The role of the internet in building social capital amongst homosexually active men: virtual communities in HIV prevention. Social capital comprises features of social organisation such as civic participation, norms of reciprocity and trust in others that facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit, including health and wellbeing. The proposed research focuses on the role of the internet in producing the networks that engender social inclusion and community connectedness. There is scepticism about ....The role of the internet in building social capital amongst homosexually active men: virtual communities in HIV prevention. Social capital comprises features of social organisation such as civic participation, norms of reciprocity and trust in others that facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit, including health and wellbeing. The proposed research focuses on the role of the internet in producing the networks that engender social inclusion and community connectedness. There is scepticism about whether the 'virtual community' of the Internet can build social capital. The study will explore the potential benefits as well as harms to those homosexually active men who use the internet to access health information, meet sexual partners and build friendships that affirm gay identity and community inclusion.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100211
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and developmen ....The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and development using Australian English and facilitate the development of Australian speech technology applications from automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech synthesis used in taxi and other ordering services, to hearing prostheses and talking head aids for learning-impaired children, and a range of security and forensic applications.Read moreRead less
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
Beyond the Beach: What it means to be Australian - A critical analysis of national, transgenerational, multicultural and self perspectives. The question ?What does it mean to be Australian?? raises issues of deep significance about our values, goals, loyalties, behaviours, and international image. Identity conceptions are fundamental to diverse national interest issues (e.g., social cohesion, multiculturalism, defence, promoting industry, social action/reform, immigration) and imagining our futu ....Beyond the Beach: What it means to be Australian - A critical analysis of national, transgenerational, multicultural and self perspectives. The question ?What does it mean to be Australian?? raises issues of deep significance about our values, goals, loyalties, behaviours, and international image. Identity conceptions are fundamental to diverse national interest issues (e.g., social cohesion, multiculturalism, defence, promoting industry, social action/reform, immigration) and imagining our future. This study will characterise: national identity; personal, ethnic, generational, regional and gender commonalities and variations; preferred futures; and moderating influences on identifying as Australian. Outcomes include new knowledge about contemporary national identity, multi-identity constructions, and processes underpinning identity formation; and advances in identity theory/research that will inform social, economic, and educational policy and practice.Read moreRead less
Defining the Status of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Young People. This project aims to improve the social cohesion of Australian society and the living standards of a significant group of our young people. Around 25 per cent of all Australians aged 12 to 24 are from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. In collaboration with nine Australian organisations, the project aims to critically define the status of CALD youth; develop the first national status reporting frame ....Defining the Status of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Young People. This project aims to improve the social cohesion of Australian society and the living standards of a significant group of our young people. Around 25 per cent of all Australians aged 12 to 24 are from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. In collaboration with nine Australian organisations, the project aims to critically define the status of CALD youth; develop the first national status reporting framework for the group that will generate new social, economic and cultural indicators; and build a knowledge hub to store and curate CALD youth data. Data and understanding from this project is intended to enable governments to meet the group’s specific needs and enhance their opportunities.Read moreRead less
Challenges, Possibilities and Future Directions: A National Assessment of Australia's Children's Courts. Children's Courts occupy a unique position in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in responding to often marginalized delinquent youth and vulnerable children and families. Philosophical and structural shifts in Australia and overseas suggest community and legal system responses are often ineffective and contribute to longer-term problems, creating social challenges for governments ....Challenges, Possibilities and Future Directions: A National Assessment of Australia's Children's Courts. Children's Courts occupy a unique position in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in responding to often marginalized delinquent youth and vulnerable children and families. Philosophical and structural shifts in Australia and overseas suggest community and legal system responses are often ineffective and contribute to longer-term problems, creating social challenges for governments and communities alike. This national study will examine how key stakeholders, including, significantly, judicial officers, view the Children's Court's contemporary responses and challenges, their preferred alternatives responses and the viability of suggested reforms, thus offering a unique contribution to informing legal and social policy change.Read moreRead less
Rape victims on trial: understanding police officers' and jurors' beliefs about sexual assault, victims, and perpetrators. This project will enhance justice in cases of sexual assault. This project will discover the extra-legal factors that influence how victims of sexual assault are viewed by police and jurors, and test two ways to reduce the influence of these misconceptions in the criminal justice system.
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.
Young People, Technology, and Wellbeing Research Facility. Large numbers of initiatives now mobilise technology to support the wellbeing of young Australians. However, amongst communities undertaking this work, there is currently significant duplication and insufficient sharing of research and best practice models. A Research Facility that consolidates existing research, and guides new research and initiatives will improve service delivery to young Australians by: reducing duplication between or ....Young People, Technology, and Wellbeing Research Facility. Large numbers of initiatives now mobilise technology to support the wellbeing of young Australians. However, amongst communities undertaking this work, there is currently significant duplication and insufficient sharing of research and best practice models. A Research Facility that consolidates existing research, and guides new research and initiatives will improve service delivery to young Australians by: reducing duplication between organizations working with young people; providing an accessible interface with research that can help address the community’s concerns about the role of technology in young people’s lives, and inform future policy and programs; and model effective cross-sector knowledge brokering to Australian industry. Read moreRead less
Image processing techniques for artificial human vision systems. Blindness affects millions of people worldwide and over 100,000 Australians. Our project supports quality of life improvements for them by developing image processing techniques necessary for artificial human vision systems: "bionic eyes". Our approach will extract the most visually informative content in a scene,allowing low resolution images to be generated which optimise usage of the limited number of eletrodes available in prot ....Image processing techniques for artificial human vision systems. Blindness affects millions of people worldwide and over 100,000 Australians. Our project supports quality of life improvements for them by developing image processing techniques necessary for artificial human vision systems: "bionic eyes". Our approach will extract the most visually informative content in a scene,allowing low resolution images to be generated which optimise usage of the limited number of eletrodes available in prototype bionic eye implants. Psychophysical tests presenting such modified images to normally sighted participants will verify the effectiveness of this approach. The techniques developed will provide a real-time image processing toolkit for visual protheses, with significant commercial and social benefits including enhancement of Australilia's neuroprostheses industry profile.Read moreRead less