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Biography
Dr Joanne Lim is Professor of Digital Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham Malaysia and serves as Associate Dean (Admissions, Recruitment and Marketing) and Global Engagement Lead in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She is a sociologist of digital media whose research centers on participatory governance, digital interventions, and regenerative communication systems across Southeast Asia.
She is the author of Digital Media Interventions in Southeast Asia: A Decolonial Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), which critically examines how digital technologies are reshaping the relationship between the state and society. Her work pioneers the concept of Digital Media Ecovillages (DMEVs)-co-produced, inclusive digital environments designed to support community well-being, creativity, and care.
Professor Lim has led and collaborated on numerous interdisciplinary projects involving media, health, data science, and public policy. These include Jiwa Ibu (a maternal health mHealth app), MyPlantAI (an onco-nutrition platform), and a national project on suicide reporting in Malaysia. Her research approach integrates mixed methods-interviews, digital ethnography, sentiment analysis, webscraping, content analysis, and surveys-allowing for triangulated insights into digital behaviours, particularly in underserved communities.
She has held research fellowships at the National University of Singapore and the London School of Economics (Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre), and served as Principal and Co-Investigator on over fifteen national and international research grants. Professor Lim is also a recipient of the Lord Dearing Award and the Vice Chancellor Award for Teaching and Learning Excellence.
Prior to academia, she worked as a print journalist, radio co-producer, and broadcast journalist across Malaysia, Canada, and the USA. She continues to engage in public discourse and policy dialogues on digital governance, data ethics, and communication rights in the region.
Expertise Summary
Professor Joanne Lim holds a PhD in Media and Cultural Studies and an MA in Global Media from the University of East London, UK. Her expertise spans digital media interventions, civic communication, participatory governance, and regenerative technologies, with a strong focus on Southeast Asia.
Her research applies decolonial, rhizomatic, and implementation science frameworks to examine how media, AI, and communication platforms shape trust, wellbeing, and community resilience. She pioneered the concept of Digital Media Ecovillages (DMEVs)-collaborative, co-produced digital spaces that foster creative inclusivity and participatory state-society engagement.
Professor Lim's interdisciplinary collaborations span life sciences, bioscience, and engineering-including projects such as Jiwa Ibu (a maternal health mHealth app), MyPlantAI (an AI-based onco-nutrition platform), and a national suicide reporting initiative involving clinical psychologists, journalists, and lived experience advocates. Her research integrates mixed methods, combining interviews, focus groups, content analysis, digital ethnography, web scraping, surveys, and sentiment analysis to inform evidence-based interventions in digital health and communication.
She currently teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has developed a new postgraduate module, Humanizing AI, which explores ethical, cultural, and community-based approaches to AI in communication and public life.
Professor Lim's work aligns closely with the University of Nottingham Malaysia's Signature Research Strength in Health and Wellbeing. She is an Associate of SEADS (Southeast Asia Research Centre for Digital Technology & Society) at Monash University Malaysia and contributes actively to interdisciplinary research networks on digital inclusion, policy engagement, and communication for social change.
Teaching Summary
Dr Joanne Lim is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), UK. She was awarded the University of Nottingham's Lord Dearing Award in 2014 and 2022 for Teaching and Learning Excellence, and the… read more
Research Summary
Professor Joanne Lim is currently leading and contributing to a range of interdisciplinary research projects that focus on digital media interventions, health communication, and participatory… read more
Selected Publications
AINSLIE, M. J., LIPURA, S. D., & LIM, J., 2017. Understanding the Potential for a Hallyu “Backlash” in Southeast Asia: A Case Study of Consumers in Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines Kritika Kultura, (28), 63-91. 63-91
LIM, JBY, 2016. Accessing Spaces, Negotiating Boundaries: The struggle between cultural policies and creative practices in Malaysia. In: TIM OAKES and JUN WANG, eds., Making Cultural Cities in Asia: Policy, Mobility, Assemblage and Resistance Routledge. 149-162
1. University Committee responsibilities:
a. Associate Dean of Admissions, Recruitment and Marketing (Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences)
b. Faculty Global Engagement Lead (UNM Global Engagement Committee)
c. UNM Performing Arts Council
d. International Committee Member (tri-campus)
d. Faculty Management Board member
2. Other services to the University:
Current:
a. Vice-Chancellor Award panel
b. Jan Atkins Prize Fund panel
c. Internal Quality Audit Review Committee
d. PSS/Academic Interview Panel
e. School Research Ethics Officer
f. Internal Review Committee (government research grant)
Previously served:
a. Faculty WLP lead (2019-2020) - Workload Planning Working Group
b. Head of School (2016-2020) - developed School's strategy in teaching, research, resource
allocation, community outreach, external engagement.
