Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 19h

Delegate registration will open the week of the 13th October 2026, so please keep an eye out on our socials and webpage for the release. To sign up to our Summer School mailing list and for further information, visit our website:

2026 DMRC Summer School – QUT Digital Media Research Centre

2026 DMRC Summer School | 2 - 6 February 2026The DMRC 2026 Summer School is back again for another year, featuring interactive sessions showcasing digital...

research.qut.edu.au

QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 19h

The Summer School promotes a culture of supportive research, and informed and stimulating engagement among our researchers, students, and partners. This program offers opportunities for learning and networking, as well as a great social program.

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 19h

Researchers, students, and industry partners will share how they are confronting a range of Australian and global challenges in digital media industries.

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 19h

! 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.

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 1d

This work looks at how the media frames climate movements in both Australia and Germany, and is the outcome of Katharina's fellowship at The New Institute in Hamburg in 2023, a collaboration with the University of Hamburg and the GESIS–Leibniz Institute for the Social Science.

QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 1d

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.

Polarised media framing of climate movements: A comparative mixed-methods analysis of Australia and Germany - Katharina Esau, Hendrik Meyer, Mike Farjam, Axel Bruns, Helena Rauxloh, Michael Brüggemann, 2025

This study investigates the media framing of climate movements in Australia and Germany. Media frames are powerful tools for shaping public perceptions of social issues. While previous research has...

journals.sagepub.com

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 10d

They represented a larger group of DMRC scholars who submitted a response to the Government discussing the drivers of problematic information around climate change and energy, the importance of data access for researchers, and the need for enhanced transparency, amongst other topics.

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 10d

You can read the Digital Media Research Centre's submission to the Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy here: www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

Submissions

www.aph.gov.au

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 10d

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.

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 10d

You can read the special issue curated by @svegaard.bsky.social and @vilkins.bsky.social discussed in the episode here: journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mc...

Fandom and Politics | M/C Journal

Nearly twenty years after Henry Jenkins's Convergence Culture mapped the transforming relationship between old and new media, fan participation, and corporate power, the convergences he anticipated ...

journal.media-culture.org.au

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 10d

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!

Episode 33: Fandom and Politics with Sebastian Svegaard

Read Them Sideways · Episode

open.spotify.com

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 22d

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. 🎤 💭

Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung | Hans-Bredow-Institut @bredowinstitut.bsky.social · Sep 4

📣 Invitation #LeibnizMediaLunchTalk, Sept 25th, 12-1 pm, via Zoom, with @kathaesa.bsky.social from @qutdmrc.bsky.social about "Measuring and Comparing News Media Polarisation in Australia and Beyond"👉 leibniz-hbi.de/en/hbi-event...
@lisamerten.bsky.social

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 22d

This paper considers the chemtrails conspiracy theory and uses multimodal analysis to determine the most salient visuals that accompany climate denial. Using unsupervised machine learning, co-hashtag analysis, and multimodal critical discourse analysis, this is a timely and valuable study.

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 22d

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.

Multimodal narratives of climate denial: A novel, visual-first methodology for analysing conspiracy theory discourse on Instagram

Problematic information about climate change in online spaces can impact public awareness about climate change’s causes, impacts, and mitigation strat…

www.sciencedirect.com

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 25d

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!

Episode 32: The Discursive-Digital Link with Ehsan Dehghan

Read Them Sideways · Episode

open.spotify.com

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Sep 7

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...

Young Women’s Everyday Digital Peacebuilding in the Philippines

This chapter demonstrates how marginalised young Muslim, Lumad (Indigenous), and Christian women leaders in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of M...

link.springer.com

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Aug 19

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. ☀️🗣️🔬

Alice Fleerackers (she/her) @fleerackers.bsky.social · Aug 19

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.

Screenshot of journal article titled Amplifying the News: An Analysis of the Factors Driving Republication and Facebook Engagement with News.

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Aug 18

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...

M/C Journal

M/C Journal - a journal of media and culture, founded in 1998.

journal.media-culture.org.au

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Aug 14

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!

Dan @dannno0o.bsky.social · Aug 12

Hello, good morning, I am happy to share an opinion piece in The Spinoff that I wrote off of the back of a policy submission to the NZ Government's Education and Workforce Committee alongside a group of wonderful @qutdmrc.bsky.social colleagues. You can read it here thespinoff.co.nz/internet/13-...

Pretending the internet doesn’t exist won’t protect our young people from harm

Our inquiry into online harm should not follow the same rushed process that resulted in Australia's under-16 social media ban.

thespinoff.co.nz

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Aug 14

If you are outside of Australia or New Zealand, you can pre-order your copy here:

The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism

Representing the first collection of its kind, The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism introduces fundamental topics and ideas, delineates the diversity and complexity of this growing field, and creates a foundation for future scholarship and study. In the contemporary digital media landscape, still and moving images, interactive visualizations and virtual reality are increasingly important to attract attention, cultivate engagement, inform and influence opinions, and provide a more emotiv

www.routledge.com

QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Aug 14

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:

The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism

Buy The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism by Nicole Dahmen from Booktopia. Get a discounted Hardcover from Australia's leading online bookstore.

www.booktopia.com.au

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Aug 14

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. 🎉

Ehsan Dehghan @essideh.com · Aug 12

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)

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Aug 1

Conspiracy Nation takes readers to the rallies, homes, courtrooms, secret chat rooms and $2000 Byron Bay luxury retreats where Australia’s conspiracy theories spread.

You can listen to our interview with the authors above, and the book is now available to buy!

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Aug 1

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...

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QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · Jul 31

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...

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