Challenging media text analysis in an age of big data

The News and Media Research Centre(N&MRC)undertakes research which monitors the impact of digital media technologies on society. We assess the continuing influence of media content in shaping the way we communicate with each other and understand the world around us, particularly in relation to key issues such as health and the environment.

The News & Media Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra

This interactive workshop will scrutinise media text analysis in a time of seismic change in the media industries.

University of Canberra Building 11

Researchers in the News &amp; Media Research Centre’s Critical Conversations Lab are concerned with the production, diffusion, meaning and impact of public discussion of critical issues. News and social media texts are the object of our analysis.In this workshop, we will be challenging ourselves to consider the assumptions underlying textual analysis in contemporary media studies research. Rather than ‘training’ people in new methods for analysing media texts to understand how discourse circulates in the digital era, we need to question some of our underlying assumptions.The workshop will consider the following questions:<ul><li>What can be learned from the study of news media texts in the current media environment, and what does this mean for understanding media impact on social policy? </li><li> What is the ‘sample’ of media texts needed to confidently analyse discussion of a public issue?</li><li>What do mainstream news texts ‘represent’? Do Twitter or Facebook content (better) represent public opinion about an issue? And what are the underlying assumptions about what these bodies of data represent? </li><li>What are the current HREC guidelines around the analysis social media analysis, and how will this impact on our capacity to undertake textual analysis?</li><li>Given these complexities, how do we develop new methods to value the meaning and influence of texts in a digital context?</li></ul>Workshop hosts: Professor Kerry McCallum and A/Professor Glen Fuller, News and Media Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and DesignGuest speakers: Professor Lisa Waller, RMIT; A/Professor Tanja Dreher, UNSW; A/Professor Mike Jensen, BGL/IGPA UC; Dr Kate Holland N&MRC UC.The workshop will be held in Room 11B56 on the University of Canberra campus.

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