Presentations from higher degree researchers (Postgraduates and PhD candidates).

Julia Powles is the Director of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and Associate Professor of Law and Technology at UWA Law School. Her research focuses on privacy, intellectual property, internet governance, and the law and politics of data, automation, and artificial intelligence.

This session presents the latest interdisciplinary research on online influence including a series of talks that will examine how online arguments, images and narratives shape beliefs, and guidelines for countering the spread of dangerous belief systems. The session includes talks from:

Micah Goldwater (University of Sydney, School of Psychology) on ‘Psychology: How do political memes persuade?’

J. Hunter Priniski (University of California Los Angeles) on ‘Online network topology shapes personal narratives and hashtag generation’

Tom van Laer and Sheena Shidu (University of Sydney, Business School) on ‘The Unmoderated Zeitgeist - Learnings from Self-Published e-Books’

Zach Horne (University of Edinburgh) on ‘Crowdsourcing persuasive arguments’

Marco Castelli and Paulina Kowalicka (University of Milan) on ‘Guidelines to Reduce the Spread of Online Extremism and Disinformation Among Middle-Aged Individuals: Insights from Project SMIDGE’.

A collection of recent books from the Discipline of Media and Communication:

Fantasies of Virtual Reality: Untangling Fiction, Fact, and Threat
by Marcus Carter and Ben Egliston

Governing Social Virtual Reality: Preparing for the Content, Conduct and Design Challenges of Immersive Social Media
By Joanne E. Gray, Marcus Carter and Ben Egliston

Twitch
By Mark Johnson

Transformational Health Communication
By Olaf Werder

Andrew Francis, Director, Digital Platforms Branch at the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
(ACCC) and Sophie Murray-Farrell, Acting Director at the NSW Premier’s Department join Professor Weatherall to discuss the future of policy and the Internet.

Dr Jonathon Hutchinson to close the conference and connect the past two days to the Policy & Internet Journal.