Current Research Projects in Media and Communications
The Department of Media and Communications includes highly qualified staff with extensive media experience. Their research interests are interdisciplinary, and range from Australian Research Council funded collaborations with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Walkley Foundation, and the NSW Commission for Children and Young People; an interdisciplinary Public Health and Media Network, to inter-university involvement in the Cultural Research Network sponsored The Listening Project, which explores the politics, technologies and practices of listening.
Comprised of a committed group of scholars, intellectuals and practitioners, each with their own interests and direction, they collectively draw on a variety of strands of media and communications, including organisational communication, media relations, journalism studies, media policy, media history, health communication, screen studies, critical theory, as well as cultural studies and politics,
The research profile and strength of the Media and Communications Department at the University of Sydney can be enscapulated in four key, interacting, goals:
- To contribute to and enhance theorisation of public debate, public conversations and the public sphere, through scholarly work, professional engagement and as commentators in the media.
Selected Examples: Examining the way the media reflect world events in a globalized age (R. Stanton); Activist and non-government undertstandings of journalism and communications (A. Castillo, A. Mann); Media policy and media diversity (T. Dwyer); Popular feminism (M. Le Masurier); Public health and media (F. Giles); Cultures and technologies of listening (P. O’Donnell); Public service broadcasting (A. Dunn; F. Martin); Media ethics (A. Dunn; S. Maras; T. Dwyer); Celebrity culture (M. Brennan)
- To research and explore changes to the media culture and the mediasphere brought about through cultural and technological change, and changing patterns of media consumption and production.
Selected Examples: Interactive media developments at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (F. Martin); New media worlds and media convergence (T.Dwyer); Celebrity and Popular Culture (M. Brennan); Popular culture and social movements (M. Le Masurier); New conditions of journalism practice and education (P. O’Donnell; R. Stanton; A. Mann; A. Dunn); Branding, urban spaces (S. Hemelryk Donald; M. Brennan)
- To bridge rigorous scholarly and theoretical inquiry into media and communications with industrial and professional formations.
Selected Examples: Studies of media relations (R. Stanton); The history, practice and theory of screenwriting (S. Maras); Criticality in theory and pactice (S. Maras; A. Dunn; P. O’Donnell); organisational communication and corporate environments (S. Chaidaroon); narrative and media (A. Dunn); cross media storytelling at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (A. Dunn; F. Martin); media ethics and markets (A. Dunn); history, theory, practice of magazines (M. Le Masurier); literary journalism (F. Giles; M. Le Masurier; A. Castillo).
- To internationalise our understandings of media practice and media and communications research.
Selected Examples: Media and globalisation (R. Stanton; M. Brennan); Intercultural communication competence (S. Chaidaroon); International perspectives on public service broadcasting (A. Dunn and Postgraduate Students); Internationalising media practice (P. O’Donnell; A. Castillo); Branded cities and cosmopolitanism (S. Hemelryk Donald); Chinese media studies (S. Hemelryk Donald).
Australia Research Council Funded Projects
‘New Media, New Narratives: Beyond Broadcasting’
Dr Anne Dunn
This project investigates the cultural and social implications of the tension between new and traditional media, in a collaborative project with ABC News. It uses a new model of training journalism cadets — often the groundbreakers for the organisational cultural change needed in a world of convergent media — and demonstrates how media organisations can innovate in what they produce, how they produce it, and in their audience relations. The project will also demonstrate the important role of public broadcasting in new media innovation and in building new relationships with audiences.
'Posters of the Cultural Revolution: Contemporary Chinese perspectives on an Era of Propaganda'
Professor Stephanie Hemelryk Donald
This project incorporates documentary film making activities in China, and work in the poster archive in London. The focus is twofold: on memory and loss in a market-oriented State system, and how contemporary media forms deploy revolutionary period images and nostalgia.
‘Mobile Me: Young People, Sociality and the Mobile Phone’ (with NSW Commission for Children and Young People)
Professor Stephanie Hemelryk Donald
This is a study of mobile phone use, examining sociality and media networks amongst school age users.
‘From Rivers of Gold to the Clickstream: Newspapers and Quality Journalism in the Internet’ (with The Walkley Foundation)
Dr Penny O'Donnell
This project will enhance Australian democracy by providing a scholarly basis for public discussion about the ways that quality journalism can survive in the Internet age. It will create knowledge about the specifically Australian experience of newspapers' transition to online media services and will thus help Australian citizens and journalists engage in global debates about journalism futures. It will create knowledge about the workplace conditions that foster quality journalism. It will showcase Australian research in international scholarly debate within the field of Journalism Studies.
‘Alcohol use and harm minimisation among Australian university students’ (with Association of Heads of Australian University Colleges and Halls Inc, NSW Health, Victorian Department of Human Services)
Dr Fiona Giles (with Dr Toni Schofield, Dr Jo Lindsay, Dr Julie Hepworth, A/Prof John Germov, Dr Rose Leontini)
Alcohol-related harms cost Australians over $15.3 billion per year, and in 2008 were described by Prime Ministe Kevin Rudd as having reached 'epidemic proportions'. Young people are at greatest risk of alcohol-related damage and university students are among the heaviest drinkers, with up to 70% engaging in binge drinking. By examining the social dynamics of university students' drinking practices and their understanding of harm minimisation, together with the policies and measures offered by colleges and State health authorities, the proposed project will yield a new evidence base and innovative theoretical approach for developing fresh strategic harm
minimisation interventions.
Virtual Book Shelf - Current Staff Sole Authored or Joint Authored/Edited Publications
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Steven Maras (2009) Screenwriting: History, Theory and Practice. |
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Robert Benewick & Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (2009) State of China Atlas. |
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| Stephanie Hemelryk Donald, Eleonore Kofman, Catherine Kevin (2009) Branding Cities
Cosmopolitanism, Parochialism, and Social Change. Routledge Advances in Geography |
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Marc Brennan. (2008) Writing to Reach You. VDM Verlag. |
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| Richard C. Stanton. (2007). All News Is Local: The Failure Of The Media To Reflect World Events In A Globalized Age. McFarland & Co. |
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| Virginia Nightingale and Tim Dwyer (eds). (2007). New Media Worlds: Challenges for Convergence. Oxford University Press, London. |
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| Richard Stanton. (2006). Media Relations. Oxford University Press.
http://www.oup.com.au/titles/higher_ed/media_studies/9780195557343 |
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| Helen Fulton with Rosemary Huisman, Julian Murphet, Anne Dunn. (2005). Narrative and Media. Cambridge University Press.
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0511131585 |
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