Latest Book: Environmental Activism and the  Media: the Politics of Protest (Peter Lang Academic, NY)

Profile: Dr Maxine Newlands (BA (Hons), MA, PhD, FHEA) is political scientist with expertise in governance, policy, regulation, communication, and regional Queensland politics. Maxine is a multidisciplinary social science scholar working within the Great Barrier Reef and international marine environments on governance, politics, and communication/media. Maxine also works with colleagues in Papua New Guinea on gender politics and climate change in the Pacific region.

Dr Maxine Newlands provides advice to government ; and a core member of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program.

Maxine’s most recent plenary presentations can be viewed at:

• Reef Futures Conference (December 2018) in Key Largo, Florida, USA.

• Great Barrier Reef Restoration Symposium, Cairns, Australia (July 2018).

Before entering academia, Maxine was a broadcast journalist with the BBC and commercial radio in the UK. She continues to write for the Ecologist magazine and The Conversation. Maxine is regular political commentator for ABC News, BBC, SBS, CNN, WIN TV, Ch7, ABC RN, ABC News Radio, local and national newspapers including the Townsville Bulletin, Australian Financial Times, Australian Geographic and other media outlets.

Current research projects include

• Chief Investigator –Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP) in Stakeholder Engagement and Regulation, for the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (administered by Australian Institute of Marine Science)
• Chief Investigator- Regulatory and Permitting Planning for RRAP Program for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation - Reef Trust Partnership (administered by University of Queensland).

Previous research roles includes

• Advisor  The Social and Economic Long Term Monitoring Program (SELTMP) 2014: drivers of change in the Great Barrier Reef. Report. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, Cairns, QLD, Australia.
• Principal Investigator/ Project Manager – Townsville Turns 150: the Old and the News Exhibition (Curator/ Principle Investigator) in collaboration with the Museum of Tropical Queensland administer by the Townsville City Council
• Principal Investigator Creative Ecologies project. (Blue Humanities)
• Principal investigator -Australian Citizen Science Association (QLD) at the World Science Festival, Townsville (March 2019)
• Principal Investigator/co-editor (Queensland) for UniPollWatch (2016 federal election) adminstered by Swinbourne University.
• Principal Investigator – Social media and best practice for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (2015)

Maxine is a Research Associate at the University of Queensland's Centre for Policy Futures, a JCU/TropWater member, and Research Fellow at the Cairns Institute.

Postgraduate (PhD, MA) or Honours inquiries: Maxine currently supervises five fulltime postgraduate candidates. If you are interested in studying for a Master or PhD with Maxine, she specialises in the following areas:

Environmental governance and climate change

• Reefs, governance, and policy.
• Great Barrier Reef and communication practices.
• The role of advocacy and the media in environmental governance and policy.
• Coral Reef Restoration

 Social Network Analysis

• Social media analysis
• Political communication
• Environmental communication
• Discourse and Critical Discourse Analysis

Maxine is also interested in supervising studies on the politics of gender representation in the developing world with a focus on the Pacific region.

Please contact Maxine or the JCU Graduate Research School for further information. Honours studies can start in either February or August.

Interviews and commentary in the media (most recent)

•  Australian Financial Review [19/03/19] Push to regulate social giants like traditional media after Christchurch
• Townsville Bulletin [11/01/19] The legal truth behind Clive Palmer’s texts to you
• Townsville Bulletin [24/08/18] Canberra confusion will prompt protest vote in North Queensland
• ABC The World Today [23/08/18] Turnbull “shifting the argument” to sow uncertainty: Maxine Newlands
• Daily Telegraph [27/11/17] Photo finish In Townsville Election Race
• Townsville Bulletin [27/11/17]  Townsville Election Race
• The Guardian [29/11/17] Where the 2017 Queensland Election will be Won and Lost
• ABC the World Today [23/11/17]: North Queensland is once again a major battleground in the State election, with energy and water security, crime, and unemployment key issues.
• The Conversation [15/11/17]  Adani aside, North Queensland Voters Care about Crime and the cost  of Living
• Rural Queensland Today [01/11/2017]  Qld Election podcast
• Australian Geographic [26/06/17] The Great Barrier Reef has been valued at $56 billion. So what does this mean for its conservation?
• The Morning Bulletin [12/01/17] Explained: Why CQ’s youth are voting for Hanson
• BBC World News [28/07/16] Has Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull's gamble paid off.
• ABC RN - Bush Telegraph [ 04/09/14] Understanding Uranium Exports

 See google news for more media commentary with Maxine.

 Community Engagement

• Maxine is the convenor of the Australian Citizen Science Association at World Science Festival, Townsville (March 2019); the Ecofeminism, Educators and Climate Change network and symposium, and the Young Diplomats Program (YDP).  YDP is a program that works with year ten students from local school culminating in a Day of Diplomacy, and the Townsville Protocol. (2016). Funded by JCU. 

 

Teaching

• PL1001: The Political World: An Introduction to Political Science (Level 1; TSV)
• PL2006: Political Communication in the Global Environment (Level 2; TSV)
• PL2110: Government and Politics in Developing Areas (Level 2; CNS & TSV)
• PL3003: Democracy and the State (Level 3; TSV)
• PL3250: Australia and World Politics (Level 3; CNS & TSV)
• PL4002: Theory and Method in Political Science (Level 4; CNS & TSV)
• PL5110: Shifting Geopolitical Environments in Emerging States (Level 5; CNS & TSV)

Interests

Professional

• Maxine was the Project Manager and lead investigator for the Townsville 150 Old and the News exhibition (Feb 2016 - Jan 2017) at the Museum of Tropical Queensland.

