Digital Commons Network^™

The Grieving Kangaroo Photograph Revisited, David Brooks

Animal Studies Journal

Early in 2016 a photograph circulated widely of a male kangaroo holding up a dying female in the presence of a joey. Although initially taken as a moving and powerful photograph of grief, ‘experts’ quickly determined that this male may have killed the female in the process of coition. The male was in effect accused and convicted of rape and murder. Was this judgement correct? Was the male innocent or guilty? What are the nature, strength and politics of the assumptions involved in this judgement? Might he be exonerated, and why should this matter? The photograph is read and contextualised. …

The Douban Online Social Media Barometer And The Chinese Reception Of Korean Popular Culture Flows, Brian Yecies, Jie Yang, Ae-Gyung Shim, Kai Ruo Soh, Matthew J. Berryman

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Since its launch in 2005, the Chinese online social networking site Douban has become a key platform for creating and sharing user-generated content on a rising tide of global popular culture. Such content and its corresponding user data has become so prolific that Western media outlets are now using Douban a key barometer for gauging representative opinions and attitudes towards foreign content in China. However, a full range of tools for harvesting and analyzing Chinese-language datasets has yet to be explored in English. This article attempts to fill this gap by investigating the applicability of an analytical framework that can …

12 Deadly Indigenous Australian Social Media Users To Follow, Bronwyn Carlson

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Mining Chinese Social Media Ugc: A Big Data Framework For Analyzing Douban Movie Reviews, Jie Yang, Brian Yecies

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Analysis of online user-generated content is receiving attention for its wide applications from both academic researchers and industry stakeholders. In this pilot study, we address common Big Data problems of time constraints and memory costs involved with using standard single-machine hardware and software. A novel Big Data processing framework is proposed to investigate a niche subset of user-generated popular culture content on Douban, a well-known Chinese-language online social network. Huge data samples are harvested via an asynchronous scraping crawler. We also discuss how to manipulate heterogeneous features from raw samples to facilitate analysis of various film details, review comments, and …

Sex, Censorship And Media Regulation In Japan: A Historical Overview, Mark Mclelland

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Over the past several decades alarmist reports about the supposed dangers of the sexualised nature of much Japanese popular culture have regularly featured in the English-language press. It has been claimed that Japan is 'awash' in all kinds of pornography, including child pornography (Larimer 1999; Fallows 1986: 38) and that insufficient attempts are made by the authorities to properly regulate the expression of sexual matters. A major concern of such reporting has been the supposed 'dark side' (McGinty 2002) of the manga (comics) which are ubiquitous in Japan and, since the 1980s, have become popular with young people worldwide. International …

New Media, Censorship And Gender: Using Obscenity Law To Restrict Online Self-Expression In Japan And China, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The widespread take-up of Internet technologies from the mid-1990s has proven challenging to nation states that seek to limit access to ideas, information or images that the political class considers dangerous or inappropriate for the general population. As a largely deterritorialized technology, the Internet allows access to material that circumvents national legislatures and ignores local ratings systems and in so doing facilitates all kinds of inter-cultural and transnational flows of communication. Different countries have different sensitivities regarding the kinds of material that should not be freely available to their citizens and although the entry of such material is closely scrutinized …

It's Like Going To A Cemetery And Lighting A Candle: Aboriginal Australians, Sorry Business And Social Media, Bronwyn Carlson, Ryan Frazer

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Death and funeral practices are a constant presence in many Aboriginal Australians’ lives— research in some communities found they are eight times more likely to have attended a funeral in the previous 2 years than non- Aboriginal people. This can be explained by two major factors: inordinately high rates of Aboriginal mortality and cultural practices around death (broadly referred to as Sorry Business). Research in other contexts has found traditions once reserved solely for face- to- face interactions are now also taking place online on social media. This paper draws from interviews conducted with Aboriginal social media users from New …

Media Reforms Take One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, Eric Loo

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Malaysians are evidently freer today to openly criticise their government than they were prior to 1998.

But fundamental reforms that civil societies had hoped for during the internet-driven Reformasi movement in 1998 and Bersih rallies (in 2007, 2011 and 2012) are wanting.

