Digital Spring? New media and new politics on the campus

Whilst the dynamics informing processes have taken time to become clear, civic resistance initiated by young people using new media began in Egypt in 2010 against the Mubarak regime, soon widened to Tunisia, Yemen and Libya. Known as the 'Arab Spring', this phenomenon re-ignited discussion about the political role of digital space and its democratic potential. While parallels between authoritarian regimes and universities and educational institutions might seem overdrawn to some readers, I suggest there is value in considering the 'Digital Spring' (apropos the 'Arab Spring') as a metaphor to suggest the possibility that similar processes are taking place in schools and universities. This invites discussion about the political significance of digital space and its democratic potential in those institutions. To assess how some young people engage in digitally mediated politics within schools and universities, I identify five propositions which amalgamate descriptive and normative elements derived from Habermas and Dahlgren. These propositions offer an ideal taxonomy of normative and descriptive elements to establish whether digital technology promotes participation and debate in ways that sustain democratic practice.

Revisiting borehole stresses in anisotropic elastic media : comparison of analytical versus numerical solutions

We present a rigorous validation of the analyticalAmadei solution for the stress concentration around arbitrarily orientated borehole in general anisotropic elastic media. First, we revisit the theoretical framework of the Amadei solution and present analytical insights that show that the solution does indeed contain all special cases of symmetry, contrary to previous understanding, provided that the reduced strain coefficients β11 and β55 are not equal. It is shown from theoretical considerations and published experimental data that the β11 and β55 are not equal for realistic rocks. Second, we develop a 3D finite-element elastic model within a hybrid analyticalnumerical workflow that circumvents the need to rebuild and remesh the model for every borehole and material orientation. Third, we show that the borehole stresses computed from the numerical model and the analytical solution match almost perfectly for different borehole orientations (vertical, deviated and horizontal) and for several cases involving isotropic and transverse isotropic symmetries. It is concluded that the analytical Amadei solution is valid with no restrictions on the borehole orientation or elastic anisotropy symmetry.

How do Australian print media representations of child abuse and neglect inform the public and system reform?

The print media play a vital role in informing the public about child abuse and neglect. This information helps build broad support for laws and system developments that enable the state to intervene into private family lives and ensure that children are protected from maltreatment. Print media coverage usually sets the daily media agenda. It therefore influences public understandings of child abuse and neglect and what people believe should be done about it. Media impact on policy agendas should not be underestimated. This article outlines the results of a study of all major Australian newspaper stories covering abuse and neglect matters during an 18-month period in 2008–2009. A range of issues are identified concerning how well these stories inform the public about the nature of the problem and the current national reform agenda for protective systems that promotes early intervention and prevention...

Digital literacies: Understanding the literate practices of refugee kids in an Afterschool Media Club

Since the 2000s, teachers in an increasing number of Australian schools have been learning how to support students with refugee backgrounds. For some of these students, entry into the Australian school system is not easy. English literacy is integral to some of the challenges confronting the students. In response, educators have been developing and researching ways of engaging with the students’ language and literacy learning. Much of the focus has been on traditional print-based school literacies. In contrast, I look here at student engagement in digital literacies in an after-school media club. Several concepts from the theory of French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu are useful for understanding the position of students of refugee background in the Australian school system. Like other conflict theories, Bourdieusian theory has sometimes been criticised as ‘pessimistic’, that is, for suggesting that schools necessarily reproduce social disadvantage. However, others have used Bourdieusian theory to analyse and critique the reproductive work of schooling for groups of students who experience educational disadvantage. I align myself with this latter tradition. Specifically, I use Bourdieu’s triad of concepts to explain aspects of the literacy education experiences of some young people of refugee background: field, capital and habitus. In particular, I look at questions of the legitimation of students’ competences as capital in literate fields within and beyond the school context. Data are drawn from an Australian Research Council-funded project, Digital Learning and Print Literacy: A design experiment for the reform of low socio-economic, culturally diverse schools (2009-14). The data analysed in this chapter include interviews and observations relating to the participation of two Congolese girls in an after school media club. Implications are drawn for teachers of literacy in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts. Consideration is made of early childhood, primary and secondary settings.

Making stories matter: Using participatory new media storytelling and evaluation to serve marginalised and regional communities

In this chapter, we draw on our experiences facilitating community storytelling workshops in regional Queensland in partnership with the Queensland branch of Oral History Association of Australia (OHAA Qld) in order to develop a best practice model for promoting creative approaches to recording oral narratives using digital tools, informed by creative writing practice and embedded evaluation (Klaebe 2012 & 2013). These experiences offer an insight into how creative approaches to training can facilitate the sharing and preservation of stories in regional communities.

Further development of discrete computational techniques for calculation of restricted diffusion propagators in porous media

Magnetic resonance is a well-established tool for structural characterisation of porous media. Features of pore-space morphology can be inferred from NMR diffusion-diffraction plots or the time-dependence of the apparent diffusion coefficient. Diffusion NMR signal attenuation can be computed from the restricted diffusion propagator, which describes the distribution of diffusing particles for a given starting position and diffusion time. We present two techniques for efficient evaluation of restricted diffusion propagators for use in NMR porous-media characterisation. The first is the Lattice Path Count (LPC). Its physical essence is that the restricted diffusion propagator connecting points A and B in time t is proportional to the number of distinct length-t paths from A to B. By using a discrete lattice, the number of such paths can be counted exactly. The second technique is the Markov transition matrix (MTM). The matrix represents the probabilities of jumps between every pair of lattice nodes within a single timestep. The propagator for an arbitrary diffusion time can be calculated as the appropriate matrix power. For periodic geometries, the transition matrix needs to be defined only for a single unit cell. This makes MTM ideally suited for periodic systems. Both LPC and MTM are closely related to existing computational techniques: LPC, to combinatorial techniques; and MTM, to the Fokker-Planck master equation. The relationship between LPC, MTM and other computational techniques is briefly discussed in the paper. Both LPC and MTM perform favourably compared to Monte Carlo sampling, yielding highly accurate and almost noiseless restricted diffusion propagators. Initial tests indicate that their computational performance is comparable to that of finite element methods. Both LPC and MTM can be applied to complicated pore-space geometries with no analytic solution. We discuss the new methods in the context of diffusion propagator calculation in porous materials and model biological tissues.

Changing influences on the concept of ‘media influence’

The concept of media influence has a long history in media and communication studies, and has also had significant influence on public policy. This article revisits questions of media influence through three short case studies. First, it critically analyses the strongly partisan position of News Corporation’s newspapers against the Labor government during the 2013 Australian Federal election to consider whether the potential for media influence equated to the effective use of media power. Second, it discusses the assumption in broadcasting legislation, in both the United Kingdom and Australia, that terrestrial broadcasting should be subject to more content regulation than subscription services, and notes the new challenges arising from digital television and over-the-top video streaming services. Finally, it discusses the rise of multi-platform global content aggregators such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and others, and how their rise necessitates changes in ways of thinking about concentration of media ownership, and regulations that may ensue from it.

Trial by media: An empirical investigation of corporate reputation and stock returns in Australia

This article examines whether investors are able to generate abnormal risk-adjusted returns in the Australian market based on media-specific firm reputational factors under market uncertainty between 2004 and 2012. The findings suggest that after controlling for crisis-centric time periods and market risk factors, contrarian trading strategies produce abnormal returns for poor corporate reputation firms but not for their good corporate reputation counterparts. Corporate reputation may be a driver of performance for poorly performing Australian firms and could be considered a stimulus for trading activity due to its explanatory capabilities.

