Catch up on all the conference updates from the Digital Media Research Centre in 2025 before we launch into 2026!

Starting 2026 by sharing a new paper from Prof Axel Bruns, A/Prof Tim Graham and DMRC colleague Simon Copland. You can check out "Sky News Australia as network propaganda: how a niche cable channel became an international right-wing propaganda machine" here! journals.sagepub.com...

Congratulations to DMRC scholars @kathaesa.bsky.social, @snurb.info, @riedlinm.bsky.social, @vilkins.bsky.social, Laura Vodden, and Thet Zin Myint for their new publication in Media International Australia as part of the AANZCA special issue! journals.sagepub.com...

Incredible work and congratulations to all DMRC researchers who were awarded an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award! 🎉

Congratulations to PhD candidates Carly Lubicz and Caroline Gardam, along with Associate Professor Michelle Riedlinger for their recent QUT Faculty award in the "Sustainability" category!

Australia's social media ban for children under 16 begins today. Our explainer paper provides an overview of the complex issue of social media bans for young teens, explaining the technical challenges, potential risks, and specific concerns voiced by parents and carers. Read it here: qut.to/1ww5%

We have your morning commute listening for Wednesday lined up... 👂🔊 DMRC Director Daniel Angus (@antmandan.bsky.social) spoke with the Read Them Sideways podcast team about the social media ban, the implications, and what to expect in the future. open.spotify.com/episode/6IES...

Next in our round-up of #AANZCA2025 conference slides, we have Laura Vodden's presentation on "Reflections on the value of disagreement in human-LLM collaboration". www.slideshare.net/s...#AANZCA2025 Laura's co-authors were @kathaesa.bsky.social, @tariqchoucair.bsky.social, and @riedlinm.bsky.social

A new report led by Michael Dezuanni, Kim Osman and Lynrose Jane Genon has been released today on "Young Australians' perspectives on the social media minimum age legislation". www.crikey.com.au/20... Cam Wilson at Crikey has covered the report and its findings.

We had a large DMRC contingent at the #AANZCA2025 conference last week and we will be sharing conference slides for those who were not able to attend. First up is Sebastian Svegaard's presentation on "Agit-prop in the 20s: reconceptualising propaganda for a networked age".

PhD researcher Kate FitzGerald has a new article out in The Conversation today looking at generative AI chatbots and conspiracy theories.

We are very proud of the incredible people and culture that we have at the Digital Media Research Centre. We are celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year, including a podcast episode from some of the people that made it happen. open.spotify.com/epi... We hope you enjoy listening!

Congratulations to DMRC investigator Ehsan Dehghan (@essideh.com) and colleagues across Australia for their 2026 Discovery Project! This project examines the public sphere responses and domestic divides caused by foreign conflicts, to find what fosters or hinders deliberation across difference.

The full Summer School programme is ready to go! Please register before the 19th of December to join us for a packed week of learning and collaboration. ☀️📚 #dmrcss26

A recent publication from our DMRC researchers @kkasianenko.bsky.social and @guangnanrio.bsky.social! This interdisciplinary study uses conspiracies about global philanthropy as an example of "floating signifiers". Check out the thread below for an explainer from Kateryna and follow the 🔗 to read!

A new edition of Digital Media Demystified by the DMRC is out! 🔗 Find our Explainers and associated resources in our dedicated Knowledge Hub: research.qut.edu.au/dmrc/digital...

To round out the week, sharing another of Sebastian Svegaard's presentations from AoIR last month! This study was entitled "Cancelling Kelce: Ruptures and Fractures in Swiftie Fan & Anti-Fan Subreddits". Sebastian's co-authors were Samantha Vilkins and Kate FitzGerald.

New book with work from Kate FitzGerald, Dan Whelan-Shamy and Tim Graham is now available for pre-order! www.taylorfrancis.co... The chapter is entitled "The Persistence of Informational Manipulation and the Appropriation of Emerging Events: Conspiratorial Publics".