Instead, Malaysians have a government focused on achieving a high-income developed-nation status by 2020 while eschewing the cultural prerequisites of a normative democracy — freedom of access to public information, free and fair elections, vigilant media and press freedom.

Online And Onwards: It Gets Better For Gay And Lesbian Media, Marcus O'Donnell

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Last week’s announcement that Australia’s oldest and most respected lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) weekly newspaper, Sydney Star Observer (SSO), will change to a monthly print format and a reinvigorated web presence does not come as a surprise given the global state of newspapers.

I edited SSO from 1999 to 2006 and, to me, the shift makes sense. What’s more, the publication’s move online says just as much about the evolution of the LGBTI community as it does about the changing fortunes of print media.

Gay and lesbian media have been one of the essential elements in the …

Realising The Potential Of Peer-To-Peer Learning: Taming A Mooc With Social Media, Emily Rose Purser, Angela Towndrow, Ary Aranguiz

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

ELearning and Digital Cultures, from the University of Edinburgh, was offered on the Coursera platform in January 2013. Over 40,000 enrolled, from every continent. The course was aimed mainly at educators wanting to “deepen their understanding of what it means to teach and learn in the digital age”. As participants, we experienced deep and significant learning, very much through social media. The peer-to-peer learning we engaged in and benefitted from was not traditionally organised ‘group work’ or micro-managed interaction, but something more fluid, open, student-initiated and led, that seems to have gone to the very core of what online learner …

Dodgy Science Or Global Necessity? Local Media Reporting Of Marine Parks, Michelle Voyer, Tanja Dreher, William Gladstone, Heather Goodall

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The digital age and globalization has brought international issues to our doorstep and placed the local in the context of the global. News media have played a crucial role in allowing recognition and exploration of the global origins and outcomes of many environmental crises such as climate change, deforestation, threatened species management and biodiversity loss (Cottle, 2011c). The modern environmental movement has responded to the global scale of these crises with campaigns for global solutions. Many of these campaigns rely heavily on coordinated, collective action across a multitude of jurisdictions around the world, with the success of global campaigns dependent …

The ‘New Frontier’: Emergent Indigenous Identities And Social Media, Bronwyn Carlson

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The rapid rise in the use of social media as a means of cultural and social interaction among Aboriginal people and groups is an intriguing development. It is a phenomenon that has not yet gained traction in academia, although interest is gaining momentum as it becomes apparent that the use of social media is becoming an everyday, typical activity. In one episode of Living Black (an Australian television show featuring stories of interest to Indigenous people) entitled ‘‘Cyber Wars’’ (April 19th, 2010), several Aboriginal people commented on their Facebook use. Allan Clarke, one of the Aboriginal Facebook users featured, stated …

Pre-Socratic Media Theory, Brogan S. Bunt

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Drawing inspiration from Siegfried Zielinski’s ground-breaking study of media archaeology, Deep Time of the Media, this paper explores the potential for pre-Socratic philosophy to provide a model for alternative conceptions of mediation within contemporary media art. It argues that pre-Socratic philosophy develops notions of mediation that extend beyond the contemporary focus on technical media. In their exploration of fundamental dynamic principles within nature and in their sensitivity to the uncertain relation between truth, appearance and finite human understanding, they suggest diverse conceptions of mediation that have continuing critical and creative relevance.

Erewhon: Media, Ecology, And Utopia In The Antipodes, Susan (Su) Ballard

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

On June 22, 2005, an essay by the Association of Freed Time was published in Artforum International. With little contextual information, "El Diaro del Fin del Mundo: A Journey That Wasn't" described environmental damage to the Antarctic ice shelf and the subsequent mutations that were occurring within the Antarctic ecosystem. One of these mutants was rumored to be a solitary albino penguin, living on an uncharted island near Marguerite Bay. The Artforum article tells of French artist Pierre Huyghe's journey with ten others to find the island and its mysterious inhabitant. The article forms the first part of an event …

Costings Row Torpedoes The Media, Marcus O'Donnell

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The ABC’s economics correspondent Stephen Long has delivered a scathing assessment of the Coalition’s costings statement this morning but just as significantly he also delivered a harsh judgment on his own colleagues. He pointed to perhaps the most egregious error in the media’s reporting of election 2013.

The 'Afghan Girls': Media Representations And Frames Of War, Vera Mackie

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

In this article, I survey almost a decade of visual representations of Afghan women, which have emanated from first world media organizations and have circulated in transnational media space. Only one of the photographs is explicitly linked with a political discussion. However, all of the photographs contribute to a set of possible statements about veiling and unveiling. Through discourse analysis informed by a genealogical approach, I demonstrate how these photographs contribute to the constitution of a set of power relations whereby the United States and its Allies have sovereignty and where it seems 'natural' that these sovereign nations can intervene …

Digital Media: The Cultural Politics Of Information, Andrew M. Whelan

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The term 'digital media' is contrastive - specifically, it is contrasted with 'analogue media'. This binary runs roughly in parallel with the distinction drawn between 'new' and 'old media', although, of course, new media are now not quite as 'new' as they once were. Technically speaking, where analogue technologies record signals as electric pulses (and usually to a fixed physical format, or intended for diffusion through such formats); digital technologies render those signals in binary form, as sequences of zeroes and ones. While the distinction is somewhat blurry, examples of analogue media include television, radio, vinyl records, video and audio …

Growing Use Of Social Media: How Can Dietitians Embrace This Trend?, Qingcai Peng, Yasmine Probst

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Media Art: Mediality And Art Generally, Brogan S. Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The wide ranging, trans-disciplinary interest in technological media suggests the possibility of a new discipline concerned with the history, implications and practice of mediation. Within this context, the field of media art gains a new sense of coherence and identity. Given the lingering tension between media art and mainstream contemporary art, this may lead the latter to assert its disciplinary autonomy. This paper argues against such a move. Media art is better positioned as an integral strand within contemporary art and, more particularly, as a key space of creative enquiry and practice within a generally conceived contemporary art education.

Saving Lives Or Raising Revenue: Analysing Media Coverage Of The Alcopops Tax In Light Of The Evidence On Its Effects, Sandra C. Jones, Laura Robinson

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The Australian Government increased the tax on ready-to-drink (RTD) alcohol beverages in 2008, in order to address concerns about increasing alcohol consumption among young people. This decision resulted in significant debate and discussion in the media, and in academic circles. The aim of the current study was to examine media coverage of the debate – and particularly the arguments posed in favour of and against the tax – now that we have objective evidence of its impact. We find that business owners and industry groups were vocal in the media, raising a number of arguments in opposition to the tax; …

Review Of Weizmann, Elda. (2008), Positioning In Media Dialogue: Negotiating Roles In The News Interview, Claire Emily Scott

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This book presents an investigation of interactional discourse features of news interviews in Israeli (Hebrew) television media, focussing on the way interviewers and interviewees are discursively positioned with respect to each other. The study is based on two sets of data, comprising a 24-hour corpus of news interviews from the “New Evening” (Erev Xadash) program on Israeli national television, and a corpus of meta-comments from leading Israeli media figures.

Changing Media Understandings Of Gender Relations: Japan's Equal Employment Opportunity Law In 1985 And 1997, Kirsti Rawstron

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the portrayal of gender relations and issues in theJapanese media through a case study of discussions in mainstreamnewspapers surrounding the introduction in 1985 of the Equal EmploymentOpportunity Law (EEOL) in Japan. This law was introduced as part of Japan's ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of AllForms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The debate surroundingthe changing EEOL is examined through articles from three mainstreamdaily national newspapers, notably the Asahi Shinbun, the Nihon KeizaiShinbun and the Yomiuri Shinbun. The articles reflect and reinforce thechanging cultural understanding of gender relations in Japan over thisperiod. The newspapers …

Using Open-Source Platforms For Digital Media Production, Brogan Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Media art, like contemporary art generally, has a strong critical aspect. Media art practice involves a crucial dimension of interrogating the cultural, social-political and material-aesthetic conditions of media. From Dada photographic collage through to contemporary hardware hacking there is a clearly evident concern to unsettle the representational transparency and taken-for-granted character of media. How does this inform the teaching of media art? It has obvious thematic importance, indicating paths of conceptual access and orientation, but what of the dimension of practice? What of the technical frameworks that we employ and the skills that we teach? How do they obtain a …

Equality Vs Difference: A Case Study Of Japanese Media Representations Of Gender-Specific Provisions In Labour Legislation, Kirsti Rawstron

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the portrayal of gender issues in the Japanese media. It will do so through a case study of discussions in mainstream newspapers surrounding the removal of the gender-specific provisions (or ‘women’s protection articles’, hereafter WPA) of the Labour Standards Law. The discussions touch on debates concerning ‘equality’ and ‘difference’ and debates concerning the role of legislation in promoting social change. After a summary of relevant legislation, the arguments surrounding the 1997 removal (effective 1999) of the WPA is examined using items from 1982 to 2005 in the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and …

Community Media Intervention, Tanja Dreher

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

There is ample research identifying the many 'problems' in media representations of Australian Muslims and Islam in the Australian media. Increasingly, media researchers and government bodies advocate training and funding for communities subjected to media racism to 'speak up' and talk back' in the news media. Indeed, the skilling up and empowerment of Muslim communities has emerged as the preferrred strategy for change in the reporting of Islam in the Australian media.

Jihad Sheilas Or Media Martyrs: Muslim Women And The Media, Julie N. Posetti

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Muslim women are both highly visible members of one of the most marginalised groups in Western society and the most vulnerable to vilification and media stereotyping, suffering the 'triple-whammy' effect of sexism, racism and religious bigotry. Ubiquitously portrayed as veiled, they are concurrently represented as oppressed and radical non-conformists, as threatened and threatening, as passive sexslaves and exotic, erotic beings. Symbolised generically by the distinctive religious clothing some choose to wear, Muslim women of all cultures have become the most recognisable, visible targets of racism on the streets, yet at the same time they are almost invisible and voiceless in …

Journalism Eduction 2.0: Training In An Age Of Radical Change In Mediashift - Your Guide To The Digital Media Revolution, Julie Posetti

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com. “We are not going to make it with uninspired and uninspiring teachers!” Archbishop Desmond Tutu challenged delegates in his closing address to the second World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC2) in South Africa last month. The anti-Apartheid warrior and Nobel Laureate described journalism as a “noble calling” and recounted his country’s hard-fought struggle for media freedom. During the event he also signed the Table Mountain Declaration, …

Media Art: Mediality And Art Generallly, Brogan S. Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The wide ranging, trans-disciplinary interest in technological media suggests the possibility of a new discipline concerned with the history, implications and practice of mediation. Within this context, the field of media art gains a new sense of coherence and identity. Given the lingering tension between media art and mainstream contemporary art, this may lead the latter to assert its disciplinary autonomy. This paper argues against such a move. Media art is better positioned as an integral strand within contemporary art and, more particularly, as a key space of creative enquiry and practice within a generally conceived contemporary art education.Keywords: media …

Pre-Socratic Media Theory, Brogan S. Bunt

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Drawing inspiration from Siegfried Zielinski's ground-breaking study of media archaeology, Deep Time of the Media, this paper explores the potential for pre-Socratic philosophy to provide a model for alternative conceptions of mediation within contemporary media art. It argues that pre-Socratic philosophy develops notions of mediation that extend beyond the contemporary focus on technical media. In their exploration of fundamental dynamic principles within nature and in their sensitivity to the uncertain relation between truth, appearance and finite human understanding, they suggest diverse conceptions of mediation that have continuing critical and creative relevance.

Media, Multiculturalism And The Politics Of Listening, Tanja Dreher

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

To date both research and policy on media and cultural diversity have emphasised questions of speaking, whether in mainstream, community or diaspora media. There is also a vast literature examining questions of representation, including stereotyping, racialisation, hybridisation and self-representations. This paper extends these discussions to focus on questions of listening. Attention to listening provokes important questions about media and multiculturalism: How do media enable or constrain listening across difference? How can a diversity of voices be heard in the media? Drawing on recent work in ethics and political theory, this paper explores the productive possibilities of a shift from the …