The Special Broadcasting Service and Australian Cultural Democracy: Evolution, Uses and Innovation. This project seeks to assess the role and impacts of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) as a force for democratic change. Four key themes will be investigated: evolution, uses, innovation and cultural democracy, with the aim of documenting and critically assessing how SBS has used cultural difference as a resource for enhancing democratic inclusion and representation. The approach used will be ....The Special Broadcasting Service and Australian Cultural Democracy: Evolution, Uses and Innovation. This project seeks to assess the role and impacts of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) as a force for democratic change. Four key themes will be investigated: evolution, uses, innovation and cultural democracy, with the aim of documenting and critically assessing how SBS has used cultural difference as a resource for enhancing democratic inclusion and representation. The approach used will be primarily derived from new political theory which focuses on how democratic processes and practices can be deepened in increasingly complex multicultural societies. Such a comprehensive analysis of SBS's unique role has never been undertaken. The research will produce knowledge of SBS's past and present practices that can be used strategically to inform future policy developments and enhance the way the broadcaster approaches its Charter obligations.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.
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
Developing an innovative entertainment-evaluation model to evaluate the efficacy of digital comedy in engaging young men with sexual health knowledge. This project aims to develop an innovative methodology to evaluate the efficacy of using digital comedy to reach young men with information about healthy sexual development. Rates of sexually transmitted infections are rising among young people aged 16-29 in Australia and research shows that young men are poorly informed about healthy sexual devel ....Developing an innovative entertainment-evaluation model to evaluate the efficacy of digital comedy in engaging young men with sexual health knowledge. This project aims to develop an innovative methodology to evaluate the efficacy of using digital comedy to reach young men with information about healthy sexual development. Rates of sexually transmitted infections are rising among young people aged 16-29 in Australia and research shows that young men are poorly informed about healthy sexual development. This project takes an entertainment-education approach, evaluating the use of digitally-distributed entertainment videos to reach young men with this information.Read moreRead less
Australian Film Theory and Criticism. Australian film theory and criticism has burgeoned over the past thirty years, but there is no dedicated book-length study of the field. This research project will fill the gap, not only tracing the specificity of Australian film theory and criticism but also reasserting its place on the international scholarly agenda. In tracing the critical positions, personalities and institutions that have shaped film theory and criticism in this country, this project wi ....Australian Film Theory and Criticism. Australian film theory and criticism has burgeoned over the past thirty years, but there is no dedicated book-length study of the field. This research project will fill the gap, not only tracing the specificity of Australian film theory and criticism but also reasserting its place on the international scholarly agenda. In tracing the critical positions, personalities and institutions that have shaped film theory and criticism in this country, this project will at once disseminate and preserve (for scholars and the general public alike) the legacy of those critical intellectuals who have striven to understand the nation's most popular art and entertainment form, the cinema. Read moreRead less
The global self: screening the history of human rights in the 20th century to the present. This project will research the history and theory of human rights as represented in film and new media. It will analyse the origins and development of human rights theory and document the changes in films about human rights in order to understand how we now conceptualise human rights in the twenty-first-century.
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354670
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$40,000.00
Summary
Cultural Research Network: Cultural literacies, technologies, identities and histories. The Cultural Research Network's initial disciplinary base will be in cultural, media and communications studies. From this foundation it will build collaborative links with researchers from cultural history, cultural geography, cultural anthropology and creative industries to develop the capacity for innovative research into media and cultural technologies, cultural literacies, cultural histories and identiti ....Cultural Research Network: Cultural literacies, technologies, identities and histories. The Cultural Research Network's initial disciplinary base will be in cultural, media and communications studies. From this foundation it will build collaborative links with researchers from cultural history, cultural geography, cultural anthropology and creative industries to develop the capacity for innovative research into media and cultural technologies, cultural literacies, cultural histories and identities. To facilitate interdisciplinary exchange, the network will establish virtual connections, travelling master classses, seminars and symposia. The network will circulate people as well as ideas and information, bringing established Australian researchers into direct contact with postgraduates and young researchers in these fields, and pursuing international linkages.Read moreRead less
Consuming Celebrity: Female stardom and gay subcultural reception. This project explores the function of celebrity in modern culture through a detailed case study of gay subcultural receptions of female stardom. The female star or ?diva? has been an influential figure in gay subcultures since the nineteenth century where it has inspired significant and enduring productions of gay selfhood. The project explores the histories of gay ?diva worship? to analyse the role and uses of stardom in formati ....Consuming Celebrity: Female stardom and gay subcultural reception. This project explores the function of celebrity in modern culture through a detailed case study of gay subcultural receptions of female stardom. The female star or ?diva? has been an influential figure in gay subcultures since the nineteenth century where it has inspired significant and enduring productions of gay selfhood. The project explores the histories of gay ?diva worship? to analyse the role and uses of stardom in formations of cultural identity. Through scholarly publications, the study will make major contributions to our understanding of not only gay culture and history, but the significance of celebrity in modern cultural life.Read moreRead less
Perceptions of harm from adolescents accessing online sexual content. This project aims to investigate Australian adolescents’ responses to online sexual content through a comparative communication-based study with teens in Greece, Ireland and Norway. The project seeks to generate knowledge through in-depth interviews with Australian high school students, aged 12-17, and their parents, comparing their perceptions with children and parents from other countries. The project will combine qualitativ ....Perceptions of harm from adolescents accessing online sexual content. This project aims to investigate Australian adolescents’ responses to online sexual content through a comparative communication-based study with teens in Greece, Ireland and Norway. The project seeks to generate knowledge through in-depth interviews with Australian high school students, aged 12-17, and their parents, comparing their perceptions with children and parents from other countries. The project will combine qualitative and quantitative data to explore why Australian teens might access sexual media more often than their peers overseas, and be more likely to feel bothered by it. Expected outcomes include strategies to support teens who feel affected by access to online sexual content, thus minimising negative impacts.Read moreRead less
Media Classification Systems: An International Comparative Study. The central question for media classification is 'by whom should this be consumed?' This project aims to examine the ways in which this question has been answered across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Encompassing case studies of India, Japan, the United States of America, United Kingdom, Brazil and China, and with a particular emphasis on Australia, the project is intended to produce a comparative history of the emerge ....Media Classification Systems: An International Comparative Study. The central question for media classification is 'by whom should this be consumed?' This project aims to examine the ways in which this question has been answered across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Encompassing case studies of India, Japan, the United States of America, United Kingdom, Brazil and China, and with a particular emphasis on Australia, the project is intended to produce a comparative history of the emergence of media classification systems based on the international exchange of policy approaches, ideas about public interest and the protection of minors and the circulation of media objects. This research aims to address the continuing significance of the media classification question in an era of media convergence.Read moreRead less