Journal articles on the topic 'Radio Service Corporation'

On 25 March 1986, the government announced its decision on the future of EA ethnic radio and multicultural television. Following consideration of the Report of the Committee of Review of the Special Broadcasting Service (better known as the Connor Report), the Government announced that the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), founded in 1977 to oversee EA ethnic radio, is to be replaced with a new Special Broadcasting Corporation (SBC).

The British Broadcasting Corporation occupies what is often considered to be a unique position within UK culture as both a respected national institution that is a pillar of enlightenment values and, increasingly, an agile, entrepreneurial business that has to deliver ‘value-for-money’. This study will contribute to the existing body of literature examining the impact of a neoliberal marketisation discourse on BBC policy by focusing specifically on the provision of arts programming as a key indicator of how the logic of the marketplace has permeated the BBC’s commissioning culture. In doing so, it argues that the loss of the topical arts magazine and discussion formats from BBC television, in contrast to radio, is symptomatic of the ways in which arts broadcasting has been reimagined both in the corporation’s internal production culture and in its public pronouncements as a product for consumers rather than a service for citizens.

Australia, as compered with some overseas countries, has a stable and continuous radio and television history. The price has been the creation of an oligopolistic commercial sector which is much stronger than the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Public (community) broadcasting is still confined to a sector starved of funds; public TV still a pipedream. Ethnic radio and multicultural television, through the Special Broadcasting Service, have a short history which is far from smooth and under constant threat for TV to be merged with the ABC.

AbstractEstablished in 1939, the Turkish radio of the BBC World Service underwent a series of metamorphoses vis-à-vis the ever-changing expectations in Turkey, in the United Kingdom and within the BBC. Once a propaganda apparatus during the Second World War, the Turkish Service became a device of British cultural diplomacy during the Cold War. Since its foundation, interaction with Turkey and its intellectual circles was lively, and transformed the radio into a well-received media outlet, especially appreciated during times of political censorship. In the post-Cold War world, however, the liberalization and privatization of media in Turkey forced the Turkish Service to adjust its broadcasting by improving access to audiences and shifting the focus of news coverage to international issues. This article explores the history of the Turkish Service vis-à-vis the political and social situations in Turkey, the conditions of the British Broadcasting Corporation and the broader political environment.

This article explores the roles of some of the key women producers, broadcasters and writers who were able to work within the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from their foundational periods to the 1950s. Despite the predominantly male culture of radio broadcasting from the 1920s to the 1970s, this article considers the significance and long-term impacts of some of these overlooked female pioneers at the forefront of developing a range of new reality and ‘talk’ forms and techniques. While the article draws on primary BBC research, it also aims to address these openings, cultures and roles as they existed historically for women in the ABC. How did the ABC compare in its foundational period? Significantly, this paper contrasts the two organisations in the light of their approaches to modernity, arguing that BBC features, the department it engendered, and the traditions it influenced, had far reaching impacts; one of these relating to those opportunities opened for women to develop entirely new forms of media communication: the unrehearsed interview and actuality documentary programmes.

Abstract: The Stingray or IMSI-catcher is a surveillance device for cellular phones that was initially developed by theHarris Corporation for military use. Nowadays, various local and state law enforcement agencies across countries such as Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom use similar devices widely. The term Stingray has also become a general term for thistype of device. The IMSI catcher has two modes of operation- active and passive. In the active mode, the device pretends to be a cell tower, tricking all nearby mobile phones and cellular devices to connect to it. It can be mounted on vehicles, low flying airplanes and helicopters, UAVs, etc. It broadcasts signals that seem stronger than the cell tower, and thus, it forces each compatible cellular device to disconnect from its service provider (e.g., Jio, BSNL, etc.) and establish a newconnection with the device. Cellular communications protocols require mobile phones and cellular devices to connect to the strongest signal. We have used a Software Defined Radio (SDR) to replicate the Stingray device manufactured by the Harris Corporation. Although this device has a shorter range, it can still track the IMSI of all cellular devices around it. This project also demonstrates how fragile our privacy is concerning our devi

Commentary: On 25 July 1972, the Board of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation decided to terminate the editorship of Alexander MacLeod with three months' pay, effective immediately. The Listener had only had three editors since its launch as a broadcasting guide in 1939. Its founder Oliver Duff and successor Monty Holcroft, the revered editor of 18 years, built it up as a magazine of culture, arts and current events on top of its monopoly of listings of radio and television programmes. Both men managed to establish a sturdy independence for the magazine which was still the official journal of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, later to become the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. So, the dismissal of the editor was a sizable event. The National government of the day in New Zealand ordered a Commission of Inquiry into whether the sacking was above board and whether it was politically influenced. This article is the story of the commission's findings.

