About Media Psychology

Media psychology seeks an understanding of how people perceive, interpret, engage with, and respond to a media-rich world. In doing so, media psychologists can identify potential benefits and problems and promote the development of positive media engagement and healthy behaviours.

Media psychology is a relatively new and emerging field internationally, and not well understood in Australia. To date, there is very little consensus about what “media psychology” actually is. Some researchers and practitioners refer to “media” or “technology” or “the internet”, some people think of television or journalism (traditional media), but in our current social environment media is everywhere and our interaction with it occurs all day every day.