Mitchell Hobbs

The University of Sydney · Department of Media and Communication

In Liquid Love Zygmunt Bauman argued that the solidity and security once provided by lifelong partnerships has been 'liquefied' by rampant individualisation and technological change. He believes internet dating is symptomatic of social and technological change that transforms modern courtship into a type of commodified game. This article explores t...

This article explores the uses and consequences of political communication in Australia. It considers the different types of government ‘spin doctors’ and explores the dimensions of the ‘Australian public relations state’. The article then examines the relationship between the media, political communication and democracy. It subsequently develops a...

During the 2013 federal election in Australia, the role of Rupert Murdoch and his newspapers in the nation's politics became a matter of major public controversy for the first time in some years. This accords with both popular belief and the academic literature that suggests Murdoch has a long history of political intervention through the use (or t...

This article explores the ‘mining tax ad war of 2010’, which contributed to the removal of a first-term Labor prime minister and shaped Australia's Minerals Resource Rent Tax. In particular, it examines the uses, ethics and consequences of advocacy advertising, which is an under-explored aspect of communication power. The article identifies advocac...

News Corporation is one of the most closely studied international media conglomerates, headed by the world’s most famous media proprietor. Yet, despite its prominence in the academic literature, little attention has been paid to the company’s book publishing operations. This article seeks to rectify this oversight. It investigates some of the more...

Cancel culture is a socio-political movement that aims to financially punish or ostracize a person from the public sphere due to a transgression. Such offenses range from criminal acts to the public expression of controversial opinions. In response, digital activism coalesces into a socio-political force that seeks to shame, silence, or punish the...

This article examines China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a public diplomacy grand strategy at the macro-level of inter-state relations. It does so from the perspective of Australia, where the Andrews Labor government in the state of Victoria was, for a period, a signatory to the program. Specifically, this study uses content analysis to cons...

This study develops a definition of political public relations that incorporates concepts from leadership communication and crisis communication. It then applies this theoretical framework to the communication strategies employed by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison during their early response...

The proliferation of social media technologies have seen public relations practitioners adapt their practices for the emergent digital media ecologies, with the growing phenomenon of social media influencers (SMIs) presenting new opportunities and challenges for the industry. Indeed, the profession s rapid adoption of SMIs as part of their campaign...

This article uses social media network analysis (SMNA) to examine whether there was an astroturfing campaign on Twitter in support of the Adani Carmichael coal mine in 2017. It shows that SMNA can be used to visualize and analyze outsider lobbying activity in issue arenas and is capable of identifying networks of fake opinion. This study found that...

This article develops a new framework, conflict ecology, for predicting and critiquing specific lobbying strate-gies. This framework is applied in an analysis of interviews conducted with senior lobbyists from the mining andenergy sector in Australia, which has proven to be especially effective in opposing and defeating new taxes andlegislation int...

There were no successful leadership challenges in the major political parties in Australia in the 1960s, either at the state or federal level of government. But since 1970, seventy-three leaders have been forcibly deposed by their party colleagues, including several prime ministers. This turnover of leaders is not the norm in any other advanced dem...

This chapter explores the role of lobbying in a democracy and its position within the broader field of public relations. Core case studies are discussed including the strategies and tactics of the tobacco lobby and the mining and engery industry in regards to Australian legislation and public policy contests.

This chapter explores the public relations strategies used by the mining and energy lobby to defeat climate change policy agendas with which they disagree, and discusses three Australian case studies where these strategies were implemented to maximum effect. The first concerns the Labor government’s attempt to implement a carbon emissions trading s...

In 2014, Nick Davies, the investigative journalist responsible for uncovering the News of the World phone-hacking affair, argued that Rupert Murdoch’s global media conglomerate News Corp actively seeks to intimidate its critics into silence. This article provides an Australian case study on News Corp’s representation of scholars and commentators th...

Cyberbullying is a relatively recent phenomenon that can have significant consequences for young people’s wellbeing due to the specific technological affordances of social media. To date, research into cyberbullying has been largely quantitative; thus, it often elides the complexity of the issue. Moreover, most studies have been “top down,” excludi...

Cyberbullying is a relatively recent phenomenon that can have significant consequences for young people’s wellbeing due to the specific technological affordances of social media. To date, research into cyberbullying has been largely quantitative; thus, it often elides the complexity of the issue. Moreover, most studies have been “top down,” excludi...

Doctoral thesis in media sociology exploring media power and its impacts on the political public sphere

This article explores the relationship between ideology and media representations. It seeks to (1) re-contextualize the 2003 invasion of Iraq by exposing the ideological impetus for the conflict; (2) highlight the role played by the Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, in helping neoconservative mandarins gain influence over...

Although it is now more than 20 years since his death, Michel Foucault continues to stand as an intellectual giant on the field of social and cultural inquiry. Like other intellectual icons of the postmodern pantheon, Foucault’s extensive oeuvre has forced scholars within the social sciences to reflect on the assumptions that underpin their empiric...

With a military campaign designed to “shock and awe”, on the 20th March, 2003, soldiers from the United States, Britain and Australia launched a war of “pre-emption” against the regime of Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. Like the first Gulf War, the 2003 invasion of Iraq facilitated a monumental media spectacle, a socio-cultural drama imbued with de...

When Rupert Murdoch announced in April 2004 that he intended to see his company, News Corporation, reincorporated in the United States, two competing representations of the `media mogul' came to dominate the press's interpretation of this event. The first of these `Murdoch representations' was the most common, and painted an image of a successful e...