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Research project: Engaging with Social Media in Museums

Start date:

2008

End date:

2010

Museum investigators

• Lynda Kelly, Head of Audience Research

External investigators

• Dr Angelina Russo, Associate Professor, Faculty of Design, Swinburne University of Technology
• Professor Denise Meredyth, Deputy Director, Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology

Funded by

• Australian Research Council

Description

Social media such as blogs, wikis and digital stories facilitate knowledge exchange through social networking. Such media create a new forum within which dispersed audiences can engage with museums to debate notions of identity, and voice these reflections online. With leading museums from Australia and the USA, Engaging with Social Media in Museums will:

1. Investigate innovative connections to social media networks by museums, through digital content, multimedia design and communication strategies.
2. Advance creative engagement between museums and learners, information searchers and content creators.
3. Lead debate within museums through reference to design, audience evaluation and cultural communication

This project will prototype the use of social media in museums to produce a new source of high-quality cultural information, and link regional, rural and international users with city-based institutions. It implements National Research Priority Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries: promoting an innovation culture and economy and smart information use.

The Australian museum sector is undergoing a period of substantial change in response to policy and technology initiatives, yet little formal collaboration exists between museums and researchers. This project brings together the Australian Museum, Powerhouse Museum and Musuem Victoria, along with the Smithsonian Institution, one of the world's foremost cultural institutions.

Progress reports from experiments conducted at the Australian Museum are being documented here.

Last Updated: 5 January 2010

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Related items

• Participatory Communication with Social Media
• From Ladders Of Participation To Networks Of Participation: Social Media And Museum Audiences
• The Impact of Social Media on Museum Practice
• Revisioning the Physical and On-line Museum: A Partnership with the Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools
• New Literacy, New Audiences
• • Audience Research Unit

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