Lauren O'Mahony

Intersections of media, law, communication, and crime abound inthe contemporary world. And although universities tend to orga-nise media, law, communications and criminology into discretedisciplines or group them together in schools or departments, thisarticle strives to show how there is incredible merit in exploringthose intersections, not least because as the small sample of articlescontained in this special issue of Communication Research andPractice demonstrates, to do so opens up possibilities for interdisci-plinary dialogue and research opportunities. It is in that spirit thatthis article discusses, often drawing on empirical examples andcases, the ways intersections between media, law, communication,and crime play out across time and space.

The Australian Romance Readers Association (ARRA), a special interest group that publicises the romance form and provides opportunities for readers to network and discuss the genre, has run a dedicated annual survey since 2009. The survey results between 2009 and 2023 illustrate the changing reading practices of respondents, especially in terms of modes of reading, preferred subgenres of romance, purchasing habits, information sources about new romances, and book formats. This article describes key survey results in terms of the changing characteristics and practices of the respondents. Key findings include that respondents generally read quickly, they read a lot, tend to always carry a romance novel, increasingly embrace eBook use, undertake most reading at home, and increasingly try a broad range of romance subgenres. The surveys provide insights into the importance of social media marketing and recommendations for readers to learn about new books. The ARRA survey data between 2009 and 2023 provides insights for writers who wish to strategically market their texts while showing some of the changing practices and trends of respondents. Overall, this paper emphasises that the romance reading respondents are highly committed, engaged and discerning in their decision-making and reading practices.

During the Second World War (1939–1945), Western Australian author Rix Weaver published her New Holland trilogy comprising Behold, New Holland! (1940), New Holland Heritage (1941) and Beyond Cooralong (1945). These novels were highly popular at the time of publication, serialised in magazines and on radio and reportedly taught in local high schools. Though published in the 1940s, these novels are of significant cultural importance because they provide a relatively rare historical depiction of the establishment and development of the Swan River colony (later known as Perth) from 1830. Even more unusual is the emphasis on the lives of women in these works. Arguably Weaver’s trilogy contains a dual narrative, one devoted to the early colonisation of Western Australia between 1830 and the 1880s while the other personalises the settlement stories through her heroines Jane Mabie and her daughter Jennifer in conjunction with their families. Through the historically grounded romantic stories of Jane and Jennifer, the experiences of women are depicted within early settler history. In this article, we read Weaver’s trilogy as “romantic historical fiction” (Teo & Fresno-Calleja, 2025) where the trilogy format calls into question the kinds of endings and closures given to their heroines. Overall, we argue that Weaver’s context while writing, the trilogy format and historical setting contribute to the individual and collective, not always happy, ending(s) of these novels.

In October 2023, an ABC Australia article by Levy and Heaton discussed the ‘gender gap’ in electric vehicle (EV) ownership, noting Australia’s similarity to the United States. where reportedly 67% of EV buyers were men and 33% were women. In Western Australia (WA), Evenergi’s 2023 survey revealed that 83% of the survey’s EV owning respondents were male. Such data suggest a noticeable gender discrepancy in EV ownership, which may be more prominent in WA. Through ten in-depth interviews with female-identifying WA-based EV owners, we sought to investigate this imbalance further, particularly why it might exist and, how it might be overcome. This paper focusses on the everyday experiences and practices of our Perth metropolitan and regionally based interviewees to shed light on potential barriers or issues associated with EV ownership such as purchase costs, driving range, charging, interactions with others about their cars, the use of technology and media coverage, including myths and misinformation. Overall, our interviewees provided insights into how they adjusted to owning and driving an EV in Western Australia, a state known for its isolation and vast distances.

