Professor Terry Flew

This person does not currently hold a position at QUT.
Biography
Background Terry Flew is an international recognised leader in media and communications, with research interests in digital media, global media, media policy, creative industries, media economics, and the future of journalism. He is the author of Australia’s leading new media textbook, New Media: An Introduction, which has sold over 15,000 copies over four editions (2002, 2005, 2008, 2014). He is also the author of Understanding Global Media (Palgrave, 2018 - second edition), Media Economics (Palgrave, 2015), Global Creative Industries (Polity, 2013), Creative Industries, Culture and Policy (Sage, 2012), Key Concepts in Creative Industries (Sage, 2013). He has edited Willing Collaborators: Refashioning Content for the Chinese Media Market (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018, with Michale Keane and Brian Yecies). Global Media and National Policies: The Return of the State (Palgrave, 2016, with Petros Iosifidis and Jeanette Steemers), and Creative Industries and Urban Development: Creative Cities in the 21st Century (Routledge, 2012).His work has been published in leading international media, communications and cultural studies journals including Media, Culture and Society, Journalism: Theory, Practice, Criticism, Global Media and China, International Journal of Communication, International Journal of Cultural Policy, Television and New Media, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies and International Journal of Cultural Studies. His work has been translated into Chinese, Arabic, Polish and Turkish.
In 2011-12 he was seconded from QUT to become a Commissioner with the Australian Law Reform Commission, chairing the National Classification Scheme Review, commissioned to lead this review by the Attorney-General of Australia. The Final Report, Classification – Content Regulation and Convergent Media (ALRC Report 118) was tabled in the Australian Federal parliament in March 2012.
He has also advised policy makers and policy communities in Australia and internationally, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), New America Foundation, Australian Communications and Media Authority, Media Development Authority of Singapore, Russian Association of Electronic Communication, Productivity Commission, Gilbert + Tobin, and the Special Minister of State of the Australian Federal government.
He is an internationally recognised leading scholar in media and communications, having undertaken keynote presentations to conferences and symposia in Beijing, Shanghai, Moscow, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Jakarta, Bandung, Tokyo, Seoul, Washington, DC, Boulder, CO, Los Angeles, London, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Tainan, and Auckland, as well as 18 Australian universities. He is an Executive Board member of the International Communications Association (ICA), and has been Chair of the Global Communications and Social Change Division from 2015-17. He previously served as member-at-large representing Oceania and Africa from 2012-14. In 2014, he hosted a major ICA Regional Conference held at QUT in Brisbane.
He has been engaged with research projects that have received $7.3 million in funding. He is currently, or has recently been, a Chief Investigator on the following projects:
- The Platform Governance Project: Rethinking Internet Regulation as Media Policy, ARC Discovery with Assoc. Prof. Nicolas Suzor (QUT), Dr. Fiona Martin (Sydney) and Assoc. Prof. Tim Dwyer (Sydney).
- Australian Cultural and Creative Activity: A Population and Hotspot Analysis, ARC Linkage with researchers from QUT and the University of Newcastle, and with industry partners including Arts Queensland, Creative Victoria, Arts NSW, Arts South Australia and Department of Culture and the Arts, WA.
- Politics, Media and Democracy in Australia: Public and Producer Perceptions of the Political Public Sphere, ARC Discovery with Professor Brian McNair (QUT) and Dr. Stephen Harrington (QUT).
- Willing Collaborators: Negotiating Change in East Asian Media Production, with Professor Michael Keane (Curtin), Dr. Brian Yecies (Wollongong), Professor Anthony Fung (Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Professor Michael Curtin (University of California Santa Barbara).
He has been actively involved in three major collaborative projects that have been among the first of their kind in the arts and humanities in Australia: the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, the ARC Cultural Research Network, and the Smart Services Co-operative Research Centre.
He has been First Chief Investigator on: Investigating Innovative Applications of Digital Media for Participatory Journalism and Citizen Engagement in Australian Public Communication: ARC Linkage 2006-2009, with the Special Broadcasting Service, Cisco Systems and On Line Opinion. The project web site you decide 2007, developed for the 2007 Australian Federal election, was identified by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy as an exemplar of community engagement in the digital economy. Creative Suburbia: A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Cultural Development in Australia’s Suburban and Peri-Urban Communities: ARC Discovery 2008-2010. Outputs from this project included special issues of the journals International Journal of Cultural Studies, The Information Society and M/C.
He has been Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), and was a member of the Smart Services Co-operative Research Centre, and the Cultural Research Network during 2005-2009. He has also been a Chief Investigator on an ARC Linkage grant with Kids Help Line to develop interactive web-based counselling for young people, and an ARC Discovery grant on creative industries in China post-WTO accession. He was also a co-author of two Evaluations and Investigations Program reports for the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, New Media and Borderless Education (1997) and The Business of Borderless Education (2000).
Professor Flew has supervised 21 PhD theses and five research Masters theses to completion, and have supervised students from China, Taiwan, Germany, Indonesia, Kuwait and Singapore. He has also supervised students in collaborative projects with industry partners including the Special Broadcasting Service. He currently supervises PhD theses on: social media and political campaigning in Indonesia; media reporting of China's Belt & Road Initiative in Australia and Russia; and a comparative analysis of Brisbane and Shenzhen as creative industries hotspots. He has assessed 18 PhD theses, from universities in Australia, Jamaica and Pakistan.
Personal details
Keywords
Creative Industries, Global media and communication, Platform regulation and governance, Digital creative economy, Trust in the digital economy, Media economics, Chinese media, Media in Asia, Media policy, Media industries
Discipline
Communication and Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Journalism and Professional Writing
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- Ph.D (Griffith University)
- MEcon (University of Sydney)
- BEcon(Hons) (University of Sydney)
Selected publications
- Flew T, (2018) Understanding Global Media, Palgrave Macmillan.
- Flew T, Iosifidis P, (2020) Populism, globalisation and social media, International Communication Gazette, 82 (1), pp. 7-25.
- Cunningham S, Flew T, (2019) A Research Agenda for Creative Industries, Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Flew T, (2020) Globalization, neo-globalization and post-globalization: The challenge of populism and the return of the national, Global Media and Communication, 16 (1), pp. 19-39.
- Flew T, Iosifidis P, Steemers J, (2016) Global media and national policies: The return of the state [Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business], Palgrave Macmillan UK.
- Cunningham S, Flew T, Swift A, (2015) Media Economics, Palgrave Macmillan.
- Flew T, Waisbord S, (2015) The ongoing significance of national media systems in the context of media globalization, Media, Culture and Society, 37 (4), pp. 620-636.
- Flew T, (2014) Six theories of neoliberalism, Thesis Eleven, 122 (1), pp. 49-71.
- Flew T, (2012) The creative industries: Culture and policy, Sage Publications.
- Flew T, (2016) Convergent media policy: Reflections based upon the Australian case. In M Puppis, S Simpson & H van den Bulck, European media policy for the twenty-first century: Assessing the past, setting agendas for the future, Routledge, pp. 219-237.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Terry, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Appointment to Prestigious Positions
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- President of the International Communications Association (ICA). The ICA is the world's oldest, largest and most prestigious communications association, with over 6,000 members worldwide. I am the organizer of the 69th ICA Annual Conference in Washington, DC in May 2019, when I also become ICA President.
- Type
- Fellowship of a Learned Academy or Membership of AIATSIS
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA), in the Culture and Communication Division.
- Type
- Appointment to Prestigious Positions
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- Appointed Distinguished Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Media Convergence and Communication, Communication University of China, Beijing, to advance the Laboratory's research capacity in the field of media convergence.
- Type
- Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- Elected Fellow of the International Communication Association, May 2019. I am the fourth Australian to receive this prestigious international Fellowship, from the world's leading communication association.
- Type
- Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2018
- Details
- Awarded Bicentennial Fellowship by the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Kings College London, to study developments in creative industries courses in the UK and Australia.
- Type
- Keynote Speaker/Expert Panel Member/Invited Speaker for a Conference
- Reference year
- 2018
- Details
- invited keynote presentation to Global Perspectives, Chinese Characteristics: Journalism & Communication and the Good Life in the Digital Age, Chinese National Association of History for Journalism and Communication Annual Conference, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, 27 October 2018.. The paper was titled ¿Learning from the Past, Planning for the Future: Lessons from Media History for Digital Platform Governance¿, and can be accessed on SSRN.
- Type
- Keynote Speaker/Expert Panel Member/Invited Speaker for a Conference
- Reference year
- 2018
- Details
- I gave the invited keynote presentation to Multiple Realities, Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Annual Conference, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 4-6 July 2018. The title was ¿Digital Communication, the Crisis of Trust, and the Post-Global¿, and the paper is published in Communication Research and Practice 5(1), pp. 4-22.
- Type
- Membership of Review Panels on Prestigious Grant Applications
- Reference year
- 2013
- Details
- Membership of Australian Research Council College of Experts, Humanities and Creative arts Panel, 2013-15. Responsibility for assessing ARC Discovery, Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA), Discovery - Indigenous, Linkage, and Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grants.
- Type
- Membership of Review Panels on Prestigious Grant Applications
- Reference year
- 2012
- Details
- Appointment to Research Evaluation Committee for Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) Panel for Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2012 round.
- Type
- Appointment to State/National/International Reference Group or Government Committees
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform CommissionSeconded to ALRC in May 2011 to chair Review of Censorship and Classification in Australia. Appointed until February 2012.
Research projects
- Title
- Platform Governance: Rethinking Internet Regulation as Media Policy
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP190100222
- Start year
- 2019
- Keywords
- Title
- Australian Cultural and Creative Activity: A Population and Hotspot Analysis
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP160101724
- Start year
- 2017
- Keywords
- Title
- Willing collaborators: Negotiating Change in East Asian Media Production
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP140101643
- Start year
- 2014
- Keywords
- China; media industries; screen co-productions
- Title
- Politics, media and democracy in Australia: public and producer perceptions of the political public sphere
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP130100705
- Start year
- 2013
- Keywords
- public sphere; citizenship; journalism
- Title
- Convergent Media Policy
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- SR0590002
- Start year
- 2012
- Keywords
- Convergent Media; Media Policy
- Title
- Social media in times of crisis: learning from recent natural disasters to improve future strategies
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- 78028953
- Start year
- 2012
- Keywords
- Natural Disasters; Social Media; Communication; Media; Internet
- Title
- Creative Suburbia: A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Cultural Development in Australia's Suburban and Peri Urban Communities
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP0877133
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Creative Industries; Cultural Studies; Suburban Communities; Innovation Culture and Economy; Cultural Geography; Urban Planning
Supervision
Current supervisions
- A Comparative Analysis Between Shenzhen and Brisbane Through Triple Helix Framework
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Greg Hearn, Associate Professor Shane Mathews, Dr Jenny Hou
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Changing Dynamics of Digital Entertainment Media in China (2019)
- Townsville's Creative Services Subsector and the NBN: A Case Study (2019)
- Calculating the Professional: Standards and the Government of Professional Practice (2018)
- Digital Media and Indonesian Young People: Building Sustainable Democratic Institutions and Practices (2018)
- Government In Online Spaces: Critical Evaluation of Citizen-To-Government Participation in Urban Centres in Java, Indonesia (2018)
- Spin Unspun: Unravelling Cultural Representations and Audience Understandings of Political Public Relations (2018)
- The Transformation of Kuwait Television from 1961 to 2015: Current Challenges and Future Opportunities for National Public Service Television to Promote and Arab Public Sphere in the Context of Globalisation (2018)
- Understanding the Chinese Diaspora: The Identity Construction of Diasporic Chinese in the Age of Digital Media (2017)
- Confucius Institutes and the Rise of China - How the People's Republic of China uses its cultural institutions abroad to communicate with the world (2013)
- A Study of Beijing's Competitive Advantage as an Emergent Media Capital (2012)