😲 Ooooh, the full programme for the @qutdmrc.bsky.social Summer School 2026 is out now, and it's full of sciencey goodness. If you were still on the fence about signing up, you have until 19 Dec. to do so. ⌛ The Summer School dates are 2-6 Feb. 2026. #dmrcss26 research.qut.edu.au/...

Call for Papers: Reading Fanfiction/ Fanfiction Reading If you have a 3000-4000 literary close reading of a fanfiction story burning to get out, please be in touch! :D rb.gy/8hqqzb

SIG members, don't forget that our event with @alfredmartin.bsky.social is a week from today. Al will be talking about his new book, FANDOM FOR US, BY US. Please register here to get the Zoom link: tinyurl.com/fandomforus

Johnny Knoxville having a true crime podcast must be a sign that that fad is over…

A Kimono decorated with skeletons, from Japan, 1840-1860 CE, now housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London

A reminder of our open call for postdoctoral researchers focusing on cultural game studies, closing on Friday this week, 31 October at 23.59.00 EET / UTC+2 (Finland time): tuni.rekrytointi.com/paikat/index...

Australians, please raid your Uncle's old PC in his shed, and help me find a copy of this to archive. #Australia #AFL #DOSGaming #Wolfenstein #RetroGaming #MSDOS #RetroComputing

Australia's children's commissioner Anne Hollonds has seen "nothing" to address gaps in community and support left by the teen social media ban. A year after first raising the alarm, Hollonds says we need to take a "good, hard look at the unmet needs" of vulnerable kids. www.crikey.com.au/20...

I’ve learned so much by meeting Brazilian scholars I’d otherwise not be as familiar with. Including their theoretical and methodological lineages. I am looking forward to exploring more of their work. Ok I may need to run it through a translator but that’s academias version of the 2” barrier in film

MEXICO BABY !!! #AoIR2025 #AoIR2026

We should be asking this c o n s t a n t l y.

Join us for the 2026 @qutdmrc.bsky.social Summer School – registration opens next Monday !

Do you find yourself at the intersection of performance, games, and design? Do you want to work with world class artists in research, pedagogy, and games? Then maybe apply to work with me at UCSC! We're hiring a Assistant Professor of Interactive Art, Performance & Games recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01998

Calling all social media researchers, if you have access to the TikTok research API or are doing research on TikTok via a browser plugin, you will soon be able to collect and analyze TikTok data via our research tool, @communalytic.org. No coding required. #DSA40 #CSS #ComSky #AcademicSky

Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...

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!

This is huge: “A drug that provides near-perfect protection against H.I.V. with shots just twice a year will be made available at $40 per patient annually in low- and middle-income countries, offering new hope… making lenacapavir a realistic choice in countries with constrained resources.”

“You guys are probably next, right? …Stanley cites Australia’s history of Indigenous displacement, its “performatively vicious” treatment of asylum seekers and the fierce “anti-woke” rhetoric that pierces public discourse. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Are you an early career researcher looking to get published? Don’t miss out on financial support and mentorship with the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship, in partnership with @writersandartists.bsky.social. Find out how you can apply here (UK only): https://bit.ly/4nd2sBp

As @jesgilbert.bsky.social & I warn in our book The Secret Life of Data, all "smart" apps and devices are Trojan horses that can be reprogrammed to serve new functions after you've already invite them into your home and your life. Usually without consent & to your detriment. Caveat digital emptor.

BREAKING: #ANU has announced that there will be no forced redundancies. ✊ Union members fought tirelessly to save these jobs, and every university staff member facing job cuts can take heart from what we have achieved. Together, we have changed what is possible. nteu.au/[email protected]

BREAKING | ANU staff in the College of Arts and Social Sciences have received a Cease Work Order due to dangerous working conditions. Under the WHS Act staff will be paid while this order is in place. The order seeks to protect lives and wellbeing.

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!

