[ecrea] Call for Applications - Postdoctoral Research Fellow at QUT

*Postdoc in Public Sphere Theory and Social Media on ARC Future
Fellowship Project*

In addition to the PhD position advertised last week
(http://bit.ly/qutsocmedphd), QUT is now also offering a two-year,
full-time postdoc position on the same ARC Future Fellowship project led
by Prof. Axel Bruns at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane,
Australia (international applicants are very welcome). If you’re
interested and qualified for the position, please submit a detailed
application through the QUT jobs Website (http://bit.ly/qutpostdoc),
responding to the selection criteria. Full details for the job can be
found there, and below we’re including the key details from the job
description:

*Position Purpose*

This appointment supports an ARC Future Fellowship research project
investigating intermedia information flows in the Australian online
public sphere. The emergence of new media forms has led to a profound
transformation of the Australian media environment: mainstream, niche,
and social media intersect in many ways, online and offline. Increased
access to large-scale data on public communication online enables an
observation of how the nation responds to the news of the day, how
themes and topics unfold, and how interest publics develop and decline
over time. This project uses such observations to trace how information
flows across media spaces, and to develop a new model of the online
public sphere. It makes significant contributions to innovation in
research methods in the digital humanities, and provides an important
basis for policies aimed at closing digital and social divides. Research
on the project commenced in April 2014.

The Postdoctoral Research Fellow will contribute to project management
and undertake specific research tasks and will also be involved in the
supervision of one of the PhD students associated with the project. The
position will be based at QUT in Brisbane, and will support the timely
analysis of public communication activities which relate to current
debates. The presence of this full-time staff member will ensure the
project’s agility in responding to unfolding events, and substantially
enhance its ability to engage in and impact on public debate over the
lifetime of the Future Fellowship.

*Selection Criteria*

/Essential:/

 1. Completion or partial completion of a postgraduate degree in Media
    and Communication or a closely related area, and relevant work
    experience as a researcher;
 2. Demonstrated expertise in research on the contemporary public sphere
    and on information flows in online and social media, with
    substantial research outputs in quality conferences, journals, and
    edited books;
 3. Demonstrated expert knowledge of, and experience with, qualitative
    and quantitative research which utilises innovative methods drawing
    on ‘big social data’ from social media and other relevant online
    sources;
 4. Demonstrated advanced expertise in the use of network mapping and
    analytics techniques for the study of user interaction and
    information dissemination across social media and related networks;
 5. Effective written, interpersonal and computer-mediated communication
    skills and experience in using project management tools;
 6. Demonstrated relevant project coordination experience, and ability
    to work in a team and autonomously;
 7. Demonstrated computing skills, including familiarity with digital
    research management and social media research tools.

/Desirable:/

 1. Have prior university-based work experience;
 2. Have an understanding of the strategic research agenda of the QUT
    Social Media Research Group and other relevant QUT research
    initiatives.

*Specific Duties*

The appointee will carry out a range of tasks associated with project
activities, including:

  * Use data collection and analysis methods and instruments developed
    for the project for a variety of purposes, including:
      o /Post hoc/ research into user activity patterns and information
        flows in the Australian online public sphere across a wide range
        of cases;
      o Speedy and agile analysis of online activities in issue publics
        related to current events, and publication of initial analysis
        in relevant online fora;
      o Input into further development of online media tracking and
        analysis methods and instruments developed by the project.
  * Contribute to the development of new models of communication
    processes in the Australian online public sphere, by:
      o Tracing the trajectories of intermedia information flows across
        the diverse datasets available to the project;
      o Developing and testing a range of preliminary models for the
        conceptualisation of issue publics and other formations of
        public discourse in online environments;
      o Contributing to the integration of these models into a more
        comprehensive framework for understanding processes of
        communication across the contemporary media ecology.
  * Contribute to the dissemination of research findings from the
    project by:
      o Publishing preliminary analyses and findings in relevant outlets
        (/The Conversation/, project Website and other publications, etc.);
      o Presenting project findings at relevant national and
        international conferences in media and communication and related
        fields;
      o Publishing research outcomes from the project in sole- and
        collaboratively authored articles and chapters in high-profile
        journals and books.
  * Participate in project management by:
      o Communicating with the research team, partner organisations and
        networks, and the wider public, in meetings, online, at events
        and in publications;
      o Maintaining and using communication and collaborative research
        tools for project management and coordination purposes;
      o contributing to the supervision of one of the PhD researchers
        associated with the project.

*Background*

This project is an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship project
which draws on several ‘big data’ sources on Australian public
communication. This appointment provides an unprecedented opportunity to
investigate the flow of information across the Australian online public
sphere at large scale and in close to real time, within a world-class
research environment. With an ERA ranking of 5 (“well above world
standing”), Creative Industries at QUT is the lead site for Media and
Communication research in Australia, and ARC Future Fellow Professor
Axel Bruns is an international research leader in the area of Internet
studies.

--

Dr Axel Bruns (a.bruns /at/ qut.edu.au) <mailto:(a.bruns /at/ qut.edu.au)> -
@snurb_dot_info

ARC Future Fellow, 2014-17 http://www.amazon.com/author/axel.bruns/

Professor, Media & Communication http://mappingonlinepublics.net/

ARC Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation http://cci.edu.au/

Creative Industries Faculty, K412, KG http://snurb.info/

Queensland University of Technology                   +61 7 3138 5548

GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia        CRICOS No.: 00213J

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