Dr T.J. Thomson
Queensland University of Technology
Professor, Communication & Media Studies
Australia
My co-authors include
Erica Koegler
Ashton Speno
My Publications
Why are people reactive to cameras and what can visual journalists do about it?
Journalism Practice
March 2016
Framing is a focusing device. It allows us to highlight some aspects and minimize others. So with visual framing, it really comes down to what is included in the frame and what is excluded from the...
How is the freelancer model impacting photojournalists' learning and development?
Journalism Studies
August 2016
Chances are, the most recent images you’ve seen in the news media were created by freelancers. Some of the biggest news media companies in the U.S., including the New York Times, the Washington Pos...
Exploring how race impacts visual news media coverage
Visual Communication Quarterly
October 2016
Most journalism research focuses on 1) journalists, 2) media organizations, 3) media content, or 4) audience reactions. This research provides a unique perspective by sharing the perspectives not o...
Exploring how three media systems depicted the same event differently
Journalism Studies
January 2017
Is Pope Francis a diplomat, religious figure, elitist, or humanitarian? Depends on who you ask. It’s relatively easy to frame a written or verbal story through including, excluding, emphasizing, or...
Why do Instagram users engage more with certain content on the platform?
Visual Communication Quarterly
October 2017
This study explores the roles and functions that Instagram fulfills for social media users and the types of people and content that impacts engagement on the platform. Using Q methodology, which br...
How did a gay photographer view his community before and during the AIDS crisis of the ...
Visual Communication Quarterly
January 2018
This study explored how a marginalized group (LGBTQ people) were historically covered (or ignored) in the mainstream news media and then how that coverage contrasted with the representations provid...
Exploring how visual journalists experience and manage their work-related emotions
Journalism
September 2018
Twenty-three journalists in eight countries provide insights on the emotional forces that shape their work and how they manage the effects of those emotions. Emotional labor and work pervade the pr...
How do verbal narratives compare to visual ones?
Visual Communication Quarterly
October 2018
Through a longitudinal, interview-based approach, a photojournalist working on a 30-plus-day picture story was interviewed weekly for six weeks over the course of his project to track perceptions o...
What are the benefits/challenges of using visual social media to support health for tho...
Journal of HIV/AIDS & Social Services
November 2018
This qualitative study utilized posters created from a photo voice project to explore participants’ use of social media, interest in viewing posters via social media, and interest in creating their...
How do ordinary people behave in front of news cameras?
Journalism & Communication Monographs
January 2019
People are often reactive to cameras, and tension can exist between the idealized ways people want to be depicted and the ways journalists visually render them. Considering that visual media are “c...
How do news media depictions of migrants affect how others perceive them?
International Communication Gazette
March 2019
Using a visual analysis, 811 images primarily depicting migration from Turkey into Europe in 2015 were examined. Analysis determined that, despite billions of dollars in aid and millions of migrant...
Exploring the life of America's first openly gay major
Visual Communication Quarterly
January 2020
More than 50 years ago, in 1969, police raided a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, sparking a series of demonstrations, protests, and formal organizing that continues in various forms to thi...
How do we know what's real and not when it comes to the visuals we encounter online?
Journalism Practice
October 2020
Social media platforms and news organisations alike are struggling with identifying and combating visual mis/disinformation presented to their audiences. Such processes are complicated due to the e...
What images do we make or screenshot on our phones and which of these do we share?
Visual Communication Quarterly
January 2021
This study examines the “life cycle” of images from capture or creation on the device to potential editing and sharing on social media. It does so through a multi-method, qualitative approach that ...
How did journalists and photo editors represent Australia's 2019-20 bushfire season?
Media International Australia
April 2021
This study compares domestic and international visual news coverage of Australia's 2019-20 bushfire season (colloquially known as "black summer"). Australian media drew on the personalization news ...
How can emergency services organisations manage problematic images during disasters?
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
June 2021
This research identifies four specific types of problematic visual media that are common to natural hazard emergencies in Australia. We propose a combination of reactive and proactive strategies th...
How do scholars define visual communication? What methods do they use to study this topic?
Visual Communication
October 2021
Journalism Employability in the Modern Newsroom: Insights From Applicant Resumes and Co...
Journalism & Mass Communication Educator
July 2021
Book Review: Simon Collister and Sarah Roberts-Bowman, Visual Public Relations: Strateg...
Public Relations Inquiry
November 2019
Photography: A Critical Introduction (Fifth Edition), edited by Liz Wells
Visual Communication Quarterly
April 2018
Book Review: Theorizing Images by Žarko Paić and Krešimir Purgar (Eds.)
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
March 2018
