Talk about international impact! Our DMRC director Daniel Angus made his Austrian radio debut last week. Check it out below!

Was erhofft man in Australien vom "Aus-Knopf" für Algorithmen

<p>Australien hat letzten Dezember eine Altersbeschränkung für Social Media eingeführt, nun will Australien noch ein zusätzliches Social Media-Gesetz beschließen: User:innen sollen die Möglichkeit bekommen Algorithmen auszuschalten.</p>

fm4.orf.at

A new piece from DMRC Director Daniel Angus and our colleague at the University of Melbourne, Christine Parker, with a topical discussion around the Australian social media ban. It's a big week for digital legislation in Australia!

Australia’s social media ban has an enforcement problem. These new laws aim to fix it

The government is returning to some unfinished business: strengthening its social media age restrictions.

theconversation.com

A team of DMRC researchers, led by Kateryna Kasianenko, have conducted research into AI Overviews - the generative AI summaries that appear at the top of search engine results - and whether they support conspiratorial information seeking practices. journals.sagepub.com...

Pride Month - Celebrating Queer History QUT Centre for Justice and DMRC invite you to a special Pride Month event celebrating the people, stories and acts of courage that have shaped queer history at QUT and across Queensland. 10AM - 12PM | Thursday 24 Sept www.eventbrite.com.au/e/pride-mont...

PRIDE Month 2026

Celebrating Queer History at QUT and in Queensland

eventbrite.com.au

Well done to Daniel Angus and Ashwin Nagappa on their new article in The Conversation today. This piece looks at the pros and cons of the idea idea that Australians can take social media into their own hands and choose what they see on their feed. Check it out below!

Australians could soon be able to choose what appears in their social media feed. How would this work?

People should have meaningful choices about the systems organising their attention.

theconversation.com

Our colleagues at ADM+S Centre have just released a report exploring Australians’ experiences and perceptions of Voice AI in the media. It shows a desire for genuine human connection, and concerns about authenticity and the potential impact of AI on creative workers.

New research reveals Australians’ concerns about authenticity and trust in Voice AI - ADM+S Centre

In the first quarter of 2025, ADM+S researchers published over 70 outputs addressing local and global challenges in automated decision-making systems and AI.

admscentre.org.au

A great read from Dr Ned Watt (Ned Watt) and Associate Professor Michelle Riedlinger (Michelle Riedlinger), discussing the decline in factchecking from large platforms, and the systems that are taking their place such as Community Notes on X.

The collapse of trust in facts: Fact-checking in retreat - The Klaxon

The modern fact-checking movement launched 25 years ago but is now in retreat — just as it’s needed more than ever. Ned Watt and Michelle Riedlinger report.

theklaxon.com.au

A great read from our colleagues at the ADM+S Centre!

ADM+S Centre@admscentre.org.au · last mo.

How do audiences feel about Voice AI in Australian media? A new ADM+S report explores Australians’ experiences & perceptions, finding a clear desire for genuine human connection & concerns about authenticity & the impact of AI on creative workers Read more apo.org.au/node/335506 #VoiceAI #GenAI

🤳 Instead of trying, most likely vainly, to implement wholesale bans on social media for young people, many researchers are arguing that it is time to tighten control of the social media algorithms: the rules that dictate how content will be fed to users. ✍️ Rachel Nowak: knowmag.org/4gap97d

What can we learn from Australia’s social media ban for teens?

The Aussie experiment comes amid a lack of clear evidence that the apps harm the majority of adolescents. It may take a dramatic research pivot to finally reveal what’s going on and how to fix it.

knowablemagazine.org

Our recent visitors to the DMRC, Julia Ester de Paula and Thales Antonelli, joined the Read Them Sideways podcast team to discuss The Compartilha Project. The project teaches deliberative democracy skills to young people in Brazilian schools. Listen now to learn more!

Teaching Deliberative Democracy to Young People; The Compartilha Project (#48)

Read Them Sideways · Episode

open.spotify.com

Congratulations to PhD student Klaus Groebner on his first publication, "From national outlets to transnational audiences: far-right hyperpartisan news sources on YouTube". This study examines hyperpartisan news outlets on YouTube using a great, novel methodology! journals.sagepub.com...

A new Conversation article from Stephen Harrington, Ella Chorazy, and Timothy Graham This article talks about the idea of 'sanewashing' in the media, using Donald Trump as a case study. A link to their full paper on this idea can be found in this thread.

The media has made Donald Trump look more coherent than he is. It’s called ‘sanewashing’

The US president often provides meandering non-answers and strange speeches, but news reports omit the weirdness. Does it matter?

theconversation.com

In the new episode of Read Them Sideways, Kate FitzGerald speaks about a newly published paper assessing whether chatbots have safety features to keep users safe from being exposed to harmful conspiracy theories.

Are generative AI chatbots encouraging conspiracy theories? (#47)

Read Them Sideways · Episode

open.spotify.com

Kateryna Kasianenko has a new commentary article out in the Journal of Multicultural Discourses www.tandfonline.com/... It responds to an article by Radzuwan Ab Rashid, who proposed a digital discourse studies framework that updates discourse-analytical approaches to digital platforms.

Foregrounding user agency in digital discourse studies

Published in Journal of Multicultural Discourses (Ahead of Print, 2026)

tandfonline.com

Great work from Axel Bruns, Katharina Esau, Kateryna Kasianenko, @essideh.com, Tariq Choucair, Vish Suresh & Donald Johannessen who have published a new article further exploring the novel methodology 'practice mapping'. Available to read now!

Our latest episode of the Read Them Sideways podcast features Axel Bruns and Kateryna Kasianenko, speaking about the recently released second edition of The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics.

The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics 2.0 w/ Axel Bruns & Kateryna Kasianenko (#46)

Read Them Sideways · Episode

open.spotify.com

Congratulations to PhD Candidate @dannno0o.bsky.social for receiving zero revisions, and two nominations for an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award! Dan's thesis on the cultural, social, and political impacts of Large Language Models can be read here: eprints.qut.edu.au/266867/.

Dan@dannno0o.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Hello, if anyone is interested, my PhD thesis "Envisaging Simulation and its Limits: Large Language Models from Architecture to Interface to Ideology" is available to read here: eprints.qut.edu.au/266867/ Thanks to everyone who has supported my candidature @qutdmrc.bsky.social @admscentre.org.au !

Research Fellows Dr Kateryna Kasianenko and Ned Watt spoke with the SBS Examines podcast on the topic of fact-checking on social media platforms, and how effective it is. You can listen at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts!

How do social media platforms fact-check content, and is it working?

Meta's recent decision to flag correct information about an attack on Kyiv as false has raised questions about the fact-checking mechanisms used by social media companies.

sbs.com.au

Congratulations Prof Axel Bruns and PhD Candidate Laura Vodden on their new paper in Political Communication Report. Their work explores the challenges of working within a 'clean room' environment, now that academic access to research data has been limited. Check it out now!

Congratulations to Dr Aimee Hourigan who, as part of a larger visiting fellowship to the UK, recently spoke on information resilience and youth media literacy at the University College London's Knowledge Lab. Aimee also contributed a blog post, which you can read here: reflect.ucl.ac.uk/re...

Congratulations to Luke Pearson (pictured left) on passing his Confirmation Seminar last week! This is an important milestone that PhD students complete one year into their candidature. Luke's project is entitled, "IndigenousX as a tool for promoting racial literacy".

Together with two sport sociologists from Griffith, the DMRC's Kateryna Kasianenko has a timely article in The Conversation today, discussing Trump hosting a UFC event at the White House, ostensibly to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Independence / his birthday.

The White House UFC event is a perfect storm of fight culture and US politics

Joe Rogan calls it a ‘gimmick’ but Donald Trump says it will be ‘great for America’. Welcome to the White House UFC event.

theconversation.com

Another excellent piece from Kateryna Kasianenko and former DMRC member, Erin O'Brien. In this article, out now in International Political Science Review, they analyse practices of calling for the boycott of Russia on Twitter. You can read Kateryna and Erin's paper here: journals.sagepub.com...

Our latest episode of the Read Them Sideways podcast is a discussion between postdoctoral research fellow, Phoebe Matich and host Sebastian Svegaard. They chat about Phoebe's recently completed PhD, with a focus on misinformation and truth claims in Australian journalism.

Journalism, Misinformation and Truth Claims w/ Phoebe Matich (#44)

Read Them Sideways · Episode

open.spotify.com

Congratulations to @shirweinbrand.bsky.social for her second article out this week! This paper conducts a discourse analysis on Google's AI Overviews - read Shir's great summary below or you can check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Framing the future of search: A discourse analysis of Google’s AI Overviews - Shir Weinbrand, Ashwin Nagappa, Daniel Angus, 2026

This study investigates how Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) – a major shift in the search engine landscape – are discursively framed by three key actors: Google, t...

journals.sagepub.com

Shir Weinbrand@shirweinbrand.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Excited to share that my article, co-authored with @ashwinnag.bsky.social & @antmandan.bsky.social, is out in Discourse & Communication! If you work in digital media, AI, journalism, SEO, or just spend a lot of time Googling things, you'll want to give it a read.

Congratulations to Sebastian Svegaard on his new article: "Voice on video: Music, affect, and communication in campaign videos in the Australian Voice to Parliament referendum". www.mediekultur.dk/a...

EOI: Postdoctoral Research Associate The QUT Digital Media Research Centre is currently seeking applicants for a 12-month Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position to contribute to an ARC Laureate Fellowship project. Applications close 19 June 2026. research.qut.edu.au/dmrc/wp-cont...

Associate Professor Stephen Harrington has a new piece out in Crikey Australia, discussing the decline of the American conservative outlet The Daily Wire. Great work, Stephen!

Slow death of Ben Shapiro's Facebook juggernaut shines light on right-wing media's vapourware

Whipping its audience into a frenzied outrage with stories of societal decay and selling 'leftist tears' mugs, the Daily Wire is a story of trumped up success — and the fracturing of the American right.

crikey.com.au

Congratulations to Prof Axel Bruns (Axel Bruns) and our colleagues at the University of Edinburgh on their new article! This study analyses the various important Twitter conversations around the 2022 FIFA World Cup, finishing with an assessment of online third spaces. journalqd.org/articl...

Dr Zahra Stardust shares her thoughts on the cancellation of RightsCon 2026, the world's largest conference on human rights in the digital age. www.srhm.org/news/defendi...

Promoting Global Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights | SRHM

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM) is a trusted global leader in SRH, connecting researchers, policymakers, and activists through evidence-based knowledge and advocacy for sexual and reprod...

srhm.org