Read Them Sideways

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.

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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.