Aligning communication, cultural and media studies research and scholarship with industry and policy : Australian instances

This article reflects on aspects of what is claimed to be the distinctiveness of Australian communication, cultural and media studies, focusing on two cases – the cultural policy debate in the 1990s, and the concept of creative industries in the 2000s – and the relations between them, which highlight the alignment of research and scholarship with industry and policy and with which the author has been directly involved. Both ‘moments’ have been controversial; the three main lines of critique of such alignment of research and scholarship with industry and policy (its untoward proximity to tenets of the dominant neo-liberal ideology; the evacuation of cultural value by the economic; and the possible loss of critical vocation of the humanities scholar) are debated.

Examining the covert nature of product placement : implications for public policy

As consumers become better educated and more skeptical of traditional advertising, alternate forms of marketing communication have emerged that aim to influence audiences unobtrusively. One such example is product placement. Product placement has attracted ongoing debate as to whether it is covert, unethical, and influences consumption. The current article examines the nature and practice of product placement in this light. This taxonomy of product placement attributes is based on current marketing practice and examines whether this is, indeed, a covert marketing strategy. Further, it presents a conceptualization of the influence of product placement on consumer welfare. We highlight that the many forms of product placement necessitate independent evaluation to determine ethical and regulatory standards. Operational solutions for developing public policy are offered.

Renovating Research and Policy on Creative Industries and Innovation

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Creativity as emergence : policy issues for creative cities

The creative industries concept was born in the UK, nurtured in Australia (among other countries), but is now being implemented most vigorously in China. The UK and Australia seem to be pulling back from the concept: • Critical response to CI policy in the UK; and post-GFC cutbacks limit scope for government action. • Australia relies on the resources boom; even though recent WIPO report puts Australian ‘copyright industries’ at over 10 percent of GDP (second only to the USA at 11%). Not surprisingly the USA remains happy with the term ‘copyright industries.’ This faltering policy environment in advanced countries may work to their own longer-term economic detriment. The creative industries’ transformative impact on the global economy may come instead from China.

Untangling the Net : The Scope of Content Caught By Mandatory Internet Filtering

The following report considers a number of key challenges the Australian Federal Government faces in designing the regulatory framework and the reach of its planned mandatory internet filter. Previous reports on the mandatory filtering scheme have concentrated on the filtering technologies, their efficacy, their cost and their likely impact on the broadband environment. This report focuses on the scope and the nature of content that is likely to be caught by the proposed filter and on identifying associated public policy implications.

Government, citizenship and cultural policy : expertise and participation in Australian media policy

The study of institutions and policy processes in the formation of culture have been a major concern of the "cultural policy debate", which has been a major debate in Australian cultural studies in the 1990s (Bennett 1992a; Cunningham 1992; O'Regan 1993; cf. McGuigan 1996). Bennett (1992) argues that culture in modern societies is defined less by a distinct series of artistic and intellectual practices, the ways of life of distinctive communities or social groups, or as a system for the structuring of meaning in a society, but rather in terms of "the specificity of the governmental tasks and programmes in which those practices come to be inscribed." (Bennett 1992a: 397) Within such a framework, policy becomes "not... an optional add-on but... central to the definition and constitution of culture" (Bennett 1992a: 397). This understanding of culture as "intrinsically governmental" has in turn been linked to an increasingly strategic role for discourses of citizenship as a basis for the engagement of cultural studies intellectuals with the political sphere...

Female genital mutilation : Australian law, policy and practical challenges for doctors

As long ago as 1994, the Family Law Council accepted it was likely that female genital mutilation (FGM) was being conducted in Australia. In 2010, doctors and hospitals reported that it is being conducted and that they are seeing female patients who have experienced FGM. It is impossible to obtain precise data about the extent to which it is performed in Australia, but data indicates that FGM is a relevant issue for Australian medical practitioners. The medical profession has an interest in this topic because its members may be asked to conduct FGM, advise those considering it, or treat female patients with effects from the practice. This article provides a background on the practice of FGM, explains the relevant Australian law, considers whether the current legal prohibition on FGM is justified, and discusses the practical challenges facing individual practitioners and the profession. To inform further discussions about methods of responding to demand for FGM, reference is made to strategies being promoted in African nations to abolish this cultural practice.

The politics of media policy [Review]

"The Politics of Media Policy opens with a highly insightful analysis of how to do media policy studies in original and significant ways. Unfortunately, by anchoring its empirical analysis closely to a desire to expose the hidden machinations of neo-liberal ideology, it loses focus the more that it moves out of the dominant terrain of political economy in the study of media ownership. Des Freedman has pointed to important new directions in media policy studies, but has unfortunately only got half way to developing a new synthesis for understanding the relationship between policy institutions and broader ideas." -- from author's personal website

Elements of an environmental offsets policy : a working paper towards a policy for an environmental banking scheme appropriate for Queensland

In the past eight years, Australia has adopted the use of environmental offsets as a means to compensate for environmental degradation from development. Queensland has more environmental offsetting policies than any other Australian State or Territory. The methodology has profound effects on development companies, landowners (both private and public), regional land planning, organizations, government agencies, monetary banking institutions and environmental conservation bodies.

Green building, green neighbourhoods : a sub-tropical urban design handbook for planners

The Subtropical Design Handbook for Planners is primarily intended to provide advice in developing planning schemes to achieve the South East Queensland Regional Plan’s vision. This calls for ‘development which is sustainable and well-designed, and where the subtropical character of the region is recognised and reinforced’.

Vulnerability, insurance and policy: The learner driver's standard of care

In Cook v Cook the Australian High Court held that the standard of reasonable care owed by a learner driver to an instructor, conscious of the driver’s lack of experience, was lower than that owed to other passengers and road users. Recently, in Imbree v McNeilly, the High Court declined to follow this principle, concluding that the driver’s status or relationship with the claimant should no longer influence or alter the standard of care owed. The decision therefore provides an opportunity to re-examine the rationale and policy behind current jurisprudence governing the standard of care owed by learner drivers. In doing so, this article considers the principles relevant to determining the standard and Imbree’s implications for other areas of tort law and claimant v defendant relationships. It argues that Imbree was influenced by changing judicial perceptions concerning the vulnerability of driving instructors and the relevance of insurance to tortious liability.

Generalising across borders : policy and the limits of educational science.

AERA Distinguished Lecture, Annual Meetings of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 8 April 2011. How well does educational policy, innovation and science cross borders? What are the parameters of a generalisable cultural science of education? What constitutes a principled policy 'borrowing'?

Addressing sustainable living using a collaborative approach and multi-disciplinary techniques

In order to achieve meaningful reductions in individual ecological footprints, individuals must dramatically alter their day to day behaviours. Effective interventions will need to be evidence based and there is a necessity for the rapid transfer or communication of information from the point of research, into policy and practice. A number of health disciplines, including psychology and public health, share a common mission to promote health and well-being and it is becoming clear that the most practical pathway to achieving this mission is through interdisciplinary collaboration. This paper argues that an interdisciplinary collaborative approach will facilitate research that results in the rapid transfer of findings into policy and practice. The application of this approach is described in relation to the Green Living project which explored the psycho-social predictors of environmentally friendly behaviour. Following a qualitative pilot study, and in consultation with an expert panel comprising academics, industry professionals and government representatives, a self-administered mail survey was distributed to a random sample of 3000 residents of Brisbane and Moreton Bay (Queensland, Australia). The Green Living survey explored specific beliefs which included attitudes, norms, perceived control, intention and behaviour, as well as a number of other constructs such as environmental concern and altruism. This research has two beneficial outcomes. First, it will inform a practical model for predicting sustainable living behaviours and a number of local councils have already expressed an interest in making use of the results as part of their ongoing community engagement programs. Second, it provides an example of how a collaborative interdisciplinary project can provide a more comprehensive approach to research than can be accomplished by a single disciplinary project.