Watching the footage emerging of the police brutality from Sydney last night is truly sickening. People have a right to peacefully protest. And shame on the media for framing this as 'protesters clashed with police' when from the footage it was clear that 'peaceful protesters were bashed by police'

Flinders st station, Melbourne, packed with anti-genocide demonstrators

Another pic of Flinders St packed with demonstrators

Melbourne as well!

I had a chat with @pardisyarahmadi.bsky.social about the situation in Iran, and the horrors hidden behind and by the digital blackout. If you'd like to know more about the context and how you can help, have a listen.

It was a pleasure to write this piece for illiberalism.org on alternative news media - from bloggers to newsfluencers. I end with some thoughts on how legacy news media can learn from these developments.

Planning to start a PhD in Media and Communications in 2026? Come work with me and others at the @qutdmrc.bsky.social! ✨

Our report titled “Resourcing, technology and audiences: an industry-led agenda for journalism practice and research” is out:

apo.org.au/node/332662

@tjthomson.bsky.social
@jammh.bsky.social
@dbossio.bsky.social
@eddyhurc.bsky.social
@admscentre.org.au
@rmitcomputing.bsky.social

[THREAD] NEWSLETTER ALERT! Check out our ninth newsletter of 2025, featuring eight new research articles on how digital technologies, platforms, AI, and interface design are reshaping journalism.
➡️Click here to read our newsletter: drive.google.com/file/d/15qq8...

Here are the research articles from Issue 13(9), soon to be released—authored by scholars such as @eddyhurc.bsky.social, @marylynnyoung.bsky.social, @hermida.bsky.social, @lashakavtaradze.bsky.social, @felixsimon.bsky.social, @gravesmatter.bsky.social, @tgrootkormelink.bsky.social, and others.

Elements of practices in digital publics: a model for identifying collective doings on social media platforms Abstract. Studies of public communication in digitally networked spaces have increasingly adopted the notion of practice to make sense of patterned doings

📝 New article out in Communication Theory. In it, I define practices, a term studies often use without operationalising, as things we do for a reason with specific others, driven by certain knowledge, values, and supported and constrained by language and material environments doi.org/10.1093/ct/q...

A branded tile with an orange and black logo for 3C. The black silhouette of a woman, seen from the side, with white vapour steaming from her nose and mouth, set against a scarlet red background. The text says "New Research" and "Micallef, D., Hurcombe, E., & Feng, J. (2025). Long live Darth Vapour! Examining how audiences engage with influencers in an anti-vaping campaign. Journalism Studies, 51(5), 102633”.

Check out the latest issue of Public Relations Review for an article by 3C’s David Micallef and Juan Feng with @eddyhurc.bsky.social (also from RMIT University): “Long live Darth Vapour! Examining how audiences engage with influencers in an anti-vaping campaign”: doi.org/10.1016/j.pu...

In the article, we conceptualise this 'translation' of campaign messages as 'vernacular authentication'. Here it is described in more detail:

This campaign was characterised by the relative creative freedom provided to various kinds of influencers - nano, mid, and macro. Influencers responded by creating innovative and at times chaotic videos that responded to the tastes of their distinct sub-cultural audiences.

Long live Darth Vapour! Examining how audiences engage with influencers in an anti-vaping campaign Social media influencers (SMIs) have become role models for younger audiences, making them important stakeholders for engaging young people with healt…

So cool to see this article out by me and @juanfeng.bsky.social and @saysdavid.bsky.social!

It's about how audiences on Instagram responded to a government-backed anti-vaping campaign that employed influencers.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How to report on neo-Nazis without giving them what they want Media coverage of the anti-immigration marches was a 'propaganda triumph' for Australian neo-Nazis, who use media-baiting tactics to spread their message.

🚨I spoke to Crikey for this story on the need for better media reporting on the far right!

Long story short: stop giving neo-Nazis propaganda wins

www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/05/h...

Love this opening! And so exciting!!

Very excited to share that my book, The Discursive-Digital Link, is now available for pre-order on Routledge: tinyurl.com/the-ddl. The e-book is already available to order with a 30% discount!
You can also read the synopsis and the Introduction chapter on my website: essideh.com/ddl/

(thread)

Come and join our research network - reading group, grant proposal support, visiting scholars and industry events to come!

It was awesome to run our first reading group of the newly established @ntsnetwork.bsky.social! Great to have some time in our busy schedules for thought-provoking discussions about new research

(also, you should write about this btw lol)

This captures exactly why I enjoy these games so much. Just mucking around with friends in a low-budget janky game, breaking it at the seams and goofing about

Australia backs US strikes on Iran while urging return to diplomacy Penny Wong says action to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon was acceptable, but that talks should now resume.

Absolutely pathetic. @australianlabor.bsky.social just rubber-stamps every violent whim of a decaying empire. Backing US airstrikes like obedient lapdogs. No debate. No soul. Just spineless war-mongering dressed up as “strategy.” We deserve so much better.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

This has been my experience as well!

In the age of the influencer, does the political backing of News Corp matter anymore? Despite backing from the Murdoch-owned papers, the Coalition didn’t win the election. But it’s more complicated than simply old media versus new media.

I just wrote a new article for the Conversation! It's about how the Australian media landscape is changing, but also how politicians and legacy media are innovating to reach young people.

theconversation.com/in-the-age-o...

Finally!! Congrats Damien

Glad you liked the paper! It's a really interesting space - your PhD looks super topical as well!

We are especially interested in how Meta's problem framings support certain 'solutions'. Overall, we find that Meta, on its main company blog, tended to frame problems in ways that benefited the company, by shifting responsibility while also showing that Meta was a capable problem-solver.

Our article 'The discursive function of the Meta Newsroom' is out!

In it, me, @essideh.com, @voddenlaura.bsky.social, and @antmandan.bsky.social examine how Meta's blog framed issues to do with mis/disinfo, hate speech, etc on Meta platforms during 2016-2021.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Make no mistake, colleagues: the exclusion of humanities & social science research from national competitive funding could easily happen here in Australia. The signs & actors are already clear. We let it happen at our collective peril.

Responding to the Online Safety Amendment Bill 2024 Social Media Minimum Age

140 Experts say banning people under 16 from social media won't make social media safe

children have a right to be online and have fun, positive, educational, and safe experiences.

We should be enabling Australian children and teens to be full, articulate, deeply literate digital citizens.

It's been really heartening working with @dezuanni.bsky.social, @aleeshajoy.bsky.social and Amanda Levido to produce the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child's response to the Social Media Ban for Under16s Bill that was tabled yesterday.

digitalchild.org.au/research/pub...