarded for Early Career Researcher Excellence in Humanities and Creative Arts, and the Digital News Report: Australia team (Sora Park, Glen Fuller, Caroline Fisher, Jee Young Lee and Megan Deas) were recognised for Outstanding Team Achievement in Research or Innovation.

October News

Centenary Professor Deborah Lupton's research on fitness trackers has been highlighted in an artilce published by the Sydney Morning Herald, entitled 'Why so many users of fitness trackers give up after a few months'.

August News

Congratulations to Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton, who will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Copenhagen in recognition of her accomplishments in the field of sociology. This prestigious award will be conferred in Denmark in November. Read more about the award on the University of Copenhagen's website.

Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton has created a new public Facebook group, 'Innovative Social Research Methods'. Anyone who is interested is free to join and post relevant content.

Deborah has also been invited to speak at three events at the inaugural Social Sciences Week. Details and registrations are available via the links below:

• Social Sciences Stars, convened by CHASS, The Conversation and Taylor & Francis/Routledge, Monday 10 September;
• Digital Society: New Frontiers in Sociological Research, convened by TASA, Tuesday 11 September, and
• 2018 Peter Karmel Forum, convened by ASSA, Wednesday 12 September.

Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher was interviewed by ABC 666 Canberra Drive's Laura Tchillinguirian about about a full page advertisement to Senators in the Australian newspaper about territory rights; and announcement of efficiency review into the ABC and SBS. Listen to the interview on Soundcloud.

The N&MRC welcomes Dr Yoonmo Sang, who has joined us from Howard University in the USA to take up the position of Assistant Professor. Yoonmo's research addresses the intersections of new media technologies and the law, focusing on how socio-cultural and technological changes advantage and/or disadvantage different stakeholders. Welcome Yoonmo!

July News

The N&MRC is delighted to host Professor Eli Skogerbø from the University of Oslo through the University of Canberra’s Distinguished Visitor Program from 11-20 July. She will be delivering a Masterclass in the Discourse after the Digital workshop Tuesday 17 July, and a keynote address at the Digital Participation symposium on 18 July.

N&MRC PhD candidate Dan Andrew was awarded the 2018 Grant Noble Award for the best postgraduate paper presented at the Australian and News Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) Annual Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. The title of Dan's paper is ‘Programmatic Trading: The future of audience economics’, which is a pioneering work on how digital tools are changing the media markets. Congratulations Dan!

June News

The N&MRC congratulates Caroline Fisher for winning the 2018 Anne Dunn Scholar Award. This is an internationally competitive $3000 prize funded jointly by the Australia New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA), Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA), and Anne Dunn’s family. The Award honours the life and work of former academic and broadcaster Anne Dunn and recognises excellence in communication and journalism research http://www.jeraa.org.au/grants-&-awards/. It will be formally announced at the ANZCA conference in Auckland, 4-7 July.

Deborah Lupton has been nominated for the 2018 ACT Heart Foundation Women with Heart Awards. Together with a team of nine other investigators, Deborah has received the 2018 University of Melbourne Networked Society Institute Seed Grant. The grant was awarded for the project ‘Developing an ethics for health data curation, customisation and consumption using participatory design’.

The N&MRC launched the Digital News Report: Australia 2018 on Thursday June 14 at Old Parliament House in Canberra. Prior to the launch, report co-author Caroline Fisher spoke with ABC Radio Canberra about the key findings of the report (@13:20). Together with co-authors Glen Fuller and Jee Young Lee, they wrote an article for The Conversation addressing Australians' reluctance to express their political views on social media. ABC News Online and The Guardian also covered the report. The report can be downloaded in full from the Communication & Media collection of Analysis & Policy Observatory: apo.org.au/node/174861. For a full list of media coverage, including articles and radio interviews, visit the Digital News Report: Australia 2018 page.

Deborah Lupton will be presenting two keynotes at conferences this month. She will speak at the Critical Health Education Studies conference  in Queenstown, NZ on June 1, and at the international conference In Sickness and In Health, Sydney on June 8.

May News

Congratulations to Caroline Fisher and Jee Young Lee, who are the recipients of a Top Paper award in the Journalism Division of the International Communications Association (ICA) 2018 conference in Prague. Their paper, 'Regaining control: Citizens who follow politicians on social media - a six country comparison', was based on data derived from the 2017 Digital News Report survey.

April News

N&MRC Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton has been named Australia's top-ranked sociologist by League of Scholars, a Sydney-based data analytics start-up. Deborah is ranked number one in the world in the fields of digital sociology and the sociology of health and fitness research. Read more in the latest edition of the University's Monitor magazine.

Deborah Lupton gave an invited talk at the Australian Telehealth Conference in Sydney. Two specialised news sites covered the presentation. View the articles in Health Times and Pulse+It Magazine.

March News

Sora Park (with Julian Thomas and Chris Wilson) has published an article in 'The Conversation' titled ‘Australia’s Digital Divide is Not Going Away’ based on an analysis of the Australian Household Use of Information Technology report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Despite large investments in the National Broadband Network, the “digital divide” in Australia remains largely unchanged. We are doing more online, and we are using an increasing number of connected devices. Our homes are more connected. However, the number of people using the internet is not growing, and the basic parameters of digital inequality in Australia – age, geography, education and income – continue to define access to and uses of online resources. Almost 2.6 million Australians, according to these ABS figures, do not use the internet. Nearly 1.3 million households are not connected. So what is going on? To read the article, go to https://theconversation.com/australias-digital-divide-is-not-going-away-91834.

February News

News announcement

Deborah Lupton has published an article in 'The Conversation' titled 'Grey's Anatomy is unrealistic, but it might make junior doctors more compassionate'.

Patient experiences in the TV drama Grey’s Anatomy are, unsurprisingly, portrayed inaccurately when compared with real-life trauma cases, according to a new study.

