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 describes how she and her coauthors analysed pro- and anti-regime accounts on X during the Mahsa Amini movement.

Click here to read the first paper in the broader #MahsaAmini project that Pardis is contributing to, or click here to read the second.

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 creative game can build confidence and deliberative democratic skills in school students.

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, that she published with DMRC colleagues Michelle Riedlinger, Axel Bruns, Stephen Harrington, Timothy Graham, and Dan Angus.

You can read the article, "Just Asking Questions": Doing Our Own Research on Conspiratorial Ideation by Generative AI Chatbots, here.

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 timeless.

You can peruse the bookby clicking here.

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 paperby clicking here!

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 our media systems are.

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 building blocks that help us conceptualise and investigate how the network of public spheres is structured, and in turns structures our everyday experience of public communication.

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 member of our roundtable provides their own unique expertise and perspective on the platform formerly known as Twitter - whether that be as a place for networking, breaking news, or activism.

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 includes insights from 40 in-depth interviews with Australian adults relating to their media use.

Further information about Amanda's currently funded project can be found by reading this QUT news release.

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 about the enquiry, climate change misinformation, and their experience presenting to the Australian Senate.

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 media, internet studies, and much more.

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 the spotlight to discuss issues that relate to communications, digital media, internet studies, and much more.

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 from here.

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 the upcoming children's social media ban, based on work emerging from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child and the Digital Media Research Centre. It considered the controversy as a case study of the disconnections between research evidence, social discourse and public policy; and what we can do about it. This panel features Michael Dezuanni, Aleesha Rodriguez , Daniel Angus and Amanda Third.

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 to the spotlight to discuss issues that relate to communications, digital media, internet studies, and much more.

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 informed his theory and his criticism of technological determinism.

You can purchase Ehsan's book by clicking here or at your preferred bookstore.

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, secret chat rooms and $2000 Byron Bay luxury retreats where Australia’s conspiracy theories spread.

Ariel Bogle is a reporter with a focus on technology, law and the internet. Cam Wilson is a Walkley Award-nominated reporter whose work covers the intersection between internet culture, online extremism and politics.You can purchase Conspiracy Nation here or wherever you purchase your books.

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 Philippines.