Dr Ross Tapsell
Areas of expertise
- Studies Of Asian Society 169903
- Communication Technology And Digital Media Studies 200102
- Asian Cultural Studies 200202
Research interests
My main research interests focus on digital technologies and their relationship to media, culture and politics in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. My current research interests focuses on the changing information societies of the Southeast Asian region, and the role of disinformation and social media campaigning on the democratic process.
Biography
Ross Tapsell is a senior lecturer and researcher at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific, specialising in Southeast Asian media. He is the author of Media Power in Indonesia: Oligarchs, Citizens and the Digital Revolution (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) and co-editor of Digital Indonesia: Connectivity and Divergence (ISEAS Publishing, 2017). He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, VICE and other publications in the Southeast Asian region.
Ross has been a Visiting Fellow at Indiana University (Bloomington, US), the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris) and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore). He is also on the editorial board of the international scholarly journal Asiascape: Digital Asia (Brill).
Ross is involved in a number of Southeast Asia activities at the ANU. He is currently Director of the ANU's Malaysia Institute, is involved in the ANU's Indonesia Project and the academic news/analysis website New Mandala.
Available student projects
If you are interested in thesis level research (Honours, Masters and PhD) on the following broad topics feel free to get in touch:
- Indonesian studies
- Malaysian studies
- Island Southeast Asian society
- Digital technologies and their impact
- Communications and Media
If you are an international student looking for supervisors for a PhD in the above area, please email me with a CV which includes your tertiary education qualifications and publications.
Publications
- Tapsell, Ross (2021) 'Divide and rule: Populist crackdowns and media elites in the Philippines', Journalism, published online first January 2021, https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884921989466
- Tapsell, R 2020, 'Social Media and Elections in Southeast Asia: The Emergence of Subversive, Underground Campaigning' Asian Studies Review, published online November 2020 https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2020.1841093
- Sinpeng, Aim and Tapsell, Ross (eds) 2020, From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation: Social Media in Southeast Asia, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore. ISBN: 978-981-4951-03-6
- Ong, J.C. & Tapsell, R. (2020). Mitigating Disinformation in Southeast Asian Elections: Lessons from Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. NATO StratCom Centre of Excellence. URL: www. stratcomcoe.org/mitigating-disinformation-southeast-asian-elections
- Tapsell, Ross (2020) ‘The media and democratic decline’, in Thomas Power and Eve Warburton (eds.), Democracy in Indonesia: From Stagnation to Regression?, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore, pp. 210-227.
- Ross Tapsell, 2020, ‘Disinformation and Cultural Practice in Southeast Asia’ in Shashi Jayakumar, Benjamin Ang and Nur Diyanah Anwar (eds) Disinformation and Fake News, Palgrave MacMillan.
- Tapsell, Ross (2020) ‘Malaysia in 2019: change of government without a regime change’, Southeast Asian Affairs 2020, Singapore.
- Tapsell, Ross, ‘Deepening the understanding of social media’s impact in Southeast Asia’, ISEAS Trends, Issue 4, 2020, Singapore, available at https://www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TRS4_20.pdf
- Tapsell, R, 2020, 'Big data campaigning in Malaysia's 2018 election' in Meredith Weiss and Faisal Hazis (eds) Towards a New Malaysia? The 2018 Election and Its Aftermath, NUS Press, Singapore.
- Tapsell, R., & Dewi, S. (2019). The Media: Megaspectacles and Transparency in the Courts. In M. Crouch (Ed.), The Politics of Court Reform: Judicial Change and Legal Culture in Indonesia (pp. 334-352). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108636131.015
- Ong, Jonathan, Tapsell, Ross & Curato, Nicole (2019). Tracking digital disinformation in the 2019 Philippine Midterm Election. Public report available at: www.newmandala.org/disinformation
- Tapsell, R 2018, "The Smartphone as 'Weapon of the Weak": Assessing the role of Communications Technologies in Malaysia's Regime Change', Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 37 (3) 2018, 9-29. Available at https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jsaa/article/view/1146/1153.html
- Tapsell, R 2018, 'New Media, Old Rule in Malaysia', in Greg Lopez and Bridget Welsh (ed.), Regime Resilience in Malaysia and Singapore, Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, Selangor, Malaysia, pp. 129-143.
- Tapsell, R 2017, Media Power in Indonesia: Oligarchs, Citizens and the Digital Revolution, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., London.
- Jurriens, E & Tapsell, R, eds, 2017, Digital Indonesia: Connectivity and Divergence, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore.
- Jurriens, E & Tapsell, R 2017, 'Challenges and opportunities of the digital 'revolution' in Indonesia', in Edwin Jurriens and Ross Tapsell (ed.), Digital Indonesia: Connectivity and Divergence, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore, pp. 1-18.
- Tapsell, R 2017, 'The political economy of digital media', in Edwin Jurriens and Ross Tapsell (ed.), Digital Indonesia: Connectivity and Divergence, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore, pp. 56-71.
- Tapsell, R 2015, 'The media and subnational authoritarianism in Papua', South East Asia Research, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 319-334.
- Tapsell, R 2015, 'Australia's international broadcasters and Indonesia: Fourth Estate versus ˜Soft Power'', in Antje Missbach and Jemma Purdey (ed.), Linking People: Connections and encounters between Australians and Indonesians, Regiospectra Verlag, Berlin, Germany, pp. 91-108.
- Tapsell, R 2015, 'Indonesia's media oligarchy and the 'Jokowi phenomenon', Indonesia, vol. 99, pp. 29-50.
- Tapsell, R 2014, By-Lines, Balibo, Bali Bombings: Australian Journalists in Indonesia, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, North Melbourne, Australia.
- Tapsell, R 2014, 'Digital media in Indonesia and Malaysia: the role of the State and market in the convergence era', Asiascape: Digital Asia, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 201-222.
- Tapsell, R 2014, 'Platform convergence in Indonesia: challenges and opportunities for media freedom', Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, May 2015, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 182-197.
- Tapsell, R 2014, '"Discovering" Indonesia', Teaching History, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 8-11.
- Tapsell, R 2013, 'The Media Freedom Movement in Malaysia and the Electoral Authoritarian Regime', Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 613-635.
- Tapsell, R 2013, 'Negotiating Media 'Balance' in Malaysia's 2013 General Election', Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 39-60.
- Tapsell, R & Eidenfalk, J 2013, 'Australian Reporting from East Timor 1975-1999: Journalists as Agents of Change', Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 576-592.
- Tapsell, R 2012, 'Politics and the Press in Indonesia', Media Asia, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 109-116.
- Tapsell, R 2012, 'Old Tricks in a New Era: Self-Censorship in Indonesian Journalism', Asian Studies Review, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 227-245.
- Tapsell, R 2011, 'Battlefield Balibo: An Enduring Confrontation between the Media and the Government', in Kevin Foster (ed.), The Information Battlefield: Representing Australians at War, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, North Melbourne, pp. 108-118.
- Tapsell, R 2008, 'Australian reporting of the Indonesian killings of 1965-66: The media as the "first rough draft of history"', Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 211-224.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- NATO Disinformation in Southeast Asia (Primary Investigator)
- Supporting the rules-based order in Southeast Asia (SEARBO) (Secondary Investigator)