The Australian TV Book

253 Pages·2000·1.871 MB·English

by  Graeme Turner and Stuart Cunningham (eds.)

180 ×230
THE AUSTRALIAN TV BOOK
PDF OUTPUT i
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
This page intentionally left blank
PDF OUTPUT ii
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
THE
AUSTRALIAN
TV BOOK
edited by
Graeme Turner and Stuart Cunningham
ALLEN & UNWIN
PDF OUTPUT iii
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
First published in 2000
Copyright © this collection Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner 2000
The copyright in individual pieces remains with the authors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, elecronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing fromm the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968
(the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is
the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its
educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that
administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited
(CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
9 Atchison Street
St Leonards NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.allen-unwin.com.au
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
The Australian TV book.
Bibiography.
Includes index.
ISBN 1 86508 014 4.
1. Television—Australia. 2. Television broadcasting—Australia.
3. Television—Australia—History. 4. Television broadcasting—Australia
—History. I. Cunningham, Stuart. II. Turner, Graeme.
384.550994
Set in 10/12.5 pt Arrus by DOCUPRO, Sydney
Printed by Kin Keong Printing Co. Pte Ltd
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PDF OUTPUT iv
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
Contents
THE AUSTRALIAN TV BOOK CONTENTS
Figures and tables vii
Contributors viii
Part I: The beginning
1 Studying television 3
Graeme Turner
2 History, contexts, politics, policy 13
Stuart Cunningham
Part II: The sectors
3 Commercial networks: Still the ones? 35
Jock Given
4 Public service TV: An endangered species? 52
Elizabeth Jacka
5 Television after broadcasting 69
Terry Flew and Christina Spurgeon
Part III: The program formats
6 Television news and current affairs: ‘Welcome to Frontline’ 89
Graeme Turner
PDF OUTPUT v
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
vi THE AUSTRALIAN TV BOOK
7 Lifestyle programs: ‘No choice but to choose’ 103
Frances Bonner
8 Soap opera: ‘No end of story, ever’ 117
Kate Bowles
9 Sport: The genre that runs and runs 130
David Rowe
10 Prime-time drama: 77 Sunset Strip to SeaChange 142
Alan McKee
11 The television live event: From the ‘wandering booby’ to the
‘death of history’ 155
John Hartley
Part IV: The audience
12 Figuring the audience 173
Sue Turnbull
13 The strategies of audience capture: The case of Network Ten 190
Sally Stockbridge
14 Marginalised audiences 201
Tom O’Regan and Stuart Cunningham
References 213
Index 228
PDF OUTPUT vi
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
Figures and tables
FIGURES AND TABLES
Figures
Figure 2.1 Four phases of Australian television 14–15
Figure 13.1 Broadcasting profit of networks and affiliates in
multi-station markets, 1992–97 193
Tables
Table 3.1 Commercial television controllers, February 1999 42
Table 3.2 Brisbane commercial TV stations: Program categories,
5.00 p.m. to midnight, 1998 48
Table 5.1 Pay TV in Australia, March 1999 73
Table 13.1 Ratings for Neighbours compared with other stations 196
Table 13.2 Ratings by program and age group 197
Table 13.3 Ratings by program, age group and gender 198
Table 13.4 Ratings for Video Hits, compared with other networks 199
vii
PDF OUTPUT vii
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
Contributors
CONTRIBUTORS
Frances Bonner lectures in Communication and Cultural Studies in the Depart-
ment of English at The University of Queensland. Her current research concerns
non-fiction television, health in magazines (with Susan McKay) and the produc-
tion of celebrity in Australia (with David Marshall and Graeme Turner).
Kate Bowles teaches in the Communication and Cultural Studies Program at
the University of Wollongong. With Sue Turnbull, she edited Tomorrow Never
Knows: Soaps on Australian Television (AFI, 1994).
Stuart Cunningham is Professor and Head, School of Media and Journalism,
Queensland University of Technology and an author or editor of several books
and monographs on Australian media, cultural policy, global television and
‘borderless’ education, including New Patterns in Global Television (with John
Sinclair and Elizabeth Jacka, Oxford, 1996), Australian Television and International
Mediascapes (with Elizabeth Jacka, Cambridge, 1996), The Media in Australia:
Industries, Texts, Audiences (with Graeme Turner, Allen & Unwin, 2nd edn, 1997)
and Floating Lives: The Media and Asian Diasporas (with John Sinclair, University
of Queensland Press, 2000).
Terry Flew lectures in Media Studies and is Director of the Centre for Media
Policy and Practice, School of Media and Journalism, Queensland University of
Technology. He is the author of over 30 book chapters and articles in academic
journals, on media policy, media and citizenship, new media technologies, media
viii
PDF OUTPUT viii
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
CONTRIBUTORS ix
and globalisation, and the impact of media on education. He is the author of
New Media Technologies: An Introduction (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
Jock Given has been the Director of the Communications Law Centre since
1995. He is the author of The Death of Broadcasting? Media’s Digital Future
(University of New South Wales Press, 1998).
John Hartley is Dean of Arts at Queensland University of Technology. He is
editor of the International Journal of Cultural Studies, author of Uses of Television
(Routledge, 1999) and co-editor of American Cultural Studies: A Reader (Oxford
University Press, 2000).
Elizabeth Jacka is Professor of Communication Studies and Dean of the Faculty
of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. She
has published widely on film and television history and policy, and is the
co-author of Australian Television and International Mediascapes (with Stuart
Cunningham, Cambridge, 1996) and of The Screening of Australia and The
Imaginary Industry (both with Susan Dermody, Currency Press, 1987).
Alan McKee is the editor of Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies,
and has published widely in journals including Cultural Studies, Screen and
Brother/Sister. He lectures in Communication and Cultural Studies at The Uni-
versity of Queensland and is currently writing a book entitled Great Moments in
Australian Television: A Genealogy.
Tom O’Regan is Professor of Cultural and Media Studies and Director of the
Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Griffith University. He is
the author of Australian Television Culture (Allen & Unwin, 1993) and Australian
National Cinema (Routledge, 1996).
David Rowe is Associate Professor in Media and Cultural Studies at the
University of Newcastle. His books include Popular Cultures: Rock Music, Sport
and the Politics of Pleasure (Sage, 1995); Tourism, Leisure, Sport: Critical Perspectives
(edited with Geoffrey Lawrence, Cambridge University Press, 1998); and Sport,
Culture and the Media: The Unruly Trinity (Open University Press, 1999).
Christina Spurgeon is Deputy Director of the Centre for Media Policy and
Practice in the School of Media and Journalism, Queensland University of
Technology; a member of the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media
Policy’s National Research Network; and is on the Editorial Board of Media
International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy. She worked from 1988–95
in media and communications policy, research and advocacy at the Communica-
tions Law Centre.
Sally Stockbridge was a media academic for many years prior to joining the
Commonwealth Film Censorship Board where she was a Board member for five
years. In 1996 she became the Chief Classification Officer at Network Ten and
PDF OUTPUT ix
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065
180 ×230
x THE AUSTRALIAN TV BOOK
has published several articles on content regulation. She has a PhD from
Murdoch University.
Sue Turnbull is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media Studies at La
Trobe University. She is the co-editor with Kate Bowles of Tomorrow Never Knows:
Soap on Australian Television(AFI, 1994), and her current research interests include
Australian screen comedy and the representation of crime on television.
Graeme Turner is Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for
Critical and Cultural Studies at The University of Queensland. He is editor of
the journal Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, and the
author of a number of books on media and cultural studies. His most recent
book (co-written with Frances Bonner and David Marshall) is Fame Games: The
Production of Celebrity in the Australian Media (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
PDF OUTPUT x
c: ALLEN & UNWINr: DP1\BP4306W\PRELIMS
p: [phone] f: [phone] e: [email protected]
92 CHANDOS STREET ST LEONARDS NSW 2065