Michael Dezuanni is a professor in Digital Media and Learning in the School of Communication at Queensland University of Technology. He is a program leader within the Digital Media Research Centre and a Chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. Michael undertakes research about digital media, literacies and learning in home, school and community contexts. He has been a chief investigator on six ARC Linkage projects with a focus on digital literacy and learning at school, the use of digital games in the classroom, digital inclusion in regional and rural Australia, and the use of screen content in formal and informal learning. Michael is the author of ‘Peer Pedagogies on Digital Platforms – Learning with Minecraft Let’s Play videos’ (MIT Press 2020), he has edited three academic books, and is the author of over 50 journal articles and book chapters. Michael’s most recent projects focus on digital inclusion in low income Australian families; adult Australian’s media literacy abilities; and teen’s use of digital media to discover books to read, which includes digital platforms such as TikTok (particularly #booktok), Instagram and YouTube.
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Sam Koslowski, 26, is the co-founder of The Daily Aus, Australia's leading social-first news organisation targeted at young Australians. Before being a full-time founder, he was a corporate lawyer at one of Australia's top law firms. He's worked in social media innovation, as a refugee advocate, and is a Movember Community Ambassador. The Daily Aus present news recaps and explainers that are read by over 160,000 Australians daily (85% of whom are under 34). They also have a daily podcast (it’s currently the only Australian daily news podcast that specifically targets a Gen Z and Millennial cohort) and newsletter. The Daily Aus has been featured as an innovative news organisation in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, B&T Magazine and by Canva in their 2020 Year in Review. Visit their website here and their Instagram here, and listen to their podcast here.
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Maskit Mati is an 18-year-old media content creator and full-time Film and Television student at Swinburne University. She is a 2020 McKinnon Secondary College graduate. To her audience, Maskit provides a unique experience that involves weekly lifestyle videos on her YouTube channel and other social media platforms. Her videos reach audiences with interests in topics such as school, uni, travel, productivity, motivation, singing, veganism and fashion. Maskit inspires many young people from her own local community as well as many international subscribers, especially young people currently suffering through the pandemic and lockdowns worldwide. Maskit has a growing community of 120,000 subscribers and has accumulated over 7,000,000 views across her channel. Maskit’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/StyleMeMaskit/featured
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Layth Al-Artoufi is a VCE student from Staughton College, Melton, Victoria, at which he is undertaking English Language as a subject for the certificate. He finds himself a frequent user of social media and incorporates its usage within his studies for research and gaining varying perspectives of arguments. He took part in the debating team at his school and learnt that social media is a valuable tool for education. He strongly believes that schools should utilize such technology to ensure creativity and inspiration is provided to students from all social groups. As a member of the student leadership program at his school, his role is to be aware of student concerns and express them to a higher body/find any resolutions for issues. The role requires him to survey students from different year levels, which would be a time-consuming task if social media didn’t exist. It proved a means of communicating with peers outside of school. Layth is also passionate about news and tries his best to be educated about timely and popular issues.
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Jade-Amanda Falzon-Tabone is a Year 11 student at Staughton College. She is part of the student leadership program, with many roles including VCE Leader, Student Voice Leader and Radio Captain. Jade-Amanda enjoys utilising creative outlets such as creative writing and drawing. In the future she aspires to further her studies in psychology as the human mind is something she finds interest in. She has a passion for radio and has been pursuing it for about 7 years now. She hosts her own show as well as a show with the school where she trains the junior students. As part of radio, she has learnt to use social media to advertise and inform. As any teenager would, Jade-Amanda regularly uses social media. Other than using social media to communicate with friends and content creating, she also uses her platform to spread awareness and educated others on topics she is passionate about as well as global issues that others may not be aware of. Some of these topics include climate change, stopping animal cruelty, feminism, equality, and human rights.
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