Our neighbour's view : Australian media cover of PNG

This chapter reviews the incidence of coverage of Papua New Guinea affairs in the Australian press and in Australian broadcast media. It presents the findings of a formal monitoring of selected newspaper coverage and news broadcasts of the leading Australian television and radio outlets. The study also includes news stories published on ABC Online. The findings for print media suggest that coverage of PNG is inadequate and may be contributing towards negative images of that country in Australia. The broadcast monitoring found also that beyond the ABC's regular and balanced coverage, there was very little mention of PNG on Australian airwaves. The deployment of resources by the ABC was seen as a potential model for increased quantity and quality of coverage, with its maintenance of a correspondent and office in the country, and use of reports from PNG across a wide range of programs. The investigation noted some early indications of a shift in media attention, following the election of a new government in Australia in 2007, which gave some priority attention to PNG including a visit by the then Prime Minister.

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)...

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.

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.

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.

Emergent innovation through the co-evolution of informal and formal media economies

Well-established distinctions between amateur and professional are blurring as the impact of social media, changes in cultural consumption, and crises in copyright industries’ business models are felt across society and economy. I call this the increasingly rapid co-evolution of the formal market and informal household sectors and analyse it through the concept of ‘social network markets’ – individual choices are made on the basis of other’s choices and such networked preferencing is enhanced by the growing ubiquity of social media platforms. This may allow us better to understand sources of disruption and innovation in audiovisual production and distribution in wealthy Western markets which are as significant as those posed by informal practices outside the West. I examine what is happening around the monetization and professionalization of online video (YouTube, for example) and the socialization of professional production strategies (transmedia, for example) as innovation from the margins.

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.

“They’re My Two Favourites” versus “The Bigger Scheme of Things” : pro-Am historians remember Australian television

This chapter reports on eleven interviews with Pro-Am archivists of Australian television which aimed to find out how they decide what materials are important enough to archive. Interviewees mostly choose to collect materials in which they have a personal interest. But they are also aware of the relationship between their own favourites and wider accounts of Australian television history, and negotiate between these two positions. Most interviewees acknowledged Australian television’s links with British and American programming, but also felt that Australian television is distinctive. They argued that Australian television history is ignored in a way that isn’t true for the UK or the US. Several also argued that Australian television has had a ‘naïve’ nature that has allowed it to be more experimental.

Digital futures for cultural and media studies

An ambitious rendering of the digital future from a pioneer of media and cultural studies, a wise and witty take on a changing field, and our orientation to it Investigates the uses of multimedia by creative and productive citizen-consumers to provide new theories of communication that accommodate social media, participatory action, and user-creativity Leads the way for new interdisciplinary engagement with systems thinking, complexity and evolutionary sciences, and the convergence of cultural and economic values Analyzes the historical uses of multimedia from print, through broadcasting to the internet Combines conceptual innovation with historical erudition to present a high-level synthesis of ideas and detailed analysis of emergent forms and practices Features an international focus and global reach to provide a basis for students and researchers seeking broader perspectives

Popular media as public 'Sphericules' for diasporic communities

The dynamics of 'diasporic' video, television, cinema, music and Internet use - where peoples displaced from homelands by migration, refugee status or business and economic imperative use media to negotiate new cultural identities - offer challenges for how media and culture are understood in our times. Drawing on research published in Floating Lives: The Media and Asian Diasporas, on dynamics that are industrial (the pathways by which these media travel to their multifarious destinations), textual and audience-related (types of diasporic style and practice where popular culture debates and moral panics are played out in culturally divergent circumstances among communities marked by internal difference and external 'othering'), the article will interrogate further the nature of the public 'sphericules' formed around diasporic media.

News media representations of homelessness : do economic news production pressures prevent journalists from adequately reporting complex social issues

This study used both content and frame analyses to test news-media representations of homelessness in The Courier-Mail newspaper for evidence of restricted journalism practice. Specifically, it sought signs of either direct manipulation of issue representation based on ideological grounds, and also evidence of news organisations prioritising low-cost news production over Public Sphere journalistic news values. The study found that news stories from the earlier parts of the longitudinal study showed stereotypical misrepresentations of homelessness for public deliberation which might be attributed to either, or both of the nominated restricting factors. However news stories from the latter part of the study saw a distinct change in the way the issue was represented, indicating a journalistic capacity to thoughtfully and sensitively represent a complex social issue to the public. Further study is recommended to ascertain how and why this change occurred, so that journalistic practice might be further improved.

Pro-Am curators of Australian television history : how is their practice different from that of professional television historians?

Eleven Pro-Am curators of Australian television history were interviewed about their practice. The data helps us to understand the relationship between professional and Pro-Am approaches to Australian television history. There is no simple binary – the lines are blurred – but there are some differences. Pro-Am curators of Australian television history are not paid for their work and present other motivations for practice – particularly being that ‘weird child’ who was obsessed with gathering information and objects related to television. They have freedom to curate only programs and genres that interest them, and they tend to collect merchandise as much as program texts themselves. And they have less interest in formally cataloguing their material than do professional curators of Australian television history.

Masturbation and the media

This paper explores the important role the media play in informing young people about masturbation. A pilot study of focus groups with twenty-two young Australians, aged between 14-16 explored what they know about sex and sexuality, and where they have found that knowledge. This paper reports on their knowledge about masturbation. Although researchers agree that masturbation can be a positive part of healthy sexual development, most young people reported that they received very little positive information about it from their parents or in formal sex education in school. These young people’s discussions around this topic were largely ambivalent, but also highly complex due to the varying levels and types of information that they receive. In this context the media play a vital role in providing information about masturbation through books and magazines for young women, and television comedies for young men.