Communication

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Our research at UNSW School of the Arts & Media focuses on the interplay of theory and practice, across diverse sectors of strategic communications, encompassing the government, corporate and non-profit sector. Our research anticipates the impact of social change, building the theory and the tools to best channel, manage and shape it. Our work explores the current and future needs of, and for, communications at the individual, organisational, and societal levels. The opportunities and challenges for communications created by fluid, rapidly changing social, political, and technological change drive our diverse approach.  

Our research is theoretical, empirical, and critical: our scholars engage with traditions of strategic communications emerging from different fields of study. We use an array of qualitative and quantitative methods and theory. The diversity in our team, enhanced by academic and professional practice backgrounds, strengthens our inter-disciplinary research. 

Key research areas

Communication theory 

Our work interrogates, anticipates, and aims to shape the evolution of contemporary dynamics in highly mediated cultures, and the roles and behaviours of actors within it: 

The role of communication in mediating social cohesion.
The impact of authoritarianism on global political dynamics.
The social, cultural, and economic implications of digital technologies and platforms.
Governance challenges in the digital media economy. 
The emergence of supportive coalitions of actor-networks within communication practice. 
The evolution of creative practice and the crossover between innovation and the creative process. 
Power dynamics between organisations and publics. 
Public relations discourses. 
Cultural approaches to public relations. 
The intersection of commercial and academic semiotics.
The application of structuralism and semiotics to communication practice and analysis .

Communication practice 

In keeping with our multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, our research interests cover a wide range of strategic communications practices: 

Strategy dynamics and strategic design .
Communications strategy. 
Campaign dynamics. 
Stakeholder insights for optimal strategies and collaboration.  
Stakeholder engagement and disengagement. 
Media strategy and planning. 
Employer branding, employee and internal communication. 
Organisational communication. 
Employee communication as a source of productivity and profit. 
Place branding. 
Political communication. 
Public diplomacy. 
Organisation-public relationships and organisation-stakeholder relationships.

Communication and technologies 

We apply theoretical innovation and critical insight to develop frameworks and strategies for evolving communication futures: 

The pervasive influences of changing technological innovations on people’s cognition, emotion, and behaviour. 
The amplification of message attributes by media technologies to create prosocial changes. 
The impacts of artificial intelligence on communities, organisations, and communicators .