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
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
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.
Young Australians and the promotion of alcohol on social media. This project aims to determine how young people engage with alcohol and nightlife marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Companies now leverage the power of social media to create advertisements that are made and shared by young people, targeted to them in particular times, places and contexts, and are thus difficult to monitor and regulate. The project will use computational, big social data app ....Young Australians and the promotion of alcohol on social media. This project aims to determine how young people engage with alcohol and nightlife marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Companies now leverage the power of social media to create advertisements that are made and shared by young people, targeted to them in particular times, places and contexts, and are thus difficult to monitor and regulate. The project will use computational, big social data approaches and youth informants to assess the pervasiveness of branding on social media and how it shapes youth cultures. This work will extend media and cultural studies and support the development of effective monitoring and regulation of online marketing in general, with a particular focus on alcohol.Read moreRead less
Safety, risk and wellbeing on digital dating apps. This project aims to build an evidence-base scoping and strategic planning of health promotion campaigns targeting Australian dating app users. The rise of digital dating apps generates a number of issues regarding cultures of health and wellbeing, including concerns regarding risks of sexual assault, and sexually transmitted infection transmission. Popular media reports raise concerns regarding sexual privacy breaches, in the form of ‘revenge p ....Safety, risk and wellbeing on digital dating apps. This project aims to build an evidence-base scoping and strategic planning of health promotion campaigns targeting Australian dating app users. The rise of digital dating apps generates a number of issues regarding cultures of health and wellbeing, including concerns regarding risks of sexual assault, and sexually transmitted infection transmission. Popular media reports raise concerns regarding sexual privacy breaches, in the form of ‘revenge porn’, sexual harassment and sexual assault. Despite this, little evidence exists regarding the role apps currently play in users’ everyday negotiations of consent, condom use, contraception, and other aspects of sexual health and wellbeing. The outcomes of this project will establish foundations for future health interventions promoting sexual health and safety for digital dating app users, and take an innovative participatory approach. This will result in practical, strategic recommendations regarding the future planning, and implementation of digital health promotion campaigns targeting diverse populations, including heterosexual and same-sex-attracted young people aged 15-30.
Read moreRead less
Witnesses to War: Australian War Correspondents from the Boer to the Gulf War. This national project will be the first study to examine the collective history of Australian journalists and photojournalists who have covered major wars and international conflicts from the Boer War to the 'war on terror'. It will be a timely and path breaking contribution to history, offering a new understanding of key issues including the journalists' experiences; the discourses that defined Australian national id ....Witnesses to War: Australian War Correspondents from the Boer to the Gulf War. This national project will be the first study to examine the collective history of Australian journalists and photojournalists who have covered major wars and international conflicts from the Boer War to the 'war on terror'. It will be a timely and path breaking contribution to history, offering a new understanding of key issues including the journalists' experiences; the discourses that defined Australian national identity; truth and mythmaking; war correspondents' influence on public commemoration and how they shaped attitudes to war, allies, enemies and race; how reporting changed; and the role of political and military censorship. Read moreRead less
Museum Digital Social Futures. This project aims to understand and transform the digital experience of museum audiences post COVID-19 through collaborating with ACMI who pioneered digital curation methods through a Living Lab model. This project will generate new methods for engaging diverse audiences across social and digital worlds in domestic and public spaces through codesigning with national museum peak body, AGaMA, stakeholders. Expected outcomes include resources (i.e. toolkits for implem ....Museum Digital Social Futures. This project aims to understand and transform the digital experience of museum audiences post COVID-19 through collaborating with ACMI who pioneered digital curation methods through a Living Lab model. This project will generate new methods for engaging diverse audiences across social and digital worlds in domestic and public spaces through codesigning with national museum peak body, AGaMA, stakeholders. Expected outcomes include resources (i.e. toolkits for implementation), online repository (website) and symposium for knowledge sharing and transferring of learnings. This should provide significant benefits to the museums sector including digital innovation for social inclusion strategies and resources.
Read moreRead less
Enhancing the content and experience of Interactive Childrens Television. Interactive television (iTV) as a participatory, on-demand communication provides a unique opportunity to significantly engage, entertain and educate preschool children. Through considerable industry partner collaboration and participation, this project will evaluate three distinct interactive options produced from selected children's television programs with proven success in Australia. Usability studies employing a vari ....Enhancing the content and experience of Interactive Childrens Television. Interactive television (iTV) as a participatory, on-demand communication provides a unique opportunity to significantly engage, entertain and educate preschool children. Through considerable industry partner collaboration and participation, this project will evaluate three distinct interactive options produced from selected children's television programs with proven success in Australia. Usability studies employing a variety of surveillance techniques will evaluate content design and user response. Children's viewing habits will be evaluated within a social context (the home) and a mobile lab setting using qualitative and quantitative assessment. The results will identify effective ways to produce meaningful interactivity and will encourage future industry based research.Read moreRead less
Mobilising media for sustainable outcomes in the Pacific region. Almost 25 per cent of Australia's total aid budget will be spent in Pacific Island countries this year. In collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the project will research the use of media and communication for development in the Pacific to increase our understanding of the region and inform practices that will improve the development outcomes from Australia's aid funding.
Violence Against Women - A Media Intervention. This project aims to by explore the link between the internal operations of news media organisations, news media outputs and their impact on community attitudes to violence against women. Current literature indicates that the paucity and tone of news reporting of violence against women perpetuates harmful attitudes towards women. International and Australian research has consistently identified community attitudes as a key causal factor in violence ....Violence Against Women - A Media Intervention. This project aims to by explore the link between the internal operations of news media organisations, news media outputs and their impact on community attitudes to violence against women. Current literature indicates that the paucity and tone of news reporting of violence against women perpetuates harmful attitudes towards women. International and Australian research has consistently identified community attitudes as a key causal factor in violence against women. However, there is a lack of research into the impact of newsroom operations, including gender politics, on news media outputs, and the impact of those outputs on community attitudes. The proposed research and intervention project seek to address this shortfall.Read moreRead less