A Town Like Ouse: Media, Audience and the Small Country Town
Margo Brain, 2009
This project looked at how a regional issue, the closure of the Ouse District Hospital, was reported in the regional print media. A content analysis of a local newsletter and a regional newspaper, as well as a metropolitan daily, was conducted along with audience questionnaires to determine how effective the three forms of media were in providing a voice in the reporting of the closure. This study identified the role of local, grassroots media and exposed its ability to give a voice to members of the public who are often overlooked in traditional commercial print media.
Supervisor: Dr Nicola Goc
 
Unravelling Ribon: Japanese Cute Culture in Print Media
Alison Murray, 2008
A comparison of Japan’s kawaii (cute) culture and Australia’s young girl culture with an emphasis on a textual and content analysis of the manga magazine Ribon. This thesis examined the importance of economic globalisation to Japan’s pop culture success and examines the difficulty of kawaii localization into Australia.
Supervisor: Dr Craig Norris
 
Behind Anime Lines: Intersections of Hard and Soft Power in Anime
Sophia Barratt-Peacock, 2008
Sophie examined anime's soft power through an analysis of 'cool Japan' rhetoric and an Australian audience's reading of Gundam Seed.
Supervisor: Dr Craig Norris
 
Complementary Problems, Competing Risks: Media Framing of Climate Change and Nuclear Energy
Lyn McGaurr, 2007.
Supervisor: Dr Libby Lester.
Lyn is now undertaking a PhD.
 
‘And Here’s the News’: Analysing the Function of the Marketed Newsreader
Jane Bestwick, 2007
Jane wrote on the function of the newsreader and provided a comparative analysis of the way newsreaders were marketed and presented themselves on WIN Television and Southern Cross.
Jane is currently working as a journalist for ABC Television in Hobart.
Supervisor: Dr Jason Bainbridge
 
Internet Blogging in Singapore
Monica Kotwani, 2007
Monica examined political blogs through a case study of Mr Wang's blog and through interviews with Cherian George and Randy Kluver, two prominent academics who have done extensive research on new media and politics in the context of Singapore.
Supervisor: Dr Craig Norris
 
Independent News Websites: Tasmanian Times – A Case Study
Noani Pearce-Rasmussen, 2006
Noani’s project looked at the advent of citizen journalism on the Internet and its implications in terms of the Fourth Estate notion of journalism and the future viability of independent news websites. Through an analysis of Tasmanian Times Noani’s study examined the challenges if establishing an online news publication in a small media environment.
Supervisor: Dr Nicola Goc
  
Are Print and Online the Same?
Philip Northeast, 2006
Philip analysed two Australian capital city dailies, Melbourne’s Age and Herald Sun to determine if the translation from print to online modified the meaning of news stories.
Supervisor: Dr Nicola Goc
 
The Disposable Celebrity: Regina Bird and Big Brother
Erin Martin, 2005
Erin wrote on Tasmanian Big Brother 2003 winner Regina Bird and the way she was portrayed on the series by both the producers of Big Brother and The Mercury newspaper. In this way, Erin used the representation of Reggie to explore the tenuous nature of celebrity and the way soft news is often framed to encourage us to "read" celebrities in certain ways.
Erin is currently working as an on-screen presenter for YTV in Canada.
Supervisor: Dr Jason Bainbridge
 
Representing Australianness: Australian Identity Brought to you by Today Tonight
Damian McIver, 2005
Damian wrote on the Channel Seven current affairs series Today Tonight exploring the connections between the series' content and the construction of its audience, enabling a broader discussion of both current affairs programming and Australian identity to take place.
Damian was a previous editor of the University newspaper Togatus and is currently completing a PhD in Journalism, Media and Communications.
Supervisor: Dr Jason Bainbridge