Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Brady Robards is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Monash University in the School of Social Sciences. Prior to this Brady was Associate Lecturer at Griffith University, and Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Tasmania. His research explores how young people use and produce digital social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Reddit. Brady's current projects include:
- Social Media & Employment: Brady is currently working on a three year Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) project on social media and employment. This project aims to investigate how a) young people present professional identities on social media when preparing for employment, and b) how employers use social media in recruitment.
- Growing up on Facebook: With Sian Lincoln, since 2014 Brady has been studying sustained or longitudinal social media use among people in their 20s who have grown up using social media. Brady and Sian developed the 'social media scroll back' method to examine longitudinal digital traces inscribed on social media through regular use over years, where researchers can work with research participants as co-analysts of their own digital traces.
- Scrolling Beyond Binaries: With Brendan Churchill, Paul Byron, Son Vivienne, and Benjamin Hanckel, since 2016 Brady has been studying social media use among LGBTIQ+ young people. This project employed mixed-methods, including a survey conducted in 2016 and interviews conducted in 2017. Key findings cover the ways in which different platforms are used to manage different audiences and networks, and how networked publics operate to build a sense of connection, community, and facilitate learning among queer and gender-diverse young people.
- Young People's Experiences of Australian Public Services: On behalf of the Australian Public Service and with Steven Roberts, Jo Lindsay, Barbara Barbosa Neves, Zareh Ghazarian, Jonathan Smith, Jacqueline Laughland-Booy, and Verity Trott. This study aims to understand young people’s experiences and perceptions of Australian public services and how young people connect with them at different times in their lives.
- Social Media & Unhealthy Marketing: We have partnered with VicHealth to study how marketing of products like alcohol, fast food, sugary drinks, and gambling are advertised to young people via social media. This project is with Nic Carah (UQ), Amy Dobson (Curtin), Karla Elliott, Claire Tanner, Steven Roberts, Michael Savic, and Chiara De Lazzari. We are taking a citizen science approach, recruiting young people to take screenshots of the advertising they see, collect them for us, and discuss them with us as part of our analysis.
Brady is a member of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) and The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).
With Akane Kanai, Brady is also the co-convenor of the Monash Digital Cultures Research Group.
Brady is currently at capacity with PhD supervision and is not taking on additional students. Brady currently supervises the following research projects being undertaken by PhD candidates:
- Selectively Revealing Myself: an exploration of young LGBTIQ+ jobseekers' social media engagement
- Anti-social networks: mapping the coordination, key figures and ideology of Australia's far-right
- Encouraging drivers to stay focused on the road
- Sexual Risk Behaviours in Australian-Asian/Pacific Islander Men who have Sex with Men
- Digital Belonging: Polymedia and Adolescent Migrants in Australia
- Emotion, touch and male bonding: An in depth investigation of masculinity and male friendship
- Traces of the self in digital tracking practices
- Assembling fitspirational bodies: Social media and gender identity work
Profile photo by T.J. Thomson.
Monash teaching commitment
Research interests
- Social media (long-term use, memory, and impact on employment)
- Youth culture and internet cultures
- Gender and sexuality
- Digital research methods and ethics
External positions
Member, Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
2011 → …Member, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
2008 → …Research area keywords
- social media
- youth
- gender
- sexuality
- qualitative methodology
- internet research
- digital society
Network
Projects
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A Citizen Science Approach to Monitoring unhealthy industry digital marketing to young people
Robards, B., Carah, N., Elliott, K., Tanner, C., Roberts, S., Dobson, A. & Savic, M.
1/09/20 → 17/09/21
Project: Research
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Animating alcohol culture change amongst male hospitality students and workers
Savic, M., Lam, T., Rose, C., Allit, B., Hanna, F., Roberts, S., Robards, B., Nielsen, S. & Lubman, D.
1/08/19 → 30/09/21
Project: Research
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The impact of social media on the employment prospects of young Australians
Australian Research Council (ARC)
1/06/19 → 30/05/22
Project: Research
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BC-GRIP Encouraging drivers to stay focused on the road
Kaviani, F., Koppel, S., Young, K., Robards, B. & Smith, L.
13/09/17 → 25/03/21
Project: Research
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Scrolling Beyond Binaries: Exploring social media use among LGBTIQ+ Australians
Robards, B., Churchill, B., Byron, P., Vivienne, S. & Hanckel, B.
1/01/16 → …
Project: Research
Research output
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Queering the Map: Stories of love, loss and (be)longing within a digital cartographic archive
Kirby, E., Watson, A., Churchill, B., Robards, B. & La Rochelle, L., 2021, (Accepted/In press) In : Media, Culture and Society. 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
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Confessional data selfies and intimate digital traces
Robards, B., Lyall, B. & Moran, C., 29 Jun 2020, (Accepted/In press) In : New Media and Society. 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
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Growing up on Facebook
Robards, B. & Lincoln, S., 2020, New York NY USA: Peter Lang Publishing. 209 p. (The Digital Formations)Research output: Book/Report › Book › Research › peer-review
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Navigating ‘thin’ dating markets: Mid-life repartnering in the era of dating apps and websites
Dwyer, Z., Hookway, N. & Robards, B., 1 Jan 2020, (Accepted/In press) In : Journal of Sociology. p. 1-17 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
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Nomophobia: is the fear of being without a smartphone associated with problematic use?
Kaviani, F., Robards, B., Young, K. L. & Koppel, S., 2020, In : International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 17, 17, 19 p., 6024.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Citations (Scopus)
Prizes
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Special Commendation - 2017 Dean's Award for Excellence in Research by an Early Career Researcher
Robards, Brady (Recipient), 4 Jul 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Winner - 2019 VicHealth Awards, Research into Action Category
Roberts, Steven (Recipient), Brittany Ralph (Recipient), Elliott, Karla (Recipient), Robards, Brady (Recipient), Savic, Michael (Recipient), Lindsay, Jo (Recipient), O'Brien, Kerry (Recipient) & Lubman, Dan (Recipient), 2019
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
File
Press / Media
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Bridging social divide - communicating and socialising via their gadgets is a way of life for kids (Herald Sun)
21/07/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
-
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Social media and mental health (The 'What Happens Next' Podcast with Susan Carland)
12/06/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Grindr is deleting its ‘ethnicity filter’. But racism is still rife in online dating (The Conversation)
Sheng Yang Gene Lim, Brady Robards & Bronwyn Carlson
8/06/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Article/Feature
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Beyond keyboard crusaders: The power of social media and online activism (Monash Lens)
14/05/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment