I am a computer programmer and a media philosopher. I'm interested in the ways in which software constructs communication practices that have particular social implications, especially political ones. My research explores:
The structure and affordances of software and algorithms
The philosophy of technology and mediation
Public discourse and communication theory
The meaning and influence of time
I’m the author of a few books – the newest has just been published. It’s called Asynchronicity and is a study of temporal disorder in the modern world. In it, I explain what time means, how it is produced, and show how changes in the production of time can stress (and sometimes break) important social structures.
Previously, I published two academic books. Complexity, Digital Media and Post Truth Politics (2020) proposes a framework for studying interaction between the digital and political systems and argues that polarisation and misinformation are the logical products of that interaction. Digital Media and the Making of Network Temporality (2021) looks at the relationship between mathematical 'scientific' time and intuitive social time, and argues for a reconciliation of the two to better understand the temporal effects of the digital media environment.
I lead a couple of ARC research projects focussed on technology and harmful communication. Extremism and the Australian National Imaginary explores the growing influence of white nationalist ideology in Australian politics. Measuring Social Media Speed and the Acceleration of Informational Crisis does exactly what it says in title.
I’m also a founder and covenor of the Fighting Harmful Online Communication research initiative, which coordinates interdisciplinary research on the harms resulting from mistaken, misleading, exaggerated, polemic and deliberately false online communications. The initiative funds interdisciplinary research, develops new methods and technologies to mitigate harmful communication and organises regular events for researchers and the publc.
My most recent journal articles are listed on my UniMelb research profile and catalogued by Orcid and G-Scholar.