JournalTOCs

Media International Australia
Journal Prestige (SJR): 0.29

Citation Impact (citeScore): 1
Number of Followers: 4

Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
ISSN (Print) 1329-878X - ISSN (Online) 2200-467X
Published by Sage Publications

[1174 journals]

From karaoke to lip-syncing: performance communities and TikTok use in
Japan
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Sonja Petrovic
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  This paper discusses the versatile use of TikTok among Japanese media users in the context of the platform's increased appeal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Japanese users have adopted global trends of sharing creative content under prominent hashtags to spread a sense of togetherness in a time of social isolation. As social forms of entertainment are disrupted and paused, the practice of singing and dancing on TikTok is substituted for the joy of singing in a karaoke bar. This study adopts a walkthrough method to provide an analysis of TikTok's sociotechnical affordances and employs a content analysis for close reading of users’ videos and their accompanying captions and hashtags. The study reveals that the socialities previously afforded by karaoke cultures linger in TikTok song and idol dance challenges and duets, hashtag initiatives mimicking karaoke practices, and users’ endeavours to become ‘TikTok famous’.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-06-09T01:34:17Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221106565
Book Review: Women in PR History by Anastasios Theofilou
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Ziyi Ding, Chengxi Yao
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-06-06T05:03:36Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221106560
China’s evolving stance against tech monopolies: A moment of
international alignment in an era of digital sovereignty
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Yi Wang, Joanne E Gray
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  The digital environment is dominated by monopolistic companies who possess and exercise substantial economic, political and social power to varying degrees. Globally, policymakers are striving to regulate these digital platform companies to address monopoly issues. Through a content analysis of publicly available policy and government documents, company reports, trade press and news media, we investigate key moments in the evolution of anti-monopoly/oligopoly actions taken by the Chinese government against its dominant digital platforms. We then compare this analysis with a brief overview of the European Union's (EU) digital sovereignty agenda, focusing on the discourse regarding greater digital economy competition in the region. Our analysis suggests that in both jurisdictions digital sovereignty is not simply an issue of geopolitics, that is, contests between nation states, but it is also a response to the excessive power wielded by digital platform companies. We argue that in an international digital policy landscape increasingly characterised by digital sovereignty agendas, the issue of monopoly in digital platform economies is a small but potentially overlooked and undervalued point of convergence between the EU and China.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-06-06T05:03:06Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221105124
Outdated or innovative' Examining news practices that have stood the
test of time at one of Australia's longest-serving local newspapers
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Alison McAdam, Kristy Hess
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  Researchers studying media innovation and local news tend to emphasise the ‘here and now’, focusing on digital advances as the pathway towards more efficient journalism and viable businesses. This paper argues for the importance of examining media practices that have been preserved and valued over time. It advocates for a temporal reflexivity lens to help inform media innovation strategies and policies for the local news sector in the future. We conduct a fine-grained exploration of one of Australia's oldest family-owned local newspapers, The Buloke Times in the state of Victoria, identifying three main areas of the business that have stood the test of time: respect for tradition and reputations, ‘embeddedness’ in place, and fostering company loyalty and collaboration. Ultimately, we suggest that an appreciation of tradition and continuation may play an important role in understanding the future of digital news in small-town communities.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-06-01T05:44:39Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221104851
“Using unity and victory to bid farewell”: China's management of the
public opinion incident of Dr Li Wenliang through crisis nationalism
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Chunyu Zhang, Runhua Zhu, Shiwei Mo
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  This paper examines how online expressions about Dr Li Wenliang became a public opinion incident in China and how the regime adjusted its internet censorship and emotional governance. We find that public perception of Li changed from a rumormonger to a whistleblower, a victim of structural causes, and a martyr of the nation, with collective emotions shifting from feelings of uncertainty to outrage, panic, and grief. Reassured by the state's crisis management and by positive stories of solidarity and resilience, the public then moved to a xenophobic discourse of crisis nationalism with feelings of hope, vindication, and pride. Meanwhile, public trust in the state grew as the regime delegated responsibility to local governments and perpetuated itself as a paternalistic, responsive, and effective leader through an authoritarian participatory propaganda. We argue that the pandemic spawned an emerging crisis nationalism that fed into the regime's crisis management and propaganda.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-05-27T05:39:15Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221103885