Professor Axel Bruns presented at the recent AoIR conference a large-scale project involving many of our DMRC researchers: "Researching Cross-Platform Campaigning in the 2025 Australian Federal Election". Here are the slides:

An AoIR conference presentation from Laura Vodden, Katharina Esau, Axel Bruns, and Tariq Choucair. www.slideshare.net/s... This study discusses the potential role of LLMs in frame analysis. Framing is the selective presentation of information and can provide insight on the motivations of creators

Another AoIR presentation from last month in Brazil! Dr Sebastian Svegaard presented "Mapping Fandom Ruptures: A Case Study of Taylor Swift Fandom Practices on Reddit". Sebastian co-authored this work w/ Sam Vilkins, Axel Bruns, Vish Padinjaredath Suresh and Kate FitzGerald

Congratulations to PhD researcher Carly Lubicz and a team of interdisciplinary researchers who recently published the article, "Steering Great Barrier Reef climate science narratives through the mediasphere in a time of misinformation" in the Nature journal.

Many of our DMRC researchers have recently attended the Association of Internet Researchers conference in Rio de Janeiro and had the opportunity to share their work. We will be sharing slides for those who were not able to attend. Our first presentation is from PhD researcher, Carly Lubicz.

Dr Sebastian Svegaard (@svegaard.bsky.social) has recently had a chapter published in The Routledge Handbook of Fan Video and Digital Authorship! Sebastian's chapter uses interviews to investigate remix video creators' thoughts on copyright for fan videos.

Congratulations to research fellow Kateryna Kasianenko (@kkasianenko.bsky.social) on her recent publication in Communication Theory! "Elements of practices in digital publics: a model for identifying collective doings on social media platforms" can be read here now! academic.oup.com/ct/...

Associate Professor Stephen Harrington @phzerosounds.bsky.social has recently published a piece in Crikey discussing the UK's Zack Polanski, and the potential message for the Australian Greens. You can read Stephen's work here:

The Digital Media Research Centre is looking forward to our 2026 Summer School! To get in the spirit, this week's podcast episode is a recording of a panel from this year, discussing the upcoming children's social media ban.

Many of our DMRC students and researchers are currently in Brazil attending the Association of Internet Researchers conference, @aoir.bsky.social! Professor Axel Bruns @snurb.info is providing conference updates on his blog, starting with the keynote from Marie Santini of NetLab. #AoIR2025

! SAVE THE DATE ! The DMRC 2026 Summer School is back again on our Kelvin Grove Campus in Brisbane, Australia from 2 February to 6 February 2026, featuring interactive sessions showcasing digital humanities and social science research across key programs and projects within the DMRC.

Congratulations to Senior Research Associate, Dr Katharina Esau @kathaesa.bsky.social on her new publication with Axel Bruns and our colleagues in Germany - Hendrick Meyer, Mike Farjam, Helena Rauxloh and Michael Brüggemann.

Congratulations to PhD candidates Carly Lubicz @carlylubicz.bsky.social, Caroline Gardam @cazuarina.bsky.social, and Associate Professor Michelle Riedlinger @riedlinm.bsky.social ! They spoke to the Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy this morning.

This week's episode of Read Them Sideways is a discussion between host @katemfitzgerald.bsky.social and @svegaard.bsky.social on the intersection between fan studies and politics - check it out at the link below!

To our Hamburg colleagues, please do attend this valuable talk from @kathaesa.bsky.social on the 25th of September at 12pm! She will be speaking about news media polarisation both in Australia, and beyond, and providing her expertise on destructive polarisation. 🎤 💭

Congratulations to PhD student Caroline Gardam (@cazuarina.bsky.social), Dr Michelle Riedlinger (@riedlinm.bsky.social), Dr Daniel Angus (@antmandan.bsky.social), and DMRC alum Jane Tan for their new paper on the multimodal narratives of climate denial.

After a brief hiatus, the Read Them Sideways podcast is back! In this week's episode, Klaus Groebner (@gklaus.bsky.social) interviews Dr Ehsan Dehghan (@essideh.com) about his new book: The Discursive-Digital Link. Listen to Klaus and Ehsan chat about the new book below!

Congratulations to PhD candidate @lynrose.bsky.social on her new book chapter entitled, 'Young Women’s Everyday Digital Peacebuilding in the Philippines'! 🎉📖 You can read this important work in the volume 'Youth Leading Change' at this link: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

New publication alert! Led by Alice Fleerackers and assisted by DMRC researchers and visitors, this study investigates the amplification of climate related news stories on Facebook and amongst other media outlets. An important read for journalism scholars and science communicators. ☀️🗣️🔬

Two of our postdoctoral research associates, @svegaard.bsky.social and @vilkins.bsky.social , have guest edited the latest issue of M/C Journal. They have curated some excellent articles around the theme of fandom and politics. Read the issue here! journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mc...

An important opinion piece from PhD candidate, Daniel Whelan-Shamy, on the policy submission to the New Zealand Education and Workforce Committee that the DMRC recently contributed to. Well done, Dan!

The Routledge Companion To Visual Journalism, edited by T.J. Thomson, is now available for pre-order. It features 41 chapters & 524 pages, richly accompanied by all types of visuals from photographs and screenshots to AI-generated images and data visualisations. AU/NZ link:

New release from one of the Chief Investigators at the DMRC, Dr Ehsan Dehghan! A highly relevant piece of work that offers a critical framework for understanding the entangled relationships between discourse, digital media, and the hidden dynamics behind antagonism and polarisation. 🎉

We were lucky to be joined by @arielbogle.bsky.social and @cameronwilson.bsky.social on the Read Them Sideways podcast to talk about their new book with host, @katemfitzgerald.bsky.social. open.spotify.com/episode/00Go...

New paper alert! Congratulations Maxwell Melit, @phzerosounds.bsky.social, and Aljosha Karim Schapals on their new paper: ‘I scroll past all the news I see on Facebook’: Australian young adults’ use of social media for filtering information during the COVID-19 pandemic". journals.sagepub.com...

The Read Them Sideways podcast welcomed Lynrose Genon this week, where she spoke with first-time host Klaus Groebner (gKlaus.bsky.social) about her PhD work. @lynrose.bsky.social shared about young women leaders' use of social media to build peace in the Philippines. open.spotify.com/epi...

PhD candidate Hanh Nguyen has recently had a paper published in Social Media & Society on child influencers in Vietnam! Congratulations Hanh and see the link below to this important work. journals.sagepub.com...

Congratulations to @tariqchoucair.bsky.social on his newly published paper, "Mapping and Measuring Listening in Public Communication Settings" in Media & Communication. Tariq outlines the key elements of listening and how it is critical for political communication. www.cogitatiopress.c...

A very interesting new episode of the Read Them Sideways podcast looking at human and robot collaboration with your host @svegaard.bsky.social and PhD candidate Jasper Vermeulen. Listen at the link below to find out how robots can help humans in the operating theatre! open.spotify.com/epi...

DMRC researchers @phzerosounds.bsky.social and @katemfitzgerald.bsky.social have a new piece out in @crikey.com.au! Read below for the most recent updates on the Epstein files conspiracy theory and the potential political consequences.

ADM+S researchers T.J. Thomson & Daniel Angus with Samuel Cornell examine a new U.S. State Department policy that requires university & exchange visa applicants to disclose and make public their social media accounts from the past five years. More: admscentre.org/4lKnKWh #digitalprivacy #DataEthics

A new piece in The Conversation from DMRC director @antmandan.bsky.social, DMRC alum, T.J. Thomson and UNSW colleague Samuel Cornell. In this piece, they discuss the legislative change requiring certain visitors to the United States to provide their social media accounts. theconversation.com/...