The US-based medical team of researchers wanted to see if the long-running program, now in its fourteenth season, was realistic in showing what happens to patients when they are rushed to hospital after experiencing a major injury. They reviewed 269 episodes of the program and compared the fictional patients’ treatment and outcomes with those from a database of nearly 5,000 real patients collected in their hospital. The study was published in the journal Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open

Sora Park was interviewed on ABC Radio, Mornings with Adam Shirley on 21st February 2018 about the Emerging Digital Divide Seminar presented by Jee Young Lee. Slides from the seminar are available at this link

University of Canberra researchers Kristyn Jackson (BGL) and Nalini Haynes (N&MRC) have developed a website, PhDpeeps, to act as a newsletter, academic resource centre, and to share research journeys locally and globally.

‘Over the past year, I’ve been party to numerous conversations about the need for this type of website at the University of Canberra,’ says Nalini. ‘With my years of experience running Dark Matter Zine, I have the skills and experience to establish something like PhD Peeps. However, I also know how much work a venture like this is; I was not prepared to undertake this project alone. When Kristyn independently decided this project was essential, I’d found my project partner.

‘Not only does Kristyn bring enthusiasm and energy to the project, she has a marketing and sociology background. Our ICT skills overlap in essential areas, while her marketing skills imbue life and energy to the website. This has enabled us to tailor PhD Peeps to a broader audience, including young researchers. We hope our rich content and collegial philosophy will appeal across the board.’

PhD Peeps has already published an advertisement for a UC alumni’s book launch, and begun the ‘Know Your Nerd’ feature, where they plan to feature thousands of researchers and research projects. Several academics have already put forward content, and more want to discuss opportunities further.

To discuss publishing opportunities on PhD Peeps, email Nalini.Haynes@canberra.edu.au, Kristyn.Jackson@canberra.edu.au, or editor@phdpeeps.com.

Follow PhDpeeps:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• GooglePlus.

January News

Deborah Lupton will be presenting a talk on 'Critial Digital Health Studies Now and in the Future' in Singapore on 19th of January

Deborah Lupton has published an article in The Conversation titled 'The social factors that influence whether you'll use your wearable device'.  Read the article here. Deborah was also interviewed about the article on ABC Radio Hobart and on 'Talking Lifestyle' on 2UE.

Congratulations to Glen Fuller and his colleagues on their article recently published in The Conversation, 'Measures to increase cycling in Australia are predicated on failure' 

Congratulations to HDR student, Zorana Kostic who has been accepted to the short term research program at  Keio University  for one month in Japan. Keio is a prestigious Japanese university (of similar status as Oxford and Cambridge).

Past Events

10 September

Misinformation and Media Symposium: Understanding the Spread of Misinformation in the Australian and US Media Fields

The Understanding the spread of misinformation in the Australian and US media fields Symposium addressed questions such as:

• Are there echo chambers, filter bubbles and fake-news spreading hubs in the Australian media field?
• How are foreign or domestic strategic actors using media spaces and to what extent and through what mechanisms are they impacting news reporting?
• Is Australia at risk of being swamped by ‘fake news’?

It brought together journalists and researchers, cutting-edge computational methods and first-hand accounts of actors in the field, to assess to what extent filter bubbles and echo chambers contribute to the spread of misinformation.

17 July 2018

Discourse after the Digital workshop

The Digital News+ Lab of the News and Media Research Centre hosted a workshop on qualitative research methods (discourse analysis, thematic coding, etc) in a ‘big data’ world. It workshop brought together key scholars who have tackled with the problem of how to do qualitative research with complex research objects involving discourse that circulates beyond digital platforms.

18 July 2018

Digital Participation and the Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion symposium

This symposium addressed the political aspects of inclusion and exclusion in information societies within three contexts:

• political parties and electoral contestation,
• news and information inequalities reinforced by levels of online engagement, and
• exclusionary practices that emerge as a product of asymmetry in the collection and analysis of personal data.

Hosted by News & Media Research Centre and Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis, at the University of Canberra, the symposium brought together international scholars, practitioners and activists to engage with the contemporary issues in digital participation.

Slides from selected presentations are available on the symposium resources page.

Past News

December News

Our N&MRC 2018 Planning Day, held at the National Botanic Gardens was very well attended and an enjoyable and informative day was had by all.  Presentations by N&MRC Members and HDR Students were recorded.  Please contact Alanna Grant if you would like to view the presentations via a dropbox link.

Visiting Scholars

Dr Maria Wiklund

Visiting from Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Umea universitet, Sweden, 10 December 2017 - 22 December 2017

Dr Maria Wiklund will be working with Deborah Lupton on a project on Swedish young men and digital mental health

Dr Chen He

Visiting from the School of Literature and Journalism, Hunan University of Commerce, China, February 2018- February 2019

Research expertise:  Ethics in media communication, media literacy, digital journalism, risk communication and privacy protection in the age of big data.

Whilst visiting UC, Chen He  intends to focus on the research of “Citizens' Information Rights and Personal Privacy Protection in the Age of Big Data: Based on the Perspective of Citizen's Information Literacy”

HDR student, Nalini Haynes was invited to moderate a panel at  the Digital Writers Festival titled, Representation in Fan Fiction -   link to the video

Nalini has also  completed a series of blog posts for the ACT Writers Centre on representation in fiction. The tag for her series is at this link

Nalini also has her own website  http://www.darkmatterzine.com/ including a series of interviews in various formats (text, video and/or audio).  Link to interviews here

November News

Deborah Lupton will be visiting Europe to give several talks in early November.  These will include:

• Keynote at the ‘Monitoring the Self: Negotiating Technologies of Health, Identity and Governance’ conference, Helsinki, Finland
• Keynote presentation at the ‘Emotion and Affect in Dataified Worlds’ workshop, Helsinki, Finland.
• Opening presentation with our Wellcome Trust grant research team at the ‘Researching Young People and Digital Health Technologies’ symposium we have organised, Manchester, UK
• Invited public lecture at the ‘Digital Health’ workshop, Malmo, Sweden.
• Invited presentation at the ‘Challenges of Digital Health’ workshop, Orebro, Sweden.