c. Deputy Head of School (2013-2015) - module mapping exercise; school audit processes
d. Deputy Director (Centre for the Study of Communications and Culture) 2013-2015 -
supported colleagues bid for grants; organised public seminar series
e. UNM Director, International Summer Schools (2013-2015) - designed and delivered a
much enhanced and extended programme which remains the current model
f. School Director of Internationalisation (2012-2015) - Discussions with UK and Ningbo on tri-campus staff mobility, shared modules, and assessment marking
g. UNM representative at the tri-campus Creative Industries Mission to China (2013)
h. Head of External Relations, Career Development and Alumni Relations, SMLC (2012-2015)
i. Chair, Faculty Internship Working Party (2012-2015) - develop and maintain FASS, internship webpage; SoPs; liaise with UK's Creative Student Network
j. Head of Undergraduate Programmes (2010-2011)
k. Head of Admissions and Recruitment (2010-2011)
l. Faculty/School Internship Coordinator (2013-2015)
m. Faculty Committee Member in T&L; Library Liaison and Web Champion (2010-2011)
Current Research
Professor Joanne Lim is currently leading and contributing to a range of interdisciplinary research projects that focus on digital media interventions, health communication, and participatory technologies in Southeast Asia. Her work foregrounds decolonial and regenerative perspectives to examine how digital systems can be co-developed with communities to support wellbeing, agency, and structural inclusion.
AI-Integrated mHealth Platform for Cancer Prevention and Management
Professor Lim is Principal Investigator of a three-year project titled mHealth App: Prevention and Management of Cancer via an AI-Integrated Mobile Application to Recommend Plant-Based Diets, funded by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS). The project involves collaboration with researchers from Computer Science, Health Sciences, and Biosciences to develop an intelligent, culturally responsive mobile health application-MyPlantAI-that supports cancer patients in Malaysia.
The platform incorporates AI-enhanced dietary tracking, symptom logging, and behaviour change support. It draws on behavioural science, public health principles, and participatory design. The app aims to address gaps in nutritional support for cancer patients and to improve digital health accessibility through personalised and context-specific content. The project applies mixed-methods research, including qualitative interviews, surveys, and sentiment analysis, to inform platform development and assess its usability, relevance, and impact.
Jiwa Ibu: Maternal and Mental Health Support for Rural Communities
Professor Lim is also leading the Malaysian team in the development of Jiwa Ibu, an mHealth platform designed to support maternal, child, and mental health among women in rural and marginalised communities. The project is conducted in collaboration with St George's University of London, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, and Hanai Jiwa Ibu Sdn Bhd.
The app is co-designed with rural health workers, midwives, and women users, and includes content tailored in Bahasa Malaysia and local dialects. It integrates culturally grounded health messaging, visual narratives, and a referral mechanism for emotional and psychological support. The research applies frameworks such as the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and co-production methodology to explore implementation effectiveness, digital access, and health-seeking behaviours in low-resource contexts.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practices in Malaysia
Professor Lim is the Malaysian lead in a regional project that examines the role and practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in Malaysia. Conducted in collaboration with Yunnan University (China), the National University of Singapore, and Petra Christian University (Philippines), the research explores how TCM is integrated into Malaysia's plural health system and how it is legitimised, adapted, or contested across sociocultural and regulatory contexts. The study is supported by a Foreign Experts Grant and contributes to comparative research on the circulation of traditional health practices in contemporary healthcare landscapes.
Stakeholder Perspectives on Safe Media Reporting for Suicide Prevention
Professor Lim is Co-Investigator of a national FRGS project on Stakeholder Perspectives on Safe Media Reporting for Suicide Prevention, conducted with researchers from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and the University of Nottingham Malaysia. The project examines how suicide is represented in Malaysian media and investigates the perspectives of journalists, editors, mental health professionals, and persons with lived experience. The aim is to inform evidence-based guidelines for media practitioners and contribute to safer, more inclusive public discourse on mental health.
