Latest Book: Environmental Activism and the Media: the Politics of Protest (Peter Lang Academic) is now available.

Profile: Dr Maxine Newlands (BA (Hons), MA, PhD, FHEA) is a Senior lecturer in Political Science and International Relations in the School of Social Science at JCU. Her PhD studies in environmental politics and the media were conducted in the UK, and she moved to Australia and JCU shortly after finishing her doctoral studies (2013). Before entering academia, Maxine was a broadcast journalist with the BBC and commercial radio. She continues to write for the Ecologist magazine, and is a regular political commentator for Australian and international media.

Maxine is a Research Associate at the University of Queensland's Centre for Policy Futures, a Research Fellow at the Cairns Institute and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Current Research Projects:

• Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP), a project mapping stakeholder engagement, governance, and media and sentiment analysis of reef restoration.
• CSIRO Townsville and the College of Business, Governance and Law on environmental communication and the Great Barrier Reef.
• Creative Ecologies project.
• With colleagues at UPNG on gender, climate change and governance in PNG.

Postgraduate (PhD, MA) or Honours inquiries: Maxine currently supervises three fulltime PhD 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

I am 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.

 Recently Completed Projects

• Australian Citizen Science Association at World Science Festival, Townsville (March 2019)
• Townsville Turns 150: the Old and the News Exhibition (Curator/ Principle Investigator) in collaboration with the Museum of Tropical Queensland ( February 2016- January 2017)
• UniPollWatch (2016 federal election)
• Consultation for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology on social media and best practice. (2015)

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; CNS & 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 (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
• Newlands M (2012) Debunking disability: media discourse and the Paralympic Games. In: Heroes or Zeros: the medias perceptions of Paralympic sport. Sport and Society. Common Ground Publishing, Illinois, USA, pp. 209-224

Other research outputs

• Newlands M and Martin M (2018) Tweeting the reef revolution: an analysis of public debates on the Great Barrier Reef restoration. Abstracts from the Great Barrier Reef Restoration Symposium. July 16-19 2018, Cairns, QLD, Australia

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 48+ 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)
• Assessing the Impact of Patron-Client Politics on Corruption within the Civil Service and Governance System in Papua New Guinea: 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.