Social media(tion) and the reshaping of public/private boundaries in employment relations

Tensions surrounding social media in the employment relationship are increasingly evident in the media, public rhetoric, and courts and employment tribunals. Yet the underlying causes and dimensions of these tensions have remained largely unexplored. This article firstly reviews the available literature addressing social media and employment, outlining three primary sources of contestation: profiling, disparaging posts and blogs, and private use of social media during work time. In each area, the key dynamics and underlying concerns of the central actors involved are identified. The article then seeks to canvas explanations for these forms of contestation associated with social media at work. It is argued that the architecture of social media disrupts traditional relations in organisational life by driving employer and employee actions that (re)shape and (re)constitute the boundaries between public and private spheres. Although employers and employees are using the same social technologies, their respective concerns about and points of entry to these technologies, in contrast to traditional manifestations of conflict and resistance, are asymmetric. The article concludes with a representational summary of the relative legitimacy of concerns for organisational actors and outlines areas for future research.

Citizens and social media in times of natural disaster: Exploring information experience

Introduction. Social media is becoming a vital source of information in disaster or emergency situations. While a growing number of studies have explored the use of social media in natural disasters by emergency staff, military personnel, medial and other professionals, very few studies have investigated the use of social media by members of the public. The purpose of this paper is to explore citizens’ information experiences in social media during times of natural disaster. Method. A qualitative research approach was applied. Data was collected via in-depth interviews. Twenty-five people who used social media during a natural disaster in Australia participated in the study. Analysis. Audio recordings of interviews and interview transcripts provided the empirical material for data analysis. Data was analysed using structural and focussed coding methods. Results. Eight key themes depicting various aspects of participants’ information experience during a natural disaster were uncovered by the study: connected; wellbeing; coping; help; brokerage; journalism; supplementary and characteristics. Conclusion. This study contributes insights into social media’s potential for developing community disaster resilience and promotes discussion about the value of civic participation in social media when such circumstances occur. These findings also contribute to our understanding of information experiences as a new informational research object.

Numerical simulation of anomalous infiltration in porous media

Nonlinear time-fractional diffusion equations have been used to describe the liquid infiltration for both subdiffusion and superdiffusion in porous media. In this paper, some problems of anomalous infiltration with a variable-order timefractional derivative in porous media are considered. The time-fractional Boussinesq equation is also considered. Two computationally efficient implicit numerical schemes for the diffusion and wave-diffusion equations are proposed. Numerical examples are provided to show that the numerical methods are computationally efficient.

Changing the game: The role of social media in overcoming old media's attention deficit toward women's sport

Social media is now an integral part of modern sports broadcasting, which combines old and new media into a redefined and multidimensional experience for fans. The popularity of social media has particular implications for professional women's sports due to this convergence, and may be utilised by organisations to address some of the issues women's sports face from a lack of traditional broadcast coverage. This article discusses Twitter activity surrounding the ANZ Championship netball competition and analyses the ways social media can help transcend the structural challenges that “old” media has placed on professional women's sports.

Working on the edge : Exploring the creative tensions experienced by practitioners facilitating participatory media projects with refugees and asylum seekers in Australia

This paper aims to provide a contextualised and embedded exploration of how the notions of "practice" and "participation", key concepts in the study of culture and media, are manifest in an example of a complex creative project. This project aimed to engage with refugees and asylum seekers through the co-creation of cultural material and is an outcome of an? ethnographic action research (Tacchi et al. 2003) partnership involving a community development worker in a settlement support agency and a storytelling/community media researcher (the author), along with other project collaborators. The discussion of this project focuses on the role of the facilitator and illustrates the processes of orchestrating a complex project involving a series of linked stages with cumulative effect. As practitioners at this site we are working in the space where personal narratives, participatory arts and media, and the staging of intercultural, civic dialogue events, intersect. Co-creative media facilitation in these contexts involves both managing hybrid communicative spaces and (re)combining the "integrative practices" (Schatzki 1996) of a range of professional approaches and creative roles. This is liminal work, located on the boundaries of several disciplines and practices. Drawing on reflections gathered from collaborative ethnographic descriptions (Bhattacharya 2008), this paper traces moments of practitioner uncertainty that can be linked to the way "practice" and “participation” is problematised within the community cultural development field in a way that is at times an uneasy fit with conventional ways of operating in social service roles. These moments of tension also indicate where this project pushed practitioners into spaces of improvisation and new learning. Keywords: Youth, refugees, community cultural development, co-creative media facilitation, ethnographic action research, intercultural dialogue.