This article revisits historical rivalries between established and emerging media, namely the press and broadcasting, during the first half of the twentieth century. To this end, the author constructs a dialogue between Neville Petersen's broadcasting research and his own press research over a similar period. In his major work, News Not Views: The ABC, Press and Politics (1932–1947), Petersen (1993) elaborates in detail the ongoing constraints imposed by Australian newspaper proprietors on the fledgling Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in their ultimately unsuccessful struggle to restrict its news supply and influence. Drawing on subsequent press research based on international forums, the author revisits this rivalry, particularly Petersen's thesis that Australian press proprietors exercised disproportionate influence over the national broadcaster when compared with other English-speaking countries, such as Britain and Canada.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenG.2009, ‘Old Media, New Media, and Competition: Canadian Press and the Emergence of Radio News’, in AllenG.RobinsonD.J. (eds), Communicating in Canada's Past. Essays in Media History, Toronto University Press, Toronto.
2.
BallW.M.1938, Press Radio and World Affairs, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
3.
BriggsA.1985, The BBC: The First Fifty Years, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
4.
CohenH.2010, ‘Vale Neville Petersen (1934–2010)’, in Global Media Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, www.commarts.uws.edu.au/gmjau
5.
CryleD.2002, ‘The Empire Press Union and Antipodean Communications: Australian–New Zealand Involvement 1909–1950’, Media History, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 49–62.
6.
CryleD.2004, ‘Interdependent or Independent? Australian British relations at the Melbourne Imperial Press Conference’, in Darian-SmithK.GrimshawP.LindseyK.McIntyreS. (eds), Exploring the British World: Identity–Cultural Production–Institutions, RMIT Publishing, Melbourne, pp. 890–907.
7.
CryleD.2007, ‘Rousing the British-speaking World: Australian Newspaper Proprietors and Freedom of the Press, 1940–1950’, paper presented to Australian Media Traditions conference, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, www.csu.edu.au/special/amt/publication
8.
CryleD.2010, ‘“Reciprocal and Universal”: Robert Donald, the Press Union and Empire Wireless 1920–1933’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 357–76.
9.
CryleD.KaulC.2011, ‘The Empire/Commonwealth Press Union and Freedom of the Press in the Post-war World: India and Australia Compared’, Keynote Address, Australian Media Traditions Conference, University of Sydney.
10.
DumasL.1941, ‘Letter to Keith Murdoch. J Walter Thompson, Recommendation for a Newspaper Publishers Co-operative Campaign’, in Dumas Papers, MS 4849/3/72 NLA Folder 72 Freedom of the Press, 2 July.
11.
Empire Press Union1937, The Second 1937 Annual Imperial Press Conference, Empire Press Union, London.
12.
InglisK.S.1983, This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1982–83, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
13.
InglisK.S.2000, ‘London Calling: The Empire of the Airwaves’, Working Papers in Australian Studies, no. 118, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College, University of London, pp. 1–24.
14.
InglisK.S.2006, Whose ABC? The Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1983–2006, Black Inc, Melbourne.
15.
KirkpatrickR.2000, Country Conscience: A History of the New South Wales Provincial Press, 1841–1995, Infinite Harvest, Canberra.
16.
KuffertL.2009, ‘“What Do You Expect of This Friend?” Radio and Intimacy of Broadcasting’, Media History, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 303–20.
17.
LloydC.1985, Profession Journalist: A History of the Australian Journalists Association, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney.
18.
LloydC.1988, Parliament and the Press: A History of the Canberra Press Gallery, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
19.
McKnightD.2012, ‘The Market Populism of Rupert Murdoch’, Henry Mayer Lecture, Media International Australia, no. 144, pp. 5–12.
20.
McQueenH.1981, Australia's Media Monopolies, Visa Books, Melbourne.
21.
MurdochK.1937, ‘Letter to Robert Menzies, F19, Australian Newspaper Mills 1934–1949’, in Keith Murdoch Papers, MS 2823, National Library of Australia.
22.
PeersF.1968, The Politics of Canadian Broadcasting 1920–1951, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
23.
PetersenN.1993, News Not Views: The ABC, Press and Politics (1932–1947), Hale and Iremonger, Sydney.
24.
PetersenN.1999, Whose News? Organisational Conflict in the ABC, 1947–1999, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.
PotterS.J.2009, ‘Britishness, the BBC and the Birth of Canadian Public Broadcasting, 1928–1936’, in AllenG.RobinsonD.J. (eds), Communicating in Canada's Past: Essays in Media History, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp. 78–108.
28.
PotterS.J.2012, Broadcasting Empire: The BBC and the British World, 1922–1970, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
29.
SianN.2000, ‘All the News that's Fit to Broadcast: The Popular Press versus the BBC 1919–39’, in CaterallP.Seymour-UreC.SmithA. (eds), Northcliffe's Legacy: Aspects of the British Popular Press, 1896–1996, Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 121–48.
30.
ReadD.1999, The Power of News: The History of Reuters, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
31.
TebbuttJ.2011, ‘Neville Petersen’, Valedictory Address, Australian Media Traditions conference, Swinburne University.
32.
TurnerH.E.1926, The Imperial Press Conference in Australia, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
33.
TurnerH.E.1930, The Fourth Imperial Conference 1930, Empire Press Union, London.
34.
TurnerH.E.1946, The Sixth Imperial Conference 1946, Empire Press Union, London.
35.
VipondM.1999, ‘The Continental Marketplace: Authority, Advertisers and Audiences in Canadian News Broadcasting, 1932–36’, Journal of Radio Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 169–84.
36.
WalkerR.B.1980, Yesterday's News: A History of the Newspaper Press of New South Wales from 1920 to 1945, Sydney University Press, Sydney.
37.
WeirE.A.1965, The Struggle for National Broadcasting in Canada, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto.
