Rob Cover
Professor Rob Cover is Co-Director of the DERC and a media and cultural studies scholar who researches screen and digital cultures in relation to (i) young people’s health, mental health and wellbeing, (ii) minorities, migrants and gender- and sexually-diverse subjects and social change, (iii) suicide prevention, identity and communication.
He is Chief Investigator on several Australian Research Council projects including Digital Hostility: Addressing Online Hostility in Australian Digital Cultures (2023-2026) examining the lived experience of online abuse across contemporary digital platforms, The AusQueerScreen Discovery project investigating the role of on-screen representation of gender- and sexually-diverse themes and narratives in the production of social change, inclusivity and diversity, and the ARC Linkage Project LGBTQ+ Migrations with the History Trust of South Australia on gender/sexual diversity and mobility.
The author of ten books and 100+ articles and chapters, Rob’s recent books include: Vulnerability and Exposure: Footballer Scandals, Masculine Identity and Ethics (2015), Queer Youth Suicide, Culture and Identity: Unliveable Lives? (2016), Digital Identities: Creating and Communicating the Online Self (2016), Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Gender and Relationships in a Digital Era (2019), Flirting in the Era of #MeToo: Negotiating Intimacies (with A Bartlett and K Clarke; 2019), Population, Mobility and Belonging: Understanding Population Concepts in Media, Culture and Society (2020), Fake News in Digital Cultures (2022), Identity in Digital Communication: Concepts, Theories, Practices (2023) and Identity in the COVID-19 Years (2023).
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Labs
Digital Hostilities and Disinformation Lab
DERC flagship lab addresses the social and ethical implications of contemporary forms of digital hostility & disinformation.
Method Lab
DERC's flagship space for testing innovative methods for studying data, digital culture, and disruptive tech.
Digital Inclusion, Mobility, and Activism
The research program examines the challenges and potentials of digital participation as this relates to access and inclusion, connectivity, networks and political activism, gig or micro work, and mobility and migration.
Projects
Methods Masterclass Series
Methods Masterclass Series 2023 offers advanced training in creative practice, digital ethnographic, and social science tools. Co sponsored by the Enabling Impact Platforms at RMIT.
Publications
Fake News in Digital Cultures: Technology, Populism and Digital Misinformation
Fake News in Digital Cultures presents a new approach to understanding disinformation and misinformation in contemporary digital communication, arguing that fake news is not an alien phenomenon undertaken by bad...