ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4053-9313
Current Organisation
Queensland University of Technology
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Communication Technology and Digital Media Studies | Media Studies | Communication and Media Studies | Communication Studies | Policy and Administration | Public Administration | Comparative Government and Politics | Sociology and Social Studies of Science and Technology
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Application Software Packages (excl. Computer Games) | Information Services not elsewhere classified | Communication Networks and Services not elsewhere classified | Electronic Information Storage and Retrieval Services | Public Services Policy Advice and Analysis |
Related Links
Publications
Do Socialbots Dream of Popping the Filter Bubble? The role of socialbots in promoting participatory democracy in social media
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 12-2016
Socialbots in politischen Online-Konversationen. Eine (überschätzte) Gefahr für demokratische Willensbildung im Internet?
Publisher: Nomos Verlag
Date: 2018
A Decision Tree Approach to Predicting Recidivism in Domestic Violence
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2018
The Sociomateriality of Rating and Ranking Devices on Social Media: A Case Study of Reddit’s Voting Practices
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 07-2021
DOI: 10.1177/20563051211047667
Abstract: Rating and ranking devices are everywhere on social media. While these devices may seem like objective tools to measure value and rank content, research shows how they profoundly shape social interaction and emotional expression and are central to platform moderation. Yet, very little is known about how users themselves talk about these devices, much less what this can tell us about how these devices co-constitute social reality on platforms. To explore this gap, we examine Reddit’s rating and ranking device, known as upvoting and downvoting, through a textual analysis of over half a million user comments that contain keywords such as “upvote” and “downvote” and their variants. We find that Redditors (Reddit users) rarely use or talk about voting in the way the platform intends. For the most part, Redditors not only disregard the rules about voting but also make, and enforce, their own rules, norms, and ethics around it. We uncover a rich set of voting practices that we present as the following four themes in a conceptual framework: (1) platform culture, (2) prescriptive device, (3) materialization of value, and (4) ontology of self. Drawing on a sociomaterial lens, we reposition voting as a material-discursive practice that is inseparable to Reddit culture. This provides compelling evidence that rating and ranking devices on social media intervene in and perform sociality and we invite future research to apply our conceptual framework to other rating and ranking devices on social media.
‘FAKE NEWS’ AND OTHER PROBLEMATIC INFORMATION: STUDYING DISSEMINATION AND DISCOURSE PATTERNS
Publisher: University of Illinois Libraries
Date: 15-09-2021
DOI: 10.5210/SPIR.V2021I0.12089
Abstract: Encompassed by the disputed term ‘fake news’, a variety of overtly or covertly biased, skewed, or falsified reports claiming to present factual information are now seen to constitute a critical challenge to the effective dissemination of news and information across established and emerging democratic societies. Such content – variously also classifiable as propaganda, selective reporting, conspiracy theory, inadvertent misinformation, and deliberate disinformation – in itself is not new however, contemporary digital and social media networks enable its global dissemination and lification, by human and algorithmic actors (Woolley & Howard 2017), ordinary users and professional agents, outside of, in opposition to, or sometimes also in collusion with, the mainstream media (Shao et al. 2017 Vargo et al. 2017). Various political, commercial, and state actors are suspected to have exploited this ‘fake news’ ecosystem to influence public opinion, in major votes ranging from the Brexit referendum to national elections, and/or to utilise discourse around ‘fake news’ to generally undermine trust in media, political, and state institutions. This panel brings together a number of perspectives that combine systematic, large-scale, mixed-methods analysis of the empirical evidence for the global dissemination of, engagement with, and visibility of problematic information in public debate with the study of the public discourse about ‘fake news’, and the operationalisation of this concept by politicians and other societal actors to downplay inconvenient facts or reject critical questions. In combination, its five papers present a substantive collection of innovative approaches to the ‘fake news’ concept, exploring the dissemination of problematic information itself at larger and smaller scales as well as examining the operationalisation of the idea of ‘fake news’ in pursuit of specific ideological aims. This produces a new and more comprehensive picture of the overall impact of ‘fake news’, in all its forms, on contemporary societies.
Where conspiracy theories flourish: A study of YouTube comments and Bill Gates conspiracy theories
Publisher: Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics, and Public Policy
Date: 05-10-2022
DOI: 10.37016/MR-2020-107
Abstract: We studied YouTube comments posted to Covid-19 news videos featuring Bill Gates and found they were dominated by conspiracy theories. Our results suggest the platform’s comments feature operates as a relatively unmoderated social media space where conspiracy theories circulate unchecked. We outline steps that YouTube can take now to improve its approach to moderating misinformation.
‘COORDINATED INAUTHENTIC BEHAVIOUR’ AND OTHER ONLINE INFLUENCE OPERATIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIA SPACES
Publisher: University of Illinois Libraries
Date: 05-10-2020
DOI: 10.5210/SPIR.V2020I0.11132
Abstract: Recently, major social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have announced efforts to counter "coordinated inauthentic behaviour." However, scholarly research continues to provide evidence that coordinated human and automated accounts covertly seek to undermine and manipulate public debates on these platforms. Given the difficulties in obtaining data from these platforms to study these influence operations, and the significant challenge of identifying covert malinformation operations, further conceptual and methodological innovations are required. This panel brings together a selection of recent studies that advance the methods available for the forensic, mixed-methods, in-depth, and large-scale analysis of inauthentic information operations: Paper 1 investigates the arson disinformation c aign during the 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season. Paper 2 investigates the distribution and content monetisation strategies of junk news sources across a selection of five major social media platforms during the 2019 European Parliament c aign. Paper 3 explores whether Facebook's microtargeting advertising functionality allows political parties to promote conflicting narratives to different groups of people. Paper 4 studies the experience and engagement with malinformation by users of Facebook and WhatsApp, focussing on the current political environment in Brazil.
IN ON THE GRIFT: HOW PLATFORMS GOVERN AUTHENTICITY FOR NEO-COLONIAL ENDS
Publisher: University of Illinois Libraries
Date: 29-03-2023
DOI: 10.5210/SPIR.V2022I0.13011
Abstract: Cryptocurrency has attracted widespread criticism for its exploitative logics that consume resources and trap unwitting investors into highly volatile, unregulated markets with worsening wealth inequality. A key factor in the rise of crypto trading is social media, where an ecosystem of spammers, grifters, ‘crypto influencers’ and celebrities such as Elon Musk lify hype and generate public interest. While platforms moderate orchestrated platform manipulation through the opaque concept of ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ (CIB), here we argue that Twitter is largely ignoring widespread crypto-related CIB on its platform– because it is profitable. Informed by a study of 1.8 million tweets about the top five crypto coins, we develop a neocolonial perspective of CIB that highlights how Twitter exploits it strategically to turn a blind eye to financial exploitation and techno-utopian subjugation on the platform. While the line between authentic and inauthentic coordinated activity is not always clear cut, we suggest that platforms construct the problem in such a way that strategically obfuscates its distinction. This raises critical questions for content moderation and platform regulation that will require us to think outside the compromised nomenclature that platforms have invented for their own ends.
The structure of the online state: towards a web ecology perspective
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2020
Towards a ‘smart’ cost–benefit tool: using machine learning to predict the costs of criminal justice policy interventions
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-10-2018
Designing electronic information systems for the future: Social workers and the challenge of New Public Management
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 10-12-2015
Abstract: There is a well-established critique of current forms of electronic information systems (IS) in social work organisations and attention is now turning to their redesign for the future. In this article we go beyond critiques that have established how this occurred to explore one of the reasons why current forms of IS have been observed to undermine frontline practice. In the same way that technological artefacts are observed to mediate human action by ‘configuring the user’, IS have also been developed, or configured, according to ideas about how things should be done, known as ‘embodied structures’. In this article, ex les of IS functionality are drawn upon to demonstrate how the logics of New Public Management (NPM) have been embodied in current forms of IS. It is argued that the logics of NPM must be challenged if new forms of IS are to be developed that lify the ability of practitioners.
Building the ‘front door’ within a web ecology: Informational governance and institutional shaping of national government webportals
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2021
Understanding Misinformation and Media Manipulation on Twitter During the Voice to Parliament Referendum
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 08-09-2023
Affording choice: how website designs create and constrain ‘choice’
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 24-05-2018
Towards a taxonomy of government webportals
Publisher: ACM
Date: 03-04-2019
#IStandWithDan versus #DictatorDan: the polarised dynamics of Twitter discussions about Victoria’s COVID-19 restrictions
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 20-12-2020
Abstract: In this article, we examine two interrelated hashtag c aigns that formed in response to the Victorian State Government’s handling of Australia’s most significant COVID-19 second wave of mid-to-late 2020. Through a mixed-methods approach that includes descriptive statistical analysis, qualitative content analysis, network analysis, computational sentiment analysis and social bot detection, we reveal how a small number of hyper-partisan pro- and anti-government c aigners were able to mobilise ad hoc communities on Twitter, and – in the case of the anti-government hashtag c aign – co-opt journalists and politicians through a multi-step flow process to lify their message. Our comprehensive analysis of Twitter data from these c aigns offers insights into the evolution of political hashtag c aigns, how actors involved in these specific c aigns were able to exploit specific dynamics of Twitter and the broader media and political establishment to progress their hyper-partisan agendas, and the utility of mixed-method approaches in helping render the dynamics of such c aigns visible.
