Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | Arena Magazine

Re-imagining the ABC: remodelling aunty means finding a third way between elite agendas and uncritical consumption.

Article Excerpt
Despite extreme pressure on funding and political intimidation from a hostile conservative Government, there have been some fine achievements at the ABC in recent years. For example, in TV current affairs, the insightful and amusing Insiders; and in arts documentary, the pop culture history Long Way to the Top. Comedy has been groundbreaking and subversive, with stand outs being Kath and Kim, CNNNN and The Glass House, the latter passing the crucial test of earning the wrath of Senator Alston. ABC Online continues to add value to programs and invite audience participation on the smell of an oily rag. 2BL, the Sydney Metropolitan station, beat the commercial radio ranters with a breakfast program that is intelligent and charming. Radio National continues to stimulate those Australians interested in complex and original ideas. Triple J remains a vehicle for emerging musos, comedians and journos and is cherished by young people in the regions and the bush as a way to participate in cosmopolitan youth culture. ABC remains king of the kids, with children's drama like Saddle Club, Kids Online and the perennial Play School winning huge, loyal audiences among the under 12s.

However, the ABC Board and senior management have not always responded with wisdom or vision to the funding squeeze. Executive salaries and bureaucracy have grown while program-makers feel the pinch. The current affairs flagship Four Corners has been trimmed at a time of global turmoil. ABC Enterprises is expanding its reach into merchandise-related television production and vetting the provision of archive footage to independent documentary makers in what amounts to political censorship. The outsourcing of production lacks transparency and suffers the same problems of value-for-taxpayer money that plagues other public-private partnerships. The one-size-fits-all decision to syndicate the sports wrap from Sydney is part of a trend to greater homogeneity.

Fears that the ABC is skewering its appeal and resources to a so-called 'core audience' of over 55s were borne out by the axing of the innovative digital networks Fly TV and ABC Kids. This short-sighted move did not make strategic sense in terms of attracting new generations to the national broadcaster or giving the ABC a head start in this new media. Thankfully the decision was reversed on the eve of the election and a new digital channel will commence operations in March 2005--too late to save the hothouse for young creative talent that was Fly. Add the axing of Behind the News and the ending of cadetships and the ABC could be said to be devouring its own children.

Without discounting the impact of the Howard Government funding cuts, I want to focus on microstructural and cultural problems in the corporation inimical to creative cultural work that have intensified under the Coalition's Board. These include: * internal accounting and management structures that have centralised control of TV content in the hands of a few senior executives. This trend is worst in television, where it has seriously eroded programmaker professional autonomy of the sort that existed in the 70s and 80s;

* the growth of bureaucracy and private management consultants at the expense of in-house production staff;

* too homogenous a view of Australian culture, imposed through centralised commissioning;

* insufficient consultation with audiences about programming--signified by an over-reliance on commercial ratings and inadequate community participation in ABC corporate decision-making;

* the elevation of Business Services within the Corporation and...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!