QUT Digital Media Research Centre

The QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC) in Brisbane, Australia, is currently seeking applicants for four five-year Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) positions. The four PDRAs contribute to an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship led by Professor Axel Bruns, a flagship five-year research project that investigates the Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate. The successful applicants will contribute to the Laureate's overall research programme, and lead specific research streams within the Laureate Fellowship. They will be mentored by the Laureate Fellow, Prof. Axel Bruns.

The Laureate Fellowship is situated within the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), one of eleven flagship University Research Centres at QUT. In addition to the Laureate team itself, the PDRAs will also have an opportunity to work closely with the other international research leaders, early-career researchers, and postgraduate research students in the DMRC. They will also co-supervise postgraduate research students aligned with the Laureate project.

Rapidly increasing partisanship and polarisation, especially online, poses an urgent threat to societal cohesion in Australia and other established western democracies; polarisation is also a critical cybersecurity concern when actively promoted by bad-faith actors to undermine citizens' trust in democratic institutions. By introducing an analytical framework that distinguishes four key dimensions of polarisation, the Fellowship aims to conduct the first-ever assessment of the extent and dynamics of polarisation in the contemporary online and social media environments of six nations, including Australia. The evidence is expected to enable an urgently needed, robust defence of our society and democracy against the challenges of polarisation.

Successful candidates will contribute to high-quality research activities relevant to one or more of the Laureate project's four research streams. They must demonstrate substantial mixed-methods expertise in digital and social media analysis, with a focus on one of more of the following research areas: journalism studies, media and communication studies, political science, social media analytics, computational social science, computational discourse analysis, social network analysis, issue mapping. They will also have an opportunity to contribute actively to the DMRC's overall research culture, including participation in strategic planning, research collaboration, and community-building, and to collaborate with other world-leading researchers at the DMRC.

Candidates must follow the application instructions at http://bit.ly/laureateteam. Note that applications must include a CV, response to selection criteria, and statement of research interests with respect to the aims of the Laureate project.

Applications are due by 30 January 2022, and open to Australian and international applicants. Subject to travel and visa arrangements, the Postdoctoral Research Associates should commence in mid-2022.