Click here to view more details

Congratulations to Deborah Lupton, who was awarded a  commendation in UC's Research Excellence Awards 2017 for Research Excellence in Social Sciences.

UC Ad Awards - Congratulations to  John, Shara and Shaun for running in spectacular fashion the second edition of the UC Ad Awards. It was a great success, with students, family, industry and members of the UC community in attendance. The students had a great time and so did we.

2017 Early Career Researcher Excellence Award in Humanities and the Creative Arts Congratulations to Caroline Fisher who is the recipient of this prestigious award.

PhD Candidate, Jee Young Lee is visiting Indonesia to conduct a research project in Jakarta in November as part of a fellowship she received from Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta. Her project title is, “Digital technology to Indonesian young people: trends and opportunities for Education”. During her visit she will be involved in collaborative research projects with researchers at the Faculty of Science and Technology

October News

The Discipline of Communication and Media is proud to announce that its Journalism team, led by Dr Caroline Fisher and Dr Glen Fuller (with Professor Matthew Ricketson) has been granted a University of Canberra Award for Programs that Enhance Learning by the University of Canberra's Teaching & Learning Awards committee.

This prestigious award recognises and rewards the team’s highly regarded contributions to teaching excellence. In particular, the Awards Committee was impressed by the team’s sustained approach to improving and promoting teaching excellence, as evidenced by its “developing a strategy to take advantage of the opportunities of an uncertain media industry through a constantly iterative process of curricular design of the journalism course.”

On Friday 27 October, recipients of this year’s Teaching Excellence Awards will be recognised at a luncheon celebrating their outstanding commitment to building productive academic partnerships underpinning student success. Warm congratulations to Glen and Caroline!

Catherine Page Jeffery has been interviewed by the ABC South East and ABC 666 Afternoons ahead of her PhD Work in Progress Seminar to be presented at the N&MRC Seminar Series on 18^th October.  A link will be provided on the website when available.  Cat was also interviewed by ABC 666 Canberra mornings on 8 November about new sexting research that has been published.

Peter Putnis presented an invited address on the topic 'Monopoly pricing and press rivalry: Explaining the high cost and limited availability of overseas news in colonial Australia' at a workshop entitled 'The Australian Press: Agendas for Research' held at the University of Melbourne on 11 October. The workshop was convened by A/Prof Sally Young of the University of Melbourne.

Caroline Fisher was interviewed by Laura Tchillinguirian on ABC 666 about political TV dramas.  Click here to listen to the interview

September News

Congratulations to Deborah Lupton who has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.  Deborah's election to Fellowship is in recognition of her contribution to the advancement of social science knowledge and the impact she has made.

Sora Park will be attending the Digital News Report 2018 Academic Workshop, 21-22 Sep 2017, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford, UK.

Caroline Fisher has published an article in 'The Conversation' titled 'It’s reputation that matters when spin doctors go back to the newsroom'.  This Conversation piece is based on 2 articles recently published in the Australian Journalism Review.  Read the article

August News

Sora Park attended the 11th National Higher Education Women's Leadership Summit 2017, 22-25 Aug 2017.

Caroline Fisher was recently interviewed by the ABC on 'Social media and politics: the alliance that entertains and enthralls'.  Listen to the interview here.

Kerry McCallum has published a new book with Lisa Waller titled, 'The dynamics of News and Indigenous Policy in Australia.'   This book offers rich insights into the news media’s role in the development of policy in Australia, and explores the complex and interactive relationship between news media and Australian Indigenous affairs. Kerry McCallum and Lisa Waller critically examine how Indigenous health, bilingual education, and controversial legislation are portrayed through public media, and they look closely at how Indigenous people are both being excluded from policy and media discussion, as well as using the media to their advantage.

This book provides one of the most thorough, contextually rich, and clearly explained accounts of the rapid slide backwards in Indigenous affairs, from self-determination and reconciliation to intervention, over the last two decades.'
Dr Christina Spurgeon, School of Communication, Queensland University of Technology

July News

Kieran McGuinness, N&MRC PhD student has published an article on the Australian Strategic Policy (ASPI), The Strategist open contribution website, titled 'Defence bipartisanship: holy grail or poisoned chalice'?

Congratulations to Melissa Sweet on the award of her PhD. Melissa's doctoral thesis was titled: “Acknowledgement”A social journalism research project relating to the history of lock hospitals and other forms of medical incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The thesis was supervised by Kerry McCallum, Kate Holland, Lynore Geia (JCU), Matthew Ricketson (Deakin) and Pat Dudgeon (UWA) and was overseen by an Indigenous Advisory Committee. Melissa's ongoing social journalism project continues to be a driver of social change in Indigenous health.

PhD Students, Jee Young Lee, Sonya Sandham, Jayan Kurian and Temple Uwalaka will be attending the Australia and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) Conference to be held in Sydney on the 4th-7th July.

June News

'The Conversation' fact-checks claims made on Q&A, broadcast Mondays on the ABC at 9:35pm.The Digital News Report: Australia 2016, produced by the News and Media Research Centre,  was recently cited by 'The Conversation' in fact checking.

In a wide-ranging Q&A discussion on misinformation, disinformation and trust in media, the assistant minister for social services and multicultural affairs, Zed Seselja, said that surveys showed confidence in media has fallen around the world. In Australia, he said, it has dropped lower than in the US.  Click here to visit the Q&A FactCheck page

Professor Deborah Lupton has accepted an invitation by the Australian Privacy Foundation to join its board.  She has also been nominated for an award by the Heart Foundation ACT and has joined UC's team for a CRC on Digital Health (led by Rachel Davey and UC - Health Research Institute).

