Media International Australia

Before Crocodile Dundee it seemed that only the frenzied energy of a film like Mad Max could get results in the lucrative markets outside Australia. Now it seems a feature film with Australian content in large measure can do this after all. Now is probably a good time to ask ourselves some questions: Do we want to produce films made to a formula for international success? Or do we want to produce films that have special meaning for us, films that we can ‘participate’ in? Is it possible to make films that trade in both currencies, national and international?

One phenomenon dominates the history of motion pictures: at one time or another, a single country has emerged as the most creative and vital source of film making on the international scene. It is almost as if a spotlight moved across the stages of the world, pausing now here, now there, to illuminate the work of an entire group of artists. This was perhaps understandable in the Soviet Union during the mid-Nineteen-Twenties, when a new government actively encouraged experimentation in all the arts, and particularly the art of the motion picture.

Alcohol advertising — isn't it a job of simple persuasion? As a social science researcher who has spent more than half a dozen years investigating alcohol advertising — among other forms of media content — I am often asked by lay persons to gauge the ‘effects’ of such advertising. My first inclination is to respond that its effects are likely to be the same as those of any other mass mediated message. After all, the goal of science is to develop and apply broad theories which neatly and parsimoniously encapsulate large amounts of information, and therefore it is somewhat odd to single out alcohol advertising as a ‘peculiar’ type of communication.

Alcohol advertising on Australian television is subject to regulation by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal (ABT). Until 1 July 1986, it was prohibited before 7.30 pm on weekdays, all day on Sundays, and on Saturdays between 5.00 pm and 7.30 pm. From July 1986, it has been allowed only after 8.30 pm but is permitted on Sundays during live sports broadcasts and in the evening after 8.30. Alcohol advertising during live sporting broadcasts is allowed regardless of the hour on Saturdays and public holidays (except Christmas Day and Good Friday). The Tribunal's justification for these regulations is principally phrased in terms of the restriction of alcohol advertising to ‘adult’ viewing periods.

Richard Beynon was writer-in-residence at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) throughout 1986. Before he returned to the United Kingdom, he spoke with MIA's Publishing Editor about his career and about his work with the students at the School.

No technological innovation, it might be argued, has played so pervasive a role or achieved such diverse effects on the modernisation of society as has the telephone. Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to its sociology or to critical evaluation of its influence. A plethora of books and papers has discussed radio, television, cable TV, video, satellite communication and the organisation and politicisation of telecommunications; but the object we handle daily — the friendly, miraculous, ubiquitous, intrusive, personal, national and international ‘connector’ — has been slighted and ignored.

In recent years, a number of decisions made by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal have been challenged in the Federal Court and the High Court. Many of these challenges have concerned procedural issues arising in public inquiries. Others have attacked final decisions made by the Tribunal at the end of an inquiry. Still others have tried to limit the scope of the Tribunal's powers to regulate programs.

A review of Eric Michaels' report Aboriginal Invention of Television: Central Australia 1982–1986, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1986, 159p, gratis; and policy considerations for Aboriginal broadcasting in remote Australia.

To respond to Professor Willmot's review of my work, I find it necessary to speak in the first person, as I did in my report, from a reflexive, authorial persona. The reasons are not simply the personal nature of the review (beginning, significantly, with the first paragraph's identification of me as American) but are those I explain in the report's introduction (xiv-xv); not to inscribe myself here but in fact to achieve transparency and deconstruct a myth of objectivity.

In some future cultural history of Italy, the early 1980s may appear as a seminal point in that tendency known as Americanisation. Its characteristic monuments will be seen as McDonalds in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome (1985), the Dandy-burger in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna (1984) or that entirely American chain of fast food known as Italy, Italy. This transformation of the architectural face of Italian cities would not have been possible, cultural historians will remark, without a transformation of the eating habits of at least some Italians and perhaps even their perception of the very nature of food itself. This Americanisation of Italian habits, it will be remarked, is even more evident in the interior of Italian homes — not so much in the appearance of increasing numbers of cornflakes on breakfast tables, but in types of television habits and television programs.

Waddick Doyle's paper presents an interesting theoretical proposition on the relationship between broadcasting and the political system in Italy and one which may well provide a basis for the consideration of this relationship in the context of other European countries. It is also suggestive in terms of the decision making process in the Italian political system in an area (broadcasting) which is universally characterised by a notorious reluctance to legislate on the part of governments.

Kids and the Scary World of Video

In MIA 42, November 1986, page 70, in Book Reviews & Magazines & Journals, incorrect information was published. Any inconvenience this may have caused is regretted. Let's get it right this time!

The South Australian Council for Children's Films & Television produced KIDS and The Scary World of Video - a 200-page report which costs $18.50 (including postage within Australia, less for multiple copies). For overseas orders, SACCFT will, unfortunately, have to charge for postage.

For further information, telephone or write to Ms Felicity Coleman, SACCFT Inc., 181 Goodwood Road, Millswood 5034. Telephone: (OS) 373 0282.

We reprint Henry Mayer's review from MIA 42:70, November 1986:

This careful study of video viewing among 1,498 primary school children in South Australia looks both at children and parents. It shows that access to videos, considered in more controlled circumstances as unsuitable, is easy through a wide range of sources. Over a third reported seeing videos containing extreme violence and horror, including mutilation and dismemberment. The children are affected and report scenes they would like to but cannot forget. A smaller number report a desire to continue to remember scenes of striking violence. Sixty-one per cent had a VCR at home and 85.7% reported watching tapes at a friend's home. The report includes very detailed extracts from the responses. It is by far the most careful study yet of access and responses to content, with proposals for action.