We live in times of compounding and intensifying crisis: climate catastrophe, a genocide in Gaza, a rising fascist tide across the globe, the long crisis of settler colonial invasion and occupation here in Australia, the exhaustion of growth economies. Media technologies are often posited as a way to out of crisis: artificial intelligence promises productivity gains, automated weapons are presented as more efficient and humane ways to wage war, new imaging tools shed light on the impacts of global warming, increased data collection is positioned as step toward closing the gap and addressing systemic state neglect. At the same time, media platforms and organisations are also often seen as amplifying crises in the midst of an information disorder, the limited and harmful diversity paradigms of legacy media, and the intensification of racial capitalism in newsrooms and production studios. How are we to make sense of the poly-crisis we find ourselves in? And how are we to cut through the hype of the techno-fix?

Media Futures in Times of Crisis confronts these questions across two days of presentations, screenings, and discussions. Presented by the UNSW Media Futures Hub, the symposium seeks to cultivate theory and analysis adequate to the task of understanding the futures we move toward. If crisis implies the rupture of existing order, then the other side of this equation is that the outcome of crisis is yet to be determined. The future remains contested and contestable, its shape will arise through struggle. Media Futures in Times of Crisis seeks to develop media theory and praxis capable of identifying points of political intervention in an unjust world. Such a task requires that we look at the ways media technologies emerge from histories of settler colonialism and racial capitalism, as well as how they intersect with questions of race, class, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability.

Keynotes:

Olivia Khoo (Monash)
Amy Gaeta & Beryl Pong (Centre for Drones & Culture, Cambridge)

Screening:

WINHANGANHA, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Jazz Money

Resilience and Resistance in Journalism: An Industry Roundtable
Speakers: Alex McKinnon (Deepcut News), Farid Farid (AAP), Nour Haydar (Guardian Australia), Alan Sunderland (ex-ABC), Florencia Melgar (SBS News), and Chantelle Al-Khouri (ABC)

Moderator: Ayesha Jehangir (UNSW)

Panels featuring

Tanja Dreher, Thao Phan, Pearl Tan, Ruby Hamad, Sarah Malik, Scarlet Wilcock, Georgia van Toorn, Rachel Rowe, Justine Humphry, Seamus Byrne, Ayesha Akbar, Olga Boichak, Sonia Qadir, Jodi Brooks, Sukhmani Khorana, Michael Richardson, Andrew Brooks, Charu Maithani,

Symposium Program

Day 1, Thursday 4 December

10:30	Arrival & Refreshments
11:00	Welcome & Opening
11:30	Keynote ‘Trust the Algorithm’: Netflix and Queer Visibility Olivia Khoo (Monash)
12:30	Lunch
1:30	Stream Session 1: Media & Social Justice Working with and beyond diversity in media Panellists: Pearl Tan (AFTRS), Ruby Hamad, Sarah Malik (UNSW), Jodi Brooks (UNSW) Moderator: Tanja Dreher (UNSW)
3:00	Break
3:30	Stream Session 2: Data Justice Configurations of Data, Power, and Participation across public domains Panellists: Scarlet Wilcock (UNSW), Georgia van Toorn (UNSW), Rachel Rowe (UNSW), Tanja Dreher (UNSW), Justine Humphry (USyd) Moderator: Michael Richardson (UNSW)
5:00	Pre-Screening Drinks
6:00	Film Screening WINHANGANHA Screening, followed by Q&A with Jazz Money Facilitator: Andrew Brooks Robert Webster Building, 327

Day 2, Friday 5 December

10:00	Keynote How Drones Mediate the Self(ie) in Conflict Zones Beryl Pong & Amy Gaeta (Centre for Drones & Culture, Cambridge)
11:00	Break
11:15	Stream Session 3: Racial Technologies Title Pannellists: Thao Phan (ANU), Charu Maithani (UNSW), Sonia Qadir (UNSW, ADM+S) Moderator: Astrid Lorange (UNSW)
12:45	Lunch
1:45	Stream Session 4: Future Technologies Futuring Technologies in Crisis Times Panellists: Seamus Byrne (UNSW), Ayesha Akbar (UNSW), Olga Boichak (USyd), Michael Richardson (UNSW) Moderator: Andrew Brooks (UNSW)
3:15	Break
3:30	Journalism Roundtable: Resistance and Resilience in Australian Newsrooms Speakers: Alex McKinnon (Deepcut News), Farid Farid (AAP), Nour Haydar (Guardian), Alan Sunderland (ABC), Chantelle Al-Khouri (ABC), and Florencia Melgar (SBS News) Moderator: Ayesha Jehangir (UNSW)
5:00	Close & Thanks

Contact the host of Media Futures in Times of Crisis