School of Communication Studies - Te Kura Whakapāho
Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/1316
The School of Communication Studies is committed to innovative, critical and creative research that advances knowledge, serves the community, and develops future communication experts and skilled media practitioners. There is a dynamic interaction between communication theory and media practice across digital media, creative industries, film and television production advertising, radio, public relations, and journalism. The School is involved in research and development in areas of:
- Journalism
- Media and Communication
- Media Performance
- Multimodal Analysis
- Online, Social and Digital Media
- Asia-Pacific Media
- Political Economy of Communication
- Popular Culture
- Public Relations
- Radio
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Recent Submissions
Item Kastom vs The Fourth Estate: An Ethnographic Study of Journalism in Papua New Guinea(SAGE Publications, 2026-03-18) Sageo-Tapungu, Stephanie; Sissons, Helen; Theunissen, PetraThe term 'kastom' broadly refers to the traditional systems of beliefs and values found across the islands of Melanesia, encompassing indigenous knowledge passed informally between generations through oral traditions. While these systems vary between communities, in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the region's largest and most linguistically diverse nation, 'kastom' continues to inform professional life, including the practice of journalism. This article explores the relationship between 'kastom' and news reporting in PNG through a combination of video ethnography and semi-structured interviews. Drawing on Melanesian research methodology, the study shows how journalists themselves understand their profession and examines whether existing Western-style journalism training adequately prepares journalists for practice in PNG. The discussion highlights the difficulties and negotiations journalists encounter as they balance professional expectations with social and cultural obligations. The paper outlines core principles of kastom, as expressed through the wantok system, a network of kinship and reciprocal obligation, and illustrates how these norms inform the everyday experiences of journalists. While the study is interpretative rather than normative, the authors propose the concept of ‘polite watchdog’ as a culturally grounded framework that describes how journalists critically engage with powerful sources while maintaining respect for 'kastom'. This model suggests that democratic accountability can be pursued in ways consistent with local epistemologies, offering insights for other postcolonial contexts where Western journalism frameworks intersect with indigenous practices, such as in Fiji, Vanuatu or parts of the Caribbean.Item The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Technology on Journalistic Practices, News Narratives and Ethical Challenges in a Local Media Outlet of Auckland(Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Library, 2026-03-24) Guo, YangThe application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the newsrooms has seen an increasing prominence against a backdrop of digitalization of the media landscape. Local media, significant in its role in serving a specific geographic area or community, is at the forefront of challenges from AI technology. This paper intends to explore the specific influences of AI over the norms and professionalism of journalistic practices in a local media under the lens of public discourse, so as to testify whether AI could facilitate the media in widening or narrowing democratic participation. The research approaches ethnography of Channel 33, a television Channel which is based in Auckland and targets the Chinese community, as a case study, and the findings intend to spark further research addressing this issue with different methods and providing counterbalance suggestions to the professionals and policy makers.Item Augment, Not Replace: Utilising AI Tools for Documentary Podcast Production(Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Library, 2026-03-13) Tennant, LewisThis project examines how emerging technologies are reshaping established media production practices within audio documentary storytelling. Despite podcasting’s growth as a cultural form, scholarship on podcast production remains limited, with much existing research focused on third-party analysis rather than creative practice. Addressing this gap, the project involved the production of a five-episode narrative documentary podcast alongside a critical evaluation of AI tools used across pre-production, production, and post-production workflows. The findings demonstrate that emerging technologies are most effective when augmenting, rather than substituting for, specialist human knowledge and judgement. ChatGPT 5.0 was useful for broad exploratory research and generating initial leads in unfamiliar fields but proved unreliable as a primary research tool for documentary pre-production, requiring a return to conventional research methods. During production—particularly in script development—the tool operated more successfully within a mixed-initiative workflow. However, the uneven quality and relevance of AI-generated material necessitated that creative and editorial decision-making remain firmly human-led. Overall, the project positions AI as an augmentative presence that both supports and constrains creativity and craft, reinforcing the centrality of human authorship in