Research centre
Communication and Computing Research Centre

Date
2009 - 2014

Tags
Communication Media and Culture

Research Degree Project

In the abundance of contemporary media outlets and the fragmentation of audiences’ collective attention that resulted from it, how could the audiences move together and join the collective relief efforts? These were the questions that I have been attempting to answer for almost three years.

My study draws from the rich tradition of audience research, but it extends the concept of media audience to include activities beyond a mere physical contact with communication devices.

I use network analysis to measure audiences’ collective attention, qualitative approach to understand the event from the audiences’ perspective, and process tracing to identify the key moments when the audiences were transformed into active participants.

An investigation into the issue, I believe, can contribute to our understanding of media audience, specifically with regard to their action in response to the mediated disaster. The findings can also shed a light into the world of crisis communication where the message production is no longer the exclusive domain of the government agencies or experts, but also the media users.

Project Supervisors

• Dr Geff Green (Director of Study)
• Dr Ruth Deller (Second Supervisor) 

Researchers involved

Kurniawan Saputro Research Degree Student - Alumni (2011-2014)