AUT - Philippa Smith
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Philippa Smith
Supervisors: Professor Allan Bell, ICDC Director and Dr Ian Goodwin, Massey University
Philippa is the recipient of an AUT Contestable PhD Scholarship which she was awarded in 2007. Her doctoral research seeks to identify discourses of national identity by comparing the talk’ of New Zealanders in computer mediated communication (CMCs) such as chatrooms, forums and listservs, with official/quasi official discourses inherent in documents such as political speeches, official reports and the media. Applying Benedict Anderson’s (1983) theory of “imagined political communities” and using a “discourse-historical” framework as developed by Ruth Wodak and others (1999, 2000, 2008), the thesis will explore the existence of competing discourses based on people’s understanding of nationhood in relation to their ethnicity and/or ties with former homelands, to their kiwi’ citizenship and to official perspectives on what it means to be a New Zealander. The question is raised: how is an increasingly multicultural society affecting the way New Zealanders see themselves? In addition the research will seek to determine how the Internet can operate as a public sphere for democratic discussion that facilitates the construction of individual and collective identities.
Background
Prior to commencing her doctoral studies Philippa worked at the Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication (formerly the Centre for Communication Research) since 2003 as research co-ordinator and project manager. She has been involved in a number of research projects including the NZ Television Violence Project (2003), the bro’Town Research Project (2005-2006) and the World Internet Project- NZ (2006-). Philippa is a founding member of both ICDC’s Discourse Research Group and the Internet Research Group. Her research interests are media, new media technologies, identity and discourse analysis. Philippa is a member of the Association of Internet Researchers and has been a co-editor of ICDC’s on-line publication Working Papers in Communication Research.
Distinctions/Honours:
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2003 - Recipient of the AUT School of Communications Studies award for excellence in Post-Graduate Research – Master of Arts in Communications Studies, Auckland University of Technology.
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2004 - Recipient of AUT, Vice-Chancellors award for excellence in team research in the Television Violence in NZ project
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2006 – Awarded financial support from the Royal Society of New Zealand’s International Science and Technology Fund to attend the international partners’ meeting of the World Internet Project, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, July, 2006.
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2007 - Recipient of an AUT contestable PhD scholarship
Publications:
“From Heartland to Here to Stay – the role of charismatic documentary presenters in national identity construction.” (2007, 27-28 August). Paper presented at the Te Whainga Aronui, The Council for the Humanities Congress 2007: Transformations ’07. Composing the nation: ideas, peoples, histories, languages, cultures, economies. Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington.
“The global popularity of animated sitcoms – bro’Town – New Zealand’s answer to The Simpsons.” Co-authored with Dr Katalin Lustyik (November, 2006). Paper presented at the Youth, Media and Culture in the Asia Pacific Region International Symposium, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
“New Zealand Internet use.” (2006, 12 July), Presentation at the World Internet Project International Partners Annual Meeting, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China. Supported by a grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand’s International Sciences and Technology Fund.
“Rebuilding New Zealand’s national identity: A critical discourse analysis of the role of the charismatic documentary presenter.” (2005, November). Paper presented at the International Conference on Critical Discourse Analysis Theory into Research, University of Tasmania, Australia.
Desperately Seeking National Identity: an examination of narrative in the Heartland television series and its influence in defining New Zealanders. (2003) Unpublished MA thesis. School of Communication Studies. AUT University.
Television Violence in New Zealand: A study of programming and policy in international context. (2003) co-authored along with B. King, G. Bridgman, A. Bell, A. King, S. Harvey, C. Crothers and I. Hassall.
“Unravelling the web of discourse analysis” (2007) co-authored with Professor Allan Bell in Eion Devereux (ed) Media Studies: Key Issues and Debates Sage Publications: London.
“English in Mass Communications: News Discourse and the Language of Journalism” (2008) Book chapter co- authored with Professor Allan Bell in A Companion to the History of the English Language. Haruko Momma and Michael Matto (eds). Blackwell Publishing: Oxford.
“The global popularity of animated sitcoms – 'bro'Town’ - New Zealand's answer to 'The Simpsons’ “, (2008) co-authored with Dr Katalin Lustyik, (Ithaca College, New York) in Youth, Media and Culture in the Asia Pacific Region International Symposium. Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
Contact: philippa.smith@aut.ac.nz