Caroline Wilson‑Barnao

Caroline Wilson‑Barnao (she/her) is a museologist whose research examines the implications of digital and participatory media for contemporary museum practice. She is the author of ‘Museums as Platforms’ (Routledge, 2022) and co‑author of ‘Collecting Social Media in Museums’ (Routledge, 2025).

Her scholarly outputs include articles on digitisation, platform logics, personalisation, and algorithmic cultural recommendation in a museum context. Caroline is the former Director of Museum Studies at the University of Queensland and contributes to national and international research and museum and communications communities, including the CPRA Australia Board and critical heritage and digital culture networks.

Caroline Wilson‑Barnao will be speaking at the Digital Collections Summit 2026 :

Collecting Social Media in Museums: saving selfies for the future

Collecting social media in museums acknowledges the profound cultural impact of digital and online cultures on how people connect, create, and express themselves. Try imagining our era without hashtags, viral videos, or online activism. It would be like studying the Renaissance without its art. In this presentation we will explore the challenges social media poses for museums and outline practical ways institutions can begin collecting it.