Stuart Cunningham & Graeme Turner (eds),
The Media & Communications in Australia.
New South Wales, Australia: Allen & Unwin. 2002.
ISBN: 1 86508 674 6
383pp
Au$ (pb)
(Review copy supplied by Allen & Unwin)

The media and communications industries are growing at a rapid pace in Australia. With this arrives the necessity to document the advances in technology, issues of policy and regulation, and production practices and cultures of the various industries that surround it so as to serve as a resource and guide for future progress in the area. The authors of this book have done just that in this third edition, and have encompassed several important issues while doing so. The book is divided into four parts. Part I which is written by the editors provides an introduction to the current state of the media and communications industry in Australia. Graeme Turner and Stuart Cunningham illustrate the untenable exercise of dividing the field into various aspects such as telecommunications and infrastructure; rather, they elaborate on the “convergent” nature of media and communications which dissolves the distinctions between media systems, media content and the resulting trade between systems. They further explain the three constituents of “convergence”, namely, the history of the media, the communications regulation, and, policy.

Part II of the book comprises six chapters which provide a comprehensive overview of the approaches and methodologies used within media and communications studies in Australia. The first chapter, written by John Sinclair, identifies the origins of the major paradigms, in particular, the European and American theory and research; traces the influence of these schools of thought on particular styles of work in Australia, and the manner in which they have become transformed in the process of being adapted. The next chapter concentrates more on the relationship between the media industry and politics and how one influences the other. Issues surrounding policy-making have been elucidated in the following chapter. Policy and the policy system have been clearly defined, after which the regulation system within Australia with particular attention to the print media, broadcasting, film and video, the traditional arts, and the Internet and telecommunications systems have been explained.

Alan McKee illustrates the manner in which people interpret the media texts that surround them in the chapter entitled “Textual analysis”. Here, he elaborates on the philosophical movements of “structuralism” and “poststructuralism” – two movements, which share a common assumption that language and other forms of representation do not simply reflect the world they describe; rather, they construct particular ways of thinking about the world we live in. “Representation” has been described both as a process and a product by Kate Bowles. She succinctly outlines the characteristics of a representation and provides answers to important questions such as: how one representation makes sense in relation to the other representations around it; and who we are and why we look at a particular representation? Defining the audience for any form of media is essential in order to cater to their needs. However, in the current context, the audience seems transient from one form of media to another, indeed not being highly visible for many forms. The nature of the audience, how they contribute to “ratings”, the theory and policy in relation to media audience research, and further topics for audience research are all issues discussed in the chapter by Sue Turnbull.

Part III deals with the media and communications industries themselves. The Press was the starting point for all of Australia’s major commercial news organisations and “the ethos of the press continues to influence the culture of these companies, even as they become irrevocably entertainment driven, constantly exploring new technologies, methods and means of communication” (Schulz, 101). The origins of the press in Australia, the relationship between politicians and the press, and the role of journalists are all topics of discussion in this chapter on the role of the press in the media and communications industry. Until recently, the telecommunications industry was considered a separate entity, however, it is now recognised that “it is no longer possible to try to understand the role of media in society without an analysis of its relationship with other key segments of the communications environment” (Barr, 117). Consequently, Trevor Barr provides an extensive review of the rapid growth of the telecommunications industry and its subsequent relationship with the media industry, reiterating what the editors of the book had alerted us to in their introductory chapter.

The wide-ranging influences of the radio, film and video are discussed in the following two chapters, with an emphasis on their histories and present roles within the media industry. The discussion on the influence of the radio is a particularly useful one, considering its neglect in the academic literature on Australian media and communications. The popularity of the medium of television needs little mention. It is the most widely used form of mass media in Australia and in the world. Terry Flew discusses the power and influence of television before 1970 when the major forms of local content were low-cost variety and quiz shows to its journey through the 1970s and 1980s, when broadcasting became a highly profitable activity, up to the rapid expansion of the Australian commercial television industry in the 1990s. Issues relating to magazines and advertising are elucidated next, followed by discussion on the practice of “public relations” or “promotional culture” in the media industry, including the growth of public relations in Australia.

In every era, each generation is profoundly influenced by popular music, which reflects and feeds into, local debates mythologies concerning the formation of a national character, which in this case would be something distinctively “Australian”. Shane Homan traces the first of the music performances heard by Australia’s convicts to the post-war pop and rock music cultures, to the re-emergence of indigenous music. She also elaborates on the elements of the recording process in addition to the technological shifts that have offered a rapidly changing landscape (such as the growth of CD recordings) for consumers and producers. In the next chapter, Trevor Barr examines the validity of claims related to the Internet being the most significant of the new communications of our times, the extent to which the Internet has fostered widespread changes in the way we communicate, and its place in the theory and practice of communications. The ever-increasing popularity of the video and computer gaming industry, its origins, the development of the various game genres, the supposed gender gap – I say supposed as current statistics reveal that women are becoming an increasingly robust group in the use of the games – and some of the social issues surrounding the games are discussed. However, the reviewer notes that there is a lack of attention to research surrounding the positive effects of the games, such as development of skills, including spatial and other cognitive skills.

The last section in this book, Part IV, examines some of the contemporary media issues. The first chapter in this section looks at the ethical debate concerning the responsibility of journalists after the “cash for comment” incident. The focus then shifts to the construction of new audiences for the new media, and the changes in the pattern of media consumption by the youth of today and how it influences the presentation of information by the media industry. The final two chapters of the book present an overview of a) the future of journalism “at a time when the conventions of objective, informative, public-interest focused journalism appear to becoming obsolete” (Lumby, 325), with the rise in “infotainment” and reality television, and b) the future of public broadcasting, the threat of succumbing to corporate pressures and its place in an era of a digital environment.

Overall, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of affairs in the media and communications industry in Australia and hence will serve not only as a useful guide to students and researchers but also as essential reading to policy makers.

Lata Satyen
Department of Psychology
Victoria University.

Created on: Friday, 27 June 2003 | Last Updated: Friday, 27 June 2003