Ramon Lobato

Associate Professor Ramon Lobato

Associate Professor

Details

  • College: School of Media & Communication
  • Department: School - Media & Communication
  • Campus: City Campus Australia
  • ramon.lobato@rmit.edu.au

Open to

  • Masters Research or PhD student supervision

About

Ramon Lobato is an Associate Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the RMIT School of Media and Communication.

Ramon Lobato is a scholar of media and cultural industries. The analytical focus of his research is on digital distribution networks, and how they structure audience access, discovery, and content diversity. Ramon has published widely within film and television studies, digital media studies, media industry studies, and cultural policy studies.

Ramon's first book, Shadow Economies of Cinema: Mapping Informal Film Distribution (British Film Institute, 2012), won the Limina Prize for best international film studies book at the Udine Film Forum. His second book, The Informal Media Economy (Polity, 2015, with Julian Thomas), developed an original approach to media industry analysis, using theories of economic informality to explain how media systems evolve.
Ramon’s current research investigates the impacts of digital video distribution. Since 2020 Ramon has led an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2020-2024) project investigating the cultural impacts of smart TVs in Australia. A report from this project is available on the APO website.

His most recent books include Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution (New York University Press, 2019), which locates the rise of subscription video-on-demand services within the history of transnational television, and the anthology Streaming Video: Storytelling Across Borders (New York University Press, 2023, co-edited with Prof Amanda Lotz), which examines streaming original production across fifteen countries.

In addition, Ramon is the author of more than 50 book chapters and journal articles, and was a contributor to the 2013 UNESCO Creative Economy report. His work has been translated into Korean, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Slovenian.

Ramon has led several transnational research projects on video culture. With Amanda Lotz, Ramon co-founded the Global Internet TV Consortium, a research network exploring the impact of multi-territory streaming services on national markets. In 2016, he worked with Dr James Meese and an international team of collaborators to publish the open-access edited collection Geoblocking and Global Video Culture (Institute of Network Cultures, 2016), a comparative study of video streaming and circumvention practices. Between 2019 and 2022 Ramon led the ARC Discovery project Internet-Distributed Television: Cultural, Industrial and Policy Dynamics with Prof Lotz and Stuart Cunningham, culminating in the publication of the Streaming Video: Storytelling Across Borders.

Cultural policy is another focus area for Ramon’s research. With his colleague Dr Alexa Scarlata, Ramon has been tracking the local content performance of streaming services and connected-TV devices since 2017 to inform public decision-making in Australia. Their work includes submissions to government inquiries and analyses of local content policy in the context of digital platformization.

Ramon is a former Chair of the International Communication Association's Media Industry Studies Interest Group. He currently serves on the editorial board of International Journal of Cultural Studies, Journal of Digital Media and Policy, and Media Industries.

With Joshua Braun, Ramon co-edits the MIT Press book series Distribution Matters, which is dedicated to publishing innovative scholarship on media distribution and its social and cultural impact. The series welcomes submissions from across the fields of media studies, communication history, anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, internet studies, and cultural studies.

Awards:
- RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Technology, Communication and Policy lab (2020)
- International Communication Association Popular Communication Division – Outstanding Young Scholar award (2016)
- Dean's Award for Outstanding Research, Swinburne University (2015)
- Faculty ECR Award for Research Excellence, Swinburne University (2014)
- Udine Film Forum - Best International Film Studies book prize (2013)

Major grants
- Five funded ARC projects since 2011 (ARC APD, DECRA, DP, Linkage, Future Fellowship)

Ramon joined RMIT in 2017 after seven years at the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University. During his time he worked on a range of projects in the area of media, technology and policy. He also taught into Swinburne's Cinema and Screen studies programme, coordinating the units Cinema Studies and Global Screen Studies.

While at Swinburne, Ramon developed an interdisciplinary seminar programme in research methods for postgraduate students in the School of Arts, Social Science and Humanities. He maintains an interest in postgrad research training.

Before becoming a researcher, Ramon worked as a music journalist and editor.

Supervisor projects

  • A study of Chinese young females' digital political action and online everyday political talk
  • 1 Mar 2024
  • Platformisation, Mediatization and the Infrastructure of Cultural Spaces: The practices of artists on digital platforms in Melbournes alternative music scene
  • 26 Feb 2024
  • Post-Cinematic Remediation: Translations and Imbrications in 21st-Century Media
  • 19 Jun 2023
  • The Augmented Worker: Understanding automated decision-making systems in Australia's supermarket warehouses and distribution networks
  • 1 Mar 2021
  • Digital ghost stories in Indonesia
  • 16 Jul 2020
  • Chinese Otaku Culture: Between Fandom, Market, and the State
  • 10 Sep 2019
  • The Kennedy Miller Method: A Half-Century of Australian Screen Production
  • 16 Apr 2019
  • Where is the Evidence? Research Publishing and Public Policy in Australia
  • 13 Mar 2017
  • Music, Metrics, and Meaning: Australian Music Industries and Streaming Services
  • 1 Mar 2017

Teaching interests

Media industries, Audiences, Film, Television, Digital media, Streaming, Distribution, Copyright, Piracy, Global media, Cultural studies, Cinema studies, Screen studies, Cultural theory

Ramon is available to supervise PhD projects on media industries, technologies and audiences for students with a background in media studies, communication studies, film studies, television studies, cultural studies, Internet studies, and related fields. Prospective applicants are welcome to get in touch to discuss their research.

Research interests

Communication and Media Studies, Cultural Studies
aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.