ACE research vignette 013 : does policy for women's entrepreneurship promote gender equality, or not?

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from our team and other international Entrepreneurship researchers. In this vignette, Professor Helene Ahl from Jonkoping University considers the consequences for gender equality of policy for women's entrepreneurship in two countries with distinctly different welfare state regimes.

Melbourne and Brisbane: The Claims of Suburbs

This chapter critiques the imagined geography of creative cities and the creative industries, which presumes that inner cities are densely clustered hubs of urban culture and creativity while suburbs are dull, homogeneous dormitories from which creative people must escape in order to realize their potential. Drawing upon a study on creative industries workers in Melbourne and Brisbane, the authors argue that these workers are as likely to be located in the suburbs as in the inner city, and that they clearly identify advantages to being in outer suburban locations. Their findings provide a corrective to dominant urban cultural policy narratives that stress cultural amenity in the inner cities.

Exploring information experience using social media during the 2011 Queensland floods : a pilot study

Social media networks have emerged as a powerful tool in allowing collaboration and sharing of information during times of crisis (Bruns, The Centre for Creative Industries Blog, comment posted on January 19,2011). The 2011 Queensland floods provided a unique opportunity to explore social media use during an emergency. This paper presents the findings of a pilot study that explored the information experiences of people using social media during the flooding of the Brisbane River. Analysis of data from four interviews supported the emergence of four categories of information experience. Examination of the categories revealed variation between the way in which individuals experienced social media and the point of the flooding at which each category of experience occurred. Information regarding individual’s use of social media has the potential to inform the development of social media platforms that can provide relevant and accessible information for the general public in event of a natural disaster.

Globalization and suburbanization : can creative industries develop in outer urban zones? the Australian case

The creative cities literature gives an emphasis to developing cultural amenity and creative clusters in inner city areas, in order to attract both international visitors and what Richard Florida termed the “creative class”. But many creative workers live in outer urban zones (suburbs). How do creative industries policies meet their needs? This paper reports on a three-year study supported by the Australian Research Council into creative workforce in Australian suburbs in the cities of Melbourne and Brisbane.

“That you would post such a thing implies that you are a despicable human being”: spectatorship, social media, & the struggle for meaning in disability performance

Artists with disabilities working in Live Art paradigms often present performances which replay the social attitudes they are subject to in daily life as guerilla theatre in public spaces – including online spaces. In doing so, these artists draw spectators’ attention to the way their responses to disabled people contribute to the social construction of disability. They provide different theatrical, architectural or technological devices to encourage spectators to articulate their response to themselves and others. But – the use of exaggeration, comedy and confrontation in these practices notwithstanding – their blurry boundaries mean some spectators experience confusion as to whether they are responding to real life or a representation of it. This results in conflicted responses which reveal as much about the politics of disability as the performances themselves. In this paper, I examine how these conflicted responses play out in online forums. I discuss diverse examples, from blog comments on Liz Crow’s Resistance on the Plinth on YouTube, to Aaron Williamson and Katherine Araneillo’s Disabled Avant-Garde clips on YouTube, to Ju Gosling’s Letter Writing Project on her website, to segments of UK Channel 4’s mock reality show Cast Offs on YouTube. I demonstrate how online forums become a place not just for recording memories of an original performance (which posters may not have seen), but for a new performance, which goes well beyond re-membering/remediating the original. I identify trends in the way experience, memory and meaningmaking play out in these performative forums – moving from clarification of the original act’s parameters, to claims of disgust, insult or offense, to counter-claims confirming the comic or political efficacy of the act, often linked disclosure of personal memory or experience of disability. I examine the way these encounters at the interstices of live and/or online performance, memory, technology and public/private history negotiate ideas about disability, and what they tell us about the ethics and efficacy of the specific modes of performance and spectatorship these artists with disabilities are invoking.

Introduction: Culture, trade, services

Ben Goldsmith and Christina Spurgeon introduce the special 'Culture, trade, services' issue of Media International Australia.

A bureaucratic cinema: the fraught relationship between government and film

The interventions by the government in the production and circulation of film in late 1960s transformed the Australian cinema industry into a bureaucratic cinema because of its established agencies and institutions for the benefit of filmmakers. Training options expanded by the commencement of the Australian Film and Television School and the Film, Radio and Television Board of the Australia Council, which ran compulsory orientation seminars and workshops on the use of new equipments, helped the aspiring filmmakers to access money from the council's Basic Production Fund.

Australian content and convergence

This article is a response to Kim Dalton's 2011 Henry Mayer Lecture. It focuses on Dalton's discussion of Australian content in the context of the government's ongoing Convergence Review.

