Bullish creative industries and the bear market

The creative industries idea is better than even its original perpetrators might have imagined, judging from the original mapping documents. By throwing the heavy duty copyright industries into the same basket as public service broadcasting, the arts and a lot of not-for-profit activity (public goods) and commercial but non-copyright-based sectors (architecture, design, increasingly software), it really messed with the minds of economic and cultural traditionalists. And, perhaps unwittingly, it prepared the way for understanding the dynamics of contemporary cultural ‘prosumption’ or ‘playbour’ in an increasingly networked social and economic space.

Mediating cultural politics : a dialogue with Georgina Born

The following dialogue is based on an interview conducted as part of Professor Born’s visit to Brisbane in 2006, which included three public seminars at the University of Queensland (UQ) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The following dialogue provides a counterpoint to these events and to Born’s work as a whole, drawing together and extending key themes in the cultural politics of both public service broadcasting and new media technologies. It begins by discussing the possibilities of public sphere theory to provide useful models of institutional design. The discussion moves from there to SBS Television – an example of Public Service Broadcasting that provides an interesting contrast to the BBC, especially by virtue of SBS’s relationship with the politics of multiculturalism in Australia. The second half of the interview draws out the issues around cultural value, cultural power and the politics of technology in relation to new media, and concludes by focusing especially on the problems and potentialities of ‘user-generated content’.

The new normativity : the innovation imperative

At a quite fundamental level, the very way in which Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) may envisage its future usually captured in the semantic shift from PSB to Public Service Media (PSM) is at stake when considering the recent history of public value discourse and the public value test. The core Reithian PSB idea assumed that public value would be created through the application of core principles of universality of availability and appeal, provision for minorities, education of the public, distance from vested interests, quality programming standards, program maker independence, and fostering of national culture and the public sphere. On the other hand, the philosophical import of the public value test is that potentially any excursion into the provision of new media services needs to be justified ex ante. In this era of New Public Management, greater transparency and accountability, and the proposition that resources for public value deliverables be contestable and not sequestered in public sector institutions, what might be the new Archimedean point around which a contemporised normativity for PSM be built? This paper will argue for the innovation imperative as an organising principle for contemporary PSM. This may appear counterintuitive, as it is precisely PSB’s predilection for innovating in new media services (in online, mobile, and social media) that has produced the constraining apparatus of the ex ante/public value/Drei-Stufen-Test in Europe, based on principles of competitive neutrality and transparency in the application of public funds for defined and limited public benefit. However, I argue that a commitment to innovation can define as complementary to, rather than as competitive ‘crowding out’, the new products and services that PSM can, and should, be delivering into a post-scarcity, superabundant all-media marketplace. The evidence presented in this paper for this argument is derived mostly from analysis of PSM in the Australian media ecology. While no PSB outside Europe is subject to a formal public value test, the crowding out arguments are certainly run in Australia, particularly by powerful commercial interests for whom free news is a threat to monetising quality news journalism. Take right wing opinion leader, herself a former ABC Board member, Judith Sloan: ‘… the recent expansive nature of the ABC – all those television stations, radio stations and online offerings – is actually squeezing activity that would otherwise be undertaken by the private sector. From partly correcting market failure, the ABC is now causing it. We are now dealing with a case of unfair competition and wasted taxpayer funds’ (The Drum, 1 August http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2818220.html). But I argue that the crowding out argument is difficult to sustain in Australia because of the PSB’s non-dominant position and the fact that much of innovation generated by the two PSBs, the ABC and the SBS, has not been imitated by or competed for by the commercials. The paper will bring cases forward, such as SBS’ Go Back to Where you Came From (2011) as an example of product innovation, and a case study of process and organisational innovation which also has resulted in specific product and service innovation – the ABC’s Innovation Unit. In summary, at least some of the old Reithian dicta, along with spectrum scarcity and market failure arguments, have faded or are fading. Contemporary PSM need to justify their role in the system, and to society, in terms of innovation.

The Foxtel-BBC deal : implications for Australian television and content

The ABC’s 50-year TV partnership with the BBC is at breaking point after a landmark deal between the British broadcaster and pay TV provider Foxtel was announced in April 2013. Under the new deal Foxtel will host a new BBC channel that will screen first-run, “fast-tracked” British programming, meaning ABC viewers will no longer have free-to-air access to popular shows such as Silent Witness and The Thick of It. The deal between Foxtel and the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, has major implications not only for the two partners, but also for the ABC and potentially for Australian screen content.