documentary podcast production.Item Creative Expertise and Generative AI in Visual Design Practice(Bath Spa University, 2026-03-17) Matthews, Justin; Nairn, Angelique; Fastnedge, Daniel; Asuncion, Angela; Guinibert, Matthew; Narayan, ADThis article examines how creative expertise is enacted when academics who are also experienced visual design practitioners work with generative AI (GenAI) to complete an industry-style creative brief. Responding to concerns that GenAI accelerates production while normalising derivative “AI slop,” we argue that these systems are powerful engines of variation but unreliable engines of meaning. As a result, expertise does not disappear; it becomes newly visible as practitioners repeatedly translate strategic intent into constraints the system can act on, then diagnose and repair the cultural, semantic, typographic, and compositional breakdowns that follow. Adopting a collective autoethnographic approach, five creative-academic participants (spanning graphic design, web design, advertising, and VFX) documented their GenAI-supported process while developing a fictional cereal brand based on the scientific term Nord Grain Zero. Over ten days, participants used multiple tools (e.g., Gemini, DALL·E, Firefly, Midjourney, Runway/Sora) and recorded think-aloud sessions, prompt logs, and artefacts, followed by an artefact-led group discussion. Reflexive thematic analysis identifies three dimensions of expert practice: inform (expert judgment anchors intent and prevents drift into generic or culturally incorrect shorthand), challenge (control is displaced into negotiation, encouraging “good enough” outcomes and workarounds), and extend (GenAI enables rapid parallel exploration and cross-model orchestration). We contribute the concept of stabilisation—the continuous labour of holding meaning steady across stochastic outputs—as a distinctive form of expert creative work in GenAI-era visual design.Item Exploring the Multiverse in Media and Culture [Editorial](Queensland University of Technology, 2026-03-17) Nairn, Angelique; Piatti-Farnell, LornaItem Managing Spillover Crises in the Age of Generative AI(Elsevier BV, 2025-10-28) Wang, Yijing; Laufer, DanielThe rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has marked a significant shift in how organizations operate and innovate. While GenAI offers new opportunities, it has also created new risks that can escalate into crises. Importantly, these crises are not always limited to the organization where they originate but can spill over to other organizations in the same sector, leading to broader reputational consequences. This article investigates such spillover crises in the age of GenAI. We build on Laufer and Wang’s crisis spillover model and extend it to GenAI-related contexts. Specifically, we identify five types of spillover crises associated with GenAI and illustrate them through real-world cases. These cases highlight how reputational damage can extend beyond a single firm, affecting others in the industry. We propose a strategic framework to help organizations identify the risk of spillover crises, and we offer prescriptive guidance for avoiding, mitigating, or responding to spillover crises when they occur.Item The Role of Social Context in Live Streaming Commerce – An Interpersonal Perspective(Emerald, 2026-01-16) Ding, Jia; Wang, Yijing; Laufer, DanielPurpose In the dynamic arena of live streaming commerce, the influence of other viewers has surged to the forefront, marking a significant component of the social context. This study ventures into the interpersonal dynamics within live streaming commerce by delving into the effects of two factors – social presence and group identity salience – on consumer attitudes. Design/methodology/approach Two between-subject experiments were conducted to collect data. The hypotheses were verified by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and PROCESS macro. Findings Our findings reveal that higher social presence leads to positive persuasive outcomes, whereas the influence of group identity salience appears to be negligible. Crucially, the results demonstrate that attitudinal persuasion knowledge mediates the impact of social presence on consumer attitudes, shedding light on the underlying processes that govern consumer responses in the context of live streaming commerce. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first to investigate the heightened visibility of viewers within live streaming commerce, contributing to a nuanced perspective on the instrumental role of social context in driving consumer decision-making processes.Item Unraveling Students’ Liking of Teachers: The Impact of Multimodal Cues during L2 English Vocabulary Teaching(ISCA, 2024-06-04) Zhou, Jing; Gu, YanWhile speakers’ wording, prosody and gestures may affect perceivers’ liking of speakers, few studies investigate how teachers’ multimodal cues jointly impact students’ evaluation of second language (L2) teaching. We extracted 54 videos of vocabulary instruction delivered by four female L2 English teachers, varying features of prosody, linguistics, and gestures. 156 university students randomly watched 12 videos and rated their liking of each vocabulary teaching. Prosodic (speaking rate, mean pitch), linguistic (utterance length, question rate, total words) and gestural cues (iconic, beat) of videos were coded and analysed as predictors, while controlling for different teachers, teachers’ dressing formality, students’ working memory, English proficiency, and familiarity with the target vocabulary. Results showed that better working memory, higher English proficiency, and prior knowledge of the target word were positive predictors of students’ liking of teaching. Teachers using longer utterances, asking more questions tended to be less liked by students. Furthermore, male students significantly preferred teaching with a slower speaking rate, lower mean pitch, higher iconic gesture rate but lower beat rate, and more formal teacher attire. However, these effects were not significant for female students. In conclusion, teachers’ multimodal cues influence students’ liking of L2 teaching, with implications for education practice.Item The Impact of Teachers' Multimodal Cues on Students' L2 Vocabulary Learning in Naturalistic Classroom Teaching(UC Merced Library, 2024-07-02) Zhou, Jing; Gu, YanWe investigated the impact of teachers' multimodal cues on L2 word learning in naturalistic teaching. 169 university students randomly watched 12 of 54 clips of English vocabulary instructions and took subsequent word recognition and learning tests. The learning outcomes were analysed as a function of teachers' prosodic, linguistic and gestural input during the instruction of each vocabulary while controlling for students' characteristics and varying teachers' influences. Results showed that a shorter mean length of utterances, fewer L2 English words, and more questions for students and ‚Äúphrase‚Äù teaching predicted better learning outcomes. Furthermore, students learning improved with teachers' slower speaking rate but fewer pauses and more iconic gestures. These results were robust even after controlling for other significant factors such as students' English proficiency, working memory, degree of liking of teachers and different teachers. Overall, multimodal cues enhance L2 vocabulary learning, with implications for educators, linguists, and cognitive scientists.Item "Rewriting Television" by Alison Peirse (2025) [Book Review](Intellect, 2025-11-03) Milligan, ChristinaItem AI at the Greenlight: Negotiating Creative Agency in Early-stage Film Development(Taylor & Francis, 2026-03-02) Zalipour, ArezouThe growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in screenwriting and film development has intensified debates around creativity, authorship, and the role of algorithmic systems in creative processes. AI-driven analytics systems now evaluate screenplays to forecast box-office performance, model audience demographics, and inform casting choices. While scholarship on AI tools in the creative industries has expanded rapidly in recent years, studies focusing on the screen industries – particularly on AI-driven analytics systems used in screenplay evaluation – especially from a practice-led perspective, are still scarce. This study contributes to this area by presenting a practice-led case study that observed the use of a Swiss-based AI-driven analytics system in the development of a German – New Zealand feature film, Come Together. Drawing on academic literature, industry reports, and the author’s involvement in the script development of Come Together, this article discusses the ontological tensions between human creatives and algorithmic evaluation. By examining these tensions, the article develops three interconnected conceptual insights – creative flattening, risk of formulaic feedback, and blind spots – as a framework for understanding the negotiation of creative agency when algorithmic evaluation enters the early stages of film development.Item Patterns and Predictors of Children's Musical Engagement From an Aotearoa NZ Longitudinal Cohort(Wiley, 2026-02-22) Evans, Rebecca J; Yeom, Daniel; Tao, Amy; Ip, Ryan HL; Dean, BronyaIn this article, we investigate patterns of children's musical engagement across childhood and early adolescence in Aotearoa New Zealand to identify key factors that predict sustained participation in musical activities outside formal education. Using data from multiple waves of the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal cohort study, children's musical engagement was assessed across five activity domains: singing, listening to music, watching videos (including music), music activity participation, and attending music events. Engagement in each domain was categorised into four participation levels: None, Short‐term, Repeated, and Sustained. Longitudinal patterns were assessed with Sankey plots, and ordinal regression was used to predict engagement levels from socioeconomic variables, including maternal education, household structure, household income, gender, ethnicity, disability status, area‐level deprivation, and rurality. Our results show that engagement patterns shifted with age, with family singing decreasing and individualised music listening and video watching increasing over time. Gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic variables were key predictors of sustained engagement across activity domains. Children's musical engagement trajectories varied widely and were influenced by both individual characteristics and modifiable contextual factors. These findings highlight the need to consider equity of access and cultural relevance when supporting musical participation across childhood in New Zealand.Item Understanding Drivers of Early Life Course Arts, Culture and Recreation Participation in Aotearoa New Zealand(Informa UK Limited, 2026-02-16) Evans, RJ; Tait, J; Zar, MT; Victor, MBackground Participation in arts, culture and recreation activities (ACRs) supports youth wellbeing, however little is known