I completed postgraduate research in social cognition related to media at Michigan State University in 1995. My interest in media is undiminished and my contribution to the field is something I am delighted to share in my teaching, research and service. The underlying thread through all my work is that our use of media tools is complex and worthy of our considered exploitation of their affordances for our betterment.

As a career researcher of the media, my work explores media channels, media content, media audiences and the policies of government that regulate media. This work is important and requires a large research workforce to understand the complex enormity of media in contemporary society. According to leading research firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), spending on entertainment and media in Australia alone will reach almost $40 Billion by 2018.

Media are always changing and so are the social, economic and political practices around them. This is furtive ground for future research - particularly in areas related to digitalisation, convergence and the integration of entertainment with learning. My work in the coming decade will focus on the marriage of computer games with books through converged hardware, software and formal features of media messages.

I have supervised three doctoral and many masters' students to successful completion. Today, a significant proportion of my work is dedicated to supervising Higher Degree Research (HDR) students in order to contribute to the growing need for research capacity in the knowledge economy.

My past students have completed theses on gender stereotypes, computer games in primary education and media stereotypes of drug cheats in sport. Two of my former PhD students work at universities and one at a national broadcaster.

I currently have seven HDR students who are writing theses on:

• Film-to-game adaptation
• Symbolic interactionism of design communications
• E-Textbook adoption and innovation
• Enriched e-books, immersion and psychological presence
• Social media in crisis communications
• Use of role-playing games to retain cultural heritage
• Play in open world, endless games
• New games journalism

I am looking for students to work with me on an exciting project that explores the evolution of books and computer games.