Professor Tama Leaver is a recognised expert in online communication and media, with specific research interests in social media, big data, privacy, surveillance and agency, mobile gaming, and the changing landscape of media distribution. As Chief Investigator in the Connected and Educated Child programs, Tama focusses on the ways data on children are generated, captured, shared, aggregated, analysed and turned into various forms of value. Tama hopes that his work in the Centre raises awareness of the amount of data out there about children and help shape a better environment for responsibly managing that data for everyone, from parents to policymakers.

Tama is extensively published in a wide range of journals, including Social Media + Society; Information, Communication and Society; Popular Communication; and Media International Australia. He is the author of Artificial Culture: Identity, Technologies and Bodies, co-author of Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures, and co-editor of a number of books including Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape and The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Children. Tama is President of the international Association of Internet Researchers and a regular media commentator. In 2012, Tama received an Australian Award for University Teaching in Humanities and the Arts.

Earliest digital memory
Typing in the code for a Vic20 videogame that arrived in a print magazine. After days and days of typing, I think I gained a real appreciation for how complicated computer programs can be!