Geoff Lealand

Pleasure, Excess and Self-monitoring: The Media Worlds of New Zealand Children

This report describes the outcomes of extensive research (questionnaires, focus groups, drawings) on the media use of students aged between eight and 13 years (n=860) in the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The research replicates earlier child-centred research by the authors, but with a greater emphasis on newer media technology, such as cell phones. The various facets of the research, framed within theoretical explorations, produced detailed and often candid insights into the role played by contemporary media in the lives of New Zealand children with respect to the overt and covert use of technology, shifts in relationships between children and adults. It also generated some interesting cautionary tales.

Book Review: Teen TV: Genre, Consumption and Identity

perceive themselves – in these terms. Williams’s observation that ‘no soap with a strong ethnic minority element attracted large audiences or lasted for more than two or three years’ (p. 159) suggests that audiences of whatever ethnicity are not enthused by fictional programmes that they feel have an overt rhetorical design on them. He also concedes that television has had little discernible impact of any kind on feminist, gay or racial issues. His reluctance to be prescriptive about who is watching and what television does to them is entirely understandable. We cannot know how influential television has been, or isolate it from other potential sources of influence, or decide whether its content prompts certain social phenomena or is merely a reflection of them. But from historians, we expect judgements and theories as well as facts, and though Williams promises ‘to assess the social and cultural significance of television in Britain’ (p. 229), he never quite succeeds in doing so. Yet almost inadvertently, his book raises the remarkable possibility that although a major interest and a daily preoccupation, and although we are all convinced of its importance, television has failed to influence anything very much. Williams makes two sharp observations. The first is how little dramatists, artists, composers and choreographers seem to have come under its spell or been tempted to adapt their work for it. The second is how parasitic the medium is, expanding and developing cultural forms rather than originating them. Despite its popularity, serious journalists still seek to prove themselves in newspapers or magazines, authors in plays or novels, actors in the theatre or cinema. Is this mere snobbery? Or because television is ephemeral yet unending – lacking that spatial or finite quality that can lift the other media out of the commonplace? Television celebrates only nowness, the present. Like a waterfall, it divides into scores of channels and pours incessantly down all our days. As the cultural theorist Stephen Heath puts it, ‘television produces forgetfulness, not memory, flow not history’. That, perhaps, is the real lesson of Williams’s book.

Searching for quality television in New Zealand Hunting the moa

After a decade or more of commercial imperatives dominating state-owned television in New Zealand, government policy is attempting to shift it back to public service or ‘civic’ objectives. As a result, debates about ‘quality’ have re-emerged, both in the public discourse and in the Charter which Television New Zealand will be expected to observe. This could be regarded as an echo of similar debates which occurred in British television in the early 1990s but, in the case of New Zealand, debates about ‘quality’ have tended to be under-articulated and impoverished, with the default meaning implying middle brow and conventional taste formations. Prevailing notions of ‘quality’ in television, as currently used in New Zealand debates, are decoded and challenged in this article.

A Fair Suck of the Sav: Project Blue Sky and the New Zealand Case

The case of Project Blue Sky v Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) is discussed to arrive at a better understanding of who is right. The need to give New Zealand film and television programs a chance is highlighted.

Book Review: The Value of Public Service Media RIPE@2013LoweGregory FerrellMartinFiona (eds), The Value of Public Service Media RIPE@2013. Göteborg: University of Gothenburg; Nordicom, 2014; 287 pp. ISBN: 9789186523848, €31.

