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Axel Bruns

@snurb.info

11K followers 2.1K following 2.9K posts

Australian Laureate Fellow and Professor at @qutdmrc, researching news, politics, partisanship, polarisation in digital and social media. He/his | Progressive Rock | Hannover 96 🖤🤍💚 | 🇦🇺🇩🇪🇪🇺 🕸️ snurb.info 🐘 @[email protected] ⛔ @snurb_dot_info .. more

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Axel Bruns is a German-Australian media scholar. He is a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. .. more

Communication & Media Studies 59%

Political science 14%

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · Apr 25

💡 NEW ARTICLE ALERT 💡

My article with @qutdmrc.bsky.social colleagues @kkasianenko.bsky.social, @vishneww.bsky.social, @essideh.com, and @voddenlaura.bsky.social is now out in Social Media + Society.

We introduce a new analytics method: #PracticeMapping.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Untangling the Furball: A Practice Mapping Approach to the Analysis of Multimodal Interactions in Social Networks - Axel Bruns, Kateryna Kasianenko, Vish Padinjaredath Suresh, Ehsan Dehghan, Laura Vod...

This article introduces the analytical approach of practice mapping, using vector embeddings of network actions and interactions to map commonalities and disjun...

journals.sagepub.com

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 1d

🥁 It’s Saturday morning in Australia, which means the latest #Brainticket is live – featuring grooving #Prog from The Sun or the Moon, Monomyth, Träd, Gräs och Stenar, Karaba, and Gong. 🪘

www.mixcloud.com/LexaSnurb/xxx/

Brainticket 088: More Rhythm, More Groove!

Another set of grooving, driving rhythms from Prog's finest riff merchants, with music from The Sun or the Moon, Monomyth, Träd, Gräs och Stenar, Karaba, and Gong.

www.mixcloud.com

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 2d

🫳🎤

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Reposted by Axel Bruns, Will Jennings, Melanie C. Green , and 5 more Axel Bruns, Will Jennings, Melanie C. Green, Aileen McHarg, Michael D. McDonald, Henry Jones, Nancy M. Wingfield, David Darmofal

Reposted by Robbert Sanderman, Axel Bruns, Joe R. Feagin , and 7 more Robbert Sanderman, Axel Bruns, Joe R. Feagin, Mark D. White, Bonnie Honig, W. Andy Knight, Stacy D. VanDeveer, Dana R. Fisher, Jan Bransen, David Darmofal

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 2d

Congratulations to Maria Corina Machado, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize - her incredible optimism has already changed her country. I spoke to her, and wrote about her, at the beginning of this year:
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

The ‘Anthropological Change’ Happening in Venezuela

Maduro is still in place, but a pro-democracy movement is transforming the beleaguered country.

www.theatlantic.com

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Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Axel Bruns, Rebecca Tushnet , and 5 more Richard S.J. Tol, Axel Bruns, Rebecca Tushnet, R. M. Wilson, Robert Wolfe, Henry Farrell, Brian Keegan, Mark Rice

Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 2d

White House staff should just make and show him an AI-generated video where he wins, fly him to Duluth and tell him it’s Oslo, and dare the New York Times to say anything more than “Experts disagree about whether Mr Trump was awarded the Nobel Prize”.

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 2d

Join us for the 2026 @qutdmrc.bsky.social Summer School – registration opens next Monday !

QUT DIGITAL MEDIA RESEARCH CENTRE

2026 SUMMER SCHOOL
MON 2 FEB - FRI 6 FEB 2026

QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, BRISBANE

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 2d

Another chunky day of #AoIR2025 preconferencing in Porto Alegre ends with a dramatic sunset.

Various stages of sunset on Porto Alegre.

Reposted by Axel Bruns

QUT Digital Media Research Centre @qutdmrc.bsky.social · 2d

! SAVE THE DATE !
The DMRC 2026 Summer School is back again on our Kelvin Grove Campus in Brisbane, Australia from 2 February to 6 February 2026, featuring interactive sessions showcasing digital humanities and social science research across key programs and projects within the DMRC.

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 3d

Well, he _is_ incredible. Nothing he does has any credibility whatsoever.

Reposted by Axel Bruns

Manu Mayrink @alguemviumeusoculos.com · 3d

The great @snurb.info in Porto Alegre, Brazil!

