Journal Description
Media International Australia (MIA) is an international peer-reviewed journal founded in 1976 and dedicated to publishing cutting-edge scholarly research exploring media and communications in all their forms. MIA is inclusive, interdisciplinary, and international in its orientation; it welcomes diverse voices, and new conceptual and methodological approaches. A particular strength of MIA is its feature topics, guest-edited by leading scholars and bringing coherence to the publication of a collection of articles presenting vital research on significant new themes in media and communication. Each issue of the journal consists of a feature topic and a selection of individual articles, as well as book reviews.
The journal is affiliated with the Australian and New Zealand Communications Association Inc (ANZCA). MIA supports Online First publication to make work available as soon as possible and is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Journal Feed
- by Claire KonkesMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print.
- by Alexandra WakeMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Climate activists have increasingly used hunger strikes to gather media attention to perceived inaction on the issue; however, there is little guidance for journalists about how they should approach such a story. Applying social responsibility theory to understand the media’s lack of action, and using a case study from an Australian climate hunger striker, this article set out to answer three questions: Should hunger strikes be treated by the media in the same way as suicide, or as a political protest action? Will providing coverage of a hunger strike encourage others to follow suit? […]
- by David J PaternoMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Engaging and guiding the public to accept new, green fuels carries manifold challenges for communication. This article employs interview data to explore how communications professionals in the Australian energy sector speak about communicative aspects of their jobs. One key finding is that research participants initially describe work to be about making and sending telemediated messages. When prompted for further detail, however, professionals acknowledge the weakness of this approach and stress the need – and incommensurable value of – direct person-to-person engagement. Implications for both communication practice and communication theory are connected to this finding […]
- by Anna BroinowskiMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Australian debates about how to regulate deepfake video have, to date, largely been shaped by STEM agendas for generative artificial intelligence (AI) policy and public fears about disinformation intensification. As the federal government consults on AI regulation, this article aims to move policymakers’ focus beyond the deepfake ‘problem’ to investigate the implications of generative AI screen technologies from two creative industries perspectives. First, it establishes the negative and positive uses of deepfake applications in media, politics, commerce, education, film and art. Second, it compares the forms and scope of emerging international deepfake regulations with […]
- by Emma MesikämmenMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. In January 2019, the South Australian Government released the report of its Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin, which investigated the implementation of the Basin Plan and allegations of water theft in upstream states. This study analyses the report and specialist rural media coverage of it. Previous research has found that rural media imaginaries of the rural space validate the ‘productive’ use of land and reinforce the discursive power of rural elites such as political actors, industry bodies and landholders, offering few opportunities for alternative voices. Drawing on the concepts of ‘agrarian imaginary’ and […]
- by Usha Sundar HarrisMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Participatory environmental communication (PEC) offers a way of engaging in communication by inviting the participation of communities and their ways of knowing. As a process-oriented approach, PEC enables communities to use local knowledge and design solutions, by employing their unique perspectives and intimate experiences of the places in which they live. This case study is an effort to record and interpret a historically important moment in the author's own community, using the PEC lens, to discuss the lived experiences of a rural community and the actions they are taking to mitigate future impacts from […]
- by Susan KerriganMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Using a creative ecosystems approach, this paper demonstrates that journalism is deeply embedded in the interconnected ecosystem of publishing and, at a higher level, the creative industries. Analysis of data from seven regional areas in New South Wales and Victoria revealed that newsrooms and journalists are vertically integrated with national and international journalistic practices and economic imperatives and also horizontally integrated with other sectors in the creative industries. The analysis revealed a scalable yet integrated ecosystem at work with complex and interconnected journalistic practices on display. This view moves beyond the usual normative approach […]
- by Natalie KrikowaMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. This article and research was first inspired by fire personnel attending emergencies that could have easily been avoided if the people living in the dwellings had been able to better understand fire hazards and safety preparedness. In response to this, we explore how smartphone technology can be used to empower culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities to enhance their disaster risk resilience. It presents the findings of a collaborative research project between Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW), a leading state emergency agency in Australia, and researchers from the University of Technology Sydney. The project, […]
- by Callum JonesMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Alternative news media, which opposes mainstream news media, has been utilised by the far right to proliferate their ideology. This study explores how the scale of discussion, and negative framing, of different groups that are commonly targeted by the far right changes over time. Taking 7089 articles published by a prominent Australian far-right alternative news media outlet over a 7.5-year period, and a corpus of 311 keywords, a keyword frequency analysis and sentiment analysis establish the scale of discussion and negative framing of groups across four time states. Additionally, a computational word frequency analysis […]
- by Stephen HarringtonMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Much of the scholarly attention on disinformation has focussed on the role of social media, thus overlooking the political actors who themselves propagate disinformation and the mainstream news outlets that report on them. In this article we argue that disinformation has now become so widespread because outright lies are an effective way for political actors to attract and manage public attention. Political strategists have likewise worked out that cognitive biases and social factors are strong enough to overcome the ‘rational’ impulses of citizens who should, notionally, reject obvious lies. And, finally, journalists, who should […]
- by James BingamanMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. In February of 2022, Pat Cummins – the captain of the Australian cricket team and one of the world's top players – published an essay advocating for action on climate change. He would later reinforce this advocacy by refusing to appear in ads for one of the national team's main sponsors. Using a content analysis, this study sought to examine Australian media coverage and framing related to Cummins’ eco-activism. The results showed that media coverage often framed Cummins’ advocacy efforts using ‘debate’ frames – rather than ‘spectacle’ frames – while also focusing on Cummins […]
- by Elizabeth PatonMedia International Australia, Volume 193, Issue 1, Page 80-95, November 2024. The words we use to talk about suicide, mental health concerns and alcohol and other drug use matter. They play a crucial role in shaping public perceptions and can reinforce shame and stigma, impact help-seeking behaviours and impede long-term recovery. In some cases, the words we use may lead to increased suicidal behaviour in our communities. This paper outlines the development of new language guidelines with best-practice advice for communicating about mental health and wellbeing, mental health concerns, suicide, and alcohol and other drug use. The development of this […]
- by Honor SandallMedia International Australia, Volume 193, Issue 1, Page 65-79, November 2024. This study adopts a multimodal approach to critical discourse analysis to unpack the discourses embedded in the performance of hyper-feminine bimbo identities on TikTok. Guided by a social semiotic approach to language, this study analyses a corpus of 16 short-form videos published by self-proclaimed ‘bimbos’ on TikTok, focusing on the lexical and iconographical choices of these texts and how they function contextually to signal broader discourses. This analysis reveals that TikTok influencers frequently reinforce hegemonic norms of gender by incorporating bodily signifiers of patriarchal Eurocentric ideals of femininity and […]
- by Ahmad Muhammad AuwalMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. The rise of social media usage has generated global debates over efforts to address widening concerns through moderation of user practices and content that potentially undermine public safety and security. Content moderation has become a politically contested issue globally, while also attracting more attention across Africa and Nigeria in recent times. A case in point is the seven-month ban imposed on Twitter by the immediate-past government of Muhammadu Buhari, who was Nigeria's president from 2015 to 2023, following Twitter's decision to remove a tweet in which Buhari referenced the Nigerian Civil War and appeared […]
- by Lewis RarmMedia International Australia, Volume 193, Issue 1, Page 3-6, November 2024. The Māori whakataukī, ‘ka mura, ka muri’ loosely translates as ‘walk backward into the future’ (This whakataukī is derived from a longer version: ‘Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua’ which translates to ‘I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past’). It foregrounds a Māori perspective on time where the past is in front of us and can be observed and interpreted as we walk backwards into an unseen and uncertain future. This whakataukī was at the core of the 2023 AANZCA conference, ‘Ka mura, ka […]
- by Ashleigh L. HawMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Australia witnessed a substantial degree of racism toward Asian and Muslim communities during the Covid-19 pandemic, much of which was shared and amplified on social media. However, while a growing body of national and international literature has illuminated the problem of racism during significant crisis events, limited studies have addressed how these narratives are both produced and resisted in online spaces. In this paper, I present the findings of a Thematic Content Analysis of how Asian and Muslim communities were constructed on Twitter/X during Australia's 2020–2021 lockdowns. Drawing on the literature surrounding Networked Counterpublics—and […]
- by Kirsty J. AndersonMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. Audiences can now access news anytime, anywhere and news spreads faster than ever before. This gives news a much broader role, amplifying and supporting social connection and knowledge acquisition. This study explores actions New Zealanders take after consuming news through the lens of uses and gratifications theory. Twenty-five participants kept a weekly diary of their news consumption and discussed actions they took following news consumption. Statistical analysis showed all participants took at least one action, including discussing news in person, sharing news online, seeking further information, or making a decision. Younger participants were more […]
- by Michael S. DaubsMedia International Australia, Volume 193, Issue 1, Page 19-32, November 2024. This article articulates the intersection of wellness communities and anti-vaccine (‘anti-vax’) groups to demonstrate how vaccine misinformation and pseudoscience can propagate. This misinformation is often pushed by wellness influencers. One recent example is wellness figure Pete Evans, a celebrity chef and self-described ‘qualified health coach’. By 2020, however, Evans had developed anti-vax views and began to promote fake COVID cures, anti-vax misinformation, and COVID conspiracy theories from QAnon. This contribution examines this overlap to demonstrate how wellness influencers spread misinformation that fuel vaccine hesitancy. Evans is just one example; […]
- by Kerry McCallumMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. This article examines the tensions between ‘publicness’ and ‘privacy’ in national commissions of inquiry. Through the insights of those who worked deep inside Australia's landmark Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCIRCSA, 2013–2017), and the evidence provided in its final report, we explore the organisational and media logics of the Commission's highly publicised public hearings, and the ‘quiet’ institutional listening practices of its private sessions and engagement with marginalised communities. Royal Commissions are an important mechanism for raising awareness of past crimes on the public agenda. Our research finds that while […]
- by Timothy GrahamMedia International Australia, Ahead of Print. This article examines the circulation of unverified and misleading information during the 2023 Australian Voice to Parliament referendum, focusing on X (formerly Twitter). Adapting Harsin's concept of Regimes of Post-Truth and a participatory perspective of propaganda, we analyse over 224,000 posts, exploring the interplay of Voice-related discussions on X and campaign messaging. We find that the Yes campaign employed a traditional messaging approach, emphasising public support and presenting historical facts and statistics. In contrast, the No campaign's disciplined messaging style mobilised pan-partisan attention, fostering a collaborative ‘truth market’ on X about the constitutional amendment […]