SIM - Society, Information and Media

The centre for Society Information and Media (SIM) is a communication research centre, investigating socio-economic, historical, professional and cultural aspects of print, audiovisual and digital media.

Members of SIM are academic staff, research associates, practitioners and postgraduate researchers actively engaged in collaborative projects and/or with shared interests in developing further such projects. Dr. Barbara O'Connor is the current Director of SIM.

SIM builds on the record of the Society Technology and Media (STeM) centre, which was established as a University Designated Research Centre in 2000, and the Communication Technology and Culture (COMTEC) centre founded in 1991. The researchers working in these pioneering centres conducted more than twenty collaborative research projects, funded from local, national and international sources.

Founded in 2005, SIM further consolidates DCU's position as the national leader in communications and media research. SIM's agenda is based on a range of approaches to the role and features of the media and public information in their socio-cultural and technological setting as well as creative media production and practice projects. SIM's researchers represent a range of approaches to study of the mediated communication and related ‘information society’ issues, including those of policy studies, reception analysis, cultural studies, political economy, history, textual studies. SIM also supports collaborative media production and practice projects, including the authoring/design of new media objects, and digital media applications for teaching and learning. The SIM centre makes it easier to combine methodologies and share resources than is the case with more individualised communication research.

SIM also provides a framework for interdisciplinary research collaboration both within the School of Communications and between School members and colleagues in other schools in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. SIM members have individual relations with the Centre for International Studies (CIS), and Centre for Translation and Textual Studies (CTTS). SIM continues to develop links with other centres/projects across the university with a view to more formal cross-disciplinary research collaborations.

SIM's research agenda is currently focused on four cross-cutting themes as follows:

Digital Media Cultures and the Information Society

• Innovation processes and policy frameworks in the information society; trends in digital media production and uses; new media, new pleasures; media literacy in a digital environment; new media in teaching, learning and education

International and Intercultural Media

• Media diversity; media in multicultural societies, developing countries and migrant groups; public communication and media in multicultural and development contexts; communication and development theories/models; media representations of war and conflict

Creative and Practice-based Research

• Digital media authoring and design - theories and practices; documentary and new media; installation art digital audio composition; educational applications of new media; interactive narratives; screen art and imaging

Media Histories, Policies and Professional Practices

• Journalism history, the role of journalism in the public sphere, media policies