Who we are

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists  (ICIJ) Sydney Office is also based within the Centre for Media Transition.

Centre Directors

Derek Wilding, Co-Director, was previously Director of the Communications Law Centre at UNSW, but came to UTS after a decade working in government and industry regulatory roles. He was Executive Director of the Australian Press Council, implementing major structural changes to embrace online and other digital publishers. At the Australian Communications and Media Authority he managed the media ownership rules, broadcasting investigations and digital transition projects.

Monica Attard, Co-Director and Professor and UTS FASS Head of Journalism spent 28 years at the ABC, working across radio and television. She was the ABC’s Russia correspondent at possibly the best time in modern history to be a Russia correspondent. She reported on the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, the collapse of Soviet communism, the rise of Boris Yeltsin and his peculiar brand of capitalism and democracy, the first Chechen war and she covered civil wars across the old Soviet Union. Four years of covering the revolution left her with just enough energy to pump out a book about the events – Russia, Which Way Paradise? Monica was recently the head of journalism at Macleay College in Sydney and Melbourne where she created a digital journalism program that has delivered post graduate success.

Researchers

Michael Davis is a research fellow at the CMT. He previously worked at the Australian Communications and Media Authority, where he provided regulatory advice on online misinformation and disinformation, the news media bargaining code, and impartiality and commercial influence in news. Michael has a PhD in philosophy (ANU) and has taught philosophy and the history of ideas at the ANU and at Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and currently teaches media ethics and regulation at the University of Sydney. He is interested in applying ideas from philosophical pragmatism to improve our understanding of the public sphere and help us develop effective policy responses to the challenges we face in the age of misinformation. Michael also spent five years in the museum sector working as a researcher and curator for exhibitions and other cultural projects.

Alena Radina is a postdoctoral research fellow at the CMT, a sessional academic teaching subjects in communication strategy at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, and a UTS PhD graduate, having completed her studies in 2023. Her research interests span across political communication, multimodal instruments of power, and agenda setting with satire. Alena has a Master’s in Global Business Journalism from Tsinghua University, Beijing (in partnership with Bloomberg). She has worked in cultural insights and commercial semiotics consultancy, radio and TV journalism, public relations, and film production.

Sacha Molitorisz is a researcher at the CMT and a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law with an interest in ethics, privacy and trust. After studying law and English literature at UNSW, Sacha accepted a cadetship at The Sydney Morning Herald, where for 19 years he had a front row seat for digital disruption while working as a writer, editor, reviewer and blogger. In 2012 he began teaching media and ethics courses at UNSW and NYU Sydney, and in 2017 he completed his PhD, which applied Kantian ethics to internet privacy.

Gary Dickson is a research fellow at the CMT, where he works on conditions that are challenging rural and regional media and on the future of news media standards schemes. He was previously Head of Research at the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, where his research was focussed on building data about news production around Australia. He teaches media ethics and law at Monash University and has contributed research to the Alliance for Journalists Freedom, Our Watch and Index on Censorship.

Kieran Lindsay is a Research Officer at the Centre working on CMT's Future of Co-regulation project. He leverages experience from his five years as a consultant at a leading Australian strategic communications firm, where he provided advice on media and communications strategy. Kieran's current interests centre on the field of artificial intelligence. He has launched initiatives such as AcademicID, an AI-powered startup, as well as Transparency-project.ai, an online platform dedicated to evaluating moral worldviews displayed by AI models. Kieran is also currently working with the NSW Department of Education, where he is helping with the ethical and responsible roll-out of generative AI in NSW classrooms.

Tamara Markus is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Media Transition, working on the GenAI and Public Interest journalism project. She is a graduate lawyer and researcher with an interest in sex discrimination law and copyright. She has previously worked in broadcast television in Sydney and London across sales operations and commissioning.

Professional Staff

Rosa Alice is the Centre Coordinator for the Centre for Media Transition. She doubles as a multimedia artist. She graduated with a Masters in Film from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts from Deakin University, Melbourne.

Alexia Giacomazzi is the Events and Communications Officer with the Centre for Media Transition. She has delivered audience engagement and development programs across the NFP, health and cultural sectors to start important conversations with real world impacts. Alexia graduated with a MA in Research Architecture from Goldsmiths, University of London and BVA Honours from Sydney College of the Arts. 

 HDR Students                                                                                               

Robert Size is a PhD Candidate for the Centre. His thesis topic is ‘Publishing Fake News for Profit is Fraud’. Rob’s research argues that fake news publishers could be charged with existing fraud offences in the US, UK and Australia. It examines the difference between conventional frauds and the arguable fraud of publishing fake news for profit. And it considers the implications for freedom of speech. Fraud is an accepted exception to freedom of speech. But would it remain so if used to prosecute those who publish false news stories on political topics? The Santa Clara Law Review published an article in which Rob argued that fake news publishers could be charged with wire fraud in the United States. Rob also made a submission to the Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media. 

CMT Management Committee

The Centre’s Management Committee is headed by the Dean of Law, Professor Anita Stuhmcke, and the Acting Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Noel Castree.

CMT Advisory Board

The Centre’s Advisory Board is chaired by former Chief News Officer at MediaWorks NZ and now company director, Hal Crawford. Other members of the Board include:

• Ian McGill, TMT lawyer
• Hugh Riminton, TEN Network national affairs reporter
• John Galligan, General Manager, Global Public Affairs for Microsoft Corporation
• Sophie Dawson, Partner, Bird & Bird
• Clare O’Neil, Director, Corporate Affairs, SBS
• Victoria Rubensohn, Director Communications Compliance and Principal, Omni Media

• Lesley Hitchens, UTS Emeritus Professor

   

Research Associates

• Chrisanthi Giotis, Lecturer in Journalism at the University of South Australia and was a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Centre from 2018 until 2021 
• Professor Heather Ford, Head of Discipline for Digital and Social Media in the School of Communications at UTS
• Dr Karen Lee, Senior Lecturer who specialises in communications regulation in the Faculty of Law at UTS
• Professor David Lindsay, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at UTS
• Dr Amelia Johns, Senior Lecturer in Digital and Social Media in the UTS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Dr Marian-Andrei Riziou, Senior Lecturer leading the Behavioral Data Science lab at the University of Technology Sydney
• Dr Francesco Bailo, Lecturer in Data Analytics in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney
• Dr Susanne Lloyd-Jones, Cyber Security CRC Post Doctoral Fellow at the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation