SEADS Research Projects

Program lead: Emma Baulch and Triana Hadiprawoto

This program studies transactional ecosystems, and the new patterns of inclusion/exclusion, geopolitical shifts, institutional changes and large-scale social transformations that result from their digitisation.

Funded projects:

Addressing skills gaps in the news industries in Malaysia and Singapore

Time frame: July-December 2025

Funded amount: USD$50,000

Investigators: Emma Baulch, Premesh Chandran, Meera Sivasoathy, Rubin Khoo, Benjamin Loh

Funder: Google

The Journalism Talent Gap research project was initiated by Google News Initiative following discussion with newsroom leaders that highlighted talent gaps in the news industry in Malaysia and Singapore. These skill gaps at entry level, mid-career as well as management and leadership levels, could be hampering the performance of the industry as well as inhibiting their ability to meet the disruption caused by AI.

The research was tasked with:

Understanding specific skill needs required in the newsroom.
Identify existing journalism programs by institutions and online offerings.
Analysing and assess familiarity with online journalism tools including Google products like Pinpoint, NotebookLM and tools outside of Google’s offering.
Identifying specific gaps between programs and what news leaders are seeking.
Offering actionable recommendations to address identified gaps.

Platform Ecosystems and Transactional Cultures in Asia

Time frame: 2022-5

Funded amount: AUD$492,708

Investigators: Associate Professor Adrian Athique, Associate Professor Haiqing Yu, Associate Professor Elske van de Fliert, Dr Giang Nguyen Thu, Professor Gerard Goggin, Associate Professor Emma Baulch, Professor Cheryl Soriano, Professor Marc Steinberg

Funder: Australian Research Council

This project provides a systematic comparative analysis of the transactional infrastructure of Asia’s leading platform ecosystems, conducts rich ethnographic studies of transactional cultures in eight countries and undertake a macro-level data analysis of markets for digital transactions across the Asian region. It aims to: 1. Model the deployment and adoption of transaction platforms across Asia, profiling the key actors involved in operating infrastructure and determining affordances; 2. Detail the ways in which digital transactions are becoming embedded within the everyday experiences of populations in different parts of Asia; 3. Undertake a regional quantitative analysis of the uptake and usage of transaction platforms across Asia using market and user data.

Program lead: Stefan Bächtold and Erza Aminanto

This program examines how mobile digital technologies are involved in rearranging or reproducing power structures in Southeast Asia, such as when powerful actors (e.g., governments, tech companies) connect (e.g. building network infrastructure) or disconnect (e.g. internet shutdowns, platform moderation) populations, when states deploy digital tech to enable processes of datafication and for governing population movements, but also when people's everyday uses of technology enhance their agency and political participation.

Funded projects:

Governing (with) AI: Exploring the Techno-Politics of Machine Learning in Malaysia’s Public Sector

Time frame: 2025-6

Funded amount: RM30,000

Investigators: Stefan Bächtold, Thaatchaayini Kananatu, Joanne Lim, Ridwan Karim

Funder: HASS grant (internal scheme)

ML and AI are touted as highly disruptive technologies, reshaping our notions of democracy, society, or government. Despite substantial controversies around their risks of further excluding marginalised and vulnerable populations, little critical research is available on the effects of applications of AI in government, particularly so for Southeast Asia. To address this gap, this project aims to democratize the debates, decisions, and designs of ML and AI applications in government by including marginalized and vulnerable groups through a multi-stakeholder dialogue and knowledge co-creation process. With this approach, we have 3 objectives:

Mapping the salient controversies in the introduction of AI in government from the perspective of different stakeholders (controversy mapping); and exploring how these controversies shape the AI applications we can observe on the ground.
Analysing and evaluating the effects (positive & negative, intended & unintended) that AI applications in government produce. This includes exploring how AI applications shape the practices, values, and problematizations of government, and whether (and how) these applications affect marginalized communities disproportionately.
Identifying and developing concrete and actionable alternatives (both in terms of narratives and technology design) to make the use (or deliberate non-use) of AI and ML in government more equitable, accountable, and inclusive.

Digital Technologies as Actors of Public Diplomacy

Time frame: 2025-6

Funded amount: USD$20,000

Investigators: Tae-Sik Kim, Emma Baulch, Stefan Bächtold, Chien Aun Koh, Chrishandra Sebastiampillai

Funder: The Korea Foundation.

Despite South Korea's leadership in digital technology across Asia, the country's growth and expansion have recently been constrained by a limited domestic platform environment. Current Korean technological development and digital platforms are at risk of becoming isolated and limited in the face of the dynamic and rapid digital growth in Southeast Asia. In response to these challenges, the project explores lessons from transnationally networked platforms in Southeast Asia and how collaboration with these platforms can drive the future growth of Korean digital technologies. It also examines the role of public diplomacy mediated through sociotechnical imaginaries across platforms spanning Southeast Asia and Korea. Ultimately, this research aims to identify and mitigate the current limitations in Korean digital and technological ecosystems, promoting parallel growth and increasingly opening Korean platforms to regional and global collaboration.

Building policy networks for regulating digital tech in Southeast Asia

Timeframe: 2024 (12 months)

Funded amount: AUD$10,000

Investigators: Stefan Bächtold, Quinton Temby, Emma Baulch, Dyah Pitaloka

Funder: Monash University Incubator

This project aims to foster a regional public discourse on digital technologies in SEA that problematises current practice of tech companies and governments. Research has shown that global tech companies and governments in Southeast Asia deploy digital technologies with little regulatory oversight, often harming vulnerable groups. But there is little public debate in the region on privacy or alternatives to datafication, even though experience shows that digital technologies can be meaningfully regulated - if there is strong civil society mobilisation (e.g., for net neutrality in India), or political will in regional organisations (e.g., the EU’s GDPR). The project entails a series of roundtable discussions involving civil society, academia, governments, developers, and the ASEAN organisation. The knowledge co-produced in this process will help advocate regulation upholding values like privacy, transparency, sustainability, and accountability of digital technologies.

Program lead: Dyah Pitaloka

This program examines the intersection of health, technology and society. By adopting a social science approach, the work of the program moves beyond technological solutions to health-related problems, and seeks to understand how social, political, cultural, and technological factors intersect in ways that affect the health and wellbeing of the community, especially marginalised populations in Southeast Asia.

Funded projects:

Technology, Safety, and Society

Time frame: 2026

Funded amount: AUD$10,000

Investigators: Dyah Pitaloka, Mugdha Rai, Emma Baulch, Erza Aminanto

Funder: Monash Arts Mobility Scheme

Technology, Safety, and Society project is a transdisciplinary initiative uniting academics, creative practitioners, and online communities to advance safe, equitable access to digital spaces. It fosters strategic research networks and knowledge exchange across Communications and Cybersecurity at Monash University campuses in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia. Grounded in a participatory framework, the project addresses digital wellbeing, social justice, and human rights. It posits that mitigating online harassment and technology-facilitated violence requires active public engagement, ensuring diverse voices shape equitable digital futures.

Regulating Sexual VAWs in Metaverse: An Interdisciplinary Diagnosis

Time frame: 2023-4

Funded amount: US$100,000

Investigators: Dyah Pitaloka, Young-Nam Seo, Ika Idris, Risqi Saputra, Indriaswati Saptaningrum

Funder: Meta AR/VR

This project aims to unpack and to address the necessity of constructing trusted ecosystems for users, especially women, to safely access the Metaverse/VR. It addresses questions related to privacy, responsible data handling, inclusive design and the ethical navigation of the Metaverse/VR. Multiple stakeholders' participatory and co-collaborative dialogue are central in this study. The data produced would hopefully 1) inform policy makers and devlopers on how to develop the ecosystem that will ensure the safety of women's access and use of AR/VR technology & help governments legitimize the regulation of sexual violence in metaverse; 2) offer several effective programs/future policies to prevent sexual violence in metaverse.

Program lead: Arran Ridley

This program investigates the concept of developing, situating, and recombining digital methods in Southeast Asia. This combines critiques of digital methods' techno-centrism with the situated knowledges of Southeast Asia. This program, foregrounding the relevant methods and methodologies within research conditions in Southeast Asian contexts, will seek to develop a preliminary framework for situated digital methods that speak to the platform ecosystems, regulatory environments, and infrastructural conditions of the region.

Funded projects:

Reframing Digital Methods for Southeast Asia: A Monash Cross-Campus Initiative

Time Frame: 2025-6

Investigators: Arran Ridley, Dyah Pitaloka, Emma Baulch, Stefan Bächtold

Funded amount: $8,140 AUD

Funder: Monash Arts International Campus Mobility Scheme

Monash University, Indonesia (MUI) and Monash University, Malaysia (MUM) will initiate a cross-campus collaboration to strengthen Southeast Asia-focused research and teaching on digital technology and society. Building on the expertise of the Southeast Asia Research Centre for Digital Tech and Society (SEADS) at MUM, this collaboration will host joint workshops to identify shared research priorities grounded in the lived realities of Indonesia and Malaysia. It will explore how digital research methods, frameworks, and pedagogies can be made relevant to Southeast Asian contexts and the broader Global South. A reciprocal workshop series will engage HDR and postgraduate students from both MUI and MUM, with sessions on platform economies, digital labour, misinformation, and governance. The workshops will also reflect on how these topics can be taught in ways that resonate locally. This format will allow both campuses to experiment with co-teaching approaches, develop shared teaching resources, and lay the foundation for future cross-campus curriculum development. Expected outcomes include a draft Warwick-Monash Alliance grant application and preparation for a larger external funding proposal (e.g. British Council). Activities also align with the planned recruitment of SEADS-specific PhD students in 2026 and will strengthen collaborative research capacity across Monash’s Southeast Asia network.