In search of the Korean digital wave

This article sets the context for this special themed issue on the 'Korean digital wave' by considering the symbiotic relationship between digital technologies, their techniques and practices, their uses and the affordances they provide, and Korea's 'compressed modernity' and swift industrialisation. It underscores the importance of interrogating a range of groundbreaking developments and innovations within Korea's digital mediascapes, and its creative and cultural industries, in order to gain a complex understanding of one of Australia's most significant export markets and trading partners. Given the financial and political commitment in Australia to a high-speed broadband network that aims to stimulate economic and cultural activity, recent technological developments in Korea, and the double-edged role played by government policy in shaping the 'Korean digital wave', merit close attention from media and communications scholars.

Digital intermediary: Korean transnational cinema

Since censorship was lifted in Korea in 1996, collaboration between Korean and foreign filmmakers has grown in both extent and visibility. Korean films have been shot in Australia, New Zealand and mainland China, while the Korean digital post-production and visual effects firms behind blockbusters infused with local effects have gone on to work with filmmakers from greater China and Hollywood Korean cinema has become known for its universal storylines, genre experimentation and high production values. The number of exported Korean films has increased, as has the number of Korean actors starring in films made in other countries. Korea has hosted major international industry events. These milestones have facilitated an unprecedented international expansion of the Korean film industry. With the advent of the 'digital wave in Korea the film industry's transition to digital production practices this expansion has accelerated Korean film agencies the pillars of the national cinema have played important parts in this internationalisation, particularly in promoting Korean films and filmmakers outside Korea and in facilitating international events in Korea itself Yet, for the most part, projects involving Korean filmmakers working in partnership with filmmakers from other countries are the products of individuals and businesses working outside official channels. That is, they are often better understood as 'transnational rather than 'national' or 'international' projects. In this article, we focus on a range of collaborations involving Korean, Australian, New Zealand and Chinese filmmakers and firms. These collaborations highlight some of the forces that have shaped the digital wave in the Korean film industry, and illustrate the increasingly influential role that the 'digital expertise of Korean filmmakers is playing in film industries, both regionally and around the world.

Social network media and political activism: a growing challenge for law enforcement

The use of the internet for political purposes is not new; however, the introduction of social media tools has opened new avenues for political activists. In an era where social media has been credited as playing a critical role in the success of revolutions (Earl & Kimport, 2011; Papic & Noonan, 2011; Wooley, Limperos & 10 Beth, 2010), governments, law enforcement and intelligence agencies need to develop a deeper understanding of the broader capabilities of this emerging social and political environment. This can be achieved by increasing their online presence and through the application of proactive social media strategies to identify and manage potential threats. Analysis of current literature shows a gap 15 in the research regarding the connection between the theoretical understanding and practical implications of social media when exploited by political activists,and the efficacy of existing strategies designed to manage this growing challenge. This paper explores these issues by looking specifically at the use of three popular social media tools: Facebook; Twitter; and YouTube. Through the examination of 20 recent political protests in Iran, the UK and Egypt from 2009�2011, these case studies and research in the use of the three social media tools by political groups, the authors discuss inherent weaknesses in online political movements and discuss strategies for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to monitor these activities.

Books, toys and tablets : playing and learning in the age of digital media

Introduction During a recent study of how parents source information about children‘s early learning, one of us made our first serious foray into a local store licensed to the global chain Toys'R' Us. While walking the aisles, closely observing layout, signage and stock, several things became obvious. Firstly, large numbers of toys were labeled'educational'. Secondly, many toys in that category were intended for children under the age of two years. These were further differentiated as intended for 'babies' or 'infants', and sub-categorized on packaging or shelving using even smaller age increments (e.g. 0-3 months, 12-18 months, and so on). Thirdly, many products were labeled as 'interactive' and 'learning' toys that promised to assist children‘s early learning and development. The activation of some of these toys relied on embedded computer chip technology and promised to 'connect' children with the home television, computer and the Internet. These products were hybrids between a toy and a platform for digital media interaction. Closer inspection of toy packaging and other promotional material suggested that industry had begun to invest heavily in developing highly differentiated children‘s markets for products that yoked together concepts of learning and development, the 'fun toy' that incorporates digital technology, and offline- and online participation. In this chapter we explore the growth of this contemporary cultural phenomenon that now connects books, toys and mobile digital media with children‘s play and learning.

Best practice business community partnerships

In the last two years or so, the Prime Minister has made the development of a social coalition, involving business partnerships with the community, central to his Government’s vision of a fair and just Australian society. This is clearly a new and exciting era in thinking for government, business and community partnerships. However, there has been a tendency, particularly in the media reporting of these initiatives, especially the Prime Minister's Business Community Partnership awards held in 1999 and in July this year, to concentrate the agenda more on philanthropy and corporate donations, than on some of the many other ways that partnerships can develop...