Must see TV : mapping an Australian mediasphere

Abstract

Australian National Cinema and Australian Television Culture. These two books,
magisterial accounts of Australian media cultures, are very different. The first
analyses (according to its cover blurb) 'the distinct and diverse nature of Australian
cinema'; the second offers 'a picture of Australian television'. The books share an
author.2 Despite this, their objects of study are constituted very differently. The first is
replete with examples of particular films, analyses of their representational strategies,
and links to the social context of production. The second addresses almost no
programs and those that are mentioned appear only in passing. There is no analysis of
any particular television text.
The difference between these books cannot be explained in terms of authorial
fickleness: rather, it represents the different ways in which television and film have
been constructed as objects of study. While film has a recognised canon and a
tradition of close textual analysis, in the study of television the programs themselves
have tended to vanish - as they do in Australian Television Culture.
Most academic work on Australian television is not interested in its programs. Writers
have tended to find other aspects more rewarding: industries, institutions, ownership,
legislation, technology and production.3 Australian Television Culture is part of this
tradition; and an example of how such work, done well, can be a useful contribution
to understanding the medium.