A/Prof. Toija Cinque

Toija Cinque (PhD Monash University – Media and Communications) is Associate Professor in Communication (Digital Media) in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University.

I examine the increasingly important aspects of media studies, communications and digital literacy education, research methodologies, and digital cultures. My expertise lies in exploring the intersections between mobile screens or scalable media with the reconfigurations of networked publicness tied to mediating technologies such mixed (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and social media. My work spans other studies in radical and participatory transparency/surveillance practices, digital technologies, digital ethnography, communications policy, history, audience and reception studies.

My recent works are Materializing Digital Futures: Touch, Movement, Sound and Vision (2022, co-edited) and Emerging Digital Media Ecologies (forthcoming Routledge, 2024). The research context for each book moves across such interdisciplinary areas as: media studies, film, music, popular culture, media arts, cultural studies, robotics, performance and mixed Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtial Reality (VR)/and Artificial Intelligence (AI) together with notions of a forming Quantified Self. In Changing Media Landscapes: Visual Networking, OUP (2015); Communication, Digital Media and Everyday Life, 2nd edition, OUP (2015), and; Communication, New Media in Everyday Life, OUP, (2012) I offer a full account of the information society, virtual cultures, sociology of the internet, and critical issues in digital media.

• I was listed as one of The Conversation’s top 10 researchers and acknowledged at the Vice-Chancellor Celebration of Deakin University awards, 2016;
• I was invited to attend and contribute to a session on Innovation and eDiplomacy: The importance of internet freedom and the use of technology to enhance international affairs at the U.S. Consulate General Melbourne on 1 April 2011.

• Mobile Screens/Scalable Media
• Mediating Technologies such as mixed (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
• Social Media
• Radical and Participatory Transparency/Surveillance Practices
• Digital Ethnography
• Communications Policy
• Media, Film and Television Studies
• Stardom and Celebrity Studies
• The Quantified Self and Social Network Analytics
• Digital Cultures
• Audiences and Reception Studies

• Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA)
• Network Insight Institute
• International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM)
• Association of Internet Researchers (AoiR)
• International Network for Audience Research in the Performing Arts (iNARPA)
• Research Institute on Social Cohesion (RIOSC)

• Digital Media Studies
• Emerging Technologies
• Internet Use and Regulation
• Television and Radio
• Research Methods
• Screen Futures
• Communications Institutions and Industries
• Communications and Media Policy

ACC303 Communications Research Methods

ALM202 Quantified Media

AFC703 Fractured TV: : Audiences, Formats, Technology and Regulation

ALC305 Media Ecologies

Media Studies, Screen Studies, Communications, Digital Literacy Education, Research Methodologies (including method and questionnaire design, implementation, and data analysis), Digital Cultures, Audiences and Reception Studies, Celebrity and Stardom, Cultural Studies, Social Network Analysis (SNA).

My expertise lies in exploring the intersections between mobile screens or scalable media with the reconfigurations of networked publicness tied to mediating technologies such mixed (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and social media. My work spans other studies in radical and participatory transparency/surveillance practices, digital technologies, digital ethnography, communications policy, history, audience and reception studies.

• Communication

Appearances on News Breakfast Early: ABC TV and SBS News (TV and Radio in Melbourne); Various radio interviews.

Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation

TechnEcology

Deakin Motion Lab

1. The project ‘Memories That Make Us: Storying Post WW2 Italian Migration to Victoria’ collects and digitally archives the post-World War Two migrant stories of settlement in Australia from Italy with outputs including an interactive website as an inclusive space, and feature length documentary (part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival MDFF 2022 and screening 31 July, 2022 at Cinema Nova.
2. The TechnEcology research group under the Deakin University Research Network (DURN) with partnering organisations including NGOs Earthwatch Institute and Australian Wildlife Conservancy, AECOM from industry, the Ross Trust and Australian Museum among others aims towards ‘Evaluating the contribution of new technology and citizen science to achieving Victoria's biodiversity strategy goals’.
3. With REDI (Research for Educational Impact) and AVERT (Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism) Research Network at Deakin University and ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), This project was for the Department of Premier and Cabinet for the development and delivery of the Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship Pilot Program in selected Victorian schools. My role is as Digital Media Educator contributing to building understanding of the key issues and demonstrating the impact of the research by being able to quantify and qualify the project’s value through content development as well as project monitoring, analysis, translation and communication.