Australian Television and International Mediascapes

This book addresses current debates about globalization and culture by tracing the emergence of Australia as a significant exporter of television to the world market. The authors investigate why Australian programs have found international popularity. The book describes the Australian industry and the international television marketplace. It also examines the impact of Australian programs on the television cultures of the importing countries. The authors outline policy implications and speculate on future directions of Australian television.

Rethinking the notion of culture in the national history curriculum

Major global changes are placing new demands on the Australian education system. Recent statements by the Prime Minister, together with current education policy and national curriculum documents available in the public domain, look to education’s role in promoting economic prosperity and social cohesion. Collectively, they emphasise the need to equip young Australians with the knowledge, understandings and skills required to compete in the global economy and participate as engaged citizens in a culturally diverse world. However, the decision to prioritise discipline-based learning in the forthcoming Australian history curriculum without specifically encompassing culture as a referent, raises the following question. How will students acquire the cultural knowledge, understandings and skills necessary for this process? This paper addresses this question by situating the current push for a national history curriculum, with specific reference to the study of Indigenous history and the study of Asia in Australia.

Spatial restructuring of cities in the age of knowledge economy : insights from Australian cities

In the age of knowledge economy, knowledge production, and where, how and by whom it is produced, has become one of the most important factors in determining the quality of life and competitiveness of a city. In different parts of the world, cities that are the centres of knowledge production are branded under different names, e.g. knowledge city, creative city, ubiquitous eco city, smart city. This paper focuses on the core building block of these cities: ‘knowledge precincts’ that are the catalytic magnet infrastructures impacting knowledge production. The paper discusses the increasing importance of knowledge-based urban development within the paradigm of knowledge economy, and the role of knowledge community precincts as an instrument to seed the foundation of knowledge production. This paper explores knowledge based urban development, particularly knowledge community precinct development, potentials of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and benchmarks them against Boston. The paper also draws conclusions and recommendations for other cities considering knowledge based development.

Developments in Australian laws requiring the reporting of suspected child sexual abuse

Thousands of Australian children are sexually abused every year, and the effects can be severe and long lasting. Not only is child sexual abuse a public health problem, but the acts inflicted are criminal offences. Child sexual abuse usually occurs in private, typically involving relationships featuring a massive imbalance in power and an abuse of that power. Those who inflict child sexual abuse seek to keep it secret, whether by threats or more subtle persuasion. As a method of responding to this phenomenon and in an effort to uncover cases of sexual abuse that otherwise would not come to light, governments in Australian States and Territories have enacted legislation requiring designated persons to report suspected child sexual abuse. With Western Australia’s new legislation having commenced on 1 January 2009, every Australian State and Territory government has now passed these laws, so that there is now, for the first time, an almost harmonious legislative approach across Australia to the reporting of child sexual abuse. Yet there remain differences in the State and Territory laws regarding who has to make reports, which cases of sexual abuse are required to be reported, and whether suspected future abuse must be reported. These differences indicate that further refinement of the laws is required

Internationalisation and international students : creating an internationalised learning context for international students’ study preparation via CMC

Australian universities have been phenomenally internationalised because of significant numbers of international students in their student cohorts. The international students make up 17.3 percent (OECD 2007) of all the university enrolment, and some universities have much more international student enrolments than the average. From a truly internationalisation perspective, however, there is far more demand of integration with Australian students and international students, the internationalising learning content and context. There have not been much discussion and effort of understanding and practicing of internationalising the learning context from international students’ cultural background and internationalised learning environment. There are many factors which interfere with internationalisation in the learning context such as English proficiency, culture difference and academic staff unawareness. This paper argues the concepts of cultural dimensions and the characteristics of CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication) in a multicultural learning context of Australian higher education. This paper aims to develop a framework of international students’ preparation program for their Western university study based on technology-driven learning models, especially targeting those students who have an Asian cultural background. The program is expected to help international students bridge the gap of cultural differences and better preparation for their active participation and engagement in a new learning environment in order to realise truly internationalisation in Australian higher education

Walking and sitting in the Australian Antarctic Territory : mobility and imperial space

In 1995 and 1997, two major Australian expeditions travelled to Antarctica. They were the most heavily-reported Antarctican events of their two years: they were charged with the public production of Australian Antarctic spatiality. Both published exploration narratives: Don and Margie McIntyre’s Expedition Icebound generated an illustrated coffee-table book, Two Below Zero: A Year Alone in Antarctica, and the Spirit of Australia South Pole Expedition published its narrative as a video titled Walking on Ice: The History-Making Expedition to the South Pole. Yet, despite the fact that the two polar trips took place during the same period, their spatialities are markedly different. Walking on Ice is a mobile narrative of imperial exploration, while Two Below Zero is a static spatial story of colonial settlement. How polar mobility and relative immobility figure in Australia’s perceptions of, and claim to, nearly half of Antarctica is the focus of this chapter.

Deeply divergent mitochondrial lineages reveal patterns of local endemism in chironomids of the Australian Wet Tropics

The Wet Tropics bioregion of north-eastern Australia has been subject to extensive fluctuations in climate throughout the late Pliocene and Pleistocene. Cycles of rainforest contraction and expansion of dry sclerophyll forest associated with such climatic fluctuations are postulated to have played a major role in driving geographical endemism in terrestrial rainforest taxa. Consequences for the distributions of aquatic organisms, however, are poorly understood.The Australian non-biting midge species Echinocladius martini Cranston (Diptera: Chironomidae), although restricted to cool, well-forested freshwater streams, has been considered to be able to disperse among populations located in isolated rainforest pockets during periods of sclerophyllous forest expansion, potentially limiting the effect of climatic fluctuations on patterns of endemism. In this study, mitochondrial COI and 16S data were analysed for E. martini collected from eight sites spanning theWet Tropics bioregion to assess the scale and extent of phylogeographic structure. Analyses of genetic structure showed several highly divergent cryptic lineages with restricted geographical distributions. Within one of the identified lineages, strong genetic structure implied that dispersal among proximate (<1 km apart) streams was extremely restricted. The results suggest that vicariant processes, most likely due to the systemic drying of the Australian continent during the Plio-Pleistocene, might have fragmented historical E. martini populations and, hence, promoted divergence in allopatry.