May News

Sora Park and Jerry Watkins attended the Australian Media and Communication Authority's Australian Content Conversation in Sydney on the 16th and 17th of May.

Dr Caroline Fisher was moderator at 'The war on words:  Is journalism disappearing from conflict zones'? which was a special event run by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Australian Red Cross.  The panel included Yves Daccord (Director General International Committee of the Red Cross), Peter Cave (Journalist ABC) and Helen Vatsikopoulos (Journalist and Academic)

Professor Deborah Lupton spoke to ABC Canberra's Lish Fejer about research into consumer attitudes to 3D printed food in Australia. Listen to the interview here

April News

Farewell and good luck to Matthew Ricketson who will be taking up a new position as Professor of Communication at Deakin University.  Thank you for your huge contribution to the News and Media Research Centre over the past 7 years.

N&MRC PhD Candidate, Morris Carpenter is presenting at the World Congress on Public Health held in Melbourne from the 3-7th April 2017.  His digital poster is titled 'mHealth adoption for the self-management of type 2 diabetes'.

February News

N&MRC PhD Candidate Catherine Page Jeffery spoke to ABC local radio about her research on parental anxieties about their teenage children's use of digital technologies. Listen to the interview here.

January News

Congratulations to Senior Research Fellow, Dr Kate Holland who will be an international visiting academic at Massey University in New Zealand during April 2017.  Kate will be working with Dr Andrew Dickson in the School of Management (Massey University) and Dr Isaac Warbrick ( Auckland University of Technology) on the project 'Rethinking the business of weight loss'.

Past Events

15 November 2017

Everyday Political Talk in Third Spaces

The Digital News+ Lab of the News and Media Research Centre, Faculty of Art and Design, University of Canberra, is proud to host Dr Scott Wright presenting his research on:

The extensive literature analysing the nature of political deliberation online has generally found limited evidence of deliberation, with debate polarised into like-minded communities; limited use of evidence; and significant flaming, trolling and incivility (e.g. Davis, 2005; Wilhelm, 2000; Smith et al., 2013). This literature has, however, largely focused on explicitly political online spaces (such as political discussion forums or debates on politicians’ social media) using formal definitions of politics and Habermas-inspired elite models of deliberation. In response, a new agenda for online deliberation has been proposed that focuses on the interactions of “ordinary” citizens’ informal political talk in everyday online, ‘third spaces’, such as parenting, sports, or gardening forums, using expansive notion of political talk that embrace the vernacular, expressive and porous characteristics of everyday public speech and broader definitions of ‘the political’ (Wright, 2012a, b).

This presentation will outline the concept of third space, and the methodological challenges of identifying and analysing such talk. Data from a range of case studies of UK and Australian ‘third spaces’ will be presented, showing that when people talk about politics in third spaces, they generally use evidence to support claims and refrain from trolling, flaming and abuse. Political talk is also often crosscutting (left-right) even on sensitive topics such as asylum and abortion. Furthermore, such talk leads to a wide range of political actions.

This lecture is part of DN+L Masterclass Series.  There is no need to register for the lecture but those who wish to attend the Masterclass which will commence immediately after the  lecture (details below), please visit Eventbrite to register by November 8, 2017.  Lunch/tea/coffee are provided, spaces limited.

Data Mess and Methods Workshop – part of the Digital News+Lab Masterclass Series

The Digital News+ Lab of the News and Media Research Centre, Faculty of Art and Design, University of Canberra, warmly invites you to participate in the Data Mess and Methods Workshop on digital, non-API research methods.

Presented by: Scott Wright, University of Melbourne and Glen Fuller, University of Canberra

Most digital research relies on developing a research object through queries of a platform via the application programming interface (API). This has led to a disproportionate research focus on Twitter. ‘Scraping’ webpages is an older method that allows the researcher to collect data directly from webpages. While recently described as ‘vulgar’ compared to API-based methods by Rogers (2017) , scraping gives the researcher greater freedom, flexibility and control. In this closed workshop, you will learn how to collect data from websites and social media using both scrapers and APIs.

The training will focus on Outwit Hub Pro and NodeXL, and is specifically designed for people who do not code. It is led by Dr Scott Wright (University of Melbourne) and Dr Glen Fuller (University of Canberra). Scott will begin the day by discussing his “Everyday Political talk in Third Spaces” project. This involved big data analysis of posts about politics made by participants to various non-political or everyday online forums.

The aim of the workshop is for participants to be introduced to these methods in the context of their own projects. Participants will therefore need to submit a half page summary of their project. Details of this and technical requirements will be sent to participants. Places are limited.

Dr Scott Wright

Scott is a Senior Lecturer in Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. He has published extensively on communication and politics with a particular focus on political communication, political participation and journalism. He has recently returned from Stanford University where he was a Visiting Fellow (Symbolic Systems), working on the relationships between tech companies and journalism. His research is multi-method, comparatively grounded, and is quantitative and qualitative - using content analysis, statistics, interviews and discourse analysis.

Dr Glen Fuller

Organiser of Data Mess and Methods Workshop.

Glen is an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Communications at the University of Canberra. With Associate Professor Sora Park he leads the Digital News+ Lab of the News and Media Research Centre.

30 October 2017

Beyond Voice: Prospects and Challenges of Listening in Democracy

A one-day interdisciplinary symposium jointly organised by the University of Canberra's Centre for Deliberative Democracy and the News and Media Research Centre in collaboration with the University of NSW.