Considered part of the ‘media journey’ of the UK Post Office scandal, this article focuses on ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office (Mr Bates), which dramatised the story of subpostmasters/mistresses (SPMs) wrongly convicted for theft or false accounting over a 20-year period based on flawed data derived from Fujitsu’s Horizon computer system installed by Post Office to automate accounting processes at its branches. A week after Mr Bates aired, more than a million people had signed a petition calling for justice. This article explores how and why, despite prior media attention, Mr Bates galvanised such a strong public response. It argues the composition of the television series, its structure and scheduling, its paratextual qualities and relationship to other texts, and its depiction of psychological violence, such as gaslighting, wreaked upon individual SPMs by the Post Office behemoth engaged viewers leading to significant legal change.

The ideological differences between animal activists and primary producers are long-standing, existing long before the advent of social media with its widespread communicative capabilities. Primary producers have continued to rely on traditional media channels to promote their products. In contrast, animal activists have increasingly adopted livestreaming on social media platforms and ‘direct action’ protest tactics to garner widespread public and media attention while promoting vegetarianism/veganism, highlighting issues in animal agriculture and disrupting the notion of the ‘happy farm animal’. This paper uses a case study approach to discuss the events that unfolded when direct action animal activists came into conflict with Western Australian farmers and businesses in 2019. The conflict resulted in increased news reporting, front-page coverage from mainstream press, arrests and parliamentary law changes. This case study explores how the activists’ strategic communication activities, which included livestreaming their direct actions and other social media tactics, were portrayed by one major Australian media outlet and the farmers’ interest groups’ reactions to them.

Almost 50 years ago, Edward Said wrote on ‘the other’ in relation to race and gender in his path-breaking book Orientalism (1978). While much has evolved around notions of gendered and racialised otherness since then, Said’s conceptualisation still resonates today. Our paper reports on a 2020/2021 survey of Women of Colour in the Australian workplace. The survey was conducted during the pandemic by Women of Colour Australia, a not-for-profit group, working with the lead author. We focus on the qualitative answers from participants, many of which detail sometimes painful and extremely personal workplace experiences. More than 500 Women of Colour, including seven per cent who were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, completed the survey. Sixty per cent said they had experienced discrimination in the workplace, despite 59 per cent of participants saying their workplace had a Diversity and Inclusion policy. Participants had to ‘perform’ their identities whilst being subjected to intersectional issues of racism and sexism, some of which the pandemic exacerbated. Our paper describes the harmful ramifications of gendered othering of Women of Colour for Australian organisations and society in the years of the pandemic.

This special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies is titled ‘Performing Identity in the Era of COVID-19’, and co-mingles our current critical inquiries into the pandemic meaning of ‘performance’’ with our earlier research in global diasporas. While invoking our previous historical context of ‘the era of COVID-19’, we shift focus from migratory liminality to the many ways that we can re-think the notions of performance, performing, and performativity (and the nonperformative) in the context of the global pandemic...

American Movie Classics’ (AMC) popular television series The Walking Dead (2010–present) transports viewers into an apocalyptic zombie dystopia where the lines between safety and precarity, being governed and governing, or being alive and/or dead slip and change. Utilizing Achille Mbembe’s term “necropolitics”, the article explores The Walking Dead’s representation of governance and power in terms of individual and group security. While the zombie has been understood as the liminal figure par excellence, The Walking Dead’s non-zombie characters illustrate diasporic liminality as refugees, hovering on or near the threshold of death. The scale of suffering or prosperity is determined by who leads or governs. Frequently, those deemed “in charge” exercise power and control to discipline, to punish, and to provide security. The series offers a metaphor for the potential uses of power in biological, environmental, or natural disaster situations where survivors grapple with scarce resources and the constant presence of death.

Vision Australia Radio (VAR) is part of the Australian Radio for the Print Handicapped (RPH) community radio network providing a radio reading service to listeners with a vision impairment. Like mainstream media, it faces the challenge of ensuring the service is fit for purpose in the digital age. There is little preexisting research on the behaviour and interests of the vision-impaired as a discrete audience demographic. This paper reports on a survey of listeners to VAR in Perth, Western Australia, which gives an insight into their current listening habits and identifies some of the challenges in meeting their future needs.