Media and Cultural Studies

In Media and Cultural Studies our major research foci are:

• television, especially nationally inflected studies and studies considering various intersections between television and lifestyle;
• studies of everyday life and popular culture;
• national and industrial aspects of cinema and on-line media;
• digital, social and mobile media;
• audience measurement and development;
• political communication;
• the examination of public broadcasting and its changing policy and industrial environment,
• media framing and representations
• media and identity
• media language research and
• the organisation of media production capabilities in cities and regions.

We also apply critical cultural theory to research on gambling, celebrity, race, gender and the environment.

We have strengths in aesthetics, formats, policy and industry across film, television, and the digital humanities. We have particular strengths in screen aesthetics; television criticism, production and programming across fiction and non-fiction genres; and philosophical dimensions of film. Our engagement with film, television, broadcasting and digital media is apparent in the concentration of our work on national screens (Australian cinema) and institutional history and development (ABC; SBS and BBC).

Industry and Research Partnerships

We are engaged with industry and our researchers have had research partners with the State Library of Queensland, the Gallery of Modern Art, the Australian Science Media Centre, the National Museum of Australia, Nielsen (Australia), Live Performance Australia and state and national screen and regulatory agencies.

Staff members have served as programmers and judges for the Brisbane International Film Festival Past and our students been provided with volunteering opportunities.

Media International Australia (MIA) is a leading triple peer-reviewed journal A-ranking international for new scholarly and applied research on the media, telecommunications and the cultural industries, and the policy regimes within which they operate. MIA is published quarterly by The University of Queensland School of Communication and Arts, in association with the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies and research undertaken at this Centre extends understanding of our social, political and cultural environments.