WeChat as the coordinator of polymedia: Chinese women maintaining
intercultural romantic relationships
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Yutian Xiong, Tingting Liu
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  This article considers the ways in which the super-sticky all-in-one platform WeChat acts as the coordinator of a polymedia environment – and not just part of the polymedia environment – in mediating intercultural romantic relationships in the Greater Bay Area of China. Based on qualitative interviews, the article explores how WeChat coordinates a diverse range of digital communication tools for typical intercultural couples (Chinese women and foreign men) to mediate and maintain intimacy. The article contends that WeChat mainly derives its coordinator legitimacy and power from the government's prohibition of non-Chinese social media, WeChat's multi-functionality and its ‘local’ nature – Chinese language, social networking capacities and connectivity to other Chinese applications. Finally, this article finds that the power asymmetry caused by WeChat coordinating ecosystem of converged communication has significantly empowered middle-class Chinese women to take control of their intimate intercultural relationships. Research limitations and theoretical implications are discussed.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-05-27T05:38:58Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221103883
Writing themselves in: Indigenous gender and sexuality diverse Australians
online
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Georgia Coe
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  There has been limited exploration into the online engagements of people who are Indigenous and gender and sexuality diverse. There are, however, two separate bodies of literature that provide substantial insights into the digital involvement of Indigenous Australians, and gender and sexuality diverse people. Each has identified a myriad of complex negotiations, interactions and resistances that take place through the affordances of digital spaces, along with identifying impacts on well-being. This scoping review discusses dominant themes within existing research on these topics, and documents research that discusses an online blog entitled Archiving the Aboriginal Rainbow that is designed to foreground representations of Indigenous gender and sexuality diverse people. To contextualise this discussion, the paper begins with a review of scholarly literature that articulates and challenges the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous peoples’ gender and sexuality. The literature reviewed exposes new research directions. Namely, the importance of exploration into Indigenous gender and sexuality diverses peoples’ online engagements, and their interrelationship with well-being.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-05-24T05:37:02Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221103884
‘Abba Kyari did not die of Coronavirus’: Social media and fake news
during a global pandemic in Nigeria
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Temple Uwalaka
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  This study examined the influence of fake news online on how social media users viewed and reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Analyses of an online survey (N = 254) and contents from Twitter users in Nigeria from the hashtags: ‘#coronavirusNigeria’ and ‘#covid19Nigeria’ (N = 10,408), reveal that social media users in Nigeria used Twitter to inform and educate Twitter users as well as debunking fake news stories about the virus to prevent purveyors of fake news from misleading Twitter users in Nigeria. Findings further indicate that those who use social media platforms and national television as main sources of news and are less educated, are statistically more likely to believe fake news about the virus than those who are educated and used newspapers as main sources of news. Consequently, the study recommends that Nigerian political leaders enact policies that they can observe as their inability to adhere to their own lockdowns powered fake news about COVID-19 in Nigeria.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-05-13T03:06:05Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221101216
“Must know Photoshop”: proprietary skills and media jobs in
Australia
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Sarah Keith, Stephen Collins
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  Over the last two decades, media and associated creative disciplines have moved increasingly towards digital and online production. This shift has seen proprietary software companies clamouring for market share by proclaiming their product as ‘industry standard’ ( Keith et al., 2021). These discourses of professionalism implicitly suggest that proficiency in particular software leads to improved employment outcomes. In turn, many higher education institutions have co-opted this branding message, embedding specific software in their marketing materials. To this end, this research aims to unpack the notion of proprietary software as ‘industry standard’, by undertaking a quantitative survey of media job advertisements. It also aims more broadly to determine what constitutes a ‘media job’ in today’s labour market.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-05-05T05:21:02Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221099046
“Epistemic justice” (a memoir)
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: John Hartley
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  This is a review essay, focussing on Emma A. Jane's (2022) memoir, Diagnosis Normal: Living with Abuse, Undiagnosed Autism, and coronavirus disease grade Crazy (2022).
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-05-03T11:47:05Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221099047
Towards future politics of the cybersphere: China’s temporal-spatial
governance of digital transition
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Yu Hong, Yiran Wei
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  Digital transition, or the shifting assemblage of the cybersphere, is a primary dimension of global transition. And China is a key driver therein, rendering the party-state's stance the starting place to trace transitions. This paper begins an effort to follow unfolding transitions. It highlights the governance of transition with a focus on the emergent cybersphere. By interpreting the 14th Five-Year Plan (FYP), the planning instrument that expresses the party state's decree for direction and strategy and, just as important, analyzing the framing contexts, processes, and projects, we probe the ordering of the present and the future, the national and the transnational, and, ultimately, the power geometrics of the cybersphere, as externalized through policy words and deeds.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-04-25T05:54:12Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221095593
‘Without technology we’d be very stuck’: Ageing migrants’
differential (im)mobile practices during a lockdown
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Earvin Cabalquinto
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  Ubiquitous mobile communication technologies have played an integral role in the way people navigated forced physical immobilities produced through restrictive measures during a pandemic. This paper critically investigates how 15 ageing people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Victoria, Australia used a range of digital communication technologies and online platforms to cope during the 2020 lockdown. The study deploys the mobilities lens (Urry, 2007) in analysing a data set based on conducting remote and in-depth interviewing. It foregrounds how everyday and multi-scalar digital behaviours afford cultural and social connectedness, reflecting diverse forms of care practices. However, forced immobile practices emerged as shaped by disproportionate network capital. In sum, this study puts forward a nuanced perspective in understanding the scales and textures of (im)mobile practices of ageing migrants during a lockdown in Australia.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-04-25T05:53:54Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221095582
Visibility and invisibility in the aged care sector: Visual representation
in Australian news from 2018–2021
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: TJ Thomson, Evonne Miller, Sarah Holland-Batt, Jen Seevinck, Sam Regi
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  The skyrocketing number and severity of issues in Australian aged care led to the establishment of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in 2018. Yet, compared to other Royal Commissions, media coverage has been relatively muted, and public awareness and engagement with aged care issues has been uneven. Journalists bear a significant responsibility for shaping the national conversation about aged care, and ensuring this demographic is reflected in the news Australians consume. Due to their unique properties, images are especially important in giving visibility to this historically marginalised topic, and to emotionally engaging an often apathetic public. As such, this study focuses on the aged care visuals accompanying Australian news coverage during the period of the Royal Commission's announcement through to four weeks after the government's response. Drawing on the lens of symbolic annihilation, it does this through a visual analysis that examines who or what is represented and the role of news values in shaping the selection of images included with news reports over this period.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-04-22T06:40:04Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221094374
Love your idol in a ‘cleaned’ way: Fans, fundraising platform, and
fandom governance in China
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Chengxi Liao, Pengfei Fu
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  In 2021, a top-down rectification movement called ‘Clean Up’ impinged on Chinese idol fandom culture. This movement triggered discussions about the transforming governance strategy over fandom and broader Chinese Internet users. This article explores the complexity and shift of governance on Chinese idol fans by examining the digital fandom fundraising platform Taoba. Drawing from the walkthrough analysis of xiufen (fans of idol competition shows), we investigate three key stakeholders: platform, state, and xiufen fandom, to reflect on wider Internet governance issues in China. We argue that Chinese idol fans like xiufen are subject to a governance structure where power relations between different players are highly complex and entangled. The state-corporate-society co-opting mode of governance has evolved toward what we termed ‘coercive co-opting’, in which digital platforms and users conform with the imaginaries and ideologies of the state, while the authorities still intervene in an intimidating and suppressive manner.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-04-21T11:51:27Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221095580
Chinese digital platforms in Australia: From market and politics to
governance
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Haiqing Yu, Luzhou Li
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  Through the lens of platform governance, this paper examines the market, politics, and governance of made-in-China digital platforms in Australia, with a focus on WeChat and TikTok. It investigates how formal and informal arrangements are intertwined in the governance regimes and market strategies of these Chinese digital platforms when trying to navigate the turbulent waters of intensified Sino-Australia relations and a global trend towards increased government intervention in platform governance. The two made-in-China platforms represent two different models in platform governance adopted by Tencent and ByteDance: one conditioned by the Chinese ‘strict liability’ model and the other leaning toward the Western ‘broad immunity’ model. The Australian case illustrates the strife, success and politics of outbound Chinese digital platforms in a Western liberal democracy. It also highlights the dilemma, conundrum, and possible breakthrough in platform governance on a splintered and yet increasingly interconnected social media space.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-04-20T06:30:48Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221095594
‘Our old pastor thinks the mobile phone is a source of evil.’
