Journalism Beyond the Crisis: emerging forms, practices and uses. This project seeks to conduct a transnational comparative study designed to discover how journalism is changing as a cultural form, and the implications of this for political and cultural life. Journalistic culture in Australia is in transition, with significant implications for politics, culture and economic life. Change is affecting the forms of journalism available to Australian audiences; the ways in which, and by whom, journa ....Journalism Beyond the Crisis: emerging forms, practices and uses. This project seeks to conduct a transnational comparative study designed to discover how journalism is changing as a cultural form, and the implications of this for political and cultural life. Journalistic culture in Australia is in transition, with significant implications for politics, culture and economic life. Change is affecting the forms of journalism available to Australian audiences; the ways in which, and by whom, journalism is produced; and the uses to which practitioners and citizens in general put journalistic content.Read moreRead less
Australian television and popular memory: new approaches to the cultural history of the media in the project of nation-building. Despite its importance to our everyday lives since the 1950s, there is no history of television's role in Australian popular culture. This project will develop a series of collaborative histories that focus upon the popular experience of television and in particular its role in forming national culture. The research will not only involve conventional academic sources, ....Australian television and popular memory: new approaches to the cultural history of the media in the project of nation-building. Despite its importance to our everyday lives since the 1950s, there is no history of television's role in Australian popular culture. This project will develop a series of collaborative histories that focus upon the popular experience of television and in particular its role in forming national culture. The research will not only involve conventional academic sources, but also those connected with 'the people': memories, memorabilia, personal collections as well as the full range of popular and ephemeral publications which support the popular engagement with the medium. The project is the first to examine television's historical role in our national life.Read moreRead less
Valuing News: Aligning Individual, Institutional and Societal Perspectives. This project aims to identify the links between the preparedness of individuals to pay for news, the value of news brands and organisational cultures of news publishers, and the social value of news in promoting a democratic public sphere. Its significance arises with the ongoing crisis of news media business models, which is raising new questions about the future of journalism, and the changing role of governments worl ....Valuing News: Aligning Individual, Institutional and Societal Perspectives. This project aims to identify the links between the preparedness of individuals to pay for news, the value of news brands and organisational cultures of news publishers, and the social value of news in promoting a democratic public sphere. Its significance arises with the ongoing crisis of news media business models, which is raising new questions about the future of journalism, and the changing role of governments worldwide in financing news production. Its expected outcomes include advancing debates about how to support public interest journalism, and the value of news as both a commodity and a public good. It will be of benefit to industry, policymakers and the community in addressing the prospects for Australian journalism. Read moreRead less
Politics, media and democracy in Australia: public and producer perceptions of the political public sphere. At a time of widespread criticism of the role of the media in informing and enabling Australian democratic processes, this study explores the perceptions of ordinary Australians about the performance of the variety of media forms in which politics is reported, analysed and discussed.
Understanding and Combatting 'Dark Political Communication'. This project examines an emergent series of tactics used by political actors (i.e. politicians, lobbyists, political groups, etc.) that we are calling 'Dark Political Communication' (DPC). DPC differs markedly from existing, well-established modes of political communication, as it often involves the deliberate spread of disinformation, use of highly inflammatory language, antagonism towards the press and democratic institutions, as wel ....Understanding and Combatting 'Dark Political Communication'. This project examines an emergent series of tactics used by political actors (i.e. politicians, lobbyists, political groups, etc.) that we are calling 'Dark Political Communication' (DPC). DPC differs markedly from existing, well-established modes of political communication, as it often involves the deliberate spread of disinformation, use of highly inflammatory language, antagonism towards the press and democratic institutions, as well as actions that seek to exacerbate social discord. In this project, we will provide the first-ever complete account of DPC tactics, and provide a series of recommendations to journalists about how their practice can best evolve to address this novel communication paradigm. Read moreRead less