The relative age effect in Australian Football League players

Youth sports teams are usually grouped into yearly age groups based on fixed cut-off date (September 1st in the UK and January 1st in Australia). Children born just after this cut-off will be the oldest and most mature in their age group. This gives them an advantage in competitive sport, an advantage which has persisted into adulthood as shown by seasonal patterns in the dates of birth of professional ice hockey, football and basketball players. We were interested in whether a similar seasonal pattern exists in professional Australian Football League (AFL) players. We examined all AFL players in the 2009 season excluding foreign-born players. We compared the observed number of players’ born in each month with the expected number based on national statistics. There was a marked and statistically significant seasonality in players’ dates of birth. There were 33% more players than expected with dates of birth in January, and 25% fewer in December. Players who are relatively older in youth AFL teams have a better chance of turning professional.

More than experiential learning or volunteering : a case study of community service learning within the Australian context

Community service learning is the integration of experiential learning and community service into coursework such that community needs are met and students gain both professional skills and a sense of civic responsibility. A critical component is student reflection. This paper provides an example of the application of community service learning within an undergraduate health unit at the Queensland University of Technology. Based on survey data from 36 program participants, it demonstrates the impact of CSL on student outcomes. Results show that students benefited by developing autonomy through real world experiences, through increased self-assurance and achievement of personal growth, through gaining new insights into the operations of community service organisations and through moving towards becoming responsible citizens. Students expect their CSL experience to have long-lasting impact on their lives, with two-thirds of participants noting that they would like to continue volunteering as part of their future development.

Enabling Open Access to Public Sector Information With Creative Commons Licences : The Australian Experience

This chapter considers how open content licences of copyright-protected materials – specifically, Creative Commons (CC) licences - can be used by governments as a simple and effective mechanism to enable reuse of their PSI, particularly where materials are made available in digital form online or distributed on disk.

Australian horror movies

The Australian horror film is a fascinating specimen. While a tradition has antecedents in the silent era of cinema, and at times has produced popular and commercially successful titles, Australian horror films have existed among the shadows of Australian cinema. Within a national cinema funded by public subsidy to foster a sense of national identity, emphasizing ‘quality’ cultural films and refusing to recognize popular movie genres in attempt to differentiate itself from Hollywood, generic and low-culture horror films have been in opposition to these objectives. Consequently, horror movies have been heavily marginalized within public funding environments and mainstream film culture, and either ignored or despised by mainstream critics. The chapter provides a historical introduction to Australian horror cinema before reviewing a selection of recent Aussie horror titles, namely: Wolf Creek, Undead, Black Water, Dying Breed, Lost Things, Prey, Cut, Rogue and Storm Warning.

A comparison of international occupational therapy competencies : implications for Australian standards in the new millennium

Background/aim: A timely evaluation of the Australian Competency Standards for Entry-Level Occupational Therapists© (1994) was conducted. This thorough investigation comprised a literature review exploring the concept of competence and the applications of competency standards; systematic benchmarking of the Australian Occupational Therapy Competency Standards (OT AUSTRALIA, 1994) against other national and international competency standards and other affiliated documents, from occupational therapy and other cognate disciplines; and extensive nationwide consultation with the professional community. This paper explores and examines the similarities and disparities between occupational therapy competency standards documents available in English from Australia and other countries.----- Methods: An online search for national occupational therapy competency standards located 10 documents, including the Australian competencies.----- Results: Four 'frameworks' were created to categorise the documents according to their conceptual underpinnings: Technical-Prescriptive, Enabling, Educational and Meta-Cognitive. Other characteristics that appeared to impact the design, content and implementation of competency standards, including definitions of key concepts, authorship, national and cultural priorities, scope of services, intended use and review mechanisms, were revealed.----- Conclusion: The proposed 'frameworks' and identification of influential characteristics provided a 'lens' through which to understand and evaluate competency standards. While consistent application of and attention to some of these characteristics appear to consolidate and affirm the authority of competency standards, it is suggested that the national context should be a critical determinant of the design and content of the final document. The Australian Occupational Therapy Competency Standards (OT AUSTRALIA, 1994) are critiqued accordingly, and preliminary recommendations for revision are proposed.

Creative Economies, Creative Cities: Asian-European Perspectives

Thirteen papers examine Asian and European experiences with developing national and city policy agendas around cultural and creative industries. Papers discuss policy transfer and the field of the cultural and creative industries--what can be learned from Europe; creative industries across cultural borders--the case of video games in Asia; spaces of culture and economy--mapping the cultural-creative cluster landscape; beyond networks and relations--toward rethinking creative cluster theory; the capital complex--Beijing's new creative clusters; the European creative class and regional development--how relevant Richard Florida's theory is for Europe; getting out of place--the mobile creative class taking on the local--a U.K. perspective on the creative class; Asian cities and limits to creative capital theory; the creative industries, governance, and economic development--a U.K. perspective; Shanghai's emergence into the global creative economy; Shanghai moderne--creative economy in a creative city?; urbanity as a political project--toward post-national European cities; and alternative policies in urban innovation. Contributors include economists. Kong is with the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. O'Connor is at Queensland University of Technology. Index.