Jointly convened by Selen Ercan (UC), Kerry McCallum (UC) and Tanja Dreher (UNSW)

20 October 2017

Digital Food Cultures Symposium

PROGRAM

Convened by Deborah Lupton, University of Canberra: Welcome and opening address

Speakers:

• Morag Kobez, Queensland University of Technology: ‘”Restaurant reviews aren’t what they used to be”: digital disruption and the transformation of the role of the food critic’
• Markéta Dolejšová, National University of Singapore: ‘Edible Speculation: unpacking the paradoxes of digital food cultures’
• Alana Mann, University of Sydney: ‘Are you local? Digital inclusion in participatory food planning’
• Ellen Scott, University of South Australia: ‘The symbolic construction of food on social media by Adelaide vegans’
• Pia Rowe, University of Canberra and Ellen Grady, Department of Education: ‘Seeing green: The rise of wellness social media influencers in the post-truth era’
• Rachael Kent, King’s College London: ‘Social media and representations of the “health self”: “I think ooh this will be a good Instagram picture, I spend so much time moving things around on the plate, by the time I get to eat it it’s cold”’
• Virginia Braun and Sophie Carruthers, The University of Auckland: ‘Working at self and wellness: a critical analysis of ‘healthy eating’ vlogs’
• Emily A Buddle, Heather J Bray and Rachel A Ankeny, University of Adelaide: ‘Meet my meat! How Australian meat consumers and producers are engaging on social media’
• Bhavna Middha, RMIT University: ‘Selfoodie: Food selfies and eating practices’
• Faustine Regnier, Université Paris-Saclay: ‘Diet and fitness apps in daily life: diversity of uses and social affiliation’
• Stephanie Baker, City, University of London and Michael Walsh, University of Canberra: ‘You are what you Instagram: “clean eating” and the symbolic representation of food’
• Alice Wong, University of Melbourne: ‘The pursuit of authenticity in the digital age’

13 September 2017

Digital News+ Masterclass Series -Messy Data Research Workshop

Presented by Glen Fuller

In this workshop we built on the last N&MRC Digital News+ Lab masterclass that explored the difference between structured and unstructured data to think through how to develop expertise in using media and communications technologies for research by doing research.

Overview:

• How to think about research projects as a way to develop technical skills and knowledge?
  • Why are data geeks like this (and how do you become one)? Surely they can just answer questions simply (rather than trying to teach you how to do technical things).
  • Research as the application of method vs research as the development of skills and knowledge.
  • Learning with and through Honours and MA student projects. Discussion of five projects. Learning how others learn.
  • Activity: Developing a year-long project through which to develop skills. From initial planning to publication.
• How do research questions develop once you have a developed a technical (and socio-technical) understanding of social media platforms and services?
  • Thinking technically. What is the dataset? How to assemble one for your year-long project. Introduction to Outwit Hub Pro and Excel.
  • How do research objects change through this process?

Dr. Glen Fuller is an Assistant Professor of Communications and Journalism. He has an excellent track record of supervising student projects and working with students to publish from them. He is co-leader of the Digital News+ Lab in the News and Media Research Centre. His most recent publications are available here: https://canberra.academia.edu/GlenFuller

5 September 2017

N&MRC Research Development Workshop: Winning ARC Linkage Grants

The News & Media Research Centre  hosted a workshop which was a practical training and development opportunity for researchers planning to apply for ARC Linkage Projects.

Presenter: Professor Lelia Green has been on seven successful ARC Linkage grants, six of these as the lead Chief Investigator. This interactive workshop/discussion started from first principles, addressing the hows, whys and wherefores of Linkage grant writing and winning. When do you start to look for a Linkage Partner? How many universities should you involve? What kind of research track record is necessary?

Biography
Lelia Green is Professor of Communications at Edith Cowan University working predominantly in the Media and Communications, and Cultural Studies fields. She has been lead Chief Investigator on four ARC Discovery Grants and six ARC Linkage Grants, as well as working as a CI on a seventh Linkage Project. Her past and present Linkage partners include St Vincent de Paul Society (WA), Breast Cancer Care WA, The National Heart Foundation (WA division; twice), Landgate WA and the State Library of Western Australia.

Friday 18 August 2017

Night at the Museum

Professor Deborah Lupton was invited to speak about her 3D food printing research at the 'Night at the Museum' event.

Are you a risk taker? Step into the unknown at Night at the Museum: Uncharted. Delve into the weird and the wonderful, the alien and the exotic, as we discover what lies over the horizon.

Push the boundaries. Travel the unknown. Discover the unexpected. Let the night unfold and reveal itself ...

12th July 2017

The future of quality news in Australia - flyer available here

Speakers:  Katharine Murphy, Guardian journalist and Dr Caroline Fisher, Assistant Professor in Journalism, News and Media Research Centre, University of Canberra

19th June 2017

Digital Health Stakeholder Workshop

The public is now offered a wide array of digital health technologies, from search engines to electronic patient records, websites, discussion forums, social media pages, smartphone apps, self-care devices and wearable devices. We know that ‘Dr Google’ is often the first port of call for people looking for information about health and medicine, and that hundreds of thousands of health apps are now available for download.

The News & Media Research Centre and the Health Research Institute at the University of Canberra held a stakeholder workshop on digital health technologies, convened by Deborah Lupton.

We have several researchers working on digital health at UC. This workshop allowed us to learn more about what citizens and healthcare professionals find useful and want and need from these technologies. This workshop was  designed specifically for stakeholders to have a say, offering opportunities to contribute ideas to our research agenda and develop collaborations with us in future research projects based on these ideas.

Click Here to access the report

13 June

The war on words:  Is journalism disappearing from conflict zones? - A special ICRC/Australian Red Cross Event

Moderator: Dr Caroline Fisher, Assistant Professor in Journalism, University of Canberra
Panelists: Yves Daccord (Director General International Committee of the Red Cross), Peter Cave (Journalist and former foreign correspondent with ABC) and Helen Vatsikopoulos (Journalist and academic, University of Technology, Sydney 
See flyer for details

Past News

November News

The Engaging Innovation 2016 communication and media policy conference was held in Sydney on 2-3 November. The conference was the second in the N&MRC's Emerging Issues in Communication Research and Policy conference series, following on from the 2013 conference held on-campus. Well-attended by industry practitioners, policy-makers and academics, Engaging Innovation highlighted the strong scholarly and pragmatic links between communication, media and journalism.