Capturing contested and conflicting insights on digital wellbeing and
digital detoxing in an age of rapid mobile connectivity
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Bruce Mutsvairo, Massimo Ragnedda, Kames Mabvundwi
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  While Africa has largely been considered a digitally-disconnected country, recent studies have shown that connectivity figures are on a rise. In this paper, we theorize digital wellbeing in a context characterized by a fast-growing number of mobile data users despite a historically low Internet penetration. It is focused on an ongoing ethnographic research on mobile users and digital inequalities in Africa, zooming in on results from an explorative study featuring 10 in-depth interviews with young adult heavy users (more than 4–5 hours a day) and seeking to understand strategies they use in attaining digital wellbeing. The findings show how the sampled young adults (18–30 years old) struggle with the daily realities of digital participation including addiction and generational conflict in technology use. Results also reveal ways through which electronic connectivity is perceived both be a tool of freedom as well as a subtle form of potential digital enslavering.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-04-11T02:36:34Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221090992
Between culture and industry: Re-evaluating the development of the
Australian New Eligible Drama Expenditure (NEDE) requirement on Australian
pay-TV
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Oliver Eklund
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  In Australia, policies that mandate levels of production and distribution of local television content are shaping factors of the sector. Many of these policies are under review due to the impact of new streaming services. At a time of major overhaul of policies, it is illustrative to return to the development of earlier local content policies in Australia. The development of the 1992 New Eligible Drama Expenditure Requirement (NEDE) on Australian pay-TV reveals the difficult balancing act between cultural and economic rationalisations of cultural policy. Using policy analysis of key historical documents surrounding the NEDE's development, this article charts how decisions over the shape of the policy were constructed in ways that prioritised impacts on industry. In doing so, this article reveals how despite some objectives of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) aiming to balance culture and the economy, the NEDE was designed with industry at the forefront.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-21T08:39:18Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088051
From Bondi to Fairfield: NSW COVID-19 press conferences, health messaging,
and social inequality
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Duc Dau, Katie Ellis
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  The use of media sources increases exponentially during a health crisis or disaster. Similarly, digital health information and misinformation can spread quickly through social media. From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the press conference has been one of the federal, state, and territory governments’ key outlets for providing updates, containing misinformation, reassuring constituents, and articulating public health measures. This article focuses on NSW press conferences relating to the major Delta outbreak in Australia. The article looks at the press conferences as they pertain to the NSW government's controversial targeting of the lower socioeconomic and ethnically diverse south-west ‘hotspot’ or ‘LGA of concern’, Fairfield, which turned the LGA into an area of intense policing. We argue strategic manoeuvring in the press conferences, through the individualisation of responsibility and blame shifting, formed part of the NSW government's attempts to minimise political fallout.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-18T08:14:20Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221087732
Book Review: Film Noir and Los Angeles: Urban History and the Dark
Imaginary by Sean Maher
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Terry Flew
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-17T06:14:23Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088280
Book Review: Sound Citizens: Australian Women Broadcasters Claim their
Voice, 1923-1956 by Catherine Fisher
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Tess van Hemert
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-14T01:09:58Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221087729
Book Review: The Digital World of Sport: The Impact of Emerging Media on
Sports News, Information and Journalism by Sam Duncan
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Kasey Symons
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-02-03T04:56:22Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221077853
Book Review: A Companion to Australian Cinema by Felicity Collins, Jane
Landman, and Susan Bye
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: David Evan Richard
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-02-03T04:56:03Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221077852
Making Queer Content Visible: Approaches and Assumptions of Australian
Film and Television Stakeholders working with LGBTQ + Content
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Rob Cover
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  A concept of visibility frames much scholarship and public writing on LGBTQ + representation in film and television, and underpins diversity reporting and inclusivity measurement. Although visibility is often depicted as a social good, there is a growing critical interest in asking if there are different kinds of visibility, and how these might be differentially valued. This paper reports insights gained from interviews with Australian stakeholders involved in the production of screen entertainment with LGBTQ + content. The study found that stakeholders are motivated by to create texts that make LGBTQ + stories and characters visible. The range of approaches to visibility was, however, nuanced and diverse: some understood any LGBTQ + representation as valuable, while others discussed visibility in contexts of character depth, anti-stereotyping, and visibility tempered by concepts of human dignity. Although visibility is perceived diversely, it remains a significant lens by which creative artists involved in LGBTQ + texts understand their work.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-02-01T12:42:34Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221077851
Book Review: Regional Cultures, Economies, and Creativity: Innovating
through Place in Australia and beyond by Ariella Van Luyn & Eduardo de la
Fuente
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Tully Barnett
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-01-11T03:22:29Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X211073930
Teachers of TikTok: Glimpses and gestures in the performance of
professional identity
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Catherine Hartung, Natalie Ann Hendry, Kath Albury, Sasha Johnston, Rosie Welch
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  During a tumultuous period marked by a global pandemic, forced lockdowns, and educational institutions going ‘digital by default’, TikTok has emerged as a key platform for teachers to connect and share their experiences. These digital practices have been widely celebrated for providing teachers with an outlet during a challenging time, though little is known about the particulars of TikTok's appeal among teachers and their followers. This article focuses on a teacher from South Australia, ‘Mr Luke’, whose upbeat TikTok videos capturing ‘#teacherlife’ have seen him grow a significant following. Drawing on interviews with Mr Luke and an Australian pre-service teacher who follows him, we consider their thoughts on TikTok and its relationship to professional practice. We identify key factors that have enabled TikTok's popularity among educators, with implications for both teacher education and social media scholarship.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-01-06T12:17:52Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X211068836
What do Indonesian start-ups communicate during the COVID-19 pandemic'
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Jandy Luik
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  This article aims to explore the media content during the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on the pandemic-handling videos released by start-up companies in Indonesia through their official YouTube accounts. As start-ups were also experiencing the impact of the pandemic, one of their biggest challenges was to communicate optimistic messages to the public with the right content and context. Therefore, this article examines the contents of the videos released by start-up companies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Drawing from the data collected between March and December 2020, this qualitative study finds four inspirational media themes: ‘we all are affected by the pandemic’, the appearance of human values, presenting action taken, and optimistic expressions. Further, this article discusses the arrangement of inspirational statements and acts of empathy, which are predominantly mixed with brand identities and echo the value of gotong royong (mutual assistance).
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-01-05T03:09:42Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X211068463
Introduction
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: David Nolan, Stephanie Brookes, Scott Wright
  First page: 3
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-24T04:34:23Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088054
#Aboriginallivesmatter: Mapping Black Lives Matter discourse in Australia
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Tisha Dejmanee, Jeffrey Millar, Marni Lorenz, Kirsten Weber, Zulfia Zaher
  First page: 6
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  This paper explores the hashtag #AboriginalLivesMatter on Instagram which was widely used in Australia as part of a global Black Lives Matter (BLM) response in 2020. We map the participants and themes of #AboriginalLivesMatter through the quantitative coding and qualitative thematic analysis of 603 Instagram posts published with this hashtag in June 2020. We find that this conversation is largely driven by celebrities and non-Indigenous participants and framed by themes including expressing the problem as first-person experience, offering solutions, reporting, performing empty statements, and expressing US-centrism. Drawing on critiques of connective action and our analysis of the Instagram platform, we suggest that these findings are indicative of the tensions negotiated between incorporating allies on platforms that prioritise sharing first-person experiences; balancing the communicative capacities of Instagram with its inherently commercialised digital cultures; and, drawing on the spreadability of global digital movements while maintaining cultural specificity for local activists.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-18T08:16:36Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088053
‘This is ridiculous – I need to start a paper…’: An exploration of
aims and intentions of regional print proprietors of post-COVID start-up
newspapers
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Renee Barnes, Harry Dugmore, Peter English, Rosanna Natoli, Elizabeth J Stephens
  First page: 21
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  In May 2020 at the height of Australia's first national COVID lockdown, NewsCorp Australia announced that more than 125 regional newspapers would either be closed or become available online-only. Queensland was hit hard with 22 regional and 20 community newspapers shifting to online formats, and 15 community newspapers closing. Yet within months of the NewsCorp changes, a significant number of new print newspapers were being announced to fill the ‘news deserts’. Broadly welcomed by those in these local communities, the new publications suggest a reinvigoration of long-standing norms and tenets, many of which are specific to regional print news media, such as community-centred, locally-shaped news values and high reliance on ‘micro-ads’ (i.e. classifieds) and hyper-local business revenue. But given the dire prognostications about print business models, what are the aims and intentions of these start-ups (n = 22), and how do they translate their notions of community-centric news into business models they perceive as viable' Drawing on Hanitzsch and Vos framework for the discursive constructions of journalists’ role in society, we find these newspaper start-ups both reassert and claim more vigorously the normative values associated with community journalism as ‘social glue’, while also developing ‘lean start-up’ business models that capitalise on the sense of a local newspaper's ‘social good’ functions through an affective rationale. We argue this represents a shift to a new ‘hybrid’ model, with strong elements of a traditional and still feisty monitorial news values fusing with a more ‘morale-enhancing’ and explicitly social cohesion-centric role conceptions. We call it a ‘community cohesion model’.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-21T08:38:34Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088047
Ceding ground as a strategic concession in fact-checking: Shifting
practice to shift power
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Lisa Waller, Stephanie Brookes
  First page: 35
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  This article looks beyond functionalist accounts to consider how fact-checking organisations and practitioners interact with traditional and alternative sites of media power: holding and negotiating that power in their own right while interfacing collaboratively and strategically with those working in adjacent fields. Interpreted through this theoretical prism, interviews and a content analysis reveal how RMIT ABC Fact Check used its CoronaCheck project to renegotiate and renew its position of authority, and master time, during a moment of intense disruption in the media environment due to the global pandemic. With critical insights from the data as a foundation, the article argues that making strategic concessions in practice – conceptualised here as ‘ceding ground’ – can open spaces for new approaches in fact-checking.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-18T08:15:34Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088050
Performing islamophobia in the Australian parliament: The role of populism
and performance in Pauline Hanson’s “burqa stunt”
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Kurt Adam Sengul
  First page: 49
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  Drawing on a multimodal approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this research critically examines the 2017 “burqa stunt” of Australian far-right populist politician, Pauline Hanson. Adapting Scalmer's (2002) conceptualisation of the “political gimmick”, this paper makes the following arguments: Firstly, that Hanson's “burqa stunt” must be understood as an articulation of Islamophobia and political performance. It was the interplay of Hanson's radical right and populist ideologies that informed the stunt. As such, this paper bridges the ideational and performative approaches to populism. Secondly, the stunt was the product of the mediatisation of politics and the logics that govern contemporary media in Australia. The aim of Hanson's stunt was clear: to generate controversy and media attention. In this, the “burqa stunt” was incredibly successful and was extensively covered both nationally and internationally. The stunt was the most overt expression of the anti-Muslim racism that has defined Hanson's contemporary political resurgence. This paper furthers our growing understanding of how far-right populist actors strategically employ performance strategies designed to generate controversy and media attention. It also highlights how racist far-right actors are able to articulate Islamophobia in novel ways that exploit the logics of the contemporary media environment.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-18T08:14:52Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221087733
Studying weChat official accounts with novel ‘backend-in’ and
‘traceback’ methods: Walking through platforms back-to-front and
past-to-present
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Fan Yang, Luke Heemsbergen, P. David Marshall
  First page: 63
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  The paper presents a methodology to understand WeChat Official Accounts (WOAs) from their backend to their frontend, and from tracing the platform's history to its present. Our ‘Backend-in method’ proposes to study platform governance in the meso – between macro political economic concerns and the micro (and usually mobile) user-interface mediation. It shows how including backend platform media practices deepen ethnographic understandings of platform use. The ‘Traceback method’ uses researcher-informant collaboration to document and reflect on the shifts of platform affordances that have reconfigured media practices, organisational structures, and economic incentives over time. We show how these methods proved useful in mapping Chinese-Australian media organisations’ deployment of WOAs for news production. Together these methods contribute ways to understand previously hidden aspects of media practice and platform governance in a novel methodological design, which may have wider application for future research.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-17T06:13:23Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088052
Digital hostility: contemporary crisis, disrupted belonging and self-care
practices
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Rob Cover
  First page: 79
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  Digital hostility has verifiably increased over the past decades among adult users of social media and online forums. Both an extension of, and different from, cyberbullying, digital hostility has become a framing factor in the reduction of quality of public debate at a social level and, at an individual level, has been cited as responsible for withdrawal, disconnection and negative impact on health and mental health. This paper draws on digital ethnographic and in-depth survey research to present new approaches to understanding the cause, form and impact of digital hostility among adults. Participants in the study generated valuable discussion which, when analysed from the perspective of media and cultural theory, presented three significant findings: Firstly, that digital hostility is increasingly recognised not as a behavioural problem among individual perpetrators but as a ‘crisis’ that both arises from within and disrupts digital culture. Secondly, participants discussed the impact of their own experiences of online adversity on their health and wellbeing. Analysed through critical and cultural frameworks, their experiences can be understood as being positioned as ungrievable subjects or, in extreme cases, bare life—particularly when digital hostility is experienced through cross-platform trolling and spills over into stalking. Finally, participants discussed the experience of self-care in the absence of adequate support mechanisms by platform hosts. Self-care manifested not as individualised self-protection but as mutually-supportive, using alternative platforms to share strategies and support; care was also oriented towards care for digital culture more broadly. This paper provides initial insights into the perception and understanding of digital hostility as an everyday cultural experience.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-17T06:09:48Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221088048
Australian regional journalists’ role perceptions at a time of
upheaval
- Free pre-print version: Loading...
  Rate this result: What is this?
  
  Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating.
  A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
  
  Authors: Caroline Fisher, David Nolan, Kieran McGuinness, Sora Park
  First page: 92
  Abstract: Media International Australia, Ahead of Print.
  Almost 200 journalism outlets closed, decreased their service, ended print editions, or merged with other newsrooms between January 2019 and Februrary 2021, accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis. Regional news outlets were among the hardest hit, intensifying calls for effective government policy and industry interventions to bolster the sector. Although there is a well-established tradition of local and regional journalistic role performance scholarship, few studies in an Australian context have taken a multiplatform approach, investigating the perceptions of TV, radio, online news, and print journalists. To help address this gap, this paper draws on survey data of 307 regional Australian journalists and 31 in-depth interviews. Our analysis reveals differences in the way regional reporters understand and narrate their roles, highlighting important distinctions between media platforms that need to be considered in contemporary debates about the sustainability of Australian regional journalism.
  Citation: Media International Australia
  PubDate: 2022-03-16T09:15:24Z
  DOI: 10.1177/1329878X221087726