Alternative primary sources for studying Australian television history : an annotated list of online private collections

It is possible to write many different histories of Australian television, and these different histories draw on different primary sources. The ABC of Drama, for example, draws on the ABC Document Archives (Jacka 1991). Most of the information for Images and Industry: television drama production in Australia is taken from original interviews with television production staff (Moran 1985). Ending the Affair, as well as archival work, draws on ‘over ten years of watching … Australian television current affairs’ (Turner 2005, xiii). Moran’s Guide to Australian TV Series draws exhaustively on extant archives: the ABC Document Archives, material sourced through the ABC Drama department, the Australian Film Commission, the library of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and the Australian Film Institute (Moran 1993, xi)...

Evolution of the extinct Sabretooths and the American cheetah-like cat

The sabretooths (Smilodon and Homotherium) and the American cheetah-like cat (Miracinonyx) were the top predators in Late Pleistocene America, but became extinct about 13 thousand years ago. As the evolutionary history of these taxa remains poorly understood , we analysed their phylogenetic relationship to extant felids. In contrast to previous molecular studies , our results show that the sabretooths diverge early and are not closely related to any living cats. This supports their morphological placement in a separate subfamily (Machairodontinae). Despite its remarkable morphological similarity to the African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), Miracinonyx appears to have evolved from a puma-like ancestor, presumably in response to similar ecological pressures.

More than a backchannel : Twitter and television

Twitter is a social media service that has managed very successfully to embed itself deeply in the everyday lives of its users. Its short message length (140 characters), and one-way connections (‘following’ rather than ‘friending’) lend themselves effectively to random and regular updates on almost any form of personal or professional activity – and it has found uses from the interpersonal (e.g. boyd et al., 2010) through crisis communication (e.g. Bruns et al., 2012) to political debate (e.g. Burgess & Bruns, 2012). In such uses, Twitter does not necessarily replace existing media channels, such as the broadcast or online offerings of the mainstream media, but often complements them, providing its users with alternative opportunities to contribute more actively to the wider mediasphere. This is true especially where Twitter is used alongside television, as a simple backchannel to live programming or for more sophisticated uses. In this article, we outline four aspects – dimensions – of the way that the ‘old’ medium of television intersects and, in some cases, interacts, with the ‘new’ medium of Twitter.

Democracy, Crime and Justice. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences

As a growing number of nations embark on a path to democracy, criminologists have become increasingly interested and engaged in the challenges, concerns, and questions connecting democracy with both crime and criminal justice. Rising levels of violence and street crime, white collar crime and corruption both in countries where democracy is securely in place and where it is struggling, have fuelled a deepening skepticism as to the capacity of democracy to deliver on its promise of security and justice for all citizens. What role does crime and criminal justice play in the future of democracy and for democratic political development on a global level? The editors of this special volume of The Annals realized the importance of collecting research from a broad spectrum of countries and covering a range of problems that affect citizens, politicians, and criminal justice officials. The articles here represent a solid balance between mature democracies like the U.S. and U.K. as well as emerging democracies around the globe – specifically in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. They are based on large and small cross-national samples, regional comparisons, and case studies. Each contribution addresses a seminal question for the future of democratic political development across the globe. What is the role of criminal justice in the process of building democracy and instilling confidence in its institutions? Is there a role for unions in democratizing police forces? What is the impact of widespread disenfranchisement of felons on democratic citizenship and the life of democratic institutions? Under what circumstances do mature democracies adopt punitive sentencing regimes? Addressing sensitive topics such as relations between police and the Muslim communities of Western Europe in the wake of terrorist attacks, this volume also sheds light on the effects of terrorism on mature democracies under increasing pressure to provide security for their citizens. By taking a broad vantage point, this collection of research delves into complex topics such as the relationship between the process of democratization and violent crime waves; the impact of rising crime rates on newly established as well as secure democracies; how crime may endanger the transition to democracy; and how existing practices of criminal justice in mature democracies affect their core values and institutions. The collection of these insightful articles not only begins to fill a gap in criminological research but also addresses issues of critical interest to political scientists as well as other social and behavioral scientists and scholars. Taking a fresh approach to the intersection of crime, criminal justice, and democracy, this volume of The Annals is a must-read for criminologists and political scientists and provides a solid foundation for further interdisciplinary research.

Australian television, popular memory and suburbia

Different archives of television material construct different versions of Australian national identity. There exists a Pro-Am archive of Australian television history materials consisting of many individual collections. This archive is not centrally located nor clearly bounded. The collections are not all linked to each other, nor are they aware of each other, and they do not claim to have a single common project. Pro-Am collections tend not to address Australian television as a whole, rather addressing particular genres, programs or production companies. Their vision of Australia is 'ordinary' and everyday. The boundaries of 'Australia' in the Pro-Am archive are porous, allowing non-Australians to contribute material, and also including non-Australian material and this causes little sense of anxiety.

Provincialising Perth? : Satellite television and the Chinese in Perth

Relocated people habitually seek the familiar within their new social milieus as a means of easing their transition into ways strange and alien. However, from networks and food to everyday customs, efforts to hold on to such home comforts are often viewed with a measure of hostile disdain and regarded as preludes to the formation of ethnic enclaves. Through a pilot study on the access of satellite television by mainland Chinese migrants in Perth, Western Australia, this chapter seeks to shed some light on how migrants understand and employ these comforting strategies and how Chinese-Australians are using technology to achieve a sense of sanctuary from the views and habits of Australians while (re)constructing and articulating multiple belongings in their new homes.

Faculty mentoring, evidence-based assessment, and student learning : an Australian exploration of American initiatives

There have been many improvements in Australian engineering education since the 1990s. However, given the recent drive for assuring the achievement of identified academic standards, more progress needs to be made, particularly in the area of evidence-based assessment. This paper reports on initiatives gathered from the literature and engineering academics in the USA, through an Australian National Teaching Fellowship program. The program aims to establish a process to help academics in designing and implementing evidence-based assessments that meet the needs of not only students and the staff that teach them, but also industry as well as accreditation bodies. The paper also examines the kinds and levels of support necessary for engineering academics, especially early career ones, to help meet the expectations of the current drive for assured quality and standards of both research and teaching. Academics are experiencing competing demands on their time and energy with very high expectations in research performance and increased teaching responsibilities, although many are researchers who have not had much pedagogic training. Based on the literature and investigation of relevant initiatives in the USA, we conducted interviews with several identified experts and change agents who have wrought effective academic cultural change within their institutions and beyond. These reveal that assuring the standards and quality of student learning outcomes through evidence-based assessments cannot be appropriately addressed without also addressing the issue of pedagogic training for academic staff. To be sustainable, such training needs to be complemented by a culture of on-going mentoring support from senior academics, formalised through the university administration, so that mentors are afforded resources, time, and appropriate recognition.

'Going live' : establishing the creative attributes of the live multi-camera television professional

In my capacity as a television professional and teacher specialising in multi-camera live television production for over 40 years, I was drawn to the conclusion that opaque or inadequately formed understandings of how creativity applies to the field of live television, have impeded the development of pedagogies suitable to the teaching of live television in universities. In the pursuit of this hypothesis, the thesis shows that television degrees were born out of film studies degrees, where intellectual creativity was aligned to single camera production, and the 'creative roles' of producers, directors and scriptwriters. At the same time, multi-camera live television production was subsumed under the 'mass communication' banner, leading to an understanding that roles other than producer and director are simply technical, and bereft of creative intent or acumen. The thesis goes on to show that this attitude to other television production personnel, for example, the vision mixer, videotape operator and camera operator, relegates their roles to that of 'button pusher'. This has resulted in university teaching models with inappropriate resources and unsuitable teaching practices. As a result, the industry is struggling to find people with the skills to fill the demands of the multi-camera live television sector. In specific terms the central hypothesis is pursued through the following sequenced approach. Firstly, the thesis sets out to outline the problems, and traces the origins of the misconceptions that hold with the notion that intellectual creativity does not exist in live multi-camera television. Secondly, this more adequately conceptualised rendition, of the origins particular to the misconceptions of live television and creativity, is then anchored to the field of examination by presentation of the foundations of the roles involved in making live television programs, using multicamera production techniques. Thirdly, this more nuanced rendition of the field sets the stage for a thorough analysis of education and training in the industry, and teaching models at Australian universities. The findings clearly establish that the pedagogical models are aimed at single camera production, a position that deemphasises the creative aspects of multi-camera live television production. Informed by an examination of theories of learning, qualitative interviews, professional reflective practice and observations, the roles of four multi-camera live production crewmembers (camera operator, vision mixer, EVS/videotape operator and director's assistant), demonstrate the existence of intellectual creativity during live production. Finally, supported by the theories of learning, and the development and explication of a successful teaching model, a new approach to teaching students how to work in live television is proposed and substantiated.

The International Film and Television School in Cuba : for a stronger media culture in the global south

A little-known facet of Cuban internationalism is the Cuba shares in the education of young people who want to help build a stronger media culture that represents voices from the global South. Cuba was instrumental in the establishment and operation of the International Film and Television School at San Antonio de los Baños. The Cuban government provided the location and buildings for the school, and among the range of international media professionals who teach the students are selected Cuban professors from the Institute of the Arts, based n Havana. The International Film and Television School is supported by funding from Spain and other countries, and by the willingness of international media professionals to teach short courses for little more than an honorarium. Cuba used to provide full scholarships for student from the South to study a two-year course in film or television, but now charges fees for its three-year diploma course.