September News

Professor Deborah Lupton and her colleagues from the UK have been awarded a 2016-2017 Wellcome Trust Grant (UK) for the project 'The digital health generation: the impact of healthy lifestyle technologies on young people's learning identities and health practices'. Congratulations Deborah!

August News

N&MRC researchers Dr Kate Holland and Dr Michelle Dunne Breen contributed to a recently-launched report examining media representations of violence against women. Funded by a grant from Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), the report is one of the largest analyses into media reporting of domestic violence around the world. Download the report from the Communication and media section of Policy Online, and read more about the report in the Monitor.

June News

N&MRC has launched the Digital News Report: Australia 2016, the second annual survey of news consumption in Australia in collaboration with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.

Centenary Professor Deborah Lupton spoke to WIN News about the impact of social media. Watch the interview via this link.

May News

N&MRC researchers Sora Park and Sally Burford spoke to WIN News about the findings from a pilot program they conducted investigating the use of mobile devices in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Watch the interview here and read more about the pilot program on UC's monitor website.

April News

Deborah Lupton spoke to abc.net.au about health applications that don't have a privacy policy and explains why it is becoming a concerning trend. Read the article on the ABC website.

February News

Congratulations to N&MRC Associate Professor Kerry McCallum and PhD Candidate Tess Ryan who have been awarded project funding by UC's Collaborative indigenous Research Initiative (UC CIRI). The grant of $39,652 will fund the 'Deficit Metrics in Indigenous Education' project, which will examine the use of statistics and other official attempts to describe and quantify achievement in Aboriginal education.

January News

The N&MRC welcomes Dr Gwangjae Kim to the University of Canberra. Dr Kim will be a Visiting Scholar with the News & Media Research Centre until December 2016. He is Associate Professor at the Department of Advertising & Media, Hanyang Cyber University, South Korea. His research focuses on media and telecommunication policy, media industries and media literacy. Dr Kim is currently an Advisor for the National Information Agency and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning in Korea. During his sabbatical at the University of Canberra, he plans to conduct comparative research across media and broadband policies.

Congratulations to Centenary Research professor Deborah Lupton, who is part of an international network of scholars awarded $450,000 Swedish Krona for the project 'Self-tracking and Automatised Bodies' (2016-2018).

Past Events

02-03 November

Engaging Innovation Conference 2016: Communication policy in a disrupted landscape

View the conference website for details of conference speakers and abstracts, including full access to past papers from the 2013 Emerging Issues in Communication Research and Policy conference and the Communication Policy and Research Forum.

13 May

Digital potentials for health: Narrowing the divide

A public symposium co-hosted by the N&MRC and the Health Research Institute
Location: Ann Harding Conference Centre
Time: 9am-3pm

Register: via the Eventbrite website.

This symposium explored the promise of digital connectivity in the health context. Academics from various disciplines, health practitioners, policymakers and users of digital health tools for participated in an open discussion about how we can better implement and utilise digital technologies in health care and management.

4 May

Technological Change, Convergence of Things and Issues of ICT and the Media Market in Korea

Presenter: Dr Gwangjae Kim
Location: 5B55b
Time: 11am-12pm

N&MRC Visiting Fellow for 2016 Dr Gwangjae Kim presented a seminar on media markets and technological change in Korea.

16 February

Spin & Secrecy: Refugees and the Media

Presenter: Dr Michelle Dunne Breen
Location: Manning Clarke Lecture Theatre, ANU
Time: 6.30pm

This free public forum aims to shed light on how the culture of spin and secrecy surrounding Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers has impacted on the ability of journalists to provide accurate and impartial information. The forum is organised by the Refugee Action Committee and is co-hosted by The News & Media Research Centre. For more information regarding the forum and the speakers, visit the Refugee Action Committee website.

Past News

December News

Congratulations to Centenary Research professor Deborah Lupton, who is part of an international network of scholars awarded $450,000 Swedish Krona for the project 'Self-tracking and Automatised Bodies' (2016-2018). Deborah Lupton with Associate Professor Martin Berg (co-ordinator), Associate Professor Vaike Fors, Christopher Martin, all of Halmstead University, Sweden, Professor Tom O'Dell, Lund University, Sweden, Professor Sarah Pink, RMIT University, Dr Minna Ruckenstein, Dr Mika Pantzar, both of the University of Helsinki, Finland).

November News

In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris, Assistant Professor Glen Fuller spoke to 2SER about why people feel the need to vent on social media after an event like this, and how productive it might be. Listen to the podcast on the 2SER website.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Jerry Watkins, N&MRC Director, on his successful project in the latest ARC funding round for 2016. Jerry is a Chief Investigator on a Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) project hosted by Swinburne University of Technology. Jerry's involvement will focus upon new systems and formats to advance online and mobile collection and dissemination of resources for communication and media policy and research. This study builds upon the News & Media Research Centre's leadership of the Communication and Media section of Australian Policy Online, the essential online research database.

October News

Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton's new report was released on the 15th of October. It was co-authored with Professor Sarah Pedersen from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, who worked with Deborah on a visiting fellowship in Canberra earlier this year. The report, 'What is happening with your body and your baby': Australian women's use of pregnancy and parenting apps, can be downloaded on the publications page of our website.

N&MRC congratulates PhD candidate Teresa Ryan on her award for the best student paper at the Australian Political Studies Association Conference, held on campus last month. Teresa's paper was titled Where have all those black women gone? The curious case of missing visible indigenous women in the media and what it means for leadership in indigenous Australia.