about the drivers of participation across the life course. Longitudinal approaches provide nuanced insights into patterns of access and engagement, identifying where additional support is needed to sustain engagement in ACRs over time. Methods This study examines ACR participation from ages 8 to 12 in Aotearoa New Zealand, across Sports, Creative Arts and Community-based activities. Data came from the 8-year wave (2017–2019) and 12-year wave (2021–2022) of the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal cohort study (N = 3,738). We assessed participation pathways (sustained, increasing, decreasing or disengaged), and analysed associations with identity (gender, ethnicity, disability) and sociodemographic factors (deprivation, household structure, rurality), using chi-squared tests of independence and standardised residuals analyses. Results Participation in all three activity types increased from ages 8 to 12. Identity and sociodemographic characteristics were significantly associated, but not rurality. Across participation pathways, engagement was not evenly distributed across the population, with structural, geographic, and cultural influences contributing to complex patterns of access and continuity. For example, children in extended family households showed higher increasing Creative Arts participation and higher sustained Community activity participation, highlighting the positive impacts of support from family. Conclusions Findings highlight both persistent inequities and promising enabling factors in access to ACRs amongst youth. Targeted, equity-focused interventions are needed to ensure all young people in Aotearoa can sustain meaningful participation in ACRs across the life course.Item Googling It: While News Search Results Can Affect Newsrooms’ Perception of Social Issues, Journalists Mainly Rely on It for Complementary Information(Intellect, 2022-10-01) Rupar, Verica; Myllylahti, Merja; Jones, Haley-Georgia; Li, Weihua; Mohaghegh, Mahsa; Parisa, PrunellaThis article investigates the ramifications of search engine algorithms for journalism practice and its professional commitment to serving the public interest. Taking a discipline-transcending approach that combines quantitative data analysis with an exploration of the social forces shaping knowledge production in journalism, we examine a case study involving New Zealand media’s coverage of economic recession. This inquiry addresses the question of how journalists navigate the terrain of algorithms and respond to the challenges posed by programme-based news production in relation to their professional norms. Our study highlights the significant role of search engines, particularly Google, in shaping the journalistic newsgathering process and, consequently, public understanding of social issues. The computer-assisted analysis of Google’s ‘recession’ news selection revealed distinct patterns in the distribution of news content and geographical bias towards the United States within the selection algorithm. Ethnographic research at one Auckland newsroom revealed that Google Search is a fundamental tool for journalists, albeit used primarily for basic information-gathering and fact-checking rather than in-depth investigative work.Item AI, Journalism and News Media in Aotearoa New Zealand(AUT Research Centre for Journalism Media and Democracy, 2026-02-03) Myllylahti, MerjaItem Rituals of Violent Masculinity: A Feminist Comparative Historical Analysis of Male-Male Fighting, Shame and Misogyny(Hipatia Press, 2026-01-23) Batistich-Vogels, ChristinaThis article uses a combination of two feminist research methods to further understanding of the enduring nature of men’s use of ritualised forms of violence. In particular, this article examines men fighting other men to mitigate the effects of feminized shame and to stabilise masculine honour. Using a feminist comparative historical analysis alongside a feminist systematic review, two manifestations of ritualised honour-based fighting will be explored: men’s duelling of the eighteenth and nineteenth century and today’s (hetero)romantic and homosocial practice of territory marking: men claiming ownership over their (hetero)romantic partner by threatening to fight other men who appear to be romantically interested in her. By looking at the relationship between two types of ritualised fighting from different time-periods, the enduring nature of why men fight other men to mitigate feminized shame can be discussed in new ways. This type of analysis helps shed light on inherent fragilities within these violent practices, signalling how men’s ritualised fighting could be destabilised in the future.Item From Immersion to Identity: A Systematic Review and Framework for Understanding Metaverse Consumers(Taylor & Francis, 2026-01-21) Jiang, Xiyuan; Richter, Shahper; Kadirova, Djavlonbek; Laufer, Daniel; Hooper, Val; Du, XinkeMetaverse marketing has emerged as a rapidly expanding research domain, yet scholarship on consumer behaviour within this context remains fragmented and often embedded within broader marketing or technology reviews. This study addresses this gap through a systematic literature review (SLR) of 84 peer-reviewed journal articles explicitly situated at the intersection of consumer behaviour and marketing in the Metaverse. The review synthesises insights into four thematic domains: (1). consumer engagement, (2). technology adoption, (3). avatar dynamics, and (4). fashion/luxury branding. The review maps three theoretical foundations: motivational, identity-based, and