Unit staff have national and international reputations in research areas centred upon the theoretical analysis of communications and media, and the empirical investigation of media practices, policies and industries. A wide range of research expertise ensures that these approaches are deployed strategically in response to pressing contemporary problems and issues.
The Unit specialises in and offers research supervision across a number of related areas, including critical approaches to the study of media audiences, the popular music industries, communications and medium theory, digital media and fan cultures, print cultures and the publishing industry, media history, sports media and culture, environmental media, news media, television and documentaries, feminist media and gender, communications and media ethics, war reportage and the cultural representation of conflict, the body and technology, media violence, public health, and religion and communication.
Major projects and publications completed by members of the Research Unit in Media Studies demonstrate a focus on the following interrelated themes:
- How changes in communications technologies affect the production, circulation and reception of media.
- The intersections between media practices, power and popular culture.
- The conceptual and theoretical dimensions of networked communications and digital media and their impact on social life and culture.
- The political and economic dimensions of the media industries and their regulation.
COMMISSIONED REPORTS United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): Justin O’Connor (2012) Mauritius: A Strategy to Strengthen the Cultural Industry Sector. Australia Council for the Arts: Shane Homan (2012) The Recorded Music Sector in Australia: Strategic Initiatives. Australia Council for the Arts: Justin O’Connor (2011) Arts and Creative Industries: An Australian Conversation. Melbourne City Council: Shane Homan & Dobe Newton with Elizabeth Paton (2010) The Music Capital: City ... Read more
Details of additional publications are available though individual member profiles. Andrea Baker (2011) Virtual Radio Ga Ga, Youths and Net Radio, New York City: Hampton Press. Daniel Black, Stephen Epstein, and Alison Tokita (eds) (2010) Complicated Currents: Media Flows, Soft Power and East Asia, Melbourne: Monash University ePress. Elizabeth Coleman and Maria Suzette Fernandes-Dias (eds) (2008) Negotiating the Sacred II: Blasphemy and Sacrilege ... Read more
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery and Linkage Projects DP12010081 Performing Authorship in the Digital Literary Sphere (2012-2014). Invesigator: Dr Simone Murray. LP120200302 Museum of New and Old Art (MONA) and the Social and Cultural Coordinates of Urban Regeneration through Arts Tourism (2012-2015). Investigators: Prof Adrian Franklin, Professor Justin O’Connor, and Prof Nikos Papastergiadis. DP1092910 Popular Music and Cultural Memory: Localised Popular Music Histories and their ... Read more
Recent PhD and Masters-by-Research Graduates supervised by Unit Members include: Maeva Veerapeen, PhD. Living a Symbembodied Life: A Phenomenological Investigation of Second Life. (Supervisors: Dr Stuart Grant, Professor Peter Snow and Associate Professor Brett Hutchins). Michel Rubin, MA. Reality Regained: A Baudrillardian Reading of Ballard’s Crash and Dumont’s Twentynine Palms. (Supervisors: Professor Andrew Milner and Dr Claire Perkins). Naureen Khamisa, ... Read more
