Pokapū Rangahau Whakawhitiwhiti

Co-Director

Dr Gudrun Frommherz

A researcher of digital communication, Gudrun inquires into the technological and visual aspects of communication with a particular interest in the visuality of the future. She also investigates creative practice as a research paradigm.

Co-Director

Associate Professor

Helen Sissons

Helen researches the professional practices of journalists and public relations practitioners, and the intersection of both. She is particularly interested in how power is negotiated between these professionals.

Deputy Director

Associate Professor

Philippa Smith

Philippa's expertise lies in the critical analysis of (new)-media texts, particularly those that relate to social issues such as prejudice and discrimination. She was a visiting scholar at the Oxford Internet Institute in 2018.

Researcher

Dr Deepti Bhargava

Deepti is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and her research interests include culture, diversity, PR pedagogy, digital communication and PR measurement, evaluation and reflection.

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Researcher

Rachel Daniels

Rachel’s decade and a half of television production experience has influenced her research, which looks at the multitude of different platforms, specifically subscription video on demand and its impact on New Zealand broadcasting.

Researcher

Dan Fastnedge

Dan's research focuses on contemporary advertising, including how brands navigate controversial issues and shifting audience expectations.

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Researcher

Dr Melissa Gould

Melissa is a critical media studies researcher. Her research focuses on promotional and popular culture, with an interest in child and youth audiences, gender representations, and media literacy.

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Researcher

Dr Matthew Guinibert

Matt is a digital media practitioner and educational technologist with a passion for creative and transformative pedagogies both in and out of the classroom.

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Researcher

Matt Halliday

Matt’s interest lies in how communication can help save the world. This involves Aotearoa’s communication response to COVID-19, the power of advertising to drive social change, and technologies that tell wholesome stories.

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Researcher

Justin Matthews

Justin focuses on user interface and interactional experiences, future studies, gaming studies, and popular culture. He researches speculative user interfaces from science fiction and their relationship to contemporary technology experiences.

Researcher

Dr Atakohou Middleton

Atakohu is a journalist of Ngāti Māhanga and Pākehā whakapapa who researches Māori-language journalism.

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Researcher

Dr Danielle Mulrennan

Danni is a practice-based researcher of journalism studies. She has a background in television broadcast news and sports production. Her research focuses on user-generated video content and television news.

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Researcher

Associate Professor

Angelique Nairn

Angelique works in multiple research areas including morality and identity, online racism, organisational communication, and the experiences of creative workers. She recently co-edited a book on gender and voice.

Researcher

Aditya (AD) Narayan

AD is a practice-based researcher interested in community-driven video production, and future directions in the development of extended reality technologies.

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Researcher

Khairiah Rahman

Khairiah’s research intersects media and self-representations of marginalised communities, issues impacting diversity and inclusion, and crisis and communication paradigms in practice. Her current research is on tenets of Islamic Communication.

Researcher

Associate Professor

Petra Theunissen

Petra's work focuses on stakeholder relationships, both interpersonal and mediated, in contemporary communication practice.

Researcher

Dr Patrick Usmar

Patrick's research focus is on media literacy in adults. He also researches audience attitudes and the language of brand communications.

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Researcher

Dr Zak Waipara

Zak researches traditional pūrākau (mythology) to address modern issues. He is experienced in methodologies that relate to design and creative technologies, including practice-based, heuristic, and kaupapa Māori/ indigenous research methods.

 Affiliate Researcher

Associate Professor

Katharina Wolf

Katharina Wolf is an Associate Professor in the School of Management and Marketing at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, and Lead of the Faculty of Business and Law’s public relations program.

Affiliate Researcher

Dr Wan Norbani Wan Noordin

Wan's research focuses on communication technologies, their development and impact on academia and practice. She is the Director of the Transnational Education department at iCEPS, UiTM in Malaysia.

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Affiliate Researcher

Dr Mark Rasquinha

Mark's research explores the intersections of technology, political communication, public relations, education, and society. He employs ethnomethodology, examining the verbal and non-verbal communication strategies in the workplace.​

Affiliate Researcher

Dr Stephanie Sageo-Tapungu † 

Stephanie researched the relationships and interactions between journalists and PR practitioners in Papua New Guinea. She was a scholar at the Divine World University Madang, Papua New Guinea. Her enthusiasm, generosity and kindness will forever guide us.

Affiliate Researcher

Dr Cindy Wang

Cindy is a researcher of social media and digital communication. She recently completed a PhD on content creation strategies for vlogs.

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Affiliate Researcher

Sophia Spivak

Sophia is a visual communicator and a digital experience designer working across public, private and tertiary education sectors. Sophia’s research interests lie in exploring digital technology in museography and exhibition communication.

Affiliate Researcher

Karl Udy

Karl researches in the areas of not-for-profit and digital communication, with a particular focus on new media and religion.

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Graduate Researcher

Antionette Gyan

Antoinette is a researcher in the field of women's leadership. She is passionate about women's empowerment and gender equality. Her advocacy covers voice and representation, social constructs, stereotypes and gender parity in public relations.