design-oriented perspectives. By integrating these strands, the paper develops a novel conceptual framework that captures how immersive, multisensory, and identity-driven experiences in the metaverse shape consumer–brand interactions and extend into real-world consumption. The analysis highlights the need for metaverse-specific behavioural theorisation and outlines key research gaps, offering a targeted agenda to advance understanding in this evolving field.Item Linguistic Resistance and Power in Indian Political Public Relations Practice: A Video-Ethnographic Study(SAGE Publications, 2025-12-29) Rasquinha, M; Sissons, HIndia’s multilingual landscape presents political public relations (PPR) practitioners with both strategic opportunities and communicative challenges. Campaigns often rely on Hindi and English, but regional languages such as Kannada and Tamil are also used to assert identity and push back against Hindi and English dominance. This article draws on 56 hours of video from ethnographic fieldwork and ten semi-structured interviews with social media teams at two South Indian political parties during the 2019 general election. Using Ethnographic Communication Analysis (ECA), it examines an everyday professional interaction through critical discourse analysis, conversation analysis, and gestural analysis. The findings show how multilingualism functions as a site of symbolic struggle, where practitioners negotiate belonging, exclusion and representational legitimacy. Humour, code-switching, and language-based microaggressions emerge as communicative tactics of solidarity and resistance. By foregrounding the Global South context and adopting a multimodal ethnographic approach, this study extends critical public relations scholarship by showing how multilingualism is used in the reproduction of power and inequality.Item Manufacturing Settler-Colonial Consensus: ‘Conservative’ Media Commentaries and the Treaty Principles Bill(Informa UK Limited, 2025-12-13) Devadas, VijayThis article investigates how selected media commentators in Aotearoa New Zealand framed the Treaty Principles Bill (TPB). Drawing on a discourse analysis of opinion pieces in The New Zealand Herald, Stuff and Newstalk ZB, this paper examines the rhetorical and ideological work in selected media commentaries by prominent media professionals in Aotearoa. The analysis identifies three dominant media frames – hegemony of logocentrism, spectacle of the indigenous other and weaponization of multiculturalism – that collectively manufactures a settler-colonial consensus around the TPB.Item Discourses of Place and Profession: A Thematic Analysis of Support for Architecture NZ Magazine in a Crisis(Project MUSE, 2025-12-11) Watts, Jennie[Introduction] Industry-specific magazines are a genre imbued with identity-forming symbolism and rhetoric. Magazines belonging to professions serve a purpose different from popular publications, which is to reflect the profession back at itself. The organizing principle of Architecture NZ magazine’s content is that it is of Aotearoa New Zealand, whether that be discussion of design for this landscape or acknowledgement of a professional heralding from this country.1 To that end, Architecture NZ represents issues of place-based concern to readers in Aotearoa New Zealand, and elsewhere. It is a lens through which to understand and to critique and shape the profession’s impact, and it serves as one of the few central points around which the architecture profession in Aotearoa New Zealand, is oriented, and therefore expresses much about the identity of the profession. This study is an examination of the role of a print publication in a community of place and a community of practice at once. The study thematically analyzes the written statements of support by architects from around Aotearoa New Zealand, about why it is crucial, in their view, that Architecture NZ magazine should continue to be published given the crisis presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. These statements of support were sought by the publisher and editors of Architecture NZ in what they term a “reader rally,”2 along with the request for individual subscriptions to the magazine. The written support from a cohort of passionate architects served to further encourage subscription, which provided the necessary financial resource to get through the period of uncertainty in magazine publishing that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. This article begins with an overview of relevant literature that puts the magazine and the moment of crisis into context. The changing media landscape [End Page 53] and the advent of digital-media publishing have put pressure on print to no small extent, and this is discussed in the context of architecture publishing in particular. The literature also examines the long tradition of architectural magazine publishing as a place of discourse and critique, and this provides context for the findings later in the article, where it is shown that discourse—discussion, debate, and critical opinion—on the architectural profession is one of the most valued aspects of Architecture NZ. This is interpretive research, which focuses on understanding the subjective meanings and experiences of individuals within their social and cultural contexts. Methodologically, a discourse-analysis approach in tandem with thematic analysis provides the framework for examining how these meanings and values are constructed and negotiated by the respondents to the publisher’s call for support.