Impact of communications research on society

I believe that it is always good to have communications researchers impress upon undergraduate students the difference that communications research can make on society. 

 It was good to have Dr. Amanda Watson from the Australian National University come do a session with the CA4 students during my tutorial class on the impact of research on society. She was in Madang doing her research and is a visiting academic from ANU. We had invited her to come talk to our CA4 student on the importance communications research on society. 

She spoke of two examples of her research work on the Sim card registration in PNG that happened a couple of years ago and also on the Coral Sea submarine cables. 

-Here is her work on the submarine cables published on Marine Policy, Volume 178, August 2025: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X25001502

Here is one of the research on the Sim Card Registration published in the Pacific Journalism Review, Volume 26, Issue 1, 2020: here https://scispace.com/pdf/mobile-phone-registration-in-papua-new-guinea-will-the-75yxa2gtg3.pdf

She also pointed out that as final year research students, there is an opportunity to showcase their work through writing journal articles, symposium presentations, etc so that the public becomes aware of their research. 

 

She pointed out that the recommendations part of their research should highlight changes thus could impact society such as policy changes, further research, practical work and methodological changes. 

Dr. Amanda once taught in the CA Department here at DWU sometime around 2004-2007. She is currently a visiting academic maintaining the partnership between DWU and ANU.