The study has informed the development of national guidelines on ethical reporting of suicide-related content, commissioned by the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (The Content Forum). Findings from the project have also been shared through media workshops and academic publications focusing on health communication, journalism ethics, and stakeholder engagement.
Theranostics and Interdisciplinary Cancer Monitoring
Professor Lim contributes as a Co-Investigator to a research collaboration funded by the RKE Interdisciplinary Research Engagement Fund between the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and the University of Glasgow. The project focuses on developing a theranostics-based system for cancer monitoring and treatment, involving cross-disciplinary input from engineering, life sciences, and digital communications. Her role includes framing patient-centred communication strategies, co-design processes, and participatory health research.
Past Research
Professor Joanne Lim's research over the past two decades has addressed the intersections of media, culture, technology, and governance in Southeast Asia. Her earlier work examined networked behaviours, identity politics, and the role of digital media in shaping civic and political expression, while her more recent projects have focused on communication practices in health, media literacy, and cultural policy. Her research adopts a decolonial lens to interrogate how digital systems are embedded within everyday social, political, and cultural life, particularly in Malaysia and the wider region.
She has served as Principal or Co-Investigator on multiple national and international research grants, contributing to the development of methodological and conceptual frameworks for understanding participatory media, digital governance, and platform-based interventions.
Youth Participation, Mobile Media and Civic Engagement
A significant area of her work has focused on youth participation, identity construction, and digital activism in Malaysia. Her research explored how young people appropriate digital tools to articulate dissent, negotiate belonging, and engage with political and social issues in constrained civic environments. Through projects funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and the International Development Research Centre (Canada), she examined how mobile media, vlogging, and social platforms became alternative channels for political expression.
Her articles in International Communication Gazette, International Journal of Cultural Studies, and SOJOURN have contributed to conceptual understandings of affective publics, rhizomatic behaviours, and participatory political cultures in hybrid media systems.
Cultural Policy, Interculturality, and the Creative Industries
Between 2012 and 2016, Professor Lim's work centred on cultural policy, creative labour, and the politics of representation in postcolonial Malaysia. She led an Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ERGS) project on youth theatre and interculturality, which examined how performance and creative practice offer spaces for social dialogue and resistance in contexts marked by regulatory constraints and cultural gatekeeping.
Her chapter, Accessing Spaces, Negotiating Boundaries (Routledge, 2015), examined how independent artists and collectives in Malaysia negotiate institutional barriers and challenge dominant narratives through mobility, informal networks, and alternative cultural economies.
She also served as a lead academic organiser of conferences and masterclasses that brought together cultural practitioners, journalists, and policy actors to discuss urban citizenship, cultural infrastructures, and regional mobility.
Media Practices, Convergence, and Journalism Ethics
Professor Lim has contributed to national and institutional research on media convergence, news consumption, and broadcast journalism in Malaysia. Her early work addressed the transformation of television newsrooms in the digital age, while her later projects interrogated the intersection of political communication and media accountability.
She was Co-Investigator on Watching the Watchdog 2, funded by the Open Society Foundation, which monitored and analysed media coverage during Malaysia's 14th General Elections. She also contributed to early conversations around the establishment of a Malaysian Media Council and served as a media consultant on ethics and reporting frameworks for various NGOs and policy institutions.
Digital Pop Culture and Identity Politics
Professor Lim was Co-Investigator of the regional project Decoding the Weaponising of Pop Culture on WhatsApp in Singapore and Malaysia, funded by the Facebook Integrity Foundational Research Awards. This cross-country collaboration explored how memes, popular icons, and cultural symbols were mobilised through closed messaging platforms to reinforce political ideologies, incite division, or strengthen group identities. The project drew on digital ethnography, visual content analysis, and interviews with users across urban centres.
She has also published on the Korean Wave (Hallyu) in Southeast Asia, focusing on the consumption and rejection of K-pop content and the socio-political implications of transnational fandom. Her co-authored article in Kritika Kultura (2017) examined perceptions of cultural dominance, nationalism, and soft power in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
News Consumption and Media Trust in Malaysia
From 2022 to 2023, she led the MCMC-funded Digital Society Research Grant (DSRG) project An Analysis of TV News Consumption Amongst Malaysians in Peninsular Malaysia. This study investigated audience trust in traditional versus digital media, the role of television news in shaping civic knowledge, and how political affiliations mediate media consumption habits. The findings contributed to policy discussions on public service broadcasting and digital news literacy, and were presented at the MCMC Research Symposium 2023.
