Democracy, Participation and Convergent Media

Democracy, Participation and Convergent Media: Case Studies in Contemporary News Journalism in Australia

View more presentations from Terry Flew.

Digital Economy report

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has released its report Australia's Digital Economy: Future Directions. The report develops the following argument as found in its Executive Summary:

Advancing Australia’s digital economy requires action by government, industry and the community.

The key areas of focus for government, industry and the community in order to maximise the benefits of the digital economy for all Australians are:

•• for Government, to:

−− lay the foundations Australia’s digital infrastructure

−− facilitate innovation

−− set conducive regulatory frameworks

•• for industry, to:

−− demonstrate digital confidence and build digital skills

−− adopt smart technology

−− develop sustainable online content models

•• for the community, to:

−− enjoy digital confidence and digital media literacy skills

−− experience inclusive digital participation

−− benefit through online engagement.

The report makes reference to the 2007 You Decide project undertaken by a QUT-based team as "Australia's first experiment with collaborative, citizen journalism online". Details of the case study can be found here.

I'd like to turn your Powerpoint into a book

As this is the second time VDM Verlag have requested that I turn a Powerpoint presentation they found on my ePrints site into a book, I feel happy to share the email with you.

I pointed out after the first request that, had they opened the file, they would have found a Powerpoint presentation. For those PhD students who are approached by VDM Verlag about turning their thesis into a book, you may want to consdier this in terms of the amount of attention they pay to the contents of their products. Others have discussed this online.

Dear Flew, Terry,

I am writing on behalf of the international academic publisher, VDM Publishing House Ltd.

In the course of a research at the Library of QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, we came across a reference to your thesis on "Communication for the 21st Century, or, How to have your blog and read it too!".

As we would like to make your work available to a larger audience, I am wondering if you may be interested in publishing your thesis in the form of a printed book.

Your reply including an e-mail address to which I can send an e-mail with further information in an attachment will be greatly appreciated.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,
Kumar Dhora

Acquisition Editor

VDM Publishing House Ltd.

17, Meldrum Str. | Beau-Bassin | Mauritius

Tel / Fax: +230 467-5601

k.dhora@vdm-publishing.com | www.vdm-publishing.com

Business Registration No.: C07072290

Board of Directors: Benoit Novel , Saleem Chotoye

Beyond Globalisation

My paper Beyond Globalisation: Rethinking the Scalar and the Relational in Global Media Studies has just been published in Global Media Journal: Australian Edition.

Earlier versions of this paper have been presented at the World Communications Association conference in July 2007, the Seoul Symposium on Mobile Communication in October 2007, and the International and Intercultural Communication in the Age of Global Media conference at Monash University in August 2008.

Thanks to Hart Cohen for his support with this publication, and to Caroline Hatcher, Song Gi-Baek and Ron Gallagher for their invitations to present at these events.

The abstract for this paper is below, and the full paper can be accessed here.

This paper traces how the concept of globalisation has been understood in media and communications, and the ongoing tension as to whether we can claim to be in an era of ‘global media’. A problem with this discussion is that it continues to revolve around a scalar understanding of globalisation, where the global has superseded the national and the local, leading to a series of empirically unsustainable, and often misleading, claims. Drawing upon recent work in economic and cultural geography, I will argue that a relational understanding of globalisation enables us to approach familiar questions in new ways, including the question of how global large media corporations are, global production networks and the question of ‘runaway production’, and the emergence of new ‘media capitals’ that can challenge the hegemony of ‘Global Hollywood.’

The Economist viral marketing campaign

Interesting developments in market testing. A personal email that I received from Chris McCrudden from Speed Communication to gauge my response to a new campaign being launched for The Economist. The email read:

I’m getting in touch with you on behalf of The Economist in the UK as I notice that you’ve written about the magazine before on your blog.

The Economist has just launched a new cinema ad campaign which it hopes will help attract a new generation of readers. We’re very interested in hearing your thoughts about it as it’s very different to the ‘white out of red’ posters it’s used for over 20 years. It’s intended to grab the attention of the “intellectually curious”, the estimated 3m+ people in the UK who, thanks to the expansion in university education, care about the range of big global issues that The Economist covers every week.

You can see the video here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esx57x7CtZo

It uses the image of a wire-jumper (Florent Blondeau) walking through a city on a series of red wires and the strapline “Let your mind wander” as a metaphor for the pleasure we get from connecting different ideas, suggesting that you can get a similar experience from reading a copy of the magazine.

I hope you enjoy the ad. If you’d like any more info on the thinking that went into the campaign please let me know.

Best regards, Chris

Note both the personal turn and the feedback loop between my use of The Economist in my blog and an email back about their new marketing campaign.

The video is here.

If I'm going to pay for The Australian, I want better sub-editing than this

If John Hartigan believes that "the willingness of readers to pay for [news] will depend on the quality of the content", he may want to note how his own pieces are sub-edited in his own News Limited papers. Kudos to Tim Burrowes from Mumbrella for spotting this.

The bad sub-editing seems contagious Rod McGuinness spotted this with Christian Kerr's House Rules column online, which has remained untouched for three days.

Jeff Goldblum: Back from the dead?

If Richard Wilkins, New Zealand police and Twitter say you are dead, then you must be. Or maybe not. Stephen Colbert investigates.