Participation in the administration of justice: deaf citizens as jurors. This project will pioneer international research on legal signed language interpreting and jury service; the results are likely to innovate law reform. The expected outcome will be to overturn previously held common law that deaf people cannot serve as jurors due to having an interpreter as the 13th person in the jury room as well as confidentiality issues.
Valuing Web Series: Economic, Industrial, Cultural and Social Value. This project investigates the value of web series as a form of online screen entertainment characterised by original and diverse content produced by emerging creatives. It will deploy the theoretical frame of ‘total value’ to assess the role and viability of web series: value accrued as career development opportunities for digital content makers; value accrued by the audiences who consume web series; and the value accrued by t ....Valuing Web Series: Economic, Industrial, Cultural and Social Value. This project investigates the value of web series as a form of online screen entertainment characterised by original and diverse content produced by emerging creatives. It will deploy the theoretical frame of ‘total value’ to assess the role and viability of web series: value accrued as career development opportunities for digital content makers; value accrued by the audiences who consume web series; and the value accrued by the Australian screen industry as web series contribute to innovation in a rapidly evolving global screen ecology. We have partnered with four leading web series festivals who will benefit directly from a hosting a number of forums for the discussion and dissemination of our comparative findings.Read moreRead less
Addressing Misinformation with Media Literacy through Cultural Institutions. Misinformation can harm democratic processes, social cohesion and public health outcomes. Media literacy prepares citizens for misinformation by developing critical analysis abilities. This project partners with Australian public cultural institutions to increase adult media literacy. Through an action-based, mixed methods approach, the project investigates adults’ experiences with online misinformation and assesses the ....Addressing Misinformation with Media Literacy through Cultural Institutions. Misinformation can harm democratic processes, social cohesion and public health outcomes. Media literacy prepares citizens for misinformation by developing critical analysis abilities. This project partners with Australian public cultural institutions to increase adult media literacy. Through an action-based, mixed methods approach, the project investigates adults’ experiences with online misinformation and assesses their ability to identify and challenge it. Research findings will inform the design and evaluation of targeted evidence-based media literacy training and resources that will be shared across broadcast media, physical spaces and online. Through these initiatives Australians will be better equipped to combat misinformation.Read moreRead less
Australian cultural and creative activity: A population and hotspot analysis. This project aims to grasp the contemporary dynamics of cultural and creative activity in Australia. It represents a major innovation, bringing together population-level and comparative studies of local cultural and creative activity. The comprehensive project will advance the integration of quantitative and qualitative research strategies, painting a complete national picture, while also exploring the factors that are ....Australian cultural and creative activity: A population and hotspot analysis. This project aims to grasp the contemporary dynamics of cultural and creative activity in Australia. It represents a major innovation, bringing together population-level and comparative studies of local cultural and creative activity. The comprehensive project will advance the integration of quantitative and qualitative research strategies, painting a complete national picture, while also exploring the factors that are producing local and regional creative hotspots. The project will deliver outputs such as reports and forums that are framed in close collaboration with partners in order to deliver outcomes such as better-targeted policy and program initiatives. This will provide national cultural and policy benefits from placing the creative sector in front of policy makers as a vital contributor to high growth, labour-intensive economic activity in the context of the Australian economy in transition.Read moreRead less
Digital storytelling and co-creative media: the role of community arts and media in propagating and coordinating population-wide creative practice. Community arts, community broadcasting and Indigenous media producers all face the challenge of digital media and user-led innovation. This project brings these systems together to test how existing infrastructure and new media affordances can be combined to stimulate broad-based innovation through creative participation.
Discovering a ‘good read’: Pathways to reading for Australian teens. This project aims to support the school, library, and book industries to increase teenagers’ recreational reading. Matching the right book to the right reader is essential to increase young people’s motivation to read. Yet how cultural intermediaries should operate to best effect within the complex ecologies that shape young people’s text selection is unclear. The project expects to generate robust evidence on how teens discove ....Discovering a ‘good read’: Pathways to reading for Australian teens. This project aims to support the school, library, and book industries to increase teenagers’ recreational reading. Matching the right book to the right reader is essential to increase young people’s motivation to read. Yet how cultural intermediaries should operate to best effect within the complex ecologies that shape young people’s text selection is unclear. The project expects to generate robust evidence on how teens discover books and the cultural factors that influence their choices. Expected outcomes include strategies that libraries, schools, and the book industry can use to promote Australian content for young adults, and equip young people to participate more fully in the social and economic benefits of pleasure reading.Read moreRead less
Saving our Species: Creating Systemic Change in Regional Communities. Australia is facing a crisis of species extinction. The Dept of Planning and Environment has identified a serious problem; a lack of effective communication with environmentally disengaged communities located with threatened species. To address this, our aim is to research 5 regional communities, run a series of targeted events with them and, through effective communication, build community stewardship of the identified specie ....Saving our Species: Creating Systemic Change in Regional Communities. Australia is facing a crisis of species extinction. The Dept of Planning and Environment has identified a serious problem; a lack of effective communication with environmentally disengaged communities located with threatened species. To address this, our aim is to research 5 regional communities, run a series of targeted events with them and, through effective communication, build community stewardship of the identified species. This is significant as it addresses an important problem for conservation managers worldwide. The expected outcome will be a change in community attitude. The benefits to Australians will be an expansion of knowledge of how communities can be successfully communicated with to encourage environmental sustainability.Read moreRead less
Speaking Hmong in diaspora: language contact, resilience, and change. The project aims to investigate the how the Hmong language survives in the diaspora, with special focus on how the language transforms itself depending on the environment it finds itself in. We focus on the structure and maintenance of Hmong within the immigrant community in North Queensland across several generations of speakers, within the context of multilingual repertoires involving Australian English and Lao. The outcomes ....Speaking Hmong in diaspora: language contact, resilience, and change. The project aims to investigate the how the Hmong language survives in the diaspora, with special focus on how the language transforms itself depending on the environment it finds itself in. We focus on the structure and maintenance of Hmong within the immigrant community in North Queensland across several generations of speakers, within the context of multilingual repertoires involving Australian English and Lao. The outcomes will reveal the processes and results of language change such as the emergence of a new blend of Green and White Hmong. The project will provide significant benefits for the maintenance of diasporic Hmong within a larger context of multilingual immigrant communities.Read moreRead less
Supporting the sustainability of Australia's local news ecosystem. This project aims to understand how Australia’s main public broadcaster, the ABC, can best support public interest journalism in rural and regional communities, with a specific focus on fragile and underserved areas of the nation’s local news ecosystem. The project will develop new knowledge around media power and how news providers can work together to secure the sustainability of local news. Expected outcomes include a framewor ....Supporting the sustainability of Australia's local news ecosystem. This project aims to understand how Australia’s main public broadcaster, the ABC, can best support public interest journalism in rural and regional communities, with a specific focus on fragile and underserved areas of the nation’s local news ecosystem. The project will develop new knowledge around media power and how news providers can work together to secure the sustainability of local news. Expected outcomes include a framework to identify and define areas of news need, an assessment of existing interventions and road-tested approaches to improve information quality. The project should provide benefits by supporting forms of local journalism that ultimately enhances the demographic health and social fabric of small towns and cities.
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Social media in times of crisis: learning from recent natural disasters to improve future strategies. This project will analyse and evaluate how social media was used by emergency authorities, media organisations and citizens during recent natural disasters, including the January 2011 Queensland floods and Tropical Cyclone Yasi. The project will develop a framework for longer-term strategies for public communication during emergencies.