Mental Health Communication and Suicide Reporting
She was Co-Investigator on the FRGS-funded project Stakeholder Perspectives on Safe Media Reporting for Suicide Prevention, which involved interviews and focus groups with journalists, editors, psychologists, and persons with lived experience. The project provided empirical evidence to inform national guidelines on suicide-related media reporting. Professor Lim also supported the development of educational toolkits and was engaged in national-level consultation led by The Content Forum to strengthen ethical media practices in Malaysia.
Future Research
Professor Joanne Lim's future research will extend her ongoing work on participatory digital interventions, health communication, and data ethics by advancing comparative and policy-relevant studies that bring together cultural analysis, technological development, and public engagement. Her research trajectory remains grounded in Southeast Asia while contributing to global debates on human-centred design, digital equity, and the social life of technology.
Comparative Studies on Digital Ecologies of Care
Building on her development of the Digital Media Ecovillages (DMEV) framework, Professor Lim will pursue a comparative, cross-cultural study on digital ecologies of care. This body of work will explore how media and technology are designed, adapted, and appropriated to meet localised health, emotional, and social needs-particularly in under-resourced or structurally excluded communities.
Future studies will examine:
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Locally embedded digital health and wellbeing interventions
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The role of affect, relationality, and cultural knowledge in platform design
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Co-created health communication strategies across urban and rural sites
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Policy implications for inclusive e-health governance in Southeast Asia
These studies will use a combination of qualitative fieldwork, implementation science, and participatory design workshops, in partnership with community-based organisations and healthcare providers.
Humanising AI and the Ethics of Digital Innovation
Professor Lim intends to further develop her research on ethical, culturally responsive applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in communication and public health. Drawing on her postgraduate module Humanizing AI, future research will investigate how AI systems can be designed to align with community values, reduce harm, and enhance social trust.
Planned areas of inquiry include:
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Participatory frameworks for AI governance
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Intersectional impacts of AI on health, media, and civic infrastructures
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Data literacy and ethical design practices in AI-driven interventions
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Comparative analysis of AI ethics frameworks across the Global South
This research will involve close collaboration with interdisciplinary teams in computer science, design, and social policy, and will inform both academic publications and applied toolkits for policymakers and civil society actors.
Digital Sovereignty, Media Policy, and Platform Accountability
In response to increasing concern around misinformation, media capture, and algorithmic control, Professor Lim will continue contributing to national and regional conversations on media reform, platform governance, and digital sovereignty. Her future research will build on previous work related to media ethics, public communication, and regulatory frameworks.
Key research directions will include:
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Examining proposed reforms such as the Malaysian Media Council
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Evaluating cross-border regulation of digital platforms in ASEAN
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Investigating civic and policy responses to misinformation and digital precarity
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Tracing the role of intermediaries (journalists, fact-checkers, tech workers) in shaping trusted information environments
These projects will be pursued in collaboration with research centres and professional associations, including journalism networks, digital rights organisations, and ASEAN policy bodies.
Youth Civic Engagement and Digital Storytelling
Professor Lim will initiate a longitudinal study on youth civic engagement through digital storytelling, particularly focusing on post-pandemic realities of political disengagement, mental health challenges, and digital exclusion. This work builds on her previous research on digital activism and youth mobilisation.
The study will focus on:
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Mapping digital storytelling practices across Southeast Asian youth communities
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Investigating how youth narrate belonging, resistance, and everyday politics through social media
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Developing toolkits for media educators and NGOs working with young people
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Co-creating platforms that facilitate creative expression and civic dialogue
The research will involve partnerships with schools, youth-led initiatives, and digital literacy programmes, and will contribute to national education strategies and curriculum reform.
Cross-Institutional Research and Strategic Alignment
Professor Lim will strengthen institutional linkages with academic, policy, and civil society actors working in the fields of digital health, media ethics, and communication for development. She is committed to pursuing co-funded research programmes with regional and UK-based partners.
Her future work wil continue to align closely with the Health and Wellbeing Signature Research Strength at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. This includes contributing to interdisciplinary research clusters, mentoring early-career researchers, and developing proposals that connect cultural analysis with evidence-based public health and policy innovation.