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Dr Jonathon Hutchinson
BComm (Hons) RMIT University, PhD ARC Center of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, QUT
Chair of Discipline: Media and Communications
Senior Lecturer in Online Media
Discipline of Media and Communications
Senior Lecturer in Online Media
Discipline of Media and Communications
Phone
9351 2821
Email
Address
A20 - John Woolley Building
The University of Sydney
Details
Member of Sydney Southeast Asia Centre
Member of the Charles Perkins Centre
Websites
Dr Jonathon Hutchinson is the Chair of Discipline of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. He is a Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council LIEF projectThe International Digital Policy Observatory,and is also a Chief Investigator on the eSafety Commission Research project,Emerging online safety issues: co-creating social media education with young people.For 2023 and 2024, he holds the prestigious position of President of the Australian and New Zealand Communications Association and is the current Editor in Chief of the Policy & Internet Journal. His most recent book, Digital Intermediation: Unseen infrastructure for cultural production is available through Routledge.
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- Social media
- Public Service Media (PSM)
- Cultural intermediation
- Algorithms and automation in media
- Internet governance
- Digital ethnography
- Social media network analysis
Research Higher Degree Completions:
- Brittany Ferdinands, PhD, Exposure Economy (Assocaite Supervisors Dr Olga Boichak & Dr Mark Johnson)
- Ben Egliston, PhD, E-sport, spectatorship and technicity (Associate Supervisor with Professor Gerard Goggin and Dr Marcus Carter)
- Kyle Moore, PhD, Situating Play: An ethnography of locative play in urban environments (Associate Supervisor with Professor Gerard Goggin and Dr Marcus Carter)
- Agata Stepnik, Masters by Coursework, Algorithms as Culture: Active curation of news media on social platforms (Principle Supervisor)
- Rui Zhang, Masters by Coursework, Why do people with divergent cultural backgrounds bring a variety of understanding to the same representation of emojis within digital cultures? (Principle Supervisor)
- Jordan Meek, Masters by Coursework, An investigation into the way self-publishing audiobooks influence traditional publishing modes (Principle Supervisor)
- Jack Gow, Honours, Stop Laughing! This is serious: Media convergence, funding cuts and television comedy at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Principle Supervisor)
- Atia Rahim, Honours, Data is the New Black: Understanding the power of cultural production within the Australian fashion industry on Instagram (Principle Supervisor)
- Brittany Ferdinands, Honours, Drink the tea and look like me! A study on the monetisation of social media digital influence (Principle Supervisor)
Consultation Times:
Tuesday 1-3pm
- The International Digital Policy Observatory -This project aims to develop an International Digital Policy Observatory, which is the world’s first comprehensive database to track developments in digital/Internet regulation internationally. The facility will provide a unique means of fostering collaboration on research into the effectiveness of different approaches to regulation, and allow these researchers to provide insights to the ICT industry, policy-makers, and advocacy groups, through the real-time capturing and sharing of digital and internet policy initiatives across 50 countries. This will provide significant benefits in placing Australian at the forefront of regulatory best practice in the digital economy, by tracking policy initiatives in the global digital economy.
- Emerging online safety issues: co-creating social media education with young people -Working in collaboration with Youth Action and Student Edge, the project will engage young people and parents and carers in participatory research and co-design to develop, disseminate and evaluate evidence-based social media education resources focusing on key and emerging issues for safety online.
- Algorithmed Public Sphere - The postdoctoral research network Algorithmed Public Spheres at the Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research at the University of Hamburg sets out to study the relevance of algorithms for the constitution of the public sphere. We emphasize in particular the importance of algorithms for filtering, ranking and selecting media content and for structuring digital communication, in contrast to the use of predictive data analytics in areas such as healthcare, credit scoring and general business analytics, where such tech techniques have a long tradition. How are media and communication in particular impacted by transferring the dominant logics of consumption from other industries to news, information and public discourse?
- Digital Intermediation: A Study of Automated Media Influencers - This project examines the content production process of automated media systems that engage digital influencers, or leading social media users, who interact with extraordinarily large and commercially oriented audiences. The evidence base will assist in developing theory on contemporary digital media and society, which will consequently shape how communities access public information. Instead of harnessing this knowledge for commercial imperatives, this research project will examine the findings in the context of socially aware digital influencers who occupy similar roles to those found in traditional media organisations. Further, this project will examine how algorithms are making decisions for media consumers based on commercial executions, which are often void of the social awareness associated with public affairs and issues.
- Media Pluralism and Online News - The project charts dramatic developments in the way news is produced and consumed online and to account for this in public policy designed to promote media pluralism. It expects to advance knowledge by testing European approaches regarded in the literature as ‘world’s best’ against a series of innovative news practices, including through a big data approach to collecting media content. Expected outcomes include a shift in public policy reliance on ownership and control to a more nuanced understanding of diversity based on the role of news and comment. Significant social and economic benefits could result from more targeted regulatory interventions and from greater access to news content and wider engagement with public affairs.
- International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)
- Association of Internet Research (AoIR)
- Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA)
- International Association of Public Media Research (IAPMR)
- International Communication Association (ICA)
- 2023 ARC LIEF Grant recipient
- 2021 eSafety Online Safety Grant recipient
- Grant Noble Prize for Best Postgraduate Student Paper, ANZCA, Perth, July, 2013
- QUT Creative Industries Faculty Award to attend the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) Summer Doctoral Program (Highest ranked HDR student), 2012
- Vice Chancellor’s List Award RMIT, 2010
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Troll armies and the dynamic of polarization: a case study from Indonesia’s social media | Putri LIMILIA |
| Community in the Age of Machine Culture | Venessa PAECH |
| How platformisation has changed the book publishing industry in Australia | Doris PRODANOVIC |
| Understanding ‘popular’ content: exploring the intersection of production, intermediation, and audiences practices on TikTok | Tian WEN |
Selected publications
Digital Intermediation: Unseen Infrastructure for Cultural Production
(Routledge, 2023)
Cultural Intermediaries: Audience Participation in Media Organisations
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
Selected Grants
2021
- Emerging online safety issues: co-creating social media education with young people, Humphry J, Hutchinson J, Boichak O, The eSafety Commissioner/Online Safety Grant Program
2019
- Promoting digital equality through better platform algorithmic policy , Hutchinson J, Sinpeng A, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Research Support Scheme (FRSS)
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In the media
Jonathan is often called on for comment regarding digital and social media, and is a contributor for The Conversation. A full list of opinion pieces and interviews can be found here.
- 19/02/2024 - quoted in The New Daily: Less political content to be displayed on Meta platforms
- 24/02/2023 - interviewed in the Daily Mail: Facebook, Instagram roll out paid subscription in Australia, New Zealand
- 16/12/2022 - quoted in BBC News: TikTok tests landscape videos in major shake-up
- 01/11/2022 - interviewed on ABC triple j's 'Hack':'Elon Musk's rocky first week at Twitter'
- 19/10/2022 - interviewed in The Age: What’s the point of kicking Kanye West off social media?
- 18/09/2022 - quoted in WA today: Hollywood and nepotism have been synonymous for decades. So why the current backlash?
- 12/05/2022 - interviewed on ABC RN Drive Johnny Depp and Amber Heard: Trial by TikTok?
- 09/05/2021 - live guest on ABC triple j 'Hack': Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's trial by TikTok
- 27/04/2022 - quoted in ABC Online article How relevant is Twitter to most people?
- 17/02/2022 - quoted on ABC News A replication of what happens in real life
- 09/11/2021 - live guest on ABC triple j 'Hack': Can we all buy electric cars now?