This third edition comes almost 20 years after Longhurst’s original publication, and by incorporating new material into the original and second edition text, it shows the development of sociological research on popular music, in a way that will be enlightening for the undergraduate students, to whom it is intended to serve as an introductory text. The new material largely deals with developments related to digital technologies and Web 2.0, but also includes recent ethnographic and theoretical insights, and Bogdanović’s work on masculinities and popular music. The discussions are illustrated with figures and ‘boxes’, which are usually helpful, but in some cases, a more detailed explanation of the logic according to which these are laid out would be welcome. The book contains a bibliography and suggestions for further reading. The introductory chapter briefly outlines the theories of Adorno and the Frankfurt school, as well as theories, which point to increasing rationalisation, on Weberian lines, in popular music’s production. However, throughout the book, the authors maintain that such theories, which posit clear linkages between music’s production, its form and content as text, and its consumption, belie more complex relationships between these areas. Despite this criticism, they divide the book into three sections dealing with ‘production’, ‘text’ and ‘audience’, stressing that ‘an analytic separation of these dimensions facilitates more detailed examination of their nature and the relationships between them’ (p. 274). The section on ‘production’ covers the music industry (Chapter 1) and the social production of music (Chapter 2). The second section on ‘text’ examines rock and pop genres, in terms of their history, politics, and sexuality (Chapter 3), genres of ‘black’ music (Chapter 4), the meanings of music as text (Chapter 5) and theories of performativity (Butler) and distinction (Bourdieu), as they have been employed in popular music studies (Chapter 6). The final section deals with ‘audiences’, in terms of the social effects of music and some of the early (Birmingham school) literature on subcultures (Chapter 7), the concepts of fandom and debates concerning the nature of consumption (Chapter 8) and more recent work developing notions of ‘scene’ and music in ‘everyday life’ (Chapter 9). Broadly speaking, the discussions emphasise the complexity of social relations beyond simple categories and subcultures, the fluidity and performativity of identities, the discursive construction of ‘authenticity’, the flexible and contingent nature of textual meaning and the active, productive potentials of audiences – themes aligned with a generally ‘postmodernist’ paradigm. The vast scope, which this book attempts to cover, can hardly be overstated, and though the authors skilfully weave together an impressive amount of material, the necessary outcome is cursory, predictable analysis in the style of an endless literature review that quickly becomes tiresome for the reader. Yet, for all that is included in the book, so much more is left out – ‘popular music’ now seems to encompass so many unrelated musical forms and practices that its usefulness ought to be seriously questioned. In such an introductory text, however, these are forgivable shortcomings, and the book will be a useful guide for beginning students (in conjunction with more detailed readings on specific topics), and a handy reference for researchers. Joseph Williams Western Sydney University, Australia

Review: Children, Media and CultureDaviesMaire Messenger, Children, Media and Culture, Open University Press, Maidenhead, 2010, ISBN 9 7803 3522 9192, 236 pp., £69.00. Distributor: McGraw-Hill.

This British text makes a valuable contribution to debates on the future of newspapers and the ways in which they are being redefined by the rapid changes occurring around and within them. Cole and Harcup draw on a wealth of academic and industry evidence to show that, despite the challenges and problems faced by newspapers, their social and political significance guarantees their survival. Some chapters have a tight focus on newspaper markets and industry regulations in the United Kingdom, and will be of most interest to students of the British press. Those that examine the history of newspapers, contemporary newsroom practices, media convergence, investigative journalism and journalism scholarship will be of relevance and interest beyond the UK context. The book is divided into three sections. The first traces the history of newspapers and the second provides a valuable overview of current debates and contemporary journalism practices. The last theme is journalism scholarship, with the final chapter offering a concise critical bibliography that students of journalism and the media will find useful for their own research. – Lisa Waller, Journalism, Deakin University

Book Review: News 2.0 Can Journalism Survive the Internet?HirstMartin, News 2.0 Can Journalism Survive the Internet?, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2011, ISBN 9 7817 4237 0576, 242 pp., A

Media International Australia Examining the processes of selection, production and transmission of violent news, Hanusch uses the theoretical frameworks of political economy and cultural studies to examine textual and visual representations of death in the news. He makes a significant point when tracking the effects of economic imperatives, stressing that, while economic factors may encourage violent representations of death in news texts, they work against the use of strongly graphic images. Hanusch’s research also contradicts the common belief that media portrayals of death are becoming increasingly sensationalised: the historical overview suggests that more graphic images were used by the media in the past than today. Attention has been paid to the impact that reporting on death can have on journalists themselves, but there has been less focus on audience responses to the news coverage of death. Within this context, Hanusch explores the role of commemorative journalism with reference to the reporting of ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin’s death in the Australian news media. In examining the influence of internet and new technologies on the news representation of death, Hanusch emphasises their significance in terms of the gathering, presentation and reception of news, and the high accessibility of the news about death they offer. However, in discussing audience responses to death in the news, the author seems to focus mainly on graphic imagery. Undoubtedly, images can have a stronger impact than words, but the importance of textual representations should not be overlooked, especially considering the proliferation of violent texts on the internet. Such minor flaws do not cast any shadow upon Hanusch’s powerful contribution. The result of extensive research that maps the main approaches in the field, this book is essential reading for those interested in the evolution, changes and effects of public representations of death. – Crisia Miroiu, Media, University of Sydney Hirst, Martin, News 2.0 Can Journalism Survive the Internet?, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2011, ISBN 9 7817 4237 0576, 242 pp., A

