About the project
This scholarship is open to candidates of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.
During the course of their PhD, the candidate will drive a research project that examines the diversity of screen content in Australia, with a particular focus on content that is produced by or represents First Nations people. The project will evaluate how Indigenous screen content is funded, produced, made visible, and distributed in Australia, and will investigate whether regulatory interventions are required to better support Indigenous cultural production and dissemination, especially in light of technological change and ongoing funding cuts to Australia’s public service broadcasters.
The PhD project will be seated within the wider context of an ARC funded project (DE210200525) that examines the impact of copyright law in Australia’s screen industries, focusing on distribution and access to audio-visual material.
This project examines how automation, digital distribution, and intellectual property laws shape the reach and diversity of our culture. It studies how streaming video-on-demand services, like Netflix and Stan, are changing what screen content gets produced, what historical cultural material is available, what is recommended and made visible, and whose voices are heard. These decisions are increasingly informed by data about what consumers are watching, which in turn is influenced by what titles are recommended and made visible.
The project considers how the high costs and complex logistics of screen production and distribution can be reconciled with the public goal of broad, affordable and sustained availability of audio-visual content that represents the full diversity of Australia’s people and cultures. It aims to provide rigorous evidence to inform the development of technology-neutral regulation for Australia’s copyright industries, improve copyright licensing markets, and unlock the value of under-distributed screen content.
Click here for full information and details on how to apply.
Supervisors
The successful candidate will be working under the direct supervision of Dr Kylie Pappalardo in the School of Law. The candidate will be based within the vibrant research cultures of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society and QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre.