Dr T.J. Thomson MAIATSIS AFHEA (Indigenous) FQA SFHEA is a senior lecturer in visual communication and media and a chief investigator at the QUT Digital Media Research Centre, where he leads the News, Media, & Journalism Research Group. He is the author of To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions, and Identities Behind News Images (winner of the NCA 2020 Diane S. Hope Book of the Year Award) and 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). T.J. is a chief investigator on the Australian Research Council-funded Amplifying Voices from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Discovery Project ($310,672, 2020-23), the ARC-funded Addressing Misinformation with Media Literacy through Cultural Institutions Linkage project ($507,970, 2023-26), and is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow ($454,386, 2023-26). He has also received research funding from the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
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.
Before entering academia, T.J. worked as a visual journalist and designer for a number of news outlets and organizations, including The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and the Omaha World-Herald. Corporate clients include QuickFire Networks, which was acquired by Facebook in 2015; Colorado Academy; and HotelTonight.
- Ph.D., Journalism, University of Missouri, USA
- Graduate Certificate, Qualitative Research, University of Missouri, USA
- M.A., Journalism, University of Missouri, USA
- B.A., Communication Arts, Chadron State College, USA
- Thomson T. J., (2019) To see and be seen: The environments, interactions and identities behind news images, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
- Thomson, T. J., Johnson, S., Seevinck, J., Holland-Batt, S., & Miller, E. (2022). It’s not enough to be seen: Exploring how journalists show aged care in Australia from 2018-2021. Communication Research and Practice.
- Thomson, T. J., Miller, E., Holland-Batt, S. Seevinck, J, and Regi, S. (2022). Visibility and invisibility in the aged care sector: Visual representation in Australian news from 2018-2021. Media International Australia.
- Thomson, T. J. (2021). International, innovative, multi-modal, and representative? The geographies, methods, modes, and aims present in two visual communication journals. Visual Communication.
- Dootson, P., Thomson, T. J., & Angus, D. (2021). Managing problematic visual media in natural hazard emergencies. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
- Thomson T. J., (2021) Mapping the emotional labor and work of visual journalism, Journalism, 22 (4).
- Thomson, T. J. (2021). Picturing Disaster at Home and Abroad: A Comparative Visual Analysis of Icons and News Values During Disaster. Media International Australia.
- Thomson, T. J., Angus, D., Dootson, P., Hurcombe, E., & Smith, A. (2020). Visual mis/disinformation in journalism and public communications: Current verification practices, challenges, and future opportunities. Journalism Practice.
- Greenwood K, Thomson T. J., (2020) Framing the migration: A study of news photographs showing people fleeing war and persecution, International Communication Gazette, 82 (2), pp. 140-163.
- Thomson T. J., (2018) Freelance photojournalists and photo editors: Learning and adapting in a (mostly faceless) virtual world, Journalism Studies, 19 (6), pp. 803-823.