Jock Given,
The Death of Broadcasting: Media’s Digital Future.
Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 1999.
ISBN: 0 86840 449 7
AU $9.95

Uploaded 18 December 1998

Digitisation is the buzz word of the nineties. While most attention has been focussed on the Internet, the old media are being transformed. First, publishers embraced cold type and this led to the destruction of craft jobs and reorganisation of newspaper and magazine journalism and production practices. Parallel changes are to set to occur in the broadcasting industries as they embrace new digital transmission technologies. Jock Given the director of the Communications Law Centre has produced a lively, intelligent and readable account of the machinations of government policy and the social and policy issues which must be faced in the future.

Given writes as both an insider and an outsider. He was a participant in a Government digital radio advisory committee and, as a consequence he has a strong grasp of the technical and political forces which are forming Australia’s digital television policies. He provides a clear account of the processes which have seen existing free-to-air broadcasters walk away with the digital broadcasting prizes and aspiring broadcasters who saw digital broadcasting as a potential entry into the exclusive Australian broadcasting club, disappointed.

While providing a clear account of Australian digital broadcasting policy development, Given sets the Australian debate in a wider context. He shows how digital broadcasting could be another step along a policy path which will lead to the demise of mass audiences whose broadcast fare is subsidised by advertising. He discusses the possibility that Australia will become just another outpost in a global media and communications infrastructure. And the creation of niche audiences which are the delight of marketeers could create significant problems for the development and maintenance of a public culture.

This book is important given the woeful record of governments when it comes to managing the introduction new media and communications systems. Rupert Murdoch’s satellite broadcasting ascendancy was based on the British government’s decision to mandate a satellite broadcasting standard which hobbled the chosen licensee. Australian government have shown how they could not introduce the benefits of satellite communications in the face of a hostile Telecom and commercial broadcasting industry. Dual cable television infrastructures have resulted in poor investment decisions and under-utilised resources. And the introduction of GSM mobile telephony at vast expense has resulted in a demonstrably worse service for most mobile telephone users. With these lessons in mind, the thought of another government foray into technological planning creates a modicum of anxiety.

It is gratifying to see Given and the University of New South Wales Press providing a highly topical account of the digital broadcasting scene. With Government discussions being announced in July, the September publication of this book shows that publishers can move quickly for topics other than accounts of death and scandal in high places. This book is an obvious choice for tertiary courses in media and a communications policy.

Peter B. White