Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice 5 - Wednesday 21 December 2022 10.30am (AEST)
Journalism, Communication, Digital Media and Justice (including Doctoral)
- Presiding Officer: Ms Ann Sherry AO
- Ceremonial Host: Ms Leanne Harvey
- Presenting Officer: Professor Kevin Sanson
Find a name
Doctor of Creative Industries (Research)
HARRISON, Lisa Marie
Thesis Title
What Makes a Micro-Influencer? Converting the Personal Branding Strategies of Successful Social Media Users into a Professional Development Program
Supervisors
- Associate Professor John Anthony Lee Banks (Associate Supervisor)
- Adjunct Professor Ruth Sarah Bridgstock (External Supervisor)
- Professor Axel Bruns (Principal Supervisor)
- Ms Nikki Parkinson (External Supervisor)
Citation
This DCI thesis investigated the professional practices of micro-influencers in the Creative Industries: influential social media users emerging in engaged smaller online communities. Presented in two projects, the first project develops a theoretical model to define five dimensions of micro-influence identifying the skills, knowledge, and capabilities that shape communication practices in contemporary culture. Project two is a micro-course ‘The Introduction to Micro-Influence for Creative Professionals’ which translates the model into a teachable creative artefact that enables individuals to become effective micro-influencers in their chosen profession.
Doctor of Philosophy
COULIBALY, Souleymane
Thesis Title
Understanding African Migrants' and Refugees' Experiences of Digital Health Technologies in South East Queensland, Australia
Supervisors
- Dr Elija Marc Cassidy (Associate Supervisor)
- Professor Michael Luigi Dezuanni (Principal Supervisor)
- Dr Amber Hope Marshall (Associate Supervisor)
Citation
This thesis focuses on the African migrant and refugee community in South East Queensland to investigate how community members use digital technologies for accessing health information. It demonstrates that African community members in Australia access and use digital technologies differently to non-African members of the community. The thesis highlights that an information sharing culture, especially via instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp, prevails in the African community. The thesis also shows that digital technologies, which convey health information and services around the world, are not equally experienced by people and this has implications for health providers and policy makers.
MONTEIRO LUNARDI, Gabriela
Thesis Title
The 'Brazilian-ness' of Brazilian YouTube: New Voices, New Platforms, New Television?
Supervisors
- Professor Jean Elizabeth Burgess (Principal Supervisor)
- Stuart Duncan Cunningham (Associate Supervisor)
Citation
This thesis analyses the culture of YouTube in Brazil and its role in the broader Brazilian media environment. It argues that Brazilian YouTube represents Brazilian culture in new ways, helping to change how the nation sees itself. It closely examines three highly popular Brazilian YouTube channels: Canal KondZilla, whinderssonnunes and Porta dos Fundos, as well as their cross-over productions for television. The analysis shows that these channels combine the culture of YouTube with existing television references and Brazilian popular culture expressions to produce more progressive representations of class, race, and regional identity, and to discuss controversial topics from new perspectives.
NEWTON, Judith Ann
Thesis Title
Fighting Modern Slavery on Facebook: Clicktivism to Offline Participation
Supervisors
- Dr Helen May Berents (Associate Supervisor)
- Associate Professor Erin O'Brien (Principal Supervisor)
Citation
This research investigates the obstacles and opportunities that anti-slavery organisations face in mobilising people through Facebook to participate in modern slavery activism, specifically ethical consumerism. A mixed-methods research approach was used, including the content analysis of Facebook communication of two anti-slavery organisations, an online survey of Facebook users, and interviews with Facebook users and anti-slavery organisational representatives. This research finds that how Facebook users engage in anti-slavery activism, both online and offline, is influenced by an organisation’s credibility with Facebook users, the content and style of the posts, and whether anti-slavery organisations’ content is aligned with Facebook users’ information needs.
SIMON, Godwin Iretomiwa
Thesis Title
Digital Nollywood: Implications of Digital Distribution for the Nigerian Video Industry
Supervisors
- Dr David Evan Richard (Associate Supervisor)
- Professor Kevin Lee Sanson (Principal Supervisor)
- Dr Tess Van Hemert (Associate Supervisor)
Citation
This thesis analyses the implications of digital distribution for the Nigerian video industry (Nollywood). Following a media industry studies research framework and drawing from interviews with more than 50 industry stakeholders, this project argues the advent of digital distribution has opened formal pathways to transnational capital and audiences hitherto unseen in Nollywood. Yet rather than a rational and linear transition away from the industry’s historical informal dynamics, the emergence of streaming services in Nollywood has been marked by complexity, contradiction, and ambivalence through what I suggest are ‘pluriformalising’ market mechanisms.
YU, Xiaoting
Thesis Title
Inclusive Creativity: Wanghong and the Chinese Social Media Entertainment Industry
Supervisors
- Stuart Duncan Cunningham (Principal Supervisor)
- Adjunct Professor Michael Andrew Keane (Associate Supervisor)
- Professor Kevin Lee Sanson (Associate Supervisor)
Citation
This thesis analyses the development trajectory and implications of China’s online creative industry (known as wanghong) and examines both empowerment and precarity of labor in the specific context of China. Focusing on major platforms and media intermediaries, the study explores how the industry facilitates and regulates the production of mass cultural creativity within the datafication and commodification logic of platforms. The thesis considers platform governance, platform affordances, and creative labor management, serving as an extended case study of the global social media entertainment industry.