In the Digital Media Research Centre [13] at Queensland University of Technology, I lead the Digital Publics [14] programme – a growing collective of researchers who study the role of mainstream and social media as spaces for public communication. Over the past few years, this has necessarily required a particular focus on the dark sides of online communication, from the role of social, fringe, and mainstream media in the dissemination of mis- and disinformation and conspiracy theories [15] through the continuing transformation of the journalism industry [16] to the problematic role of platform operators [17] in shaping the environments for public communication. And these are just the major themes of my own work – my excellent colleagues in the Digital Publics programme are exploring an even broader and more diverse range of research agendas.

To present a detailed overview of our current work, we are presenting a one-day Digital Publics Symposium on 17 November 2021 [14], under the general heading of Information Disorders. Opening with a keynote by renowned disinformation researcher Kate Starbird [18] from the University of Washington, the Symposium features research by DMRC researchers covering a wide range of current concerns, from large-scale studies of the dissemination of ‘fake news’ content on major social media platforms to detailed forensic analysis of specific issues and events, and from innovative computational methods for the analysis of problematic communicative patterns to in-depth conceptual considerations of possible responses to such information disorders.

If you’re able to join us in Brisbane for the Symposium, we would love to welcome you at QUT; for everyone else, we invite you to follow the proceedings and engage with the discussion through out livestream of the event. Click on the image below to find out more about the Symposium, to see the event programme, and to register as an online or in-person attendee [19]:

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For more background on the Digital Publics programme at the QUT Digital Media Research Centre, we have also recorded a brief video about our work: