Understanding pornography in Australia: public discourses and pornographic texts. This project will offer a detailed, large-scale analysis of the place of pornography in Australian culture. It will interview 300 producers and distributors of pornographic texts, and almost one thousand consumers of these texts. Using insights from this research into the ways in which pornography is understood by those involved with it in Australia, one hundred popular pornographic videos will be analysed to under ....Understanding pornography in Australia: public discourses and pornographic texts. This project will offer a detailed, large-scale analysis of the place of pornography in Australian culture. It will interview 300 producers and distributors of pornographic texts, and almost one thousand consumers of these texts. Using insights from this research into the ways in which pornography is understood by those involved with it in Australia, one hundred popular pornographic videos will be analysed to understand what is in them, and how they are used.
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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
Willing collaborators: Negotiating Change in East Asian Media Production. This project examines how media producers and investors from China, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are moving into flexible and innovative forms of collaboration. Focusing on cinema, television, online video and mobile content in East Asia, the study enhances academic, industry and policy understandings of the dynamics of regional media production. In addition, the project investigates opportunities and challenges for Austra ....Willing collaborators: Negotiating Change in East Asian Media Production. This project examines how media producers and investors from China, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are moving into flexible and innovative forms of collaboration. Focusing on cinema, television, online video and mobile content in East Asia, the study enhances academic, industry and policy understandings of the dynamics of regional media production. In addition, the project investigates opportunities and challenges for Australian and other international media companies. It addresses the urgent need to foster understanding of the media industries and cultures of Australia's regional neighbours in order to better equip the nation and its screen sectors to participate in the forthcoming "Asian Century". Read moreRead less
Mobile Culture: A Biography of the Mobile Phone. The Mobile Culture project will investigate the mobile phone as cultural object, investigating its history, cultural production, consumption, political economy and regulation. It will contribute new knowledge on the culture of a widely used new media technology, mobile communications. The study will provide fresh insights into central theoretical questions in cultural and media studies, such as the relationship between culture and technology, and ....Mobile Culture: A Biography of the Mobile Phone. The Mobile Culture project will investigate the mobile phone as cultural object, investigating its history, cultural production, consumption, political economy and regulation. It will contribute new knowledge on the culture of a widely used new media technology, mobile communications. The study will provide fresh insights into central theoretical questions in cultural and media studies, such as the relationship between culture and technology, and the use of political economy for cultural analysis. The study will devise innovative methods for new media study. Outcomes include a two-volume book, and workshop proceedings on mobile consumption, use, and policy.Read moreRead less
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
Voice and Belonging: Pathways to inclusion for new migrant communities. This project investigates the role of Australia's ethnic media in the humanitarian and refugee settlement experience, conceptualising media engagement as a key lens through which to foster a sense of belonging. The project expects to provide the first-ever national study of ethnic media, mapping the 'migrant mediasphere' with a focus on new humanitarian and refugee communities. Expected outcomes include conceptual advances a ....Voice and Belonging: Pathways to inclusion for new migrant communities. This project investigates the role of Australia's ethnic media in the humanitarian and refugee settlement experience, conceptualising media engagement as a key lens through which to foster a sense of belonging. The project expects to provide the first-ever national study of ethnic media, mapping the 'migrant mediasphere' with a focus on new humanitarian and refugee communities. Expected outcomes include conceptual advances about media engagement and public connection for new and emerging migrant communities, and media's place in the assemblage of humanitarian settlement services. Significant benefits emerge for humanitarian and refugee arrivals, for media trying to service these communities and for policymakers in urban and regional areas.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.
Platform governance: rethinking internet regulation as media policy. This project aims to investigate the regulatory and policy implications of understanding global digital platforms as media companies. Responding to ongoing public concern about these companies’ self-management of online communication and social media, this project will evaluate regulatory approaches to mediating abusive, offensive, defamatory and potentially illegal digital content. The project will develop detailed recommendat ....Platform governance: rethinking internet regulation as media policy. This project aims to investigate the regulatory and policy implications of understanding global digital platforms as media companies. Responding to ongoing public concern about these companies’ self-management of online communication and social media, this project will evaluate regulatory approaches to mediating abusive, offensive, defamatory and potentially illegal digital content. The project will develop detailed recommendation for reform based on case studies in Australia, the European Union, the United States of America and New Zealand, enabling media policy makers to more effectively regulate digital media platforms to better align with contemporary public interest rationales.Read moreRead less
Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics. This interdisciplinary project investigates the shaping of Australian art, literary, media, sport, and heritage fields, individually and collectively, by the changing national and transnational environment since the 1994 national cultural policy Creative Nation. Like Creative Nation, its primary focus is on the relation between these fields and the nation, but also pays particular attention to the distinctive forms of cultural capi ....Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics. This interdisciplinary project investigates the shaping of Australian art, literary, media, sport, and heritage fields, individually and collectively, by the changing national and transnational environment since the 1994 national cultural policy Creative Nation. Like Creative Nation, its primary focus is on the relation between these fields and the nation, but also pays particular attention to the distinctive forms of cultural capital associated within and across these fields, especially ethnic cultural divisions and the distinctive presence of Indigenous culture. This project’s empirical application and assessment of the concept of the ‘cultural field’ will contribute to the international development of cultural theory.Read moreRead less