
PhD (Queensland University of Technology, 2019)
Rachel Hews completed her PhD with QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre and QUT’s Intellectual Property and Innovation Law program in 2019. Her research investigates how people talk about criminal trials on social media and, in particular, whether prejudicial conversations (such as those containing information that might prejudge an accused as guilty) may jeopardise an accused’s right to a fair trial in the digital age. She is particularly interested in considering how existing media laws might be extended or adapted for regulating prejudicial information online, and in considering what responsibilities, if any, intermediaries such as internet service providers or social media platforms may have in setting norms for acceptable behaviour or enforcing the law. Rachel is part of a larger group of researchers studying platform governance within the Intellectual and Innovation Law program.