Deadline: January 25, 2019

The Digital Media Research Centre at QUT is seeking applications for PhD students (on stipend) to commence research in 2019 allied to one of two projects.

Internet-distributed television: Cultural, industrial and policy dynamics

Supervisor: Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham (s.cunningham@qut.edu.au)

This project investigates the impact of global subscription video-on-demand platforms on national television markets. As U.S.-based services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video open up these markets to unprecedented competition, the project will provide much-needed comparative analysis of how governments are responding and what the implications are for debates about local content, local screen production, and media diversity. Analysis of original production and programming strategies will identify new forms of transnational media flow. Conceptually, the project aims to advance our understanding of an emerging paradigm of globalising, multiterritory television.

The PhD project sits within a wider Australian Research Council-funded project (conducted by Ramon Lobato (RMIT University), Amanda Lotz and Stuart Cunningham (QUT)). You are invited to propose an area of focus, for example, on a particular streaming service, institution, national context, production practice, policy issue.

The Platform Governance Project: Rethinking Internet regulation as media policy

Supervisor: Professor Terry Flew (t.flew@qut.edu.au)

The Platform Governance Project is an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project that investigates the regulatory and policy implications of understanding global digital platforms as media companies. Responding to ongoing public concern about these companies’ self-management of online communication and social media, this project will address these concerns by developing detailed recommendation for reform based on international case studies, enabling media policy makers to more effectively regulate digital media platforms to better align with contemporary public interest rationales. As part of a research a team led by Professor Terry Flew (QUT), and working with Nicolas Suzor (QUT), Fiona Martin (Sydney) and Tim Dwyer (Sydney), the PhD candidate will conduct research on the changing political economy of digital platforms, the value ecology of content distributed online through these platforms, and the shifting relationship of media and communications policy to such challenges. It would be advantageous to have a research background in media and creative industries, and an interest in media law and policy.

Applications must contain the following

• A two page research proposal demonstrating alignment to the selected project including proposed project title, project outline, research question or problem statement, a brief overview of previous relevant research, objectives of the program of research and investigation, research methods/methodologies and plan including references to key literature/contextual sources.
  
• Full Curriculum Vitae including three referees (two referees must be academic).
  
• Academic Transcripts from previous undergraduate and postgraduate study.
  

Applications close midnight (ADST) January 25, 2019.

Applicants will be notified of outcome by February 15 2019.

Applications are to be sent as a single pdf to the QUT Digital Media Research Centre Coordinator at dmrc@qut.edu.au

For further information about the projects please contact the listed project supervisor directly via email.

Eligibility

To apply for this scholarship, you must meet the entry requirements for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at QUT, including any English language requirements for international students.

You must also

• have completed a first-class Honours degree, a research Masters degree, or a coursework Masters degree with a significant research component from a recognised institution and in a cognate discipline
  
• be able to take up the scholarship and begin full-time study no later than July 2019 and enrol full-time
  
• develop a research proposal that responds to and aligns with the aims of either the Internet-distributed television or Platform Governance Project
  
• demonstrate excellent capacity and potential for research