Kitty van Vuuren

Community broadcasting and the enclosure of the public sphere

One of the normative tenets of the Habermasian public sphere is that it should be an open and universally accessible forum. In Australia, one way of achieving this is the provision for community broadcasting in the Broadcasting Services Act. A closer examination of community broadcasting, however, suggests practices that contradict the idea of an open and accessible public sphere. Community broadcasting organizations regulate access to their media assets through a combination of formal and informal structures. This suggests that the public sphere can be understood as a resource, and that community broadcasting organizations can be analysed as ‘commons regimes’. This approach reveals a fundamental paradox inherent in the public sphere: access, participation and the quality of discourse in the public sphere are connected to its enclosure, which limits membership and participation through a system of rules and norms that govern the conduct of a group. By accepting the view that a public sphere is governed by property rights, it follows that an open and universally accessible public sphere is neither possible nor desirable.One of the normative tenets of the Habermasian public sphere is that it should be an open and universally accessible forum. In Australia, one way of achieving this is the provision for community broadcasting in the Broadcasting Services Act. A closer examination of community broadcasting, however, suggests practices that contradict the idea of an open and accessible public sphere. Community broadcasting organizations regulate access to their media assets through a combination of formal and informal structures. This suggests that the public sphere can be understood as a resource, and that community broadcasting organizations can be analysed as ‘commons regimes’. This approach reveals a fundamental paradox inherent in the public sphere: access, participation and the quality of discourse in the public sphere are connected to its enclosure, which limits membership and participation through a system of rules and norms that govern the conduct of a group. By accepting the view that a public sphere is governed by property rights, it follows that an open and universally accessible public sphere is neither possible nor desirable.

Embracing and resisting climate identities in the Australian press: sceptics, scientists and politics

This article charts the development of a label that appeared early on in Australian debates on climate change, namely ‘greenhouse sceptics’. We explore who uses the label, for what purposes and with which effects, and how this label may contribute to the development of social representations in the climate debate. Our findings show that over the last 25 years, ‘greenhouse sceptic’ has been used by journalists and climate scientists to negativize those criticizing mainstream climate science, but that it has also been used, even embraced, by Australian climate sceptics to label themselves in order to construct a positive identity modelled on celebrity sceptics in the United States. We found that the label was grounded in religious metaphors that frame mainstream science as a catastrophist and alarmist religious cult. Overall, this article provides detailed insights into the genealogy of climate scepticism in a particular cultural and historical context.

Belonging to the Rainbow Region: Place, Local Media, and the Construction of Civil and Moral Identities Strategic to Climate Change Adaptability

The “Rainbow Region” in northern New South Wales, Australia, has attracted much attention because of its visibility and meaning as a ‘meeting place’ of countercultures and for the articulation of social and environmental ideals that challenge mainstream practice. We argue that the idiosyncrasies of this region—its history, the character of its social networks, the aesthetic and lifestyle attributes of landscape implicit to its evolving place identity—have led to various expressions in eco-cosmopolitanism evident in a thriving local newspaper industry, and film and television production that has reached international acclaim. This case study explores the role of the Rainbow Regions creative class in providing the creative edge in media and cultural production that has the capacity to facilitate social change towards sustainable practices.

The Brisbane flood: CALD gatekeepers’ risk communication role

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an original research project that explored the experiences and actions of immigrant and refugee communities during the 2011 Brisbane flood. It specifically examines the role of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) community leaders who acted as “gatekeepers” in communicating emergency responses to the disaster to their communities. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight “gatekeepers” who met the studys selection criteria. Findings – The study found that the characteristics and demographics of CALD gatekeepers in Brisbane, their use of multiple sources related to their involvement in the community, their use of interpersonal sources for information-seeking and use of the mass media, is largely consistent with previous studies. Research limitations/implications – This study departed from previous research with respect to issues of trust in government sources, gender and warning confirmation ...

Exploring Media Platforms to Serve the Needs of the South Sudanese Former Refugee Community in Southeast Queensland

Community broadcasting is being displaced by digital media, the Internet, and associated technologies and the need for migrant and former refugee communities to own and control their own media remains strong, especially in response to persistent stereotyping on the part of mainstream media. We present results of a study undertaken with the South Sudanese community in Southeast Queensland to explore the needs, uses, and possibilities of online media. Focus groups with 31 Sudanese men and women indicated that they saw a need for a Sudanese community website that would assist the community with integrating into mainstream society, promoting the positive contribution made by the community to Australian society, as well as with maintenance of their own cultures and languages.

