Public Communication Research Cluster

Aims

  • Undertake and disseminate state-of-the-art research into public communication and its social consequences, including research on news and news production, political communication, strategic communication, and knowledge management, with a focus on the historical, cultural, social, political and technological factors that shape the planning for, gathering, selection, and presentation of public communication in a variety of media.
  • Promote and encourage informed debate on public communication and Australian society.

Research concentrations

News Research
  • Impact and social consequences of news and news production in contemporary Australian society – the historical, cultural, social and political factors shaping the planning for, gathering, selection, and presentation of news in a variety of media, and its social and policy consequences
  • Ethical issues in journalism
  • News and digital media technologies
  • Analysis of public opinion on Indigenous issues and cultural diversity in Australia (news media representations; local talk; Indigenous policy)
  • Analysis of the reporting and portrayal of risk information, especially health issues (suicide & mental illness, illicit drugs, overweight & obesity, cancer)
  • Analysis of images of war, terrorism and risk in national and international news
Knowledge and Information Management
  • The situated practice of knowledge and information work
  • Social media and knowledge intensive work
  • Information ethics and social policy
Political Communication
  • Government communication with various publics, and use and impact of new media
  • Political and social marketing, public communication campaigns, political advertising, persuasion strategies and election contexts
  • E-government and e-democracy — government-public interaction
  • Social and economic impact of communication and media policies
  • Impact of changing audiences on traditional and new media
  • Risks, vulnerabilities and safeguards for social interactions on the internet
  • Public versus private interest in policymaking
  • Analysis of communication and media structures (current and historical)

Members