STAFF PROFILE
Professor Rob Cover
Professor of Digital Communication
Rob Cover is Professor of Digital Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
He leads a number of major funded research projects on young people, health and wellbeing and digital and broadcast media. The author of around one hundred journal articles and chapters, he publishes widely on topics related to digital cultures in the context of social identities, young people, suicide prevention and resilience.
His recent books include: Queer Youth Suicide, Culture and Identity: Unliveable Lives? (Routledge 2012), Vulnerability and Exposure: Footballer Scandals, Masculinity and Ethics (UWAP Scholarly 2015), Digital Identities: Creating and Communicating the Online Self (Elsevier 2016), Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Gender and Relationships in a Digital Era (Routledge, 2019), Flirting in the Era of #MeToo: Negotiating Intimacies (with A Bartlett and K Clarke; Palgrave 2019), Population, Mobility and Belonging: Understanding Population Concepts in Media, Culture and Society (Routledge 2020) and Fake News in Digital Cultures (with A Haw and JD Thompson, Emerald 2022). He is a co-editor of the anthology Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship (Routledge 2019).
Recent books
- Queer Youth Suicide, Culture and Identity: Unliveable Lives?
- Vulnerability and Exposure: Footballer Scandals, Masculine Identity and Ethics
- Digital Identities: Creating and Communicating the Online Self
- Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders and Relationships in a Digital Era
- Flirting in the Era of #MeToo: Negotiating Intimacy (with A Bartlett and K Clarke)
- Population, Mobility and Belonging: Population Concepts in Media, Culture and Society
- (New in 2022) Fake News in Digital Cultures (with A Haw and JD Thompson)
Current and recently-completed arc projects
- AusQueerScreen: Representation of Gender and Sexual Diversity in Australian Film and Television, 1990-2010 (ARC Discovery DP180103321)
- LGBTQ Migrations: Life Story Narratives in the South Australian GLAM Sector(ARC Linkage LP180100251)
- Queer Generations: Belonging and sexual citizenship among gender and sexual minority youth (ARC Discovery (ARC Discovery DP150101292)
- BA Hons (UWA), PhD (Monash)
- Communication strategist, Queensland Government (2006-2007)
- Freelance journalist (1990s)
- Cover, R.,Haw, A.,Thompson, J. (2022). Fake News in Digital Cultures: Technology, Populism and Digital Misinformation, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, United Kingdom
- Cover, R.,Prosser, R.,Dau, D. (2022). The corporeality of sound: drag performance, lip-synching and the popular critique of gendered theatrics in Australian film and television In: Media International Australia, 182, 81 - 94
- Cover, R. (2022). Making Queer Content Visible: Approaches and Assumptions of Australian Film and Television Stakeholders working with LGBTQ + Content In: Media International Australia, , 1 - 17
- Cover, R. (2022). Australian queer screen stakeholders and creative artists: perceptions of value, motivation and impact of LGBTQ+ Australian film In: Studies in Australasian Cinema, , 1 - 15
- Cover, R. (2022). Digital hostility: contemporary crisis, disrupted belonging and self-care practices In: Media International Australia, 184, 79 - 91
- Cover, R. (2022). Deepfake culture: the emergence of audio-video deception as an object of social anxiety and regulation In: Continuum, 36, 609 - 621
- Cover, R. (2022). Straight and cisgender actors playing queer and trans characters: the views of Australian screen stakeholders In: Media, Culture and Society, , 1 - 17
- Cover, R. (2022). Digital hostility, subjectivity and ethics: Theorising the disruption of identity in instances of mass online abuse and hate speech In: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, , 1 - 14
- Cover, R. (2021). Identity in the disrupted time of COVID-19: Performativity, crisis, mobility and ethics In: Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 4, 1 - 8
- Thompson, J.,Cover, R. (2021). (In Press) Digital hostility, internet pile-ons and shaming: A case study In: Convergence, , 1 - 13
- Addressing Online Hostility in Australian Digital Cultures. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects 2023 from (2023 to 2026)
- Evaluation of CALD Youth Content Campaign (OPP-68827). Funded by: Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (Victoria Government) from (2021 to 2022)
- LGBTQ Migrations: Life Story Narratives in the South Australian GLAM Sector (Administered by University of Adelaide). Funded by: ARC Linkage Project Grants 2018 from (2020 to 2023)
- LGTBQ Representation in Australian Film and TV: Culture, Pedagogy, Health. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects 2018 from (2018 to 2022)
5 PhD Current Supervisions