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AANZCA2023 Conference Special Issue: Introduction Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-09-17 Lewis Rarm, Valerie A. Cooper
The Māori whakataukī, ‘ka mura, ka muri’ loosely translates as ‘walk backward into the future’ (This whakataukī is derived from a longer version: ‘Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua’ which translates to ‘I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past’). It foregrounds a Māori perspective on time where the past is in front of us and can be observed and interpreted as we walk backwards
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Digital Racism and Antiracism Toward Asian and Muslim Communities During the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Australian Experience Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-09-14 Ashleigh L. Haw
Australia witnessed a substantial degree of racism toward Asian and Muslim communities during the Covid-19 pandemic, much of which was shared and amplified on social media. However, while a growing body of national and international literature has illuminated the problem of racism during significant crisis events, limited studies have addressed how these narratives are both produced and resisted in
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What audiences do with news: a broader definition of news consumption Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-08 Kirsty J. Anderson
Audiences can now access news anytime, anywhere and news spreads faster than ever before. This gives news a much broader role, amplifying and supporting social connection and knowledge acquisition. This study explores actions New Zealanders take after consuming news through the lens of uses and gratifications theory. Twenty-five participants kept a weekly diary of their news consumption and discussed
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Wellness communities and vaccine hesitancy Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-07 Michael S. Daubs
This article articulates the intersection of wellness communities and anti-vaccine (‘anti-vax’) groups to demonstrate how vaccine misinformation and pseudoscience can propagate. This misinformation is often pushed by wellness influencers. One recent example is wellness figure Pete Evans, a celebrity chef and self-described ‘qualified health coach’. By 2020, however, Evans had developed anti-vax views
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Making public or quiet listening? Media logics and public inquiries into the abuse of children Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-06 Kerry McCallum, Tanja Dreher, Megan Deas, Poppy de Souza, Samantha Joseph, Eli Skogerbø
This article examines the tensions between ‘publicness’ and ‘privacy’ in national commissions of inquiry. Through the insights of those who worked deep inside Australia's landmark Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCIRCSA, 2013–2017), and the evidence provided in its final report, we explore the organisational and media logics of the Commission's highly publicised
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Exploring a post-truth referendum: Australia's Voice to Parliament and the management of attention on social media Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-08-02 Timothy Graham
This article examines the circulation of unverified and misleading information during the 2023 Australian Voice to Parliament referendum, focusing on X (formerly Twitter). Adapting Harsin's concept of Regimes of Post-Truth and a participatory perspective of propaganda, we analyse over 224,000 posts, exploring the interplay of Voice-related discussions on X and campaign messaging. We find that the Yes
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Palaeo podcasting: a practice-led extended-mixed methods case study Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Travis A. Holland
Podcasting has become a widespread method of science communication. This paper describes a practice-led, extended-mixed methods study that aimed to examine the possibilities for podcasting in the field of palaeontology. The method combines (1) the production of a two-year podcast series by the author with (2) interviews with other ‘palaeo podcasters’ and (3) a study of 24 palaeontological podcasts
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Hyperlocal journalism in the face of the advance of news deserts: scoping review Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Carlos Rodríguez-Urra, Magdalena Trillo-Domínguez, Víctor Herrero-Solana
Hyperlocal media ecosystems have attracted increasing academic interest due to the impact of the Internet and social networks, and even more so due to concerns about the vitality of journalism in contexts of press decline with a clear lack of availability and quality of information. This study reviews the field of ‘news deserts’ from the perspective of ‘hyperlocal journalism’ until earlier 2023 in
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Mermaids and bin chickens: Australian teenagers’ engagement with screen stories in the on-demand age Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-28 Anna Potter, Clare Archer-Lean, Phoebe Macrossan, Harriot Beazley
Australian teenagers have grown up with abundant choices in digital screen entertainment including social media, gaming, and global streaming video services such as Netflix. This participatory audience study investigates how, why and to what extent Australian teenagers engage with drama and movies in their daily lives, including Australian stories. The research findings show that Australian teens enjoy
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Playful rehearsals of animal subjugation: The naturalization of animal labour in videogames Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-22 Sebastian Morrison
In videogames, players commonly encounter virtual animals who perform labour for human benefit. Animal labour is not only physical, but increasingly involves labours of bonding and love which invest the player in the animal's liveliness alongside their utility. This article analyses Stardew Valley, interrogating the ways in which the player encounters and builds relationships with labouring virtual
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A Sociotechnical Approach to Smartphone Research: Outline for a Holistic, Qualitative Mobile Method Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-16 Stephanie Ketterer Hobbis, Geoffrey Hobbis
Smartphones have become crucial for understanding how digital technologies are adopted and adapted into people's lives, while also emerging as tools for studying social phenomena more broadly. Drawing on insights from our own longitudinal work in Solomon Islands, this article details a sociotechnical approach to smartphone research that combines both potentialities. It distinguishes itself from other
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Learning the art of Scholarly Peer-Review: Insights from the Communication Discipline Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-16 TJ Thomson, Lesley Irvine, Glen Thomas
Many scholars find the peer-review process to be a puzzling, non-transparent, and subjective exercise. Many emerging scholars also learn about the peer-review and publishing process through painful and time-consuming trial and error while still students or as early-career researchers rather than through formal training or guided supervision. Yet many pitfalls exist in this process for new and veteran
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Amplifying victim–survivor voices: media power, collective action, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish identity in the Leifer case Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-05-07 Mona Chatskin
This article underscores the transformative impact of victim–survivor voices in reshaping public discourse on child sexual abuse (CSA). The research project took as the backbone for analysis the Malka Leifer case that spanned 15 years and is linked to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's report of Case Study 22, which examined responses in ultra-Orthodox
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‘We’re in this together’ – COVID-19 statements by Boris Johnson: A discourse analysis Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-04-23 Muhammad Asim Imran, Zehra Ahmed
This article presents a discursive analysis of crisis communication strategies employed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilising critical discourse analysis, the study examined official communications from March 2020 to January 2022. While Johnson's communication style encompassed empathy, assertiveness, and a focus on vaccination efforts
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‘Oh my god this is happening’: how Our Flag Means Death staged an empathic mutiny against the labour of queer reading practices Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-04-11 Briony Luttrell, Hannah Joyce Banks
Our Flag Means Death ( OFMD) premiered to critical acclaim and unprecedented audience engagement. It can be argued that it is a romantic queer reading of historical facts. In this article, we reflect on the social function of storytelling and audience labour within the context of queer screen representations. We theorise queer reading as a practice of learning to recognise, identify and create patterns
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Exploring the role of political elites in post-truth communication on social media Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Timothy Graham, Katherine M. FitzGerald
This study investigates post-truth messaging and participatory disinformation on Twitter, focusing on the activities of Craig Kelly, a former Australian member of parliament and a key figure previously accused of spreading health misinformation in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw on Harsin's conceptualisation of post truth communication to analyse 4317 tweets and 5.2 million interactions
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The long now and liminality: Will we create communitas? A macro-social perspective of COVID-19 Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Jim Macnamara
The ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed society are the source of widespread discussion. But references to a ‘new normal’ are mostly confined to hybrid working and a possible four-day working week. Should future-scoping remain so narrow, a major opportunity for fundamental rethinking will be lost. This commentary seeks to take up and expand the argument of a 2021 article on the effects
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Labelling, shadow bans and community resistance: did meta's strategy to suppress rather than remove COVID misinformation and conspiracy theory on Facebook slow the spread? Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Amelia Johns, Francesco Bailo, Emily Booth, Marian-Andrei Rizoiu
In this paper, we ask how effective Meta's content moderation strategy was on its flagship platform, Facebook, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse the performance of 18 Australian right-wing/anti-vaccination pages, posts and commenting sections collected between January 2019 and July 2021, and use engagement metrics and time series analysis to analyse the data, mapping key policy announcements
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary representation on Australian scripted television in the 2000s and 2010s Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Damien John O’Meara, Whitney Monaghan
Over the past few decades, there has been significant industry and scholarly interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion in television. Alongside this, attention has been paid to the politics of queer representation in screen and media contexts. Providing much-needed data on these issues, this article catalogues the representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary characters in
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Popular Environmental Media in Australia: Reflections on Audience Engagement and Impact Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Aneta Podkalicka, Danie Nilsson, Simon Troon