Did Bruna Paroni and I coin a term? We stumbled into using 'inauthentic coordinated fan behaviour' to talk about mobilising a fandom to astroturf a message. (So, at least some actors ARE fans, but also paid to spread a message.) It seems like that should already be a term. Is it? #fanstudies

Never forget, a 13-year study found that protected bike-lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all road users. ALL ROAD USERS. And painted bike-lanes? No safety improvement at all. For sharrows, it’s actually safer to NOT have them. Via @usa.streetsblog.org @nyc.streetsblog.org

We just released a *big* working paper on Voice AI and Authenticity as part of the ARC CoE for Automated Decision-Making and Society @admscentre.org.au It surveys the history of the tech, emerging issues, and what can be done Check it out at Australian Policy Online here: apo.org.au/node/331920

🆕 Very excited to announce the launch of M/C Journal issue 28.3: '#fan', edited by @svegaard.bsky.social and @vilkins.bsky.social. #mcjournal journal.media-cultur...

The picture on the article is from Brisbane. Where protests are usually tepid (in my limited experience). This was massive. So bad even Queenslanders turned out? (Fave sign spot: “Make Humanity Great Again”)

Do you watch TV? Please take this survey to help me understand what audiences think of TV production techniques. app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/... Please share widely, and thanks in advance. #FanStudies #AudienceResearch

New study — out today in Journalism Practice! In it, we analyze the qualities of a news story (about climate-related emergencies) that predict whether/how much it is shared/engaged with on Facebook and republished by other media outlets.

HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TO THE ALL-TIME BANGER THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD m.youtube.com/watch?v=2X-A...

Sam and I did a thing. Though honestly, the real work isn’t ours. We received some great articles for this. Thanks to the authors and reviewers! They were all wonderful and we can’t thank them enough. Go read the excellent articles that came out of it all.

Very excited to share that my book, The Discursive-Digital Link, is now available for pre-order on Routledge: tinyurl.com/the-ddl. The e-book is already available to order with a 30% discount! You can also read the synopsis and the Introduction chapter on my website: essideh.com/ddl/ (thread)

<<stage whisper>> It was never about jobs.

Wow. The dog almost copped it.

People are downloading free VPNs to jump over the new restrictions imposed by the Online Safety Act ... but this can cause a much bigger problem 👀

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...

I don't know if posting the link is the best way to do this tbh as it doesn't include the title. Here you go.

New paper!! Hermann Wigers and I used OpenAI to generate and analyse 11,800 stories "from" 236 countries: Norwegian stories, Chinese stories, American stories, etc. We found that GPT-4o-mini tells the same story over and over. open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/5-2...

As we talk about the cheerful insanity of Australia's Social Media Ban again this morning, here's your periodical reminder that the book it's inspired by - The Anxious Generation - is hogwash. Not just me saying it, but this little journal you might have heard of: Nature. www.nature.com/artic...

I enjoyed teaming up w @antmandan.bsky.social on Radio National's Life Matters today to discuss the increase in age-gating in Australia with both the social media ban for under16s & phase 2 industry codes beginning in December. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr... #socialmedia #ageverification #auspol

Incidentally, it’s never bad media literacy to ask yourself about the rhetorical situation of utterances, especially by content creators: - why does this need to be said? - why in this form? - why by this person? - why to this audience? - why in this moment? - for what purpose?

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the #Pharos of #Alexandria for a long time was the tallest lighthouse on record - until it was destroyed in a series of earthquakes. Now, a ‪@cnrs.fr-CEAlex team has recovered its impressive remains from the seabed: archaeologymag.com/2025/07/ligh...

Excited to share my new article, "Mapping and Measuring Listening in Public Communication Settings", now published in Media and Communication (@CogitatioMaC)! Download it for free here: www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcomm... #OpenAccess

Israel claimed Hamas was stealing aid but actually armed the gangs that were stealing it to “combat Hamas” and then blamed Hamas and the UN. The UN says it can’t deliver aid because between Israeli attacks and those of the Israeli-armed gangs, it’s too unsafe. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

I just donated to several of these (vetted) organizations. Please consider doing the same if you have the means and are outraged by the Israeli starvation of the Gaza population.

Made this cute little website over the past month in my spare time. So many fish have been drawn!!! No idea where they're all coming from. A real field of dreams moment :)

Important content.

Why I 🧡 the web. drawafish.com Just draw the fish. Trust me. 🐟