Politics, radio and journalism in Australia

Abstract

This article draws on a research project examining the influence of talkback radio on politics in Australia, which focuses on the manner in which talkback formats have displaced the more conventional news and current affairs formats once prominent on the AM band in order to discuss the consequences of this change. An important consideration here is the fact that radio journalism has given way to the talkback host or entertainer at precisely the time when the political influence of the talkback format has become most pronounced, and when the regulatory control of that influence has become least effective. The result is a form of entertainment that mimics the forms and practices of journalism but which performs quite different social and political functions.

Local people, local places, local voices and local spaces: How talkback radio in Australia provides hyper-local news through mini-narrative sharing

“…While the research into talkback radio programs in Australia has largely focused on what Turner (2009: 416) refers to as ‘the “bad boys” of the media industry’, also known as populist program hosts, he reminds us that the ‘talkback format has many iterations in the Australian market’ (2009: 416–417): The vast majority of programs on the ABC, the publicly funded equivalent to Britain’s BBC, or Canada’s CBC, are locally and community-based talk programs which operate very much as a virtual backyard fence for the sharing of gossip, opinion, and local concerns. The majority of regional (that is, non-metropolitan) programs on commercial radio are like this, too: relatively low key formats hosted by journalists, grounded in local issues most of the time, and conscious of the service they are providing to communities who may be quite isolated in terms of their access to media.…”

“…Radio in Australia has a special role in the provision of local news, particularly in regional areas (Turner, 2009: 416–417): Many of the markets served by these regional programs would not have a locally produced television news bulletin, for instance, or a daily newspaper that dealt with their particular local issues. Radio is the one medium to have maintained some degree of localism in the journalism provided to these areas.…”

“…This style of talkback has garnered large audiences and in Australia research has revealed that such programs have a tendency toward conservative political views (Hamilton, 2006). A decline in the availability of local news in an increasingly globalized news environment has coincided with the rise in prominence of populist styles of talkback radio (Turner, 2009). However, little attention has been paid to non-populist talkback radio programs and the contributions they make to their audiences.…”

Narratives from the neighbourhood: The discursive construction of integration problems in talkback radio1

“…Moreover, the representations, themes and discursive resources explicated on talkback radio have socio‐political consequences beyond the immediate ‘entertainment’ value, especially if a call topic relates to a pre‐existing community anxiety. As Graeme Turner (2009: 419) has noted, ‘shock‐jock’ hosts are ostensibly in the business of inflaming populist sentiment as a means of garnering audiences and notoriety. Importantly, ‘shock‐jock’ radio often turns its attention to political issues, where social issues can ‘gain a new set of “legs” through being given a run on the radio: from time to time, this prolongs the life and extends the provenance of the story’ (Turner 2009: 421).…”

“…As Graeme Turner (2009: 419) has noted, ‘shock‐jock’ hosts are ostensibly in the business of inflaming populist sentiment as a means of garnering audiences and notoriety. Importantly, ‘shock‐jock’ radio often turns its attention to political issues, where social issues can ‘gain a new set of “legs” through being given a run on the radio: from time to time, this prolongs the life and extends the provenance of the story’ (Turner 2009: 421). Indeed, talkback has been implicated in the magnification of the pogrom‐like violence against Lebanese Australians (see Poynting 2006, 2007).…”