Este trabajo, tras analizar brevemente la evolución del servicio público de televisión en la legislación audiovisual, se centra en el estudio de la configuración de la televisión de titularidad del Estado como servicio público en el marco de la Ley 17/2006, de 5 de junio, de la radio y la televisión de titularidad estatal. Con esta finalidad, analiza, en primer lugar, la configuración de la radio y la televisión de titularidad estatal como servicio público esencial, el objeto de este servicio público y las obligaciones de servicio público que se derivan para la Corporación RTVE; y, en segundo lugar, los tres nuevos instrumentos que se incluyen en la Ley para la concreción de la función de servicio público: el mandato-marco (aprobado en diciembre de 2007 por el Pleno del Congreso de los Diputados y por el Pleno del Senado), el contrato-programa y el sistema de contabilidad analítica. Lan honetan, ikus-entzunezkoen arloko legerian telebistaren zerbitzu publikoak izan duen bilakaera aztertzen da labur-labur. Ondoren aztertzen da Estatuaren irrati eta telebistari buruzko ekainaren 5eko 17/2006 Legearen esparruan nola dagoen eratuta Estatuaren telebista-zerbitzu publikoa. Horretarako, lehenbizi honako hau begiratzen da: Estatuaren irrati eta telebista nola dagoen eratuta funtsezko zerbitzu publiko gisa, zein den zerbitzu publiko horren helburua eta zerbitzu publiko horretatik RTVE Korporazioarentzat ondorioztatzen diren betebeharrak; eta, bigarrenik, zeintzuk diren zerbitzu publikoaren eginkizuna zehazte aldera lege horretan sartzen diren hiru tresna berriak, alegia, agindu-esparrua (Diputatuen Kongresuaren Osokoak eta Senatuaren Osokoak 2007ko abenduan onartua), kontratu-egitasmoa eta kontabilitate analitikoko sistema. After a brief analysis of the evolution of the public service of television within the broadcasting legislation, this work focuses on the study of the configuration of the television owned by the State as public service in the frame of the Act 17/2006 of June 5, on radio and television owned by the State. With this aim, it is firstly analyzed the configuration of the radio and television owned by the State as a essential public service, the scope of this public service and the obligations of this public service for the Spanish Broadcasting Corporation (RTVE); and, secondly, the three new instruments included in the Act for the concreteness of the function of the public service: the frame-order (passed in December 2007 by the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies and of Senate), the programme-contract and the system of costs accounting.

This article outlines the evolution of sports broadcasting on Canadian television, focusing on the broadcast of the Olympic Games. I argue that history of the Olympics on national television exemplifies the evolution of the idea of public service television in Canada. Specifically, it reflects the delicate balance between the nation’s public and private broadcasters, whose relationship extends far beyond mere competition. The public service raison d’être and mission have nonetheless been called into question throughout the development of television. Incidentally, the values of the Olympic movement were also called into question in this period, during which the Games evolved from an all-amateur Olympiad to a fully commercial spectacle designed for (and by) television.

The dissemination of fake news is an increasing issue in the media ecosys­tem, which has worsened with the current healthcare crisis. Pandemic-re­lated hoaxes challenge media, which have not hesitated to implement dif­ferent plans to combat these contents. The objective of this research is to ana­lyse the structure, make-up and proce­dures of fact-checking units that have been created in the newsrooms of the public service media (PSM) in Spain to refute false and unreliable information related to coronavirus. Two initiatives were studied: RTVE Verifica, belonging to the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation, and Coronabulos, from the public entity of the Basque govern­ment, EiTB. The method used is based on case studies, web content analysis and in-depth semi-structured inter­views with those responsible for these departments. Such a triangulation of techniques has allowed us to draw conclusions and provide interesting ex­amples to the research. The results re­veal that these sections use traditional techniques and technological applica­tions to verify content related mainly to healthcare and pseudoscientific infor­mation, which are published on corpo­rate websites and social media. Keywords: hoaxes, coronavirus, healthcare crisis, fact-checking, public service media.

Lack of awareness owing to insufficient access to climate information is one of the factors contributing to farmers’ failure to adapt to climate change. The awareness of grapevine farmers about climate change was investigated in Dodoma, Central Tanzania. The study involved 248 respondents. Data were collected through questionnaires and document reviews, and analysed through inferential and descriptive statistics using the International Business Machines Corporation-Statistical Product and Service Solutions (IBM-SPSS) software. Findings revealed that age, education, sex, and access to climate information sources influenced grapevine farmers’ awareness of climate change. Climate change awareness was higher among grapevine farmers who had access to climate information and education; and males were more aware than females. As for the age group, the elderly was substantially more aware (p = 0.02, at 5% confidence level) than the youths. Radio, indigenous knowledge, and friends were the most important sources of climate information. To improve grapevine farmers’ awareness of climate change, the findings suggest strengthening grapevine farmers’ access to education services; improving collaboration with development practitioners, including the Tanzania Meteorological Agency and the media; improving farmers’ access to climate information; and focusing on sharing and transferring climate-related knowledge, skills, and experience among diverse groups.