Proliferating media content is key to public understanding and discussions about the environment and climate change. While scholarly interest in mediated environmental communication has been ample and multi-directional, the questions around media's impacts remain pressing and largely under-theorised. This paper uses an example of popular environmental media in Australia – i.e. media aimed at attracting
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Book Review: Journalism, Technology and Cultural Practice: A History by Martin Conboy Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-27 Jane B Singer
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‘Everyone keeps telling us it's going to die’: A close examination of ‘myths’ clouding local newspaper futures in Australia Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Kristy Hess, Alison McAdam
Digital adaptation is often considered the panacea to the local journalism crisis in Australia. As a result, this digital first agenda has perpetuated ‘death and doom’ narratives about some traditional strategies and practices, especially in regards to the future of printed local newspapers. This paper draws on interviews and focus groups with local news owners, journalists, editors, advertising staff
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Thinking about the ‘silent readers’: a regional digital ethnographic case study exploring motivations and barriers to participation in public debate on Facebook Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-31 Angela Ross
There is increasing evidence fewer people are willing to discuss and debate issues of common concern on social media with their feeds becoming more conflict-laden and toxic. A more nuanced understanding is needed of the motivations and deterrents for individual participation, in different contexts. This article provides a unique perspective from regional Australia by considering the conditions under
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Infrastructural insecurity: Geopolitics in the standardization of telecommunications networks Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Niels ten Oever, Christoph Becker
This article argues that the production and maintenance of “infrastructural insecurity” is an inherent part of the process of the standardization of telecommunication networks. Infrastructural insecurity is the outcome of intentional practices during the production, standardization, and maintenance of communication infrastructures that leave end-users vulnerable to attacks that benefit particular actors
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Protecting Public Figures Online: How Do Platforms and Regulators Define Public Figures? Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-10 Rob Cover, Nicola Henry, Joscelyn Gleave, Sharon Greenfield, Viktor Grechyn, Thuc Bao Huynh
Public figures are subject to higher rates of online abuse than other users in part because many digital platforms have significantly higher thresholds for intervening in cases of public figure abuse. Internationally, this higher rate of abuse has led to substantial impacts on public figures’ wellbeing and withdrawal from public life. This article presents findings from a study of platform policies
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Secondary, security threat, and sage: Eulogy effect and the framing of female politicians as political martyrs in the Elite press of South Asia Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2023-03-22 Azmat Rasul, Mcdowell D Stephen, Muhammad E Rasul
How do newspapers frame female politicians, and does this framing change after a female politician's death during an election campaign? Benazir Bhutto, who served two terms as prime minister of Pak...
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Social media: Connecting and sharing in a bushfire crisis Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2023-03-14 Susan Atkinson, Jee Young Lee
Social media has become an integral channel for official agencies to communicate with citizens in a natural disaster crisis and increasingly time, effort and money are being spent on improving soci...
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Studying the datafication of Australian childhoods: learning from a survey of digital technologies in homes with young children Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2023-03-13 Luci Pangrazio, Jane Mavoa
The home is a crucial site of young children's early encounters with digitally connected technologies. It is here that their emerging digital footprints are being formed and where digital data abou...
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The production and consumption of news podcasts Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2023-02-27 Yoonmo Sang, Jee Young Lee, Sora Park
This special issue, which focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, brings together five articles addressing the use of podcasting in a journalistic context. Drawing on articles that cover diverse topics...
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Entertaining information: Third-party influencers’ role in COVID-safety health communication Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2023-02-21 Rob Cover, Lukas Parker, Charlotte Young, Katia Ostapets
This paper discusses findings from a commissioned evaluation of an Australian government COVID-19 health campaign that utilised third-party influencers to increase the reach of health communication...
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Motives for using news podcasts and political participation intention in South Korea: The mediating effect of political discussion Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2023-02-20 Yoon Y. Cho, Ahran Park, Jinho Choi
The purpose of this study is to examine Korean listeners’ motivations for listening to political news podcasts drawing on uses and gratifications. This study revealed five motivations: social suppo...
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Connections, Community, Coconuts: Exploring the History of Regional Community Radio Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2023-02-08 Bridget Backhaus
Regional community radio enriches and diversifies local media landscapes in Australia. It is also a space where communities isolated from mainstream processes of media production can actively parti...
