Read Them Sideways

There is a content warning for this episode for discussion of state-sanctioned violence. In this episode, your host Klaus Groebner speaks with DMRC PhD Reseacher, Pardis Yarahmadi, about her recent work on the Mahsa Amini movement on Persian Twitter. Pardis takes us through the history from the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement through to the protests in Iran that are ongoing today. Pardis then d...

In this episode, your host Sam Vilkins speaks with two visiting scholars to the Digital Media Research Centre - Julia Ester de Paula and Thales Antonelli. They speak about the Comphartilha project, which has been introduced in Brazilian schools to develop skills in deliberative democracy. Julia and Thales explain what deliberative democracy is, the benefit of supporting this in schools, and how a...

In this episode, host Dr Sebastian Svegaard speaks with PhD researcher Kate FitzGerald about her recently published paper considering the safety guardrails in place when prompting chatbots with conspiratorial prompts. That is, do chatbots like ChatGPT have safety features to keep users safe from being exposed to harmful conspiracy theories? Kate explains the methodology and findings of this paper,...

In this episode, your host Dr Sam Vilkins speaks with DMRC scholars Professor Axel Bruns and Dr Kateryna Kasianenko on the newly released second edition of the Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics. Axel and Kateryna reflect on the changes in the field over the last ten years, the chapters they contributed, and the challenges of keeping a companion book such as this both timely and time...

In this episode, your host Kate FitzGerald speaks with Tom Bidewell, a visiting scholar to the Digital Media Research Centre. They discuss Tom's recent paper, Gendered Communication Patterns of Political Elites on Truth Social. Tom explains the context of Truth Social as a platform and whether gender shapes political messaging in digital environments. You can read Tom's paper by clicking h...

Phoebe Matich is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Automated Decision-Making and Society research centre at QUT. In this episode, your host Sebastian speaks to Phoebe about her recently completed PhD, and discusses the idea of truth claims, "fake news", and misinformation in Australian journalism. If you liked this episode, you can read Phoebe's thesis here .

Each year, the Digital Media Research Centre hosts a week-long Summer School filled with symposiums, workshops, and networking. This week's episode is a recording of a discussion from Patrik Wikstrom at this year's Summer School, who discusses the initial findings of the 'For You' project which analyses user experiences on TikTok. This project will reveal how highly individualised...

Each year, the Digital Media Research Centre hosts a week-long Summer School filled with symposiums, workshops, and networking. This week's episode is a recording of a discussion entitled, "From 'the' Public Sphere to a Network of Publics: Rethinking Contemporary Public Communication" from Professor Axel Bruns at the 2026 Summer School. His presentation identifies the crucial...

On the 21st of March, 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet: "just setting up my twttr". This was the start of a significant social network, both for researchers and the general public. In this episode, your host Kate FitzGerald speaks with Distinguished Professor Jean Burgess, Professor Axel Bruns, Dr Kateryna Kasianenko, and PhD Candidate & Indigenous X founder Luke Pearson. Each...

Each year, the Digital Media Research Centre hosts a week-long Summer School filled with symposiums, workshops, and networking. This week's episode is a recording of a panel entitled "Re-thinking media for the platform age: Investigating media diets and use in the twenty-first century", presented by Amanda Lotz and Gabriela Lunardi at the 2026 Summer School. This presentation include...

In 2025, the Australian Government appointed a committee to investigate the prevalence and impacts of misinformation and disinformation which relates to climate change and energy. A team from the DMRC, led by Caroline Gardam and Carly Lubicz-Zaorski, responded with a submission and were then invited to speak in Canberra to the Senate. In this episode, your host Klaus speaks with Caroline and Carly...

In this episode, your host Sebastian Svegaard speaks with DMRC visiting fellow, Bruna Paroni. Bruna discusses her PhD project, the social media climate in Brazil, and how this impacts on Brazilian elections. Read Them Sideways is a podcast from the Digital Media Research Centre, bringing our researchers and collaborators to the spotlight to discuss issues that relate to communications, digital med...