The cultural impact of institutional remix : the formalisation of textual reappropriation within the ABC

In 2009, Mark Deuze proposed an updated approach to media studies to incorporate ‘media life’, a concept he suggests addresses the invisibleness of ubiquitous media. Media life provides a useful lens for researchers to understand the human condition in media and not with media. At a similar time, public service media (PSM) strategies have aligned audience participation with the so‐called Reithian trinity which suggest the PSB should inform, educate and entertain while performing its core values of public service broadcasting (Enli 2008). Remix within the PSM institution relies on audience participation, employing ‘the people formerly known as the audience’ (Rosen 2006) as cultural artifact producers, and draws on their experience from within the media. Remix as a practice then enables us to examine the shift of the core PSM values by understanding how audience participation, informed by a human condition mobilised from our existence of being in media and not merely with media. However, remix within PSM challenges the once elitist construction of meaning models with an egalitarian approach towards socially reappropriated texts, questioning its affect on the cultural landscape. This paper draws on three years of ethnographic data from within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), exploring the remix culture of ABC Pool. ABC Pool operates under a Creative Commons licensing regime to enable remix practice under the auspices of the ABC. ABC Pool users provide a useful group of remix practitioners to examine as they had access to a vast ABC archival collection and were invited to remix those cultural artefacts, often adding cultural and fiscal value. This paper maintains a focus on the audience participation within PSM through remix culture by applying media dependency theory to remix as cultural practice and calls to expand and update the societal representation within the ABC.

Will the new ABC Arts Council Win Back the Arts Community?

The ABC’s major arts announcement this month appears at first glance to be good news for one of its core constituencies. The national broadcaster will establish an Arts Council and will roll out several new arts programming initiatives. The Corporation’s relationship with the arts community has been strained in recent years, so the new programming initiatives should be greeted positively. But without significant new funding, coupled with the uncertainties of a looming federal budget, some commentators are seeing this as little more than a shuffling of the deckchairs.

Scrapping the Australia network affects more than the ABC

The termination in the 2014 budget of the ABC’s international television broadcasting contract to run the federal government’s Australia Network service, barely a year into its ten-year term, was hardly a surprise. “Soft power” or “soft diplomacy” initiatives such as the Australia Network and international aid schemes have been hit especially hard in this budget. If, as Treasurer Hockey has repeatedly claimed, this was a budget for the nation, then what do these decisions say about the value this government places on Australia’s international cultural image and internationalism more generally?

Cut here : reshaping the ABC

Monday’s announcement that the ABC will make 80 positions redundant is just the latest move in an enforced process of change to the public service broadcaster. It has a long way yet to run. The announcement finally put the lie to Tony Abbott’s election eve pledge, live on national television, that there would be “no cuts to the ABC or SBS”. In concert with other recent announcements, it seems clear that public broadcasting – and in particular the ABC – is squarely in the government’s sights.

With budget cuts coming, ABC and SBS stand divided

Did SBS chief executive Michael Ebeid score a well-timed free kick or an own goal in his attack on the ABC this week? The ABC recently secured the free-to-air television rights for the Asian Cup football tournament to be held in Australia early next year, together with tonight’s match between the Socceroos and Japan. A lower bid by SBS – still in some circles fondly known as the “Soccer Broadcasting Service” – was rejected, dealing a significant blow to the smaller public broadcaster. The ABC was reportedly asked to make a bid by Football Federation Australia. The FFA presumably believes the ABC’s coverage will attract larger audiences to the game. This is despite SBS’s long-term success with the sport. It should not be forgotten, however, that while SBS has largely been defined by its long connection with the world game, ABC was the home of football from the late 1950s until the 1980s. But the stoush is only partly about football. It was surely no coincidence that it comes on the eve of the government’s formal announcement of the size of the cuts to public broadcasting...

Maintaining our rage: Inside Australia's longest-running music video program

This research presents an insider's account of rage, Australia's longest-running music video program. The research's significance is that there has been scarce scholarly analysis of this idiosyncratic ABC program, despite its longevity and uniqueness. The thesis takes a reflective and reflexive narrative journey across rage's decades, presenting the accounts of the program makers, aided by the perspective of an embedded researcher, the program's former Series Producer. This work addresses the rage research gap and contributes to the scholarly discussion on music video and its contexts, the ABC, public service broadcasting, creative labour, and the cultural sense-making of television producers.

Krisia eta politikak. Irrati-telebista publikoa ikusmiran : Ikus-entzunezko Komunikazio eta Publizitate Saileko II Nazioarteko Kongresua : aktak : (UPV/EHU) Bilbao 2012ko urriaren 4 eta 5

