Program

ANZCA 2022 will also facilitate debates on a range of developments that are responding to the apparent deepening of digital divides and the prevalence of misinformation in an era marked by significant global crises. The conference will scrutinise the emergence, adoption, propagation, and extension of new community cultures and practices, as well as the policy and governance mechanisms that have yet to keep pace with them, inviting us to consider questions such as what are some of the new testing grounds for human creativity and for overcoming post-COVID challenges in this interdisciplinary arena?

Key topic areas include:

• The transformation and impacts of COVID-era organisational, intercultural, and interpersonal communications, and responses to misinformation;

• New and dynamic forms of public relations and health communication, and the creative use of digital media tools among communities of creative practitioners, commentators, audiences, fans, and policymakers;

• The evolution of virtual communication and social engagement in networked, mobile, augmented reality, and online spaces in the COVID era, and the environmental/carbon impact of these forms of engagement; and 

• Adaptions made to civic and community-building communication practices that are designed to support participation in society during periods of lockdown, isolation, and restricted mobility.

The first day of the conference will feature a Postgraduate (HDR) and Early Career Researcher (ECR) Day, which is being organised by the Fan Studies Network Australasia.