Empire and Antipodes: Australian-New Zealand involvement in the Empire/Commonwealth Press Union (1909-1970). This project will investigate the role and changing significance of the Empire/Commonwealth Press Union (1909-1970) focussing on its regular international conferences and the communication issues raised by the Australian-New Zealand delegations which attended. Drawing on the work of Harold Innis on the history of communication across empires and using the E./C.P.U as a case study, the pr ....Empire and Antipodes: Australian-New Zealand involvement in the Empire/Commonwealth Press Union (1909-1970). This project will investigate the role and changing significance of the Empire/Commonwealth Press Union (1909-1970) focussing on its regular international conferences and the communication issues raised by the Australian-New Zealand delegations which attended. Drawing on the work of Harold Innis on the history of communication across empires and using the E./C.P.U as a case study, the project seeks to investigate the ascendancy and decline of British imperial communications in terms of old/new media and British/antipodean communications. Key debates and concerns of the A/NZ press delegations, including press freedom, cable technology and the advent of broadcast media, will be examined within the shifting contexts of private/public monopoly and imperial/national loyalty with reference to parallel developments in India.Read moreRead less
The rise of mistrust: Digital platforms and trust in news media. This project aims to investigate how trust and mistrust in news changes audiences’ behaviours as they increasingly access news through digital platforms. Observing the global crisis of trust, the project will undertake a longitudinal analysis of trust and mistrust in news, a four-country experiment that links trust and audience responses, and an in-depth qualitative study that provides specific contexts of these choices. The resear ....The rise of mistrust: Digital platforms and trust in news media. This project aims to investigate how trust and mistrust in news changes audiences’ behaviours as they increasingly access news through digital platforms. Observing the global crisis of trust, the project will undertake a longitudinal analysis of trust and mistrust in news, a four-country experiment that links trust and audience responses, and an in-depth qualitative study that provides specific contexts of these choices. The research will directly benefit policy makers, as it addresses questions of how to better secure trustworthy news content in an age of increasing dominance of digital platforms that algorithmically sort the range of news available to the Australian public.
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Creative Suburbia: A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Cultural Development in Australia's Suburban and Peri Urban Communities. Creative industries enterprises are increasingly important to Australia in a global knowledge-based economy. They account for 5.5% of national income, and recent work has shown they are 50% bigger than first estimated. But much research and policy assumes that these enterprises only take place in inner urban environments. This project will examine the work ....Creative Suburbia: A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Cultural Development in Australia's Suburban and Peri Urban Communities. Creative industries enterprises are increasingly important to Australia in a global knowledge-based economy. They account for 5.5% of national income, and recent work has shown they are 50% bigger than first estimated. But much research and policy assumes that these enterprises only take place in inner urban environments. This project will examine the work patterns of creative enterprise workers in the outer suburbs of Brisbane and Melbourne, investigating how these enterprises work outside of inner city zones. Such work will enable a more empirically grounded understanding of creative enterprise dynamics, so that the creative and economic potential of these activities are better realised.Read moreRead less
Wild Man from Borneo: species, race, representation. This project addresses the representation of species boundaries in Western accounts of the orangutan in the 19th and 20th centuries. Darwinian theory raised the possibility that animals could ?evolve?. Orangutans seemed ?closest? to humans and therefore raised key questions about the border between humans and animals. These questions were addressed in a vast range of scientific, popular, imaginative and juvenile literature. Even when ecolo ....Wild Man from Borneo: species, race, representation. This project addresses the representation of species boundaries in Western accounts of the orangutan in the 19th and 20th centuries. Darwinian theory raised the possibility that animals could ?evolve?. Orangutans seemed ?closest? to humans and therefore raised key questions about the border between humans and animals. These questions were addressed in a vast range of scientific, popular, imaginative and juvenile literature. Even when ecological models of the environment shifted attention from evolutionary potential to ecological role, orangutans retained a special status as ?sentinel? species. This project will produce a monograph examining the construction, maintenance and erosion of ideas of species boundaries.Read moreRead less
Mobile Indonesians: social differentiation and digital literacies in the twenty first century. This is the first dedicated study of the social implications of mobile telephony's recent and rapid popularisation throughout the country. This project will study metropolitan, urban and rural users to understand how mobile phones create the new and unexpected social networks which will shape tomorrow's Indonesians.