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Mathieu O'Neil

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Professor of Communication, News and Media Research Centre, University of Canberra

Mathieu is Professor of Communication in the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Arts and Design and Honorary Associate Professor of Sociology at the Australian National University. His research interests lie at the intersection of political communication and sociology. He has contributed to three significant research programs.

Mathieu co-founded the Australian National University’s Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online networks, a world leader in big data analytics and computational social science, in which he provides intellectual leadership by creating analytical frameworks for the understanding of online networks and the health of information environments. Most recently, he is developing heuristics to detect online echo chambers (Bots Building Bridges (3B): Theoretical, Empirical, and Technological Foundations for Systems that Monitor and Support Political Deliberation Online, Volkswagen Foundation, Artificial Intelligence and the Society of the Future, 2021-2024).

He also plays a central role in the University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre, where he has initiated multidisciplinary collaborations with UC researchers. With colleagues in the Faculty of Education, he is designing information literacy resources for schools, exemplifying research with practical impacts and strong connections with local stakeholders (Co-developing a new approach to media literacy in the attention economy, ACT Education Directorate-UC Affiliated Schools Research Program, 2021-2022).

Mathieu has made a unique and enduring contribution to scholarship by building the field of peer production studies (the term ‘peer production’ describes free and open source software in the 1990s, Wikipedia in the 2000s, and Blockchain in the 2010s). Mathieu has played a key role in developing this field by founding and editing the peer-reviewed Journal of Peer Production (2011-2021), by editing the Handbook of Peer Production (Wiley-Blackwell Handbooks in Communication and Media, 2021), and by founding an international think tank, the Digital Commons Policy Council, in 2021. He also leads an international team researching the economic and environmental sustainability of free and open source software (Mapping the co-production of digital infrastructure by peer projects and firms, Sloan and Ford Foundations, Critical Digital Infrastructure Fund, 2019-2021; DCPC: Pilot Research and Operational Costs, Ford Foundation, 2022-2024).

Mathieu's research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Social Networks, Information, Communication & Society, Réseaux, New Media and Society, the International Journal of Communication, and Organization Studies, amongst others. He previously held academic appointments at the Université Stendhal - Grenoble 3, the Australian National University and the Université Paris Sorbonne. He has also worked as a magazine editor and exhibition curator in Singapore, and as a researcher for the Australian Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Experience

  • 2019–present
    Honorary Associate Professor, School of Sociology, Australian National University
  • 2023–present
    Professor of Communication, University of Canberra
  • 2013–2023
    Associate Professor of Communication, University of Canberra
  • 2015–2019
    Visiting Fellow, School of Sociology, Australian National University
  • 2008–2015
    Adjunct Research Fellow, Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, Australian National University
  • 2009–2013
    Maitre de Conference, Université Paris Sorbonne
  • 2008–2008
    Principal Researcher, Department of Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy
  • 2005–2006
    Senior Research Associate, ACSPRI Centre for Social Research, Australian National University
  • 2000–2003
    Maitre de Conference, Université Stendhal - Grenoble 3

Education

  • 1996 
    Universite Paris Diderot, PhD - Language and Culture of Anglophone Societies (American Politics and Society: Media)

Publications

  • 2022
    Report on the production of digital commons and on the conditions of the organisation and action of the Digital Commons Policy Council, News and Media Research Centre
  • 2022
    Le pillage de la communauté des logiciels libres, Le monde diplomatique
  • 2022
    Digital literacy: Using Wikipedia as a fact-checking tool: Is it time to start thinking about whether Wikipedia can be a useful research tool? Mathieu O'Neil and Rachel Cunneen investigate., Connections
  • 2022
    The triumph of peer production? Announcing the creation of the Digital Commons Policy Council, Journal of Peer Production
  • 2022
    Co-producing industrial public goods on GitHub: Selective firm cooperation, volunteer-employee labour and participation inequality, New Media and Society
  • 2022
    Mapping the connections of health professionals to COVID-19 myths and facts in the Australian Twittersphere, Information, Communication & Society
  • 2021
    ‘Open source has won and lost the war’: Legitimising commercial–communal hybridisation in a FOSS project, New Media and Society
  • 2021
    Handbook of Peer Production, Wiley Handbooks in Communication and Media
  • 2021
    The coproduction of open source software by volunteers and big tech firms, News and Media Research Centre
  • 2021
    2016 Debian Project survey: work and volunteers, 2016 Debian Project survey: work and volunteers
  • 2020
    Digital News Report: Australia 2020, News and Media Research Centre
  • 2020
    The Case for Asymmetry in Online Research: Caring About Issues in Australian and Canadian Web 1.0 Bee Networks, International Journal of Communication
  • 2020
    Australian Perspectives on Misinformation, News and Media Research Centre
  • 2019
    Risk issue adoption in an online social movement field, Information Communication and Society
  • 2019
    Engagement with news on Twitter: insights from Australia and Korea, Asian Journal of Communication

Grants and Contracts

  • 2021
    Co-developing a new approach to media literacy in the attention economy
    Role:
    Lead CI
    Funding Source:
    ACT Education Directorate-UC Affiliated Schools Research Program
  • 2021
    Social media and COVID-19 health misinformation: Evidence from Australia
    Role:
    CI
    Funding Source:
    University of Canberra
  • 2021
    Bots Building Bridges (3B): Theoretical, Empirical, and Technological Foundations for Systems that Monitor and Support Political Deliberation Online
    Role:
    CI
    Funding Source:
    Volkswagen Foundation - Artificial Intelligence and the Society of the Future
  • 2020
    Health Misinformation in Social Media Networks
    Role:
    Lead CI
    Funding Source:
    University of Canberra
  • 2019
    News media literacy: What works and does it make a difference?
    Role:
    CI
    Funding Source:
    Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communication
  • 2019
    Mapping the co-production of digital infrastructure by peer projects and firms
    Role:
    Lead CI
    Funding Source:
    Sloan Foundation / Ford Foundation Critical Digital Infrastructure Fund

Professional Memberships

  • American Sociological Association
  • Association of Internet Researchers

Research Areas

  • Communication Studies (200101)
  • Communication Technology And Digital Media Studies (200102)
  • Communication And Media Studies Not Elsewhere Classified (200199)
  • Creative Arts, Media And Communication Curriculum And Pedagogy (130201)
  • Sociology And Social Studies Of Science And Technology (160808)
  • Sociology Not Elsewhere Classified (160899)