September News

The Theorising Digital Society Symposium was held on the 14th of September. The event's Twitter hashtag #TDS15 trended throughout the day, and a storify of tweets can be found here.

August News

Centre members Kate Holland and Kerry McCallum presented the findings of their report 'Conversations about alcohol and pregnancy' on Wednesday the 12th of August at the ACT Legislative Assembly. The report was launched in conjunction with the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE)'s campaign 'Women Want to Know'. The ACT's Health Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, Simon Corbell MLA, was in attendance.

June News

On the 16th of June N&MRC released its Digital News Report: Australia 2015, the first the first in a series of annual reports which will track changes in news consumption in Australia over time.

Coinciding with the launch of the report, the Centre also assumed editorship of the Communication & Media collection of Australian Policy Online, the essential online research database providing access to research reports and other resources essential for public policy development and implementation.

May News

N&MRC welcomes two Visiting Fellows, Professor Sarah Pedersen from the Department of Communication, Marketing and Media, Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and Dr Gareth Thomas from the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. Sarah and Gareth will be working with N&MRC Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton on the use of digital media during pregnancy.

March News

N&MRC Research Associate Michelle Dunne Breen has contributed an article to The Conversation. The article, 'For the real story on Indigenous Australia, social beats old media', can be read in full on the website.

Centre Member Dr Caroline Fisher was awarded a $6,000 grant from the Journalism Education & Research Association of Australia (JERAA) for her project titled 'Press secretary to press gallery: managing conflict of interest and perceptions of partisanship'.

Past Events

14 September

Theorising Digital Society Symposium

This one-day symposium presented new research that brought theoretical perspectives to bear on contemporary digital media and other digital technologies. A collection of tweets from the day is available via storify.

29 June

http://www.canberra.edu.au/events/view/10367Pregnancy, Parenting and Digital Media Seminar

This special seminar featured presentations from N&MRC Centenary Professor Deborah Lupton and visiting fellows to UC Professor Sarah Pedersen from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen and Dr Gareth Thomas from Cardiff University. They spoke about their current collaborative research projects investigating the ways in which pregnant women and parents use digital media such as online parenting forums, blogs and other websites, mobile apps and social media. Listen to the podcast of the seminar on our Resources webpage.
Time: 10am-11.30am. Location: Seminar Room 5B55a.

28 May

Journalism Masterclass

The N&MRC is hosting a special Masterclass with investigative journalist Nick Davies from The Guardian. Nick is also a documentary-maker and has written six books, most recently Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch (2014).
To register your attendance at the class, email megan.deas@canberra.edu.au.
Time: 10.30am-12.00pm. Location: Seminar Room 5B55a.

10 April

Speculative Design Ethnography Workshop

Anne Galloway from Victoria University of Wellington will host a workshop on speculative design ethnography. This will be a chance for Faculty members and research students to learn about an exciting new approach to ethnographic research.
Time: 10am-4pm. Location: Seminar Room 5B55b

Past News

Academic Work in the Digital Era Symposium

On the 27th of November Centenary Research Professor  Deborah Lupton convened a one-day symposium of international scholars including  Inger Mewburn (ANU), Charlotte Frost (City University of Hong Kong), Pat Thompson (University of Nottingham), and the University of Canberra's Deputy  Vice-Chancellor of Education Nick Klomp. Symposium attendees addressed issues  currently faced by academics, the use of social media in academia, as well as  looking to the future. The following day Professor Lupton chaired a panel event  at the ANU on "The risks and rewards of academic social media engagement: do  you have to tweet and blog to be relevant".

Three N&MRC researchers receive ARC Discovery Project funding

The N&MRC congratulates three of our researcher on their successful Discovery Project grants in the latest round of ARC funding. Associate Professor Kerry McCallum and colleagues have won a Discovery Indigenous project via ANU on the prevalence of deficit discourse and its influence on Indigenous education. Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton and colleagues have won a Discovery Project via Southern Cross to study digital health and physical education. Professor Matthew Ricketson and colleagues have won a Discovery Project via La Trobe to investigate the digital reinvention of Australian journalism.

Deborah Lupton's Digital Sociology is out now

Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton's new book Digital Sociology was recently released and is available on Amazon and via the publisher's website. Digital Sociology is essential reading not only for students and academics in sociology, anthropology, media and communication, digital cultures, digital humanities, internet studies, science and technology studies, cultural geography and social computing, but for other readers interested in the social impact of digital technologies.

Professor Matthew Ricketson's ARC Linkage Project application with La Trobe University is successful

Posted: 30th June 2014

Congratulations go to the N&MRC's Professor Matthew Ricketson for his successful ARC Linkage Grant Application. The grant will be administered by La Trobe University, and will be conducted with Partner Organisations the Australian Broadcasting Organisation, the National Library of Australia and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

The three-year project is a multifaceted, innovative and timely analysis of the role of mass redundancies, forced career changes and the digital reinvention of Australian journalism at a time of industry restructure and technological change. In this project, academics and industry stakeholders join forces to explore how to best address questions about professional journalism's experience of structural transformation and its capacity to adapt positively to change. The project aims to provide the first in-depth account of the complex interplay between economic, technological, workplace and career pressures reshaping professional journalism.

New book on narrative non-fiction by Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Journalism

Posted: 24th June 2014

Matthew Rickeston, Professor of Journalism and N&MRC researcher, has recently published a new book entitled Telling True Stories. The book explores the key challenges in writing narrative non-fiction. In addition to this latest release, Matthew has also co-authored a chapter with N&MRC Adjunct Professor Franco Papandrea in the edited book State Aid for Newspapers - Theories, Cases, Actions. Another book chapter, 'The Gillard Government and the media' by Matthew and Sally Young, has been published in The Gillard Government: Australian Commonwealth Administration 2010-2013, edited by Chris Aulich.