1. Ponentziak: - Public Service Broadcasting in Europe: a comparative analysis. - Lengua, poder y espacio de comunicación. Cataluña y el papel de la CCMA en la normalización del catalán. - Medios públicos, democracia y el rol de la Universidad Pública. - Servicio público radiotelevisivo, independencia de gestión e informativa. - Retos para un espacio vasco de comunicación. El papel de EITB en el sistema comunicativo Vasco. 2. Komunikazioak : I. Irrati-telebista zerbitzu publikoaren finantzaketa - I. La financiación del servicio público de radiotelevisión: - El efecto dominó. Nuevas estrategias de financiación del documental creativo ante la crisis de la televisión pública en Europa. - El Comercio ubicuo como medio de financiación de las televisiones públicas. - Euskal zinemaren ekoizpena eta finantzazioa: EiTBren funtzioa. - The Financing of Public Television in Spain, the chronicles of an announced death. Country case analysis and proposals for funding the wreck. - Europako hizkuntza gutxituetako irrati-telebista publikoak: eragin ekonomikoa eta finantzaketa arazoak. II. Hedabide publikoak teknologia berrien erronkaren aurrean : - Los servicios públicos europeos de radio y televisión ante la convergencia mediática. - Análisis de contenido longitudinal de rtve.es y canalsur.es. La selección y jerarquización de la noticias principales de portada. - RTVE a la carta en tiempos de crisis. Digitalización en el contexto de la crisis económica. De los canales temáticos a la televisión a la carta. - La social TV revoluciona el panorama de la televisión convencional. Análisis del fenómeno de los twittersodios en RTVE. - Televisiones autonómicas y redes sociales. - Análisis de los contenidos audiovisuales en los agregadores de notas de prensa. - Impacto de Internet en la TV generalista: Innovación en los contenidos y nuevas fórmulas de negocio. III. Informazio-saioak hedabide publikoetan : - La calidad y el rigor en los informativos de TVE. - Percepción de la independencia informativa en la radiotelevisión pública a través de los debates de la comisión de control parlamentario del congreso de los diputados, tras la aprobación de la ley 17/2006. -¿Propaganda o información? El tratamiento discursivo de la actualidad valenciana en los informativos de Canal 9. - Medios públicos y comunicadores de confianza. La sintonía con el público como rutina profesional. - La percepción de los jóvenes andaluces del modelo de servicio público de la RTVA. - La construcción mediática de los candidatos. Los informativos de las televisiones públicas en campaña electoral. - Análisis de la gestión y regulación de RTVE (periodo 2004-2011) y su influencia en la información periodística. IV. Irrati publikoaren erronkak - La radio local: una especie en peligro de extinción. El caso de Girona. - Hego Euskal Herriko Udal Irratiak, eredu baten porrota. - La extinción de la proximidad en la radio pública estatal. - Desafíos de la radiodifusión pública y local en Andalucía. V. Hedabide publikoetako profesionalak: - El Estatuto de Redacción en EITB: Un sueño a punto de convertirse en realidad. - La reivindicación de los profesionales ante el nuevo escenario de la televisión pública en España. - La educación en Competencia Mediática de los espectadores y de los profesionales de la televisión pública. - Libros de estilo y directrices editoriales: referente de calidad en el Periodismo audiovisual y multimedia de los medios públicos. VI. Telebista publikoen gobernantza: telebista autonomikoen kasua: - Hacia un nuevo modelo en tiempos de crisis económica: el caso de la televisión autonómica valenciana. - Retos y perspectivas para la televisión pública andaluza. - El reflejo de Caín. Política y televisión pública en el Principado de Asturias (2005-2012). - Empresa de comunicación y entorno político. El porqué, en su momento, del servicio público audiovisual en Asturias. - Canal Sur Televisión en tiempos de crisis. ¿El fin de un modelo público de televisión en Andalucía? VII. Irrati-telebista publikoaren erregulazioa: - La corregulación como aplicación y complemento del marco legal. La necesidad de repensar el gobierno del sector audiovisual. - Los consejos audiovisuales españoles en el marco de las autoridades de regulación europeas del audiovisual. - Valores de servicio

The BBC's role in the changing production ecology of pre-school television in Britain

This paper examines the changing production ecology of British pre-school television in light of developments since the mid-1990s and the specific role played by the BBC. Underpinning the research is the perception that pre-school television is characterised by a complex set of industry relationships and dependencies that demands content which needs to satisfy a wide range of international circumstances and commercial prerogatives. For the BBC this has created tension between its public service goals and commercial priorities. Pre-school programming began in Britain in 1950, but it was not until the mid-1990s that Britain emerged as a leading producer of pre-school programming worldwide with government/industry reports regularly identifying the children’s production sector as an important contributor to exports. The rise of pre-school niche channels (CBeebies, Nick Junior, Playhouse Disney), audience fragmentation and the internationalisation and commercialisation of markets have radically altered the funding base of children’s television and the relationships that the BBC enjoys with key players. The international success of much of its pre-school programming is based on the relationships it enjoys with independent producers who generate significant revenues from programme-related consumer products. This paper focuses on the complex and changing relationships between the BBC, independent producers, and financiers, that constitute the production ecology of pre-school television and shape its output. Within the broader setting of cultural production and global trends the paper investigates the following questions: 1) In the light of changes to the sector since the mid-1990s, what makes pre-school television significant both generally and as an ideal public service project? 2) What is the nature of the current funding crisis in British children’s television and what implications does this crisis have for the BBC’s involvement in pre-school television? 3) How is the Corporation reacting to and managing the wider commercial, cultural, regulatory and technological forces that are likely to affect its strategies for the commissioning, production and acquisition of pre-school content?

O Tratamento da Violência na Informação de Serviço Público: o Caso da RTP

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Audiovisual e Multimédia.

La musique, l’auditeur et la radio des années trente : histoire et répertoire de la Radio Suisse romande

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).