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Podcasting and constructive journalism in health stories about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2023-01-31 Mia Lindgren, Britta Jorgensen
COVID-19 showed the importance of trustworthy and accessible health information. News organisations increasingly introduced podcasting to keep their audiences informed. Podcasting's documented capa...
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A distressing and peculiar disease: endometriosis in the Australian Press 1949–2011 Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-12-21 Erin Bradshaw
This study explores how endometriosis has been represented and framed historically in the Australian press. Analysis of 80 articles published between 1949 and 2011 was conducted. Articles were exam...
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Trolling of female journalists on Twitter in Pakistan: an analysis Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-12-20 Shabir Hussain, Hajra Bostan, Irfan Qaisarani
In this study, we examined the trolling of female journalists on Twitter in Pakistan. Through quantitative and qualitative content analysis, we found the female journalists received offensive comme...
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‘African kids can’: Challenging the African gangs narrative on social media Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-12-19 Claire Moran
In 2016, following the ‘Moomba riots’ in Melbourne, the powerful and damaging narrative of ‘African gangs’ reemerged in Australian media and political discourse. The hyper-criminalisation and probl...
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Academic explanatory journalism and emerging COVID-19 science: how social media accounts amplify The Conversation’s preprint coverage Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-12-14 Alice Fleerackers, Michelle Riedlinger, Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess
This article examines the public communication of COVID-19-related ‘preprints’ (unreviewed research studies) in a digital media environment. To understand how preprint research flows from preprint ...
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Publics of interest and the death of the critic on Australian TV Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-12-13 Robert Boucaut, Peter C Pugsley
This article charts a turning point in recent Australian broadcast television history, where enduring institutions of media criticism in popular formats rapidly disappeared from screens. We firstly...
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Remedying the fractured domain through slow journalism: A case of journalistic podcasting in India Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-12-09 Sneha Gore Mehendale, Ruchi Kher Jaggi
This study contributes significantly by adding to the limited existing knowledge of news podcasting practices as well as building an empirical understanding of a specific type of slow journalism. I...
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Who is a journalist now? Recognising atypical journalism work in the digital media economy Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-11-16 Lawrie Zion, Timothy Marjoribanks, Penny O’Donnell
For the past two decades, understandings of the scale of digital disruption in journalism work in post-industrialised countries have relied on data about newspaper closures, newsroom job losses and...
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The Final Word on sports podcasts: audience perceptions of media engagement and news consumption Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-11-15 Peter English, Jacqueline Burgess, Christian Jones
Sports podcasting has spread rapidly over the past decade and reflects how sports media have been quick to embrace new technologies. Despite being a relatively recent medium, podcasts have expanded...
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Media literacy education through an online space: Co-designing of a participative website in media literacy for teachers Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-11-13 Mania Alehpour, Margareta Melin, Ebrahim Talaee
This study applies a participatory design approach including the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a participative website in media literacy for Iranian teachers. In the design...
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How Do South Korean Podcasts Reflect Changes in Journalistic Norms and Practices? Comparing Podcasts of Professional Journalists with Podcasts of Non-Journalists Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-11-11 Na Yeon Lee, Jeehyun Kim, Changsook Kim
The purpose of this study is to examine whether journalistic norms of objectivity and practices of gatekeeping are observed in news and current-affairs podcasts. By analyzing 101 episodes from thre...
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Digital arts and culture in Australia: Promissory discourses and uncertain realities in pandemic times Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-11-07 Indigo Holcombe-James, Jacinthe Flore, Natalie Ann Hendry
This article critically interrogates the promissory discourse underpinning the cultural sectors’ ‘digital pivot’ in the wake of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021; namely, that artistic and cre...
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Introduction to the Media International Australia special issue on “TikTok cultures in the Asia Pacific” Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-10-18 Crystal Abidin, Jin Lee, D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye
The editors of this Feature Topic are founding members of the TikTok Cultures Research Network that focuses on culturally-situated and qualitatively-grounded scholarship on TikTok in the Asia Pacif...
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Scott Morrison’s Political Discourse During Crisis: A Narrative-Semiotic Analysis Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-10-09 Mohammed Akhib, Sky Marsen
This study explores communication strategies and techniques in the political discourse of the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, during crisis. Twelve public speeches and statements made du...