Analysing user identity via time-sensitive semantic edit distance (t-SED): a case study of Russian trolls on Twitter
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-2019
Assessing the prominence of interest groups in parliament: a supervised machine learning approach
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-10-2018
Technologies of choice: The shaping of choice on the World Wide Web
Publisher: University of Queensland Library
Date: 2016
Mapping the anti-vaccination movement on Facebook
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-12-2019
Emotional consequences and attention rewards: the social effects of ratings on Reddit
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 31-01-2021
A Decision Tree Approach to Predicting Recidivism in Domestic Violence
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2018
Twitter Campaigning Strategies in Australian Federal Elections 2013–2019
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 10-2021
DOI: 10.1177/20563051211063462
Abstract: This special issue of Social Media + Society develops a cross-national, longitudinal perspective on the use of social media in election c aigns. Australia, where leading social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were adopted early and widely by the general population, and where federal election cycles are unusually short (often less than 3 years), provides a particularly suitable environment for observing the evolution of social media c aigning approaches. This article extends our analysis of previous federal election c aigns in Australia by examining Twitter c aigning in the 2019 election to allow for a direct comparison with previous c aigns, it builds on a methodological and analytical framework that we have used since the 2013 election.
Bots, Fake News and Election Conspiracies: Disinformation During the Republican Primary Debate and the Trump Interview
Publisher: Queensland University of Technology
Date: 2023
Politicians Spreading Misinformation on Social Media: An Exploratory Study of Craig Kelly MP on Twitter
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 08-09-2023
Gender, Masculinity and Video Gaming
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2019
Platforms and hyper-choice on the World Wide Web
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2018
Abstract: Choice is a sine qua non of contemporary life. From childhood until death, we are faced with an unending series of choices through which we cultivate a sense of self, govern conduct, and shape the future. Nowadays, in iduals increasingly experience and enact consumer choice online through web-based platforms such as Yelp.com , TripAdvisor.com and Amazon.com . These platforms not only provide a sprawling array of goods and services to choose from, but also reviews, ratings and ranking devices and systems of classification to navigate this landscape of choice. This paper suggests a radical reconsideration of platform architectures and design features to consider how they reconfigure and respecify choice, ‘choosers’, and choice-making practices. Platforms are not simply cameras that present choice and enable comparisons between different options, but are more akin to engines that govern, drive and expand choice, configuring users within particular discourses, practices and subjectivities. In making sense of the entangled trajectories of consumer choice, platform architectures and Big Data, I suggest that ‘hyper-choice’ emerges as a condition of the contemporary platform-driven web. I examine hyper-choice not only in terms of the relationship between platforms and a growing abundance of choice, but more importantly how platforms reconfigure choice in ways that go beyond and fundamentally challenge existing understandings of what choice is, who and what is involved in producing knowledge about choice, and what it means to be a ‘chooser’.
Big Data in Social Welfare: The Development of a Critical Perspective on Social Work's Latest “Electronic Turn”
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 16-03-2016
Related Organisations
Related Funding Activities
Government Web Portals As Government Actors
Start Date: 2017
End Date: 2020
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityInvestigating Statistical And Analytical Approaches To Linking Online Activities With Offline Events, And In Online Public Spaces
Start Date: 2018
End Date: 2018
Funder: Defence Science and Technology Group
View Funded ActivityDevelopment Of A Flexible Smart Criminal Justice Cost-benefit Tool: Does Crime Prevention Pay?
Start Date: 2017
End Date: 2018
Funder: Australian National University
View Funded ActivityNo Jab, No Pay, No Way: Anti-vaccination Networks Online
Start Date: 2015
End Date: 2017
Funder: Federation University Australia
View Funded ActivitySocialbots And Political Actors? Autonomous Communication Technologies As Tools And Objects For Digital Sociology
Start Date: 2017
End Date: 2019
Funder: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP170101997
Start Date: 02-2017
End Date: 12-2022
Amount: $299,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220101435
Start Date: 2022
End Date: 12-2024
Amount: $452,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity