Multiplatform innovation and participatory citizenship : the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s digital children’s television projects

This paper examines children’s multiplatform commissioning at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in the context of the digitalisation of Australian television. A pursuit of audience share and reach to legitimise its recurrent funding engenders a strategy that prioritises the entertainment values of the ABC’s children’s offerings. Nevertheless, these multiplatform texts (comprising complementary ‘on-air’ and ‘online’ textualities) evidence a continuing commitment to a youth-focussed, public service remit, and reflect the ABC’s Charter obligations to foster innovation, creativity, participation, citizenship, and the values of social inclusiveness. The analysis focuses on two recent ‘marquee’ drama projects, Dance Academy (a contemporary teen series) and My Place (a historical series for a middle childhood audience). The research draws on a series of research interviews, analysis of policy documents and textual analysis of the television and multiplatform content. The authors argue that a mixed diet of programming, together with an educative or social developmental agenda, features in the design of both program and online participation for the public broadcaster.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s multiplatform projects : industrial logics of children’s content provision in the digital television era

This paper traces the development of children’s multiplatform commissioning at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in the context of the digitalisation of Australian television. Whilst recent scholarship has focussed on ‘post-broadcast’ or ‘second-shift’ industrial practices, designed to engage view(s)ers with proprietary media brands, less attention has been focussed on children’s and young adults’ television in a public service context. Further, although multiplatform projects in the United States and Britain have been the subject of considerable analysis, less work has attempted to contextualise cultural production in smaller media markets. The paper explores two recent multiplatform projects through textual analysis, empirical research (consisting of interviews with key industry personnel) and an investigation of recent policy documents. The authors argue that the ABC’s mixed diet of children’s programming, featuring an educative or social developmental agenda, is complemented by its appeals to audience ‘participation’, with the Corporation maintaining public service values alongside the need to expand audience reach and the legitimacy of its brand. It finds that the ABC’s historical platform infrastructure, across radio, television and online, have allowed it to move beyond a market failure model to exploit multiplatform synergies competitively in the distribution of Australian children’s content to audiences on-demand.

ABC news 24: a study of limited resources and challenging newsgathering

This was a refereed abstract for an international conference. The paper analyses the content of the 24 hour news cycle of the ABC News 24 station.

Competition and television news in India : a content analysis

In India, not unlike some other developing countries, ruling parties have used public service broadcasters to propagate their virtues, adversely affecting the broadcasters' image as a credible news media. The Indian public service broadcaster. Doordarshan,
which has been besieged by increased competition and government-imposed demandfor selfsufficiency in recent years, continues to struggle to shed its image as a government mouthpiece despite being run by an independent corporation. This article
presents a content analysis of news programs broadcast by Doordarshan and a foreign television network. Star News. The study examines the differences and similarities between Doordarshan and Star TV's prime time news programs broadcast at the turn ofthe century, almost a decade after the advent ofcommercial television in India broke the public service broadcaster's monopoly in the country.

Investigating ‘community’ through a history of responses to asbestos-related disease in an Australian industrial region

The government of the State of Victoria has been slow to acknowledge the social costs of asbestos-related diseases (ARD) in the Latrobe Valley. Despite the emphasis on ‘community’ in the discipline of public health and in public health services since the 1970s, ARD was only recognised as a community-wide health problem because of the advocacy of people directly affected by it. An historical view of responses to ARD in a community established as an appendage to the publicly owned power industry and infused with an ethic of public service, shows that contests over the definition of ‘community’ lay at the heart of these responses. It also shows that such disputes did not arise only from the reluctance of authorities to acknowledge the problems resulting from the extensive use of asbestos in power stations. The paper highlights the political nature of the notion of ‘community’ and in doing so raises questions that have implications beyond its narrow regional focus.

The ABC, the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, and the emergence of digital children’s television in Australia

 This paper analyses the campaign to establish terrestrial digital children’s public service broadcasting in Australia. It finds that the development of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s digital children’s channel (ABC3), an initiative initially embraced somewhat opportunistically, enabled an expansion strategy for the public service broadcaster that ultimately helped determine the shape of its current digital channel portfolio. Contrasting the collective and divergent interpretations of future audience behaviours and needs developed by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) and the ABC, it argues that both organisations developed strategies and made policy decisions that were influential in conditioning the current digital television ecology.

The launch of ABC News 24 Television : interview on ABC Local Radio

Dr Colleen Murrell was interviewed on ABC local radio in advance of the launch of ABC Australia's 24-hour TV station. In the interview she discusses the reasons for the ABC's new venture in broadcasting and places it in the context of other international stations such as BBC World, CNN and Sky News. Dr Murrell also discusses the cost implications and the ability of the ABC to produce original content from its international correspondents. 

Keep watch : your kids would be worse off without the ABC

Part of a series commissioned by The Conversation to explore the implications of proposed Coalition budget cuts to the ABC

Coproduction and Casula's Pacifica Program: Initial research findings

This research takes Casula Powerhouse Art Centre’s Pacifica program as a case study to investigate the ways in which museum and galleries are involved in coproduction with culturally diverse communities. Coproduction is defined here as:Museum and gallery practice conducted jointly with communities or other external partiesThe benefits of coproduction are that it leads to more effective and efficient public services (including arts and cultural services) while also building the skills and capacity of the community. However coproduction is not easy, particularly because it requires public service providers and communities to work in ‘equal and reciprocal’ relationships.As an organisation with strong and strategic alliances to its governing body (Liverpool City Council), Casula brings a strong capacity for coproduction. Internally it has support and commitment to coproduction from across the organisation. The staff at Casula bring exceptional relational skills. The organisation’s capacity to coproduce draws heavily on their skills as cultural brokers and experience in community cultural development practice. The communities Casula works with bring strong cultural knowledge and practice, along with a desire to maintain and preserve these community resources. Casula’s coproduction work also meets external political needs for public services to deliver increased public value as well as a greater diversity in the profile of arts audiences.The key challenge for Casula Powerhouse’s coproduction work is the extent to which it aims for joint delivery of public services through ‘equal and reciprocal’ relationships with the community, or uses coproduction as a tool for community engagement and audience development. Advocates of coproduction in the public sector argue for its value as a means of delivering more effective and efficient public services while at the same time building the skills and capacity of local communities. A critical element of coproduction according to these writers and scholars is the development and delivery of public services through ‘equal and reciprocal’ relationships between providers and users.The value of coproduction for Casula Powerhouse and the Pacifica program is its use as a means of community engagement and audience development. Coproduction is a feature of the components of Pacifica that enable the participation of the community and provide entry points for audiences to engage with contemporary art. Evidence of this approach to coproduction can be seen in the dual ‘stakeholder’ and ‘audience’ role that the community have within the Pacifica program. The community is therefore both a contributor to Pacifica and a beneficiary of this work. The benefits Casula Powerhouse receives from the community’s involvement in Pacifica are greater public value of its work and stronger engagement with communities and audiences.Although coproduction may not be the focus of all aspects of Pacifica, the involvement of Pacific Islander communities in the program results in exhibitions and public programs that are not typical contemporary art gallery offerings. Pacifica is further evidence of Casula Powerhouse’s innovative and entrepreneurial approach to gallery practice. The use of coproduction also ensures Pacifica offers an authentic and distinctive gallery experience.

Invasion from the skies

Increased competition and shrinking budgets have forced public service broadcasters around the world to reconsider their role. Doordarshan, India’s public service television network, shares the problems faced by its counterparts in more developed countries. Although it continues to enjoy the luxury of being the only television network broadcasting its programs from within national boundaries, it has had to change its policies and programming to compete with foreign television channels including Murdoch’s Star TV. However, it is the Indian audience that has benefited most from this competition from the skies in the form of improved quality and quantity of programs. This paper reports on an audience survey carried out in India earlier this year to gauge television viewers’ perception of these benefits. The paper also gives background on the developments in thetelevision industry in India.

Identifying consumers who resist looking for information

Entities like advertisers and public service agencies encounter consumers who are
resistant to searching for information. Resistance to information-search is a latent
phenomenon that has received little attention from marketers (Case, 2007; Levy, Webster & Kerin, 1983).This is perhaps due to difficulties associated with finding and identifying those who are resistant to looking; those who don’t search do not leave a detectable mark. These consumers miss out on information that may help them make better consumption decisions. They also remain uninformed about crucial broadcasts like product recalls and warnings (Capon & Lutz, 1979).