Abstract
Australian Story has developed a distinctive approach to both current affairs and the presentation of stories about celebrities. It has been subject to criticism for both of these, but the article argues that this is misguided, drawing on recent work on celebrity and particularly on John Langer's analysis of the ‘other news’ to point out how pervasive ‘human interest’ style stories are throughout news bulletins and conventional current affairs, and noting how many of these concern celebrities. Calling on a large number of episodes, it demonstrates that the program is capable of acting to set news agendas and of continuing existing news coverage — both prime duties of current affairs programs — and that it uses its celebrity coverage in particular to perform these functions. It also identifies the role of the testimonial as central to what is special about the Australian Story approach.
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