Research

• Maxine is interested in social media analysis, social netwrok analysis and discourse analysis. She has conducted consultation work for the Bureau of Meteorology on best practice for social media strategies. Please contact Maxine to discuss consultation works.
• Maxine's research focuses -Political Ecology -Political Communciation -Environmental journalism -environmental politics and governance - radical politics and protest movements ; and Media discourse and the Great Barrier Reef. - Gender disparity in the developing world. Maxine's methodological approaches centers on critical discourse analysis, discourse analysis, focus groups, content analysis and empirical research. Maxine's monograph 'Environmental Activism and the Media: the Politics of Protest' (Peter Lang Publishers, forthcoming)

Experience

• 2015 to 2022 - Research Fellow, Cairns Institute (Cairns, Qld.)
• 2016 to 2018 - Editor (Reviews), Journal of Environmental Education (Aus.)
• 2015 - Visiting Academic, National University of Samoa (Apia, Samoa)
• 2010 to 2014 - Fellow, London East Research Institue (London, UK)

Research Disciplines

• Political Science (1606)
• Journalism and Professional Writing (1903)
• Cultural Studies (2002)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Government and Politics (9402)
• Communication (9502)
• Environmental Policy, Legislation and Standards (9607)

Awards

• 2017 - 3 Minute Thesis: Early Career Researcher. JCU/ DTES Runner up
• 2016 - TropEco Leadership & Governance - Highly Commended for EfECC Symposium.
• 2014 - TROPECO - Research Award Highly Commended for outstanding research activities that contributes to a more sustainable society and environment.
• 2014 - Overall Winner - TROPECO Excellence award for Outstanding contribution to sustainability at JCU and in the wider community
• 2016 to 2017 - Scholarship- Australian Higher Education Sector Leadership Colloquium; Australian School of Applied Management.
• 2016 - New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant ($110,000) over two years, working with colleagues in Samoa.
• 2014 - Winner: Division of Tropical Environment & Societies Three Minute Thesis Competition ECR category

Fellowships

• 2010 - Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK.
• 2018 to 2023 - Research Associate at the University of Queensland's Centre for Policy Futures
• 2015 to 2018 - Visiting Fellow, Media and Journalism, National University of Samoa
• 2010 to 2014 - London East Research Institute (LERI)

Memberships

• 2018 - International Political Science Association (IPSA)
• 2018 - Australian Coral Reef Society
• 2018 - Australian Political Studies Association (APSA) and APSA Environmental Politics and Policy Standing Research Group.
• 2018 - Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA)

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Fidelman P, McGrath C, Newlands M, Jago B, Dodds K and Hussey K (in press) Regulatory implications of coral reef restoration and adaptation under a changing climate. Environmental Science & Policy,
• Larri L and Newlands M (2017) Knitting Nannas and Frackman: a gender analysis of Australian anti-coal seam gas documentaries and implications for environmental adult education. Journal of Environmental Education, 48 (1). pp. 35-45
• Lloyd R, Newlands M and Petray T (2017) Coral Battleground? Re-examining the 'Save the Reef' campaign in 1960s Australia. Environmental Sociology, 3 (1). pp. 54-63
• M'Balla-Ndi M and Newlands M (2016) Talanoa and Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action: journalistic practices in the tropical Pacific. Etropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 15 (2). pp. 68-81
• Lankester A, Bohensky E and Newlands M (2015) Media representations of risk: the reporting of dredge spoil disposal in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park at Abbot Point. Marine Policy, 60. pp. 149-161
• Newlands M (2013) From hyperlink to ink: media tactics and protest strategies of the UK radical environmental activism movement. Crossing Conceptual Boundaries, V. pp. 45-51
• Newlands M (2012) Green Britannia: deconstructing 'Team Green Britain' and the London 2012 Olympic Games. International Journal of Sport and Society, 1 (3). pp. 185-194

Books

• Newlands M (2018) Environmental Activism and the Media: The Politics of Protest. Peter Lang

Book Chapters

• Newlands M (in press) Environmental journalism in the Asia and Pacific region. In: Routledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism. Routledge, New York, USA
• Newlands M (in press) Environmental journalism in Australia and New Zealand. In: Routledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism. Routledge, New York
• Newlands M (2013) Reclaiming the media: technology, tactics and subversion. In: Technology, Society and Inequality: new horizons and contested futures. Digital Formations, 87. Peter Lang Publishing, New York, USA, pp. 155-166
• Newlands M (2012) Carbon trading in the city of undoing. In: London After Recession: a fictitious capital?. Design and the Built Environment. Ashgate Publishing, Oxford, UK, pp. 199-212

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 51+ research outputs authored by Dr Maxine Newlands from 2008 onwards.

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Defining Nannagogy: Investigating Older Women’s Environmental Citizenship Learning through the Experiences of the Knitting Nannas Against Gas (PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Investigating corruption in Papua New Guinea through the patron-client structure: The citizens' perception (Masters , Primary Advisor)
• When do Scientists become Advocates? The Blurred line between Science and Advocacy and the Role of Social Media (Masters , Secondary Advisor)
• Living Nature: Western Thinking and the Experience of Nature in the United States and in Australia in the 21st Century (PhD , Primary Advisor)

These are the most recent metadata records associated with this researcher. To see a detailed description of all dataset records, visit the JCU Research Data Catalogue.

• Newlands, M. (2017) T150 Old and the News Data on Regional Media Habits in North Queensland. James Cook University

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.