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Polarisation

Snurb — Sunday 8 February 2026 10:48

Revisiting 'the' Public Sphere, Again

Politics | Polarisation | Journalism | Industrial Journalism | Social Media | Social Media Network Mapping | ARC Future Fellowship | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | DMRCSS 2026 |

It's mid-February already, which means that here at the QUT Digital Media Research Centre we've just concluded another very engaging DMRC Summer School, with participants from around the world – many thanks to everyone who joined us for this.

One of the new segments in the programme this year was a session on 'Re-Thinking Media for the Platform Age', with several contributions from DMRC research leaders on current topics of interest. In my own talk for this, I revisited the idea of the public sphere once again, continuing a thought process that spans from my Information Policy article in …

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Snurb — Sunday 8 February 2026 10:40

From 'the' Public Sphere to a Network of Publics: Rethinking Contemporary Public Communication Spaces (DMRCSS26)

Politics | Polarisation | Journalism | Industrial Journalism | Social Media | Social Media Network Mapping | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | DMRCSS 2026 |
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Snurb — Saturday 24 January 2026 14:17

Some Thoughts about Polarisation and Its Configurations

Politics | Government | Polarisation | ‘Fake News’ | Social Media | Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) |

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in a roundtable on "Margins in Motion: Platformization, Polarization, and the New Public Sphere", as part of the CORIT: Countering Online Radicalization and Incivility in Italy research project at the University of Urbino, led by the great Giovanni Boccia Artieri.

The full recording of the roundtable — which also involved Katarina Bader, Raquel Recuero, Eugenia Siapera, and Augusto Valeriani — should soon be available online (and I'll add the link to the video then), but I thought I'd also share the text of my opening statement here …

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Snurb — Thursday 8 January 2026 16:00

Propaganda, Division, Polarisation: New Publications in Media International Australia and Elsewhere

Politics | Elections | Polarisation | Journalism | Industrial Journalism | ‘Fake News’ | Social Media | Facebook | Practice Mapping | Gatewatching and Citizen Journalism | Social Media Network Mapping | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | AANZCA 2024 | AoIR 2021 | ICA 2024 | Television |

In addition to the conference presentations I covered in my last post, the last few months have also seen a number of new publications from my team and me – including no less than three new articles in the great Media International Australia journal.

Just days from the end of the year, my colleagues Simon Copland, Tim Graham, and I finally published our analysis of the domestic and international audiences of Australian right-wing news channel Sky News Australia (no relation to Sky News in the UK and elsewhere) on Facebook during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the …

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Snurb — Sunday 4 January 2026 10:01

Facts and Fabrication in Search Experience: Russia’s War on Ukraine and Google's Role in Gatekeeping Fact-Checked Information (JERAA 2025)

Politics | Polarisation | Journalism | Industrial Journalism | ‘Fake News’ | Artificial Intelligence | Search Engines | ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | JERAA 2025 |

JERAA 2025

Facts and Fabrication in Search Experience: Russia’s War on Ukraine and Google's Role in Gatekeeping Fact-Checked Information

Kateryna Kasianenko, Ashwin Nagappa, Silvia Montaña-Niño, Michelle Riedlinger, Ned Watt, Anand Badola, Axel Bruns, and Daniel Angus

  • 2 Dec. 2025 – Paper presented at the JERAA 2025 conference, Brisbane

Presentation Slides

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Snurb — Saturday 3 January 2026 13:12

Searching for the Truth? Search Engine Responses to Conspiratorial Search Practices (AANZCA 2025)

Politics | Polarisation | ‘Fake News’ | Artificial Intelligence | Search Engines | ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society | AANZCA 2025 |

AANZCA 2025

Searching for the Truth? Search Engine Responses to Conspiratorial Search Practices 

Kateryna Kasianenko, Caroline Gardam, Katherine M. FitzGerald, Ashwin Nagappa, Daniel Angus, Shir Weinbrand, Samantha Vilkins, Axel Bruns, Abdul Karim Obeid

  • 26 Nov. 2025 – Paper presented at the AANZCA 2025 conference, Sunshine Coast

Presentation Slides

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Snurb — Thursday 1 January 2026 15:06

Wrapping Up The Last of My 2025 Conference Presentations

Politics | Elections | Polarisation | Journalism | Industrial Journalism | ‘Fake News’ | Internet Technologies | Artificial Intelligence | Search Engines | Social Media | Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles | Facebook | Practice Mapping | Social Media Network Mapping | Twitter | QUT Digital Media Research Centre | ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society | ARC Future Fellowship | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | AANZCA 2025 | AoIR 2025 | IAMCR 2025 | SEASON 2025 | Music |

2025 is finally over, but other than as part of the liveblogs I haven't yet had a chance to round up our various presentations at conferences during the second half of the past year. We ended the year with the AANZCA conference on the Sunshine Coast, where I presented what was something of a labour of love: a look back on ten turbulent years of the #auspol hashtag on what used to be Twitter. 

Through the efforts of a series of excellent data scientists in our QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC) team (especially Brenda Moon, Felix Münch, Jane Tan …

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Snurb — Thursday 1 January 2026 14:22

Ten Years of Uninterrupted Debate: The #auspol Hashtag Community, 2014-2023 (AANZCA 2025)

Politics | Polarisation | Social Media | Practice Mapping | Social Media Network Mapping | Twitter | ARC Future Fellowship | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | AANZCA 2025 |

AANZCA 2025

Ten Years of Uninterrupted Debate: The #auspol Hashtag Community, 2014-2023

Axel Bruns, Anand Badola

  • 26 Nov. 2025 – Paper presented at the AANZCA 2025 conference, Sunshine Coast

Presentation Slides

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Snurb — Thursday 1 January 2026 14:00

Extending Our Capabilities: Towards LLM-Assisted Frame Analysis of Australian Climate Movement News Coverage (AoIR 2025)

Politics | Polarisation | Journalism | Industrial Journalism | Artificial Intelligence | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | AoIR 2025 |

AoIR 2025

Extending Our Capabilities: Towards LLM-Assisted Frame Analysis of Australian Climate Movement News Coverage

Laura Vodden, Katharina Esau, Axel Bruns, Tariq Choucair

  • 16 Oct. 2025 – Paper presented at the 2025 Association of Internet Researchers conference, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro

Presentation Slides

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Snurb — Thursday 1 January 2026 13:37

Division and Delay in Australian Climate and Energy Discussions: An LLM-Assisted Analysis of Discourse Coalitions across News Reports and Parliamentary Submissions (AoIR 2025)

Politics | Government | Polarisation | Journalism | Industrial Journalism | Practice Mapping | Dynamics of Partisanship and Polarisation in Online Public Debate (ARC Laureate Fellowship) | AoIR 2025 |

AoIR 2025

Division and Delay in Australian Climate and Energy Discussions: An LLM-Assisted Analysis of Discourse Coalitions across News Reports and Parliamentary Submissions

Carly Lubicz-Zaorski, Katharina Esau, Laura Vodden, Tariq Choucair, Axel Bruns, Michelle Riedlinger, Ehsan Dehghan, and Samantha Vilkins

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