TY - JOUR
T1 - Aural nation
T2 - knowledge, information and music in early Australian public broadcasting
AU - Tebbutt, John
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - When the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) announced the 2017 schedule for the Radio National (RN) network, all but one music programme had been dropped. Removing music from RN in a time of technological change – there are suggestions RN will become a post-broadcast digital platform by 2020 – reflects a deeper relationship between knowledge, information and the arts at the heart Australian public service media. Using historical examples from early Australian broadcasting this article revisits the notion of radio ‘liveness’ in the context of shifting understandings of knowledge production that emerged when radio was ‘new media’. Radio broadcasting’s ability to serve up events to listeners as if they were present had a critical effect on emerging media forms from broadcast concerts to dramatic news presentations. The article situates radio within the shift from traditional knowledge values, championed by music appreciation’s representation of European art-music, to information programming (including sports and news) presented to a new listening subject that was being formed within broadcasting. With the establishment of local practices to exploit the cultural impact of liveness, conventions emerged in the ABC’s national radio service that shaped its information programming for years to come.
AB - When the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) announced the 2017 schedule for the Radio National (RN) network, all but one music programme had been dropped. Removing music from RN in a time of technological change – there are suggestions RN will become a post-broadcast digital platform by 2020 – reflects a deeper relationship between knowledge, information and the arts at the heart Australian public service media. Using historical examples from early Australian broadcasting this article revisits the notion of radio ‘liveness’ in the context of shifting understandings of knowledge production that emerged when radio was ‘new media’. Radio broadcasting’s ability to serve up events to listeners as if they were present had a critical effect on emerging media forms from broadcast concerts to dramatic news presentations. The article situates radio within the shift from traditional knowledge values, championed by music appreciation’s representation of European art-music, to information programming (including sports and news) presented to a new listening subject that was being formed within broadcasting. With the establishment of local practices to exploit the cultural impact of liveness, conventions emerged in the ABC’s national radio service that shaped its information programming for years to come.
KW - Audio cultures
KW - Media
KW - History
KW - Australia
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048360622&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01439685.2018.1478219
DO - 10.1080/01439685.2018.1478219
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85048360622
SN - 0143-9685
VL - 39
SP - 114
EP - 131
JO - Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television
JF - Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television
IS - 1
ER -