Harry Dugmore

Dr Henry (Harry) Dugmore is a Senior Lecturer in Communication, based at USC Moreton Bay. After twenty-five years in the entertainment, marketing and strategic communication industries in South Africa, he joined Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies as MTN Chair of Media and Mobile Communications in 2009.

At Rhodes, Harry raised over $1m to establish The Discovery Centre for Health Journalism in 2011, offering Africa's first bespoke postgraduate Health Journalism degree.

Harry has led large-scale AIDS education and financial literacy communication programmes in Africa. He was the lead author of The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) consensus study, "Diversity in Human Sexuality: Implications for Policy in Africa", published in 2015 in response to homophobic changes to laws in some African countries.

In 2018, he spent a sabbatical year based at QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC) exploring shifting economic models for journalism in developing countries.

Harry joined USC in 2020 and is currently researching the development of post-literate authoritarian discourses, journalism economics, news coverage of Covid-19, and regional economic development and communication in Australia.

Research areas

• Post-literate societies and the normalisation of authoritarian discourses
• Shifts in the economics, and institutional nature, of journalism
• Regional economic development, stakeholder consultation and communication

Teaching and Supervision

• Journalism Studies and Media Economics
• Misinformation and social polarisation
• Creative and Interactive Advertising
• Global Communication

Professional memberships

• Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
• International Communication Association (ICA)

Expert media commentary

Harry Dugmore's specialist areas of knowledge are: the economics of news media; journalism’s institutional role in society; Health, Science and Environmental journalism; Behaviour Change Communication with respect to obesity, HIV/AIDS prevention and financial literacy.