Read Them Sideways is back for 2026 with a critically important discussion between Dr Ehsan Dehghan and PhD student Pardis Yarahmadi. In this episode, Ehsan and Pardis explain the context with a brief history of Iran, and the ongoing digital blackout in the nation and its implications. They discuss digital activism and what we can do externally to assist.

The Australian Government's social media ban comes into effect on the 10th of December, 2025. Digital Media Research Centre director, Daniel Angus, provides an overview and his perspective on the ban and the implications for children and platforms, along with future possibilities. Read Them Sideways is a podcast from the Digital Media Research Centre, bringing our researchers and collaborators to...

In this special episode, we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Digital Media Research Centre! Featuring interviews with Distinguished Professor Jean Burgess, Professor Patrik Wikstrom, Professor Axel Bruns, Professor Michael Dezuanni, and Distinguished Emeritus Professor Stuart Cunningham, we take you through the story of the founding of the DMRC, the culture, and where the centre might go f...

REGISTER FOR SUMMER SCHOOL 2026 BY CLICKING HERE! The Summer School promotes a culture of supportive research, and informed and stimulating engagement among our researchers, students, and partners. This program offers opportunities for learning and networking, as well as a great social program. This 2025 panel had researchers in the media and communications field respond to the controversy around...

In this episode, your host Kate FitzGerald speaks with Sebastian Svegaard about the intersection between fan studies and politics. Sebastian, along with our colleague Sam Vilkins, have recently edited a special edition of M/C Journal on this topic. You can read the special issue here. Read Them Sideways is a podcast from the Digital Media Research Centre, bringing our researchers and collaborators...

In this episode, Klaus Groebner spoke with Dr Ehsan Dehghan, a Chief Investigator at the Digital Media Research Centre about his newly published book - The Discursive-Digital Link: Antagonism and Polarisation in Digital Spaces. Ehsan provides an overview of the central theory of his book, his adaptation of discourse theory to the age of the internet. He also introduces the empirical work that info...

In this week's episode, your host Kate FitzGerald chats with special guests and friends of the Digital Media Research Centre, Ariel Bogle and Cameron Wilson about their new book Conspiracy Nation. This book focuses on conspiracy theory communities specifically in Australia. Through new investigations and first-hand accounts,  Conspiracy Nation  takes readers to the rallies, homes, courtrooms, secr...

In this episode, your host Klaus Groebner speaks with PhD candidate Lynrose Genon. Lynrose speaks about the history and provides a political context of the Philippines, particularly the autonomous region of Mindanao, and what digital peacebuilding looks like in the nation. Lynrose has twice spoken to the United Nations about young women leaders' use of social media to build peace in the Philippine...

In this episode, your host Sebastian Svegaard speaks with PhD candidate Jasper Vermeulen. Jasper's work looks at human and robot interaction, and how both can collaborate. Jasper focuses specifically on human-robot collaboration in surgery, and how robots can augment human skillsets. Read Them Sideways is a podcast series from the Digital Media Research Centre, bringing our researchers and collabo...

In this episode, your host Kate FitzGerald speaks with DMRC Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Dr Ashwin Nagappa about his new project related to the Fediverse and alternative social media platforms. Ashwin takes us through what the Fediverse is, the history of alternative social media platforms, and what might be appealing about these spaces for users.

On 16th June, 2015, Donald Trump announced that he was running to be the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States. Ten years on, your host Sebastian Svegaard sits down with guests Stephen Harrington, Timothy Graham, Kateryna Kasianenko, and Kate FitzGerald to talk about the impact Trump has had on politics, both in the US, and around the globe.

In this episode, your host Kate FitzGerald chats with Ned Watt about his new paper, The Art of the (Platform) Deal . In January 2025, the platform company Meta abruptly announced that it would be ending its industry-leading third-party fact-checking program starting with fact checkers in the United States. Ned and Kate chat about how this relates to his new paper and what the future of fact checki...

In this episode, your host Sebastian Svegaard chats with PhD candidate Vish Padinjaredath Suresh about Netflix's recent hit miniseries, Adolescence . Vish's research looks at radicalisation and the manosphere, specifically on Reddit and they share their expertise and perspective on the television show in today's episode. A content warning for discussions of acts of gender-based violence that occur...