Ecomedia: Of Angelic Images and Environmental Values

The prominence of media events in 2006, including the release of former US Vice President Al Gores documentary An Inconvenient Truth, the publication of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, even the death of ‘eco-celebrity’ Steve Irwin, suggested a need to devote an issue of Media International Australia to media and the environment. The study of environmentalism through the lens of media, journalism and communication is all but absent in Australia, with some notable exceptions. This issue of MIA goes some way towards redressing the absences identified by Tom Jagtenberg and David McKie in their influential book Eco-Impacts and the Greening of Postmodernity, published more than 10 years ago, which claimed for the environment an equal status with traditional research foci: class, race and gender. The current public interest in environmental issues emphasises this point, although it is not unprecedented. History shows that environmental issues move in waves to and from the heart of public debate. As well as showcasing some of the fields distinct approaches and traditions, the articles in this issue contribute to a better understanding of this current wave and its likely aftermath. In doing so, it goes some way towards moving the environment in the direction of a more central position on the research and public agenda.

“Vicious, Aggressive Bird Stalks Cyclist”: The Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) in the News

Simple Summary This article explores the role of print media in reporting the conflict between the Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) and human populations in Australia. The results indicate that this issue is primarily covered during the spring “swooping” season in the regional and suburban press. Abstract The Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) is a common bird found in urban Australian environments where its nest defense behavior during spring brings it into conflict with humans. This article explores the role of print media in covering this conflict. Leximancer software was used to analyze newspaper reports about the Australian Magpie from a sample of 634 news stories, letters-to-the editor and opinion pieces, published in newspapers from around Australia between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2014. The results confirm that stories about these birds are primarily published in the daily regional and weekly suburban press, and that the dominant story frame concerns the risk of “swooping” behavior to cyclists and pedestrians from birds protecting their nests during the spring breeding season. The most prominent sources used by journalists are local and state government representatives, as well as members of the public. The results show that the “swooping season” has become a normal part of the annual news cycle for these publications, with the implication that discourse surrounding the Australian Magpie predominantly concerns the risk these birds pose to humans, and ignores their decline in non-urban environments.

Book Review: Media Meets Climate: The Global Challenge for JournalismEideElisabeth and KuneliusRisto (eds), Media Meets Climate: The Global Challenge for Journalism, Nordicom, Göteburg, 2012, ISBN 9 7891 8652 3510, 340 pp., €30.00.

No. 150 — February 2014 of the ethical dilemmas journalists encounter while working in the modern media. For example, the circumstances under which a public benefit might derive from deceiving a source, from confronting a source, or even from collaborating too closely with a source and becoming captured, the ethical implications of reporting suicide, or of interviewing sources who might be experiencing mental stress, are not explained. Also not dealt with are the circumstances under which a journalist might feel morally obliged to break the law, such as destroying records in order to protect a source’s anonymity, or the everyday situation of recording a telephone conversation in order to ensure accuracy or to secure a defence against a possible defamation action. The legal aspects of the recent News International scandal in the United Kingdom are explained at length but, if those journalists had employed their illegal phone-hacking skills on investigating matters with clear public benefit outcomes, they might have emerged from the debacle smelling more like roses and less like sewer rats. − Jolyon Sykes, Freelance journalism researcher

Revisiting the greening of prime-time television soap operas

In 1990, Christopher Rissel and William Douglas commenced a study of the depiction of environmental issues and behaviours on Australian prime-time television drama series. Their findings were discussed in an issue of Media International Australia in 1993. This article reports on a 2011–12 study that replicated key aspects of Rissel and Douglass research. A collaborative research team focused on two long-running and high-rating Australian soap operas – Neighbours and Home and Away – recorded from June to August 2011. Using content analysis, the researchers investigated the frequency, attitudes to and role models for the representation of environmental issues and behaviours. This article discusses the findings in terms of contemporary television practices and industry, as well as the studys methodology.

Book Review: Environment Reporters in the 21st CenturySachsmanDavid B., SimonJames and ValentiJoAnn Myer, Environment Reporters in the 21st Century, 2010, Transaction, New Brunswick, NH, ISBN 9 8714 1281 4157 (hb), 238 pp., A

No. 140 — August 2011 a strong professional interest in the content from reading it in detail. And that would be a pity because, perhaps without intending it, Muller has written a primer about the underlying practices and processes of modern journalism, refracted through a time of social crisis. There are understandings here about journalism today that every citizen, and especially those who aspire to public office, should know about. – Vincent O’Donnell, Executive Producer, Arts Alive