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What Lies Beyond the Frame?

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Photo: Michael Burrows via Pexels · Pexels License P hotography has taught me to pay attention to what happens at the edges of an image. When I compose a photograph, I decide where the frame begins and ends. That decision influences what becomes visible, what receives attention and what remains outside the picture. I am increasingly interested in what happens when somebody else sees the finished image. A photograph may provide accurate information about a moment while revealing little about what occurred before or afterwards. Yet viewers can construct a surprisingly complete explanation from what appears inside the frame. A photograph can be accurate about what it shows and incomplete about what it means. Prior choices Choosing a composition is part of ordinary photographic practice. Moving closer changes the emphasis; moving back provides more surroundings. An angle can alter how subjects and backgrounds appear related. These decisions d...
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The Difference Between Sharing and Believing

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Photo: Beyzanur K. via Pexels · Pexels License I magine receiving an article accompanied by a short message: “Have you seen this?” There is no explanation of why it was sent. Perhaps the sender agrees with the article, doubts it, finds it amusing or simply wants to begin a conversation. It is tempting to read intention into that small act of sharing. Yet the message tells us very little about the sender's actual judgement. The more I examine mediated communication, the more interested I become in what we assume about people from the traces they leave behind. Passing information along is an observable action. Believing it is a different claim. What a share can mean A forwarded article can perform several functions. It may provide information, invite disagreement, signal concern, express humour or maintain a relationship. The same words can acquire different meanings depending on who sends them, to whom and in what circumstances. When r...
Location: Australia
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What Did I Actually See?

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Photo: Gustavo Fring via Pexels · Pexels License C onsider a television sequence in which one person speaks, the camera cuts to somebody else's expression and the scene ends in silence. It is easy to assemble a story from those images. The first person has upset the second; the silence means disagreement; perhaps the relationship has changed. I can see how quickly a few moments become an apparently complete account. Of course, that interpretation might be reasonable. What interests me is how difficult it can be to notice where the recorded material ends and my explanation begins. My growing interest in audiovisual learning has made that distinction particularly useful. The scene has an ending. My explanation of it may still be unfinished. What the sequence gives me Moving images are unusually effective at making events feel continuous. We see faces, hear voices and follow a sequence that appears to lead naturally from one action to the n...
Location: Australia
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What “Epistemic Communication” Means to Me

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Photo: Anna Keibalo via Pexels · Pexels License A headline can do a remarkable amount of work in very few words. It can tell us what happened, identify someone responsible, signal urgency and suggest how we ought to feel about the story. It can also make an interpretation sound like an established fact. One useful moment for me occurs when I notice that a headline has led me towards a conclusion before I have read the article. That is not evidence of deliberate manipulation. Headlines have limited space, and editors have real decisions to make. But it is a reason to notice where the words end and my own inference begins. When I use the phrase “epistemic communication”, I mean something quite practical: paying attention to how claims acquire the appearance of knowledge as they move between people. The headline tells me what to look at. I still need to decide what the evidence allows me to conclude. A report is not t...
Location: Australia
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From Headlines to Human Attention

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Photo: Max Bonda via Pexels · Pexels License I studied journalism long before I became interested in psychology, adult education and the questions about communication that occupy so much of my attention today. At the time, I probably thought of journalism as preparation for a particular profession. Looking back, I am beginning to appreciate something else: it also taught me a way of approaching information. What deserves attention? What needs explaining? What can be left out without losing something important? And how do we turn a great deal of material into something another person can actually follow? Those questions have followed me much further than I might once have expected. Journalism taught me that communicating more information is not necessarily the same as communicating better. The discipline of choosing One of journalism's most useful lessons is that information has to be organised. A report ca...
Location: Australia
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When News Becomes Part of How We Feel Connected

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Photo: Jakub Zerdzicki via Pexels · Pexels License T he news is almost always on around me. That does not mean I am always sitting in front of the screen, watching every story from beginning to end. Often it is simply there: a familiar voice in the room, a headline I catch while doing something else, a change in tone that makes me look up. I had never thought much about the distinction between watching the news and having the news on . Lately, that distinction has become interesting to me. It is a small habit, but precisely the kind of ordinary media behaviour I'd like to talk about today. Some media habits are decisions. Others can quietly become part of the architecture of daily life. A blind habit Some media habits are decisions. Others become part of the architecture of one's day. That sounds trivial, but research on news use makes habit difficult to dismiss. The Australian Communications and Media Au...
Location: Australia
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Communication Looks Different When Psychology Enters the Picture

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Photo: Macourt Media via Pexels · Pexels License C ommunication often begins with something we can control: the words we choose, the explanation we give, the image we publish. What happens afterwards is much less tidy. Psychology has made me increasingly curious about that second part. Once a message reaches another person, it encounters attention, emotion, trust, memory and judgement. I have started to realise that some of the most useful questions about communication begin precisely where control over the message ends. Communication often begins with something we can control, but what happens afterwards is much less tidy. From message to encounter Attention is now one of the first places I prefer to look. A message can be clear and accurate yet barely register if something else is competing for attention. Research on selective attention is a useful reminder that processing is selective rather than an exhaustive re...
Location: Australia
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