School of Culture and Communication - Theses

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Start date: 2018 × Type: Honours thesis ×

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    Culture crisis: an assessment of government arts funding in Australia during COVID-19
    Bouckaert, Ravenna ( 2021)
    Decades of underfunding and poor policy design have worn down the vitality of the cultural industries in Australia. The majority of public funds have been directed to the largest organisations, while the small-to-medium sector is reduced to reliance on short-term grants. This funding environment has meant that the sector was vulnerable as it was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic forced the closure of nearly the entire arts and cultural sector, and it continues to be one of the worst - affected industries alongside hospitality and tourism. This thesis considers the perspective of six professional performing arts organisations of different sizes and organisational structures, using semi-structured qualitative interviews. Analysis of these interviews allows for an understanding of how performing arts companies responded to a national crisis, and how government support played a role in this response. The objective of the research is to provide an insight into the ways in which the pandemic has brought to light issues affecting the sector, and how this could inform permanent policy reform to better support Australia’s performing arts ecology.
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    The Age of Icons: Digitising the Self in Profile Images
    Antonellos, Madeleine Kayla ( 2018)
    In the “Age of Icons”, a digital echo of the self emerges in an online ecology where representations of the self and others are signified in virtual, globally networked profiles. In digital spaces, real and online friends, followers and connections collide. Social media platforms have evolved into dynamic and malleable communicative spaces, that guide an individual’s construction of a ‘profile’ on their network. The ‘profile image’, provides options for a user to express a visualisation of themselves, alongside multimodal presentations of personal content. This technologically-mediated icon of self, can portray a user’s actual or desired physical appearance, an identity that translates from the “real world” into online expressions of cultural, social and emotional values. Through developing an online presence, in singular, or interconnecting, social accounts or platforms, this thesis asks the question: how do we construct representations of ourselves online, using our social media profile pictures? Building on recent literature surrounding online image production, dissemination, and identity formation on social media, I have collected and coded extensive, qualitative data – gathered through semi-structured interviews – with a small study group of 21-35-year-old social media users. This thesis presents a thematic analysis of the process of creating an online identity and explores the adaptation of this online marker of identity to technological features of social media accounts. Finally, it examines impacts of profile pictures in the daily lives of social media users, where online and offline realities can intersect. The chosen case study is ‘profile images’: the literal, or figurative, public face a user wears when interacting in online, social media platforms. The thesis considers the interplay between varied forms of self-expression, and conceptions of identity in a user, as they live offline and online through their use of social media profiles.