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Exploring children’s TikTok cultures in India: Negotiating access, uses, and experiences under restrictive parental mediation Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-09-22 Devina Sarwatay, Jin Lee, D Bondy Valdovinos Kaye
TikTok is a popular platform allowing users to view and make short videos. The platform's embeddedness among youth cultures is key to TikTok’s commercial success, to attract and sustain a diverse a...
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Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) original production in Australia: Evolution or revolution? Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-09-21 Alexa Scarlata, James Douglas, Ramon Lobato
Original production by subscription-video-on-demand services (SVOD) is often associated with a U.S. model of premium drama, characterized by high production values, edgy storytelling, and narrative...
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Erratum Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-09-09
Erratum to Studying WeChat Official Accounts with novel ‘backend-in’ and ‘traceback’ methods: Walking through platforms back-to-front and past-to-present. Media International Australia. Epub ahead of print 16 March 2022. DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088052
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Erratum Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-08-28
Erratum to the cultural customization of TikTok: Subaltern migrant workers and their digital cultures. Media International Australia. Epub ahead of print 28 June 2022. DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221110279
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Warwick Blood (1947–2022): a journey in communication research Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-08-29 Kerry McCallum, Peter Putnis
Warwick Blood (1947–2022) was a leading Australian researcher in the field of Communication and Media Studies whose research focused on the role of the news media in framing public understanding of...
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Development journalism and revitalisation of familism in Malaysia Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-08-28 Muhammad Asim Imran
This paper explores the role of Malaysian media in the revitalisation of familism, which seems to descend in most Asian societies. The examination of news articles published in English-language Mal...
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The value of news: A gender gap in paying for news Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-07-27 Emma John, Jee Young Lee, Sora Park
The factors that impact audiences’ willingness to pay for news have received much attention over the last decade given a steady decline in advertising revenues and online news outlets attempting to...
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(Dis)assembling mental health through apps: The sociomaterialities of young adults’ experiences Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-07-25 Jacinthe Flore
Typically free, accessible on-demand and easy to use, smartphone-based applications (apps) targeting mental health have expanded in recent years. This article discusses a qualitative research study with 14 young adults aged 18 to 25 years old who use apps to understand, track, and monitor their mental health. I present four vignettes drawn from a screenshot elicitation and a qualitative interview that
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Where are they now? Career sustainability and Australian web-series producers Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-07-22 Mark David Ryan, Guy Healy, Stuart Cunningham
Over the last decade, several professionalising amateur Australian content creators making web series, distributed on multiple open platforms, broke into the television industry and developed promising careers. The limited scholarly research into the career trajectories and sustainability of web series creators has typically been conducted as normative critique of the value of web series labour. In
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Erratum Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-07-18
Erratum to Studying Visibility and invisibility in the aged care sector: Visual representation in Australian news from 2018–2021. Media International Australia. Epub ahead of print 21 April 2022. DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221094374
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Media Representation and the Paralympics: A Step Too Far or Not Far Enough? Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-06-30 Angela Page, Kerry Daly, Joanna Anderson, Genevieve Thraves
The Paralympics is globally the largest and most significant sporting event that takes place for athletes with a disability. The 2020 Tokyo Games was heralded as significant in its extensive media coverage that served to promote the disability athletic movement, breaking all broadcasting viewing records from the number of broadcasters, viewers, and a number of events provided live. In the past, however
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The cultural customization of TikTok: subaltern migrant workers and their digital cultures Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-06-28 Satveer Kaur-Gill
Migrant construction workers in Singapore produced TikTok videos sharing their structural, social, and health conditions during the pandemic. The platform's user-centered design presents opportunities for marginalized communities to participate in content production and distribution. The TikTok videos created by MCWs richly detailed the precarities they faced during the pandemic. Through the production
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From karaoke to lip-syncing: performance communities and TikTok use in Japan Media International Australia (IF 1.5) Pub Date : 2022-06-09 Sonja Petrovic
This paper discusses the versatile use of TikTok among Japanese media users in the context of the platform's increased appeal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Japanese users have adopted global trends of sharing creative content under prominent hashtags to spread a sense of togetherness in a time of social isolation. As social forms of entertainment are disrupted and paused, the practice of singing and