Deborah Lupton's report on academics' use of social media released

Posted: 10th June 2014

Professor Deborah Lupton's article on the findings from her recently released report, 'Feeling Better Connected: Academics' Use of Social Media' (available for download in full here), has been published on The Conversation website. The article, Status anxiety: should academics be using social media?, suggests that despite the possible negative aspects, social media can facilitate connections between academics and promote an exchange of ideas. The Australian has also featured an article on this research, which is available (via paywall) at this link. Deborah tweets @DALupton.

NMRC researchers receive ACT Strategic Opportunities Funding

Posted: 27th April 2014

Associate Professor Sora Park and Associate Professor Sally Burford are to conduct an mHealth pilot program at ACT GP Super Clinic in collaboration with Leif Hanlen (NICTA), Paul Dugdale (ANU Medical School), Paresh Dawda (ACT GP Super Clinic), John Burns (Ochre Health), and Christopher Nolan (ACT Diabetes Service, Canberra Hospital). They were awarded $100,000 for their project "Mobile digital communication and health management: An mHealth pilot program at the ACT GP Super Clinic" from the ACT government to investigate how mobile digital communication can increase efficiency and quality of primary healthcare. Through this exploratory research, the team will identify benefits of and barriers to introducing mHealth at the Super Clinic. It will inform and drive healthcare debate and any necessary policy change, as service and communication are complemented by digital technologies.

State of the Newspaper Industry 2013 Report findings published by The Conversation

Posted: 26th February 2014

Adjunct Professor Franco Papandrea has written an article for The Conversation website on his recent publication State of the Newspaper Industry in Australia, 2013. The report, which was recently published by the N&MRC, can be downloaded in full on our publications page.

The N&MRC welcomes Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton

Posted: 24th February 2014

The N&MRC has kicked off the 2014 academic year by welcoming Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton to the Faculty of Arts and Design. Professor Lupton's research and teaching is multidisciplinary, incorporating sociology, media and communication and cultural studies. She is the author of 13 books and over 130 journal articles and book chapters on topics including the social and cultural dimensions of medicine and public health; risk; the body; parenting cultures; digital technologies; food; obesity politics; and the emotions.

Deborah Lupton presented the opening plenary at the 13th Social Research Conference on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Related Diseases, UNSW, 20 February 2014, on the topic of 'The digital health phenomenon: promises and limitations'.

Three articles by Deborah Lupton were recently published:

Lupton, D. (2014) 'How do you measure up?' Assumptions about 'obesity' and health-related behaviors in 'obesity' prevention campaigns. Fat Studies, 3(1), 32—44

Lupton, D. (2014) The commodification of patient opinion: the digital patient experience economy in the age of big data. Sociology of Health & Illness, online first, doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12109.

Lupton, D. (2014) The pedagogy of disgust: ethical, moral and political implications of using disgust in public health campaigns. Critical Public Health, online first, doi: 10.1080/09581596.2014.885115.

28 Aug

Covering Traumatic Events

In this special seminar Bruce Shapiro addressed the issues surrounding covering traumatic events without traumatising yourself or those you report on. Bruce is the Executive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. The Dart Center encourages innovative reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy worldwide from the Center's headquarters in New York City.

Past News

Launch of the 'Italy in the Australian News Media, 2005-2012' report

Posted: 11th November 2013

The N&MRC's latest report, 'Italy in the Australian News Media, 2005-2012' was launched on Thursday 7th of November at the Italian Ambassador's residence in Canberra. Special guests included Ambassador His Excellency Pier Franceso Zazo, the Honorable Vicki Dunne MLA, On. Marco Fedi, and members of Canberra's Italian community.

Kate Holland, N&MRC Postdoctoral Fellow, awarded prestigious grant

Posted: 11th November 2013

Congratulations to Dr Kate Holland, postdoctoral fellow in communication, who obtained a nationally-competitive Discovery Early Career Researcher Award worth $375,289 from the Australian Research Council. Her research project will look at how media shape the public and professional understanding and communication about mental health issues and contribute to policy-making around these practices.

The N&MRC welcomes new Associate Professor Mathieu O'Neil

Posted: 28th October 2013

Associate Professor Mathieu O'Neil joined the News and Media Research Centre in October 2013. A New paper by Mathieu titled 'Collaborative Internet Governance: Terms and Conditions of Analysis' has been published in the special issue on Contested Internet Governance of the Revue française d'études américaines:

"Online projects are communities of practice which attempt to bypass the hierarchies of everyday life and to create autonomous institutions and forms of organisation. A wealth of theoretical frameworks have been put forward to account for these networked actors' capacity to communicate and self-organise. This article reviews terminology used in Internet research and assesses what it implies for the understanding of regulatory-oriented collective action".

N&MRC PhD Candidate pens article for The Conversation

Posted: 10th October 2013

David Marshall, a PhD Candidate in Communication, was recently invited to contribute an article to The Conversation, one of Australia's largest independent news websites. The article, entitled 'Feeding the chooks: Abbott, Howard and media management', compares the ways in which newly elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott has handled his media appearances over the past month, to how John Howard ran his press office while Prime Minister. The article examines several key incidents in Abbott's first weeks in office to argue that despite appearances, 'Abbott's media directive is all about co-ordination, not control'.

The full article can be read on the website at http://theconversation.com/feeding-the-chooks-abbott-howard-and-media-management-18923

N&MRC researcher evaluates iPads as research tools

Posted: 12th May 2013

Research conducted by The N&MRC's Associate Professor Sora Park and Assistant Professor Sally Burford from Knowledge and Information Studies was recently featured in 'Monitor', the University's Magazine. The research looked at whether an increasing use of technology such as ipads can benefit university students' digital media literacy, with some surprising results. Download the full article here (.pdf 280KB).