The Special Broadcasting Service in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This paper considers the recent inquiry of the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy into the future of public service media in a digital environment in the context of both the author's own work on the history of the Special Broadcasting Service (Ang et al., 2008) and the continuing obligations and challenges that public service media face in terms of the wider remit of helping audiences to negotiate the reality of cultural diversity and difference. It focuses on how SBS has contributed to an expanded understanding of the nature of citizenship in contemporary Australian society, challenges it faces in extending that understanding of citizenship to expanded public participation in the creation and distribution of media content, and its current and future relationship to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.