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Review: Ordinary People and the Media: The Demotic TurnTurnerGraeme, Ordinary People and the Media: The Demotic Turn, Sage, London, 2010, ISBN 9 7818 4860 1673, 190 pp., A

Despite being a ‘newcomer’ in the world of social science, media studies has registered a spectacular growth, marked most evidently by a burgeoning literature. Its two broad vantage points of analysis have been the global and the local, which – with a few notable exceptions – often run in parallel lines with optimism and pessimism about the impending demise of the nation state. With this backdrop, the volume’s focus on internationalising the discipline indicates a different take. The editor explains that it points to the ‘continuing importance of the nation state in the contemporary media world’ (p. 2). This stance is of key importance in ensuring not just the credibility but, at a more fundamental level, the survival of media studies at a time when the nation state is involved in complex negotiations with the forces of globalisation, that too with huge impact on both space and time. In dealing with these issues, this book presents itself as a sort of collage. Its four sections include: justifications and explorations of the ways and means of internationalising research in media and communication; identification of emerging political, economic, legal and regulatory challenges vis-à-vis the media and communication institutions and industries; non-Western regional perspectives on media studies; and the scope of teaching media studies, based on representative examples from different parts of the world. If the first strength of the collection is its focus on internationalising, the second is its effort to engage in pedagogical discussion – something that often remains unaddressed in the otherwise prolific literature of media studies. There are a number of innovative contributions that deal with issues as various as inner struggle (de-Sovietisation of Russian media studies); complex negotiations (democratising Chinese media studies in authoritarian polity); broader agenda (de-Westernising media studies); concrete manifestations (community radio as a political platform); the dilemmas posed by the inherently interdisciplinary nature of media studies; the challenges and changes of comparative media research in regard to globalisation, and so forth. Highlighting that there is neither a binary relation nor a facile transition between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’, the essays adopt a back-and-forth approach based on the complex interplay of an inward view of the ‘local’ combined with the outward perception of the ‘global’. The trend to dive deep into media analyses, neglecting the broader linkages – especially the foundational importance of communication – has plagued a substantial segment of media studies in recent times. The editor and the contributors must be congratulated for seeking to bridge this gap in multiple ways, without opting for the ‘one best way’. – Dipankar Sinha, Political Science, Calcutta University and Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata

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Scandinavian films, Together (2001), The Idiots (1998) and Italian for Beginners (2002), and Victor Turner’s (1969) notion of communitas, which he designed to overcome the opposition between community and alienation. Instead he emphasized the importance of the challenge to communal social structures by neophytes and marginal or liminal (trickster) figures. Rather than being captured within the ‘ideological’ mechanism of inclusion and exclusion, Turner’s communitas is spontaneous or immediate, and transgressive in its non-normative liminality. Turner’s notion functions to critically evaluate the ad hoc formation or reformation of community encountered in these films. Of course it is always possible to ask for more, but Community and Cinema does more than fulfil its promise of providing a substantial contextual analysis of mainstream contemporary films thematically based on the idea and practice of community (or its absence or silence). Its discussion of the idea of community in times of major social and cultural changes raises important general political and ethical questions. Arguably, the most important aspect of this book for people interested in film studies, however, is that the notion of community reintroduces an ethical demand on film criticism to readdress the question to what extent mainstream films are ‘entertainment’ or religious, political and ethical ‘sites’ of cultural change.