ISSN: 1329-878X

Radio No 91 May 1999 Order form Abstracts

Contents

Abstracts

RADIO

Commercial radio 1999: New networks, new technologies -- Peter Collingwood
It is six years since the Keating Labor government's deregulation of commercial radio in Australia opened up opportunities for commercial radio networking, invited substantial overseas investment (and consequently, linkages with overseas media organisations) and virtually closed down the public regulation of content on radio. From any perspective, it remains important to understand precisely how ownership, production and distribution systems mesh with historically particular social and cultural formations. In addressing that context, this essay asks three questions: Citizen Kane issues aside, how have management decisions on networking influenced program quality? Second, how important is geography in this? And third, is technology driving the process?

Some issues for community radio at the turn of the century -- Michael Thompson
Community radio faces the new century with some threats to its original ideals, but with the opportunity to remake itself and to harness new technologies to improve its position in the radio industry. There are challenges with the decline of government support and the inexorable pressure of commercialism; however, new licences and the arrival of digital radio provide opportunities for an expanding sector.

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in the Asia-Pacific region: A regional perspective -- David B. Soothill
The Asia-Pacific is the world's largest region and it has a huge range of potential radio uses that analogue terrestrial broadcasting simply cannot meet. This article explores the impact that digital radio transmission will have on the region, and the importance of satellite broadcasting and multichannel broadcasting for better coverage and quality of services.

Converging signals: Digital radio and program associated data -- Bruce Berryman
This article examines two emerging forms of broadcasting that use digital technologies, Internet-based radio and Digital Radio Broadcasting (DRB). It also discusses the impact of these technologies on community broadcasters and the connections that exist with other media.

Spaceship Triple J: Making the national youth network -- Katherine Albury
This article explores Triple J's evolution from radical Sydney radio station to 'National Youth Network'. In particular, it discusses Triple J's successful construction of a 'national youth audience', according to Thornton's (1994, 1995) definitions of 'subcultural capital'.

Razer's edge: Styling vocality for youth radio -- Jackie Cook
This paper examines the vocal performance of Helen Razer in her Triple J programs. It argues against established accounts of radio as a disembodied medium in favour of considering the physiological techniques of all vocalising as having social and cultural meaning. It sets out to 'read' radio voice as conscious performance of style - in Razer's case, a radically gendered style in opposition to the various performances of masculinity pervasive on the youth network as well as in more dominant forms of radio.

The lure of Laws: An analysis of the audience appeal of the John Laws program -- Gillian Appleton
Talkback personality John Laws has dominated morning radio in Sydney for several decades, and his program is now networked to more than 70 stations around the country. A detailed analysis of this program based on six weeks' monitoring spread over more than one year (1996-97) attempts to identify the factors which may be decisive in attracting and keeping substantial audiences. The analysis will make reference to theories of uses and gratifications among media audiences, with suggestions for possible further research.

Australian music and the parallel importation debate -- Shane Homan
Despite vigorous protest from the local recording industry and musicians, the Australian federal government passed the Copyright Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1997 into law in June 1998. The Bill is designed to remove the neo-oligopolistic practices of the multinational recording companies, and reduce the prices of compact discs for local consumers. The music industry believes that the Bill removes the value of artists' copyright as the primary means of income and as a mechanism in identifying and protecting intellectual property. This article analyses the benefits and costs of the recent copyright changes, and the effects of consumer reform for local producers. It is argued that the music industry provides a rich site of tension in regard to global cultural economies, where notions of consumer sovereignty do not complement broader ideologies of cultural citizenship and economic nationalism.

The Internet and the empowered consumer: From the scarcity of the commodity to the multiplicity of subjectivities -- Matthew Horton
This paper examines the forms of commodification and entrepreneurship that are emerging as economic activity is mediated through the Internet. These processes of commodification are usually conceptualised from two opposing discourses: those of business and poststructuralism. Business discourses remain faithful to certain established positions - most notably, there are continued emphases on the authority of the individual entrepreneur and the logic of scarcity as forces that determine economic value in electronic commerce. In contrast, poststructural discourse advocates for a conceptualisation of commodification which recognises the spaces that hypertextual environments like the Internet are able to open up for consumers. In these spaces, it is proposed, consumers can create subjectivities that can challenge - and so counter - these business discourses' positions. This paper sets out to examine the claims that both of these discourses make in relation to the commodification of the Internet. Through the presentation of a case study of a small business that is attempting to make money from the Internet, this paper then looks at how aspects of both of these contrasting positions can inform practices that attempt to commodify the Internet.

The popular media of the Vietnamese diaspora -- Stuart Cunningham and Tina Nguyen
This paper forms part of a larger study mapping and analysing the way audiovisual media are used in the dual processes of cultural maintenance and adaptation within Asian diasporic communities and seeks to complement media and cultural studies' emphasis on the representation of 'ethnic minorities' in mainstream media with a focus on media produced for and consumed within the communities.

The paper overviews popular media of the Vietnamese diaspora. The largest refugee community in Australia, it supports a thriving popular culture produced by and for overseas Vietnamese. Issues of how narrowcast media forms are used to 'broadcast' cultural production within a globally dispersed, relatively small community transected by age, class, education, gender, migration and refugee status, recency of arrival and regional background are raised.

Policy discourse and the 1982 ABT pay TV inquiry -- Matthew Pearce
The 1982 ABT Pay TV Inquiry revealed the complexities of broadcasting policy discourse in contemporary Australian government. The inquiry became a crucible in which discourses of public interest, and alliances of private interests, were distilled. Throughout the inquiry, and in the resulting report, the 'public interest' was continuously invoked to purchase legitimacy in the policy process. Yet the 'public interest' is a contested, malleable concept with no definite singular meaning. This paper examines and explains the various concepts which were used to underpin notions of the public interest in a contested policy zone.

Prize or punishment: The ethical challenges for journalism in the new millennium -- Derryn Heilbuth
In an environment where cultural diversity, globalisation of the media, societal attitudes towards the media and the impact of technology on journalistic practice have heightened the ethical dilemmas journalists face in the practice of their profession as they head towards a new millennium, this paper examines two cases of Australian journalists using deception and misrepresentation in news-gathering which resulted in two decidedly different outcomes. It also explores the challenges for journalism associations and educators in their approach to the dissemination and teaching of ethics.