Dr T.J. Thomson, SFHEA, is a lecturer in visual communication and media and a chief investigator at the QUT Digital Media Research Centre. He recently published “To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions, and Identities Behind News Images” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). He is also an officer in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Visual Communication Division and the International Communication Association Visual Communication Studies Division.

T.J. undertakes research, postgraduate supervision, and media commentary in the following areas:

• visual communication
• visual journalism
• media production
• visual culture
• journalism studies

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Focus and approach

T.J.’s research focuses on how visual journalism is produced—by whom, in what environments, through which processes, and with what results. He also examines visual self-representation on social media and everyday image making. His approach is based on a combination of ethnography (both physical and virtual), interviews, textual analysis, and digital media methods.

His major publications include the following books and articles:

• To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions, and Identities Behind News Images (published by Rowman & Littlefield)
• In Front of the Lens: The Expectations, Experiences, and Reactions of Visual Journalism’s Subjects (published in Journalism and Communication Monographs)
• I “Like” That: Exploring the Characteristics That Promote Social Media Engagement With News Photographs (co-authored with Keith Greenwood and published in Visual Communication Quarterly)
• Freelance Photojournalists and Photo Editors: Learning and adapting in a (mostly faceless) virtual world (published in Journalism Studies)
• Beyond Framing: Influences of subject–photographer interactions on visual journalism (published in Journalism Practice)
• Politicians, Photographers, and a Pope: How state-controlled and independent media covered Francis’s 2015 Cuba visit (published in Journalism Studies)
• Black, White, and a Whole Lot of Gray: How White Photojournalists Covered Race During the 2015 Protests at Mizzou (published in Visual Communication Quarterly)
• Framing the migration: A study of news photographs showing people fleeing war and persecution (published in the International Communication Gazette)
• The Evolution of Story: How Time and Modality Affect Visual and Verbal Narratives (published in Visual Communication Quarterly)
• Mapping the emotional labor and work of visual journalism (published in Journalism)
• From the Closet to the Beach: A Photographer’s View of Gay Life on Fire Island From 1975 to 1983 (published in Visual Communication Quarterly)
• Image-Sharing Via Social Media: Reflections from an Ethnically-and Age-Diverse Sample of People Living with HIV in the Midwest (published in the Journal of HIV/AIDS & Social Services)

He sits on the editorial board of the journal Visual Communication Quarterly and has, since 2017, also served as its associate editor. He is the 2019 Anne Dunn Scholar of the Year (jointly bestowed by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia and the Australia and New Zealand Communication Association) and is on the advisory board of the Society for Phenomenology and Media.