Ongoing research projects
1. Wiki-Bhutan Project
2. Worlds of Journalism Study
1. Wiki-Bhutan Project
In collaboration with Royal University of Bhutan, Zung Dratshang and Bhutan Media Foundation, we work with Bhutanese communities to edit Wikipedia. The aim is to develop an editing community so that Bhutanese can:
1) influence the ways in which their country and culture are represented on English Wikipedia
2) develop the Dzongkha Wikipedia site
3) join the global knowledge movement of Wikimedia
In 2019 Dr Bunty Avieson was invited by Bhutan Media Foundation to run editing workshops with Dzongkha newspaper editors in Thimphu. During the years of the pandemic, when travel to Bhutan was not possible, she conducted workshops in Canberra with Bhutanese studying and teaching at local universities. In 2023, Avieson was invited by the Zung Dratshang to run workshops with nuns at Tenchencholing Nunnery, in Paro, and with students at the Brain and Science Institute in Thimphu. In 2024 Avieson, along with husband Mal Watson and daughter Kathryn Avieson, worked again with the Dratshang to run workshops with monks at Serlung Monastery in Paro, Losel Yangchenling Nunnery in Mongar and Choekhortsi Shedra in Kanglung, eastern Bhutan. The training workshops were reported on by Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), here. Avieson wrote about the workshops in Saturday Paper, here.
The project was funded by The Australian Research Council through a Discovery Early Career Research Award.
2. Worlds of Journalism Study
The Worlds of Journalism Study was founded in 2010 to assess the state of journalism throughout the world. The study’s main objective is to help journalism researchers, media practitioners and policy makers better understand the worldviews and changes that are taking place in the professional views of journalists, the conditions and limitations under which journalists operate, and the social functions of journalism in a changing world.
The study is hosted at LMU Munich. Since 2018 Dr Bunty Avieson has been Principal Investigator (Bhutan). In 2025 the result of the third wave of questionnaires will be released. This time, the survey featured questions on — among others — journalists’ safety, editorial freedom, journalistic roles, influences on news production, and increased precarization of journalistic labor.
Worlds of Journalism researchers from all over the world meet in Ljubjana, Solvenkia in September 2024.