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 3d

Spending the rest of the week at another #AoIR2025 pre-conference, which also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the PPGCOM postgraduate communication programme at UFRGS in Porto Alegre – organised by the formidable @raquelrecuero.bsky.social.

The welcoming panel for the pre-conference on Disinformation, Social Media Platforms, and the Climate Crisis.

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 4d

Yeah, already happening.

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 4d

Almost every attack these people make works much better as a self-description.

News Corp Australia chair says social media platforms are ‘true monsters’ and ‘torment our children’

Michael Miller also says media must unite against second ‘big steal’ by tech companies seeking changes to copyright law to access content for free

www.theguardian.com

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 4d

Dramatic sunset in Belo Horizonte after a big day of conferencing. 🌅

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 4d

Solidly unimpressed with the response from TPG and NBN after this happened on our street last week (yes, that’s a heavy loader sliding backwards through an electricity pole after failing to get up the hill 😱).

Not helped by the fact that the TPG Website login leads to a 403 page. WTA🤬.

An oversized truck carrying a heavy load, under a toppled power pole which has literally splintered like matchsticks at ground level. A seriously dented yellow letterbox lies on the ground, writhing in pain.

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 5d

My great colleague @tariqchoucair.bsky.social doing the @qutdmrc.bsky.social proud at his alma mater UFMG today.

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 6d

About to speak in the opening session of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the PPGCOM group at the University of Minas Gerais. Slides for my talk about the networked public sphere will be up on the blog later.

Reposted by Axel Bruns, Tom Griffin

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 6d

We wanted to understand Democratic Socialists of America. So we talked to two old guys who voted for Trump. (Yes, this is literally the article.)

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 6d

Brazil then. Hello Belo Horizonte. 🇧🇷

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 7d

🍌 I know banana republics that have more dignity than that. 🤡🎪

'Enduring spirit': US Treasury unveils draft design for $1 Trump coin

In 2020, the US Congress passed a law that allows the Treasury Secretary to mint $1 coins in 2026 "with designs emblematic of the US semi-quincentennial".

www.abc.net.au

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 8d

* say, obvs

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 8d

Arrived in Portugal en route to Brazil after a small odyssey through Lisbon airport (first there was a traffic jam of outfield buses, then the luggage took an hour to arrive). 😩

Happy to day I, er, found my room though. (Ahahahaseewhatididthere.)

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 8d

🔎 Another new #Brainticket while I'm on the road: in this episode we're going back to Germany and Italy for some of those long-lost #Prog bands that never quite managed to break through...

www.mixcloud.com/LexaSnurb/xx/

Brainticket 087: The Could-Have-Beens Of Prog (Germany & Italy Edition)

www.mixcloud.com

Reposted by Axel Bruns

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 11d

Bravo 👏 to @jay.bsky.team, @pfrazee.com and the other folks behind @bsky.app!

They just released the Bluesky software SDKs and reference implementations under open source licenses and are also making a patent non-aggression pledge. bsky.social/about/blog/1...

Bluesky's Patent Non-Aggression Pledge - Bluesky

Bluesky develops open protocols. We're taking a short and simple patent non-aggression pledge to ensure that everybody feels confident building on them.

bsky.social

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 12d

Looks like Bergen has a clear opinion on Donald Trump. 🤣

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 13d

<bangs 💥 head 💥 on 💥 desk 💥 in 💥 German>

Once more for the hard of thinking: social media bans do not and cannot work. All they do is hurt the most vulnerable.

Union erwägt Altersgrenze für Social Media

Instagram und TikTok erst für Jugendliche ab 16 Jahren? Diese Frage wird laut Fraktionschef Spahn in der Union "intensiv diskutiert". Er sieht Handlungsbedarf. Doch nicht alle in der Union sind für eine Altersgrenze.

www.tagesschau.de

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 13d

A big day of catch-ups and meetings here in Bergen, so just a quick 4.5km stroll around town before dusk – barely counts as a walk really. And I’m realising part of my trip (with stops in Hamburg, Bergen, and Bremen) is retracing old Hanse trade links…

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 14d

A record store _and_ craft beer bar. Excellent idea, Bergen.

Reposted by Axel Bruns

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 15d

Literally an elderly man who watches too much Fox News and has lost his grip on reality. There are many people like him, but only one controls the most powerful military on earth.

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Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 15d

Also, I’ve done a bit of location scouting for #AoIR2025 already. Nice view from Rio to Niteroi.

Copacabana beach and the flying saucer building at Niteroi at the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg.