2020 N&MRC Annual Report
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N&MRC ANNUAL REPORT 2019 REPORT ANNUAL N&MRC DISTINCTIVE BY DESIGN NEWS & MEDIA RESEARCH CENTRE NEWS & MEDIA RESEARCH CENTRE MEDIA RESEARCH UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA ANNUAL REPORT 2020 N&MRC ANNUAL REPORT 2020 News & Media Research Centre Faculty of Arts & Design University of Canberra [email protected] @NewsMediaRC canberra.edu.au/nmrc 2020 N&MRC ANNUAL REPORT CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION: N&MRC IN 2020 4 5. FEATURED MEMBERS & HDR 39 GRADUATE Director’s Report: The Year in Review, 5 Professor Kerry McCallum, N&MRC Director Dr David Nolan 40 About David N&MRC Highlights 6 David’s Story 2. ABOUT US 8 Selected Publications & Outputs What We Do 9 Dr Sora Park 41 Research Labs 10 About Sora Sora’s Research Highlights N&MRC Team 11 Selected Publications & Outputs Emeritus Professors 14 Dr Kieran Mcguinness 43 Adjuncts & Associate Members 14 About Kieran Advisory Board 15 Kieran’s Research Alumni 15 Publications & Outputs Higher Degree by Research Students 16 6. FEATURED PROJECT — DIGITAL NEWS 44 Research Assistants & Interns 18 REPORT: AUSTRALIA 2020 (Featured Research Program — News Consumption) 3. KEY OUTCOMES & OUTPUTS 20 About the DNR 45 New Research Funding in 2020 21 Key Findings 45 Ongoing Funded Projects 23 Research Team 46 Awards 26 Selected Media Engagement 47 Publications & Outputs 28 7. 2020 EVENTS 48 4. ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES 32 2020 FAD Research Festival 49 Engagement and Impact 33 Symposia, Report Launches & Workshops 53 Media Engagement 36 N&MRC Seminar Series 57 INTRODUCTION: N&MRC IN 2020 DIRECTOR’S REPORT The Year in Review Professor Kerry McCallum, N&MRC Director 2020 was defined by natural and health crises, with bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the nation into lockdown and unsettling every facet of our lives and work. 2020 was also a year of continued ruptures in the news and media sectors, with the pandemic exacerbating industry fragility and a growing policy focus on digital platforms and the rise of misinformation. Despite these disruptions 2020 was a productive year for the Our pool of researchers continues to grow. We now have News and Media Research Centre and I want to thank all ten members, 20 HDR candidates, 8 research assistants and our members, students, research assistants, associates, and 22 adjunct and associate members. This year we welcomed collaborators for their superhuman efforts to keep our program as N&MRC research interns Nandita Dutta and Kieran of research activities going. McGuinness from the Faculty of Arts and Design Research Training Program. The pandemic meant suspending or rescheduling fieldwork, hurriedly moving conferences, seminars and symposia online, A real highlight of 2020 was the production of a series of high- and shifting our focus to remote research supervision and quality in-house open access reports. Through these reports collaboration. N&MRC researchers, associates and HDR the Centre builds knowledge and responds rapidly to unfolding candidates quickly transitioned to this new reality of remote events in news and media in Australia. We launched these research and teaching, and Zoom became our mode of reports through online symposia that brought together experts communication. from industry, government and academia to engage with our research. In 2020 we welcomed two new members to the Centre. Dr David Nolan, who was formerly with the University of Melbourne, • COVID-19: Australian news and misinformation (Park, commenced as Associate Professor in Communication, while Fisher, Lee & McGuinness), May 2020. This rapid-response Centre PhD graduate Dr Catherine Page Jeffery commenced survey was the first to measure how news consumption as Lecturer in Communication in the Faculty of Arts and Design. changed during the early stages of the pandemic. Dr Kate Holland was appointed as Senior Research Associate • Digital News Report: Australia 2020 (Park, Fisher, Lee, and Dr Jee Young Lee was seconded to work as the N&MRC McGuinness, Sang, O’Neil, Jensen, McCallum & Fuller) was Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Digital News launched by UC Vice Chancellor Paddy Nixon at a major Report team. online event in June 2020. INTRODUCTION: N&MRC IN 2020 5 • In July we co-hosted an event with the Google News Initiative to launch two industry-funded reports: Australian Regional Journalists: What they need and how they see the future (Park, Fisher, Lee) and Local News Consumers (Fisher, Park, Howden, Lee & McGuinness). • Podcast Trends and Issues in Australia and Beyond: Global Perspectives (Sang, Lee & Park). This DNR special report was launched October 2020 • Our first face to face event was the launch with Council on the Ageing ACT of the News and Wellbeing: Older Generations and News Consumption report (Fisher, Park, Lee, Holland & John) September 2020. • Australian Perspectives on Misinformation (O’Neil & N&MRC Jensen) was launched at an online symposium in November 2020. HIGHLIGHTS The Centre hosted 21 workshops and symposia in 2020, and our work was showcased at the FAD Research Festival in November. Our Adjunct and former Fulbright Fellow Michael Socolow gave a great presentation attended by a truly global online audience, and David Nolan hosted a workshop on Research in a Time of COVID-19 and Beyond. This topped off a great year for our seminar series with extended reach through its online format and social media strategy. Albeit in changed modes, we continued to build research collaborations within the N&MRC team, inside UC, nationally and internationally. Work continued on our ARC-funded research projects, while we grew our industry engagement and impact through new research contracts with government and industry grants and contracts. In 2020 we were awarded $746k in new research funding, with Centre members working on grants totalling over a million. Sora Park and Caroline Fisher, along with 21 Professor Terry Flew and Professor Uwe Dulleck and others were successful in their application for funding under the ARC N&MRC Discovery Projects 2021 for The rise of mistrust: Digital platforms Seminars and trust in news media. Park, McCallum and team were contracted by the Australian Communication and Media Authority to deliver research on News and Misinformation, Fisher won a contract with the Judith Neilson Institute for research on the State of media in Asia, while Page Jeffery and Sang secured a grant from the office of the e-Safety commissioner for their project Safe Online Together. As a Centre we not only survived but flourished in 2020, with 20 strong foundations laid in our first year as a UC Research Centre. HDR Students Kerry McCallum, Director, News and Media Research Centre 6 N&MRC ANNUAL REPORT 2020 Almost 3k 10 Symposia & Views for Digital Workshops News Report: 24 Australia 2020 via APO Funded Projects 50+ 10 Collaborating Institutions Centre Members 65+ Media Engagements 4 HDR 50+ Completions Academic Publications 7 Industry Reports 200+ New Twitter Followers Launched New Short Course Around 4 $750k Category 1 Grants in New Research Funding ABOUT US WHAT WE DO Based within the Faculty of Arts & Design at the University of Canberra (UC), the N&MRC advances public understanding of our changing media environment. The N&MRC is Australia’s only specialist Research Centre dedicated to exploring news consumption, social and digital media networks, and the legal, ethical and social impacts of communication technologies. Established in 2013 and positioned in the nation’s capital, the N&MRC is a national research hub with wide and deep connections across disciplines, industries, academic and public institutions. Through its Category 1 grants and industry focused research, the Centre’s work is being used to inform government policy in the areas of media regulation, public interest journalism and social media use in politics, media literacy, Indigenous affairs and mental health. The Centre has an established record of interrogating the development, circulation, and impact of media on societal discourses to address critical issues for government, industry and the community. The N&MRC is globally recognised as the home of the only longitudinal study of digital news consumption trends in Australia, through its Digital News Report: Australia. Located in UC’s Faculty of Arts and Design, the N&MRC provides a strong educational foundation for the Discipline of Communication and Media Studies, and engagement with local communities, national and international policymakers. In 2020 the N&MRC had ten core members and sixteen HDR students. The high quality of Media and Communication research at UC was ranked at world standard by the most recent Excellence in Research for Australia evaluation. ABOUT US 9 RESEARCH LABS CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS Associate Professor Mathieu O’Neil leads the Critical Key areas of focus are: Conversations Research Lab (CCL) which investigates the way • Public discourse studies. issues of social and political concern emerge through media • Media and public inquiries and digital networks to enable public participation and influence • Diffusion of online controversies political agendas. The CCL studies our hybrid media system • Digital commons and peer production in the context of political and social environments at the local, • Indigenous media and policymaking national and global levels. • Participatory media, activism and campaigns We conduct qualitative and mixed-methods research into • Misinformation and health communication citizen engagement, inclusion and exclusion, the networks and • Digital literacy and inclusion trajectories of causes and controversies,