Third Generation cellular networks (3G) were developed with the aim of offering high data rates up to 2Mbps and 384Kbps for stationary and mobile users respectively which allows the operators to offer a multimedia connectivity and other data services to the end customers. In this work we apply techniques to design a 3G radio network, in particular we study the planning and implementation in developing countries, and state of Palestine as a case study. In order to carry a 3G radio network planning for a selected regions, we must follow a roadmap consists of set of phases; First of all, we must determine the region under study on the digitized map in order to obtain some useful information, such as the area distribution; thus using digital maps gives a good clearness for areas classification, land use, land terrain, heights, vectors, etc. Also we must forecast subscriber profile to perform coverage and capacity dimensioning process to achieve nominal cell plan. This paper work studies Nablus as one of the major Palestinian cities. then, subscriber forecast profile is applied in order to calculate the service traffic demand, the capacity and and coverage requirements, this study is carried in corporation with Wataniya which is one of the leading mobile telecommunication service provider in Palestine. For Nablus city we’ve found that 28 sites are required to be installed to meet the given capacity requirements, on the other hand 46 sites are for coverage. At this point we should make decision about how many site will be implemented. In general we have to select number of sites relative to coverage requirement; so to serve Nablus city by 3G services we should implement 46 sites. At final stage, we have to be sure that our proposed 3G network is suitable not only for the first year of running the 3G services over the deployed network, our design takes into consideration the growth of subscribers number and their demands, so periodically, the networking administrators and the network planning department, assess the network current status and upgrade the network to meet the future demands.

Abstract A radio occultation data processing system (OCC) was developed for numerical weather prediction and climate benchmarking. The data processing algorithms use the well-established Fourier integral operator–based methods, which ensure a high accuracy of retrievals. The system as a whole, or in its parts, is currently used at the Global Navigation Satellite System Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding (GRAS) Satellite Application Facility at the Danish Meteorological Institute, German Weather Service, and Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change. A statistical comparison of the inversions of the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) data by the system herein, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) data products, and ECMWF analyses is presented. Forty days of 2007 and 2008 were processed (from 5 days in the middle of each season) for the comparison of OCC and ECMWF, and 20 days of April 2009 were processed for the comparison of OCC, UCAR, and ECMWF. The OCC and UCAR inversions are consistent. For the tropics, the systematic difference between OCC and UCAR in the retrieved refractivity in the 2–30-km height interval does not exceed 0.1%; in particular, in the 9–25-km interval it does not exceed 0.03%. Below 1 km in the tropics the OCC – UCAR bias reaches 0.2%, which is explained by different cutoff and filtering schemes implemented in the two systems. The structure of the systematic OCC – ECMWF difference below 4 km changes in 2007, 2008, and 2009, which is explained by changes in the ECMWF analyses and assimilation schemes. It is estimated that in the 4–30-km height range the OCC occultation processing system obtains refractivities with a bias not exceeding 0.2%. The random error ranges from 0.3%–0.5% in the upper troposphere–lower stratosphere to about 2% below 4 km. The estimate of the bias below 4 km can currently be done with an accuracy of 0.5%–1% resulting from the structural uncertainty of the radio occultation (RO) data reflecting the insufficient knowledge of the atmospheric small-scale structures and instrumental errors. The OCC – UCAR bias is below the level of the structural uncertainty.

This paper explores perspectives from which citizen participation in media debates on civic issues can be reconsidered by means of a review of the existing literature on this subject and a qualitative study of how one particular public service media programme facilitated audience engagement and involvement in public discussion leading up to a major political event. The first section provides a general discussion of what media organisations do to engage the public they serve on political and social issues, the challenge of stimulating audience involvement and the ways in which editors and producers attempt to give average citizens a voice on topics normally framed by elites. The second offers a case study based on semi-structured interviews and content analysis of public participation in Morning Call, a weekday British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio Scotland phone-in news and current affairs show (the only programme of its type broadcast in Scotland) during the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Focus has been placed on determining what programmes of this nature can and cannot achieve in terms of civic engagement and which practices implemented by public broadcasting networks best stimulate audience engagement.

Immediate access to patient data is essential to support good clinical decision making and support. However, away from the surgery, the doctor is currently unable to have any access to the clinical database. Solutions exist to support remote access, such as modems or radio data networks, but these are slow, with typical speeds in the 2–10 kbaud region. We propose a novel solution, to use the TV cable already installed in many homes. Using this technology, a suitably equipped computer (RF modem) is capable of connecting at speeds in excess of 500 kbaud and will run applications in exactly the same way as if connected to a surgery network: the cable TV becomes a LAN, but on a metropolitan scale. Brunei University, in collaboration with the Cable Corporation, has been piloting such a network. Issues include not only levels of service, but also security on the network and access, since the data are being effectively received in every home. However, close scrutiny of channel use can create closed networks reserved for specific users. The technology involves use of an RF modem to transmit data on a reverse channel (based at 16 MHz) on each subnet to a router at the head end of the cable network. This frequency translates the packet and retransmits it to all the subnets on a forward channel (based at 178 MHz). Each channel occupies the bandwidth normally allocated to one TV channel. Access is based on a modified CSMA/CD protocol, so treating the cable network as single multiple access network. The modem comes as a standard card installed in a PC and appears much as an ethemet card, but at reduced speed. With an NDIS driver it is quite able to support almost any network software, and has successfully demonstrated Novell and TCP/IP. We describe the HomeWorker™ network and the results from a pilot study being undertaken to determine the performance of the system and its impact on working practice.

This article studies the import of East German films by Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Radio, and their reception in the Swedish public sphere. While few GDR films reached theatrical distribution, Swedish television imported and broadcasted over 30 productions by the state-owned film studio DEFA during the 1970s and 1980s, making this the primary distribution window for East German film in Sweden. Relying on sources such as Sveriges Radio’s in-house correspondence and screening reports, the weekly Sveriges Radio magazine Voices in Radio/Television (Röster i Radio/TV) and the public service corporation’s annual reports, this study sheds light on the political, economic and ideological considerations involved in the cultural exchange between Sweden and the GDR.

Technological innovation is transforming local public media. New tools, applications, and platforms are allowing it to improve its reach, the quality of the content it broadcasts, and its interaction with audiences. We set out to determine the main lines of action in the technological innovations adopted by Spanish regional public service media. We conducted a qualitative study based on corporate documentary analysis and in-depth interviews with the heads of the innovation and technological support areas of the four regional corporations with the largest budgets: Corporación de Radio y Televisión de Galicia (CRTVG), Euskal Irrati Telebista-Radio (EiTB), Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA), and Radio y Televisión de Andalucía (RTVA). The results showed that, without neglecting their social commitment, technological innovation was one of the main axes in the strategic plans of the organisations studied. The use of new technologies in their adaptation to the current audiovisual ecosystem represents changes in creation, distribution, and management.

In this piece, I examine the role of authority in Yorùbá society and how au[1]thority is subverted by moral conflicts generated in the political evolution of the Yorùbá state from city state to empire, leading to disastrous consequences in the society at large as presented in the films of Adébáyọ Fálétí, specifically in Àfọnjá (2002), Basọrun Gáà (2004) and Ṣawo Ṣẹgbẹ ̀ rì̀ (2005). I argue that such pains and pangs of transformation are not unique to Yorùbá society but mirror similar political evolutions in other societies such as Rome and Greece. Such political upheavals led to the celebrated assassination of Julius Caesar in Rome and Alexander the Great of Macedonia. In particular Àfọnjá ̀ and Baṣọrun ̀ Gáà dramatize evocatively the poignancy of the attendant confrontations. In addition, I evaluate Adébáyọ Fálétí as a Nigerian and African foundational practitioner in the global field of cultural studies and his use of cultural post materialism in his work. Adébáyọ Fálétí can be regarded as the father of modern Nigerian Cultural Studies and in Africa in general in line with the way that the discipline is understood the world over standing, as it were, on the cusp of traditional Nigerian and African drama and modern drama in African mother tongues. In addition, Fálétí epitomizes what modern cultural studies world-wide represent as a cross between the traditional discipline of drama and the television 172 Olayinka Agbetuyi industries as well as filmic industries, along with advertisements, which together constitute what is today known as the culture industries. As defined in the words of Chris Barker, “Culturalism focuses on meaning production by human actors in a historical context.”1 Fálétí’s historical drama and films fall within such category. Barker added that Culturalism focuses on interpretation as a way of understanding meaning.”2 These are the hallmarks of the historical drama that formed the basis of two of the films by Fálétí being examined here. In addition, he stated that cultural studies deal with subjectivity and identity or how we come to be the kinds of people we are. Fálétí’s Afọnja and Gáà’s thematic preoccupation is how the Yorùbá subjectivity has been constituted over time through its political evolution. The three films also demonstrate what Stuart Hall considers to be the connection that cultural studies seeks to make to matters of power and cultural politics.3 With regards to the role of Fálétí as pioneer in the area of radio-vision cultural industries the broadcasting mogul narrated the manner in which he pioneered the phone-in radio broadcast in Nigeria on the programme “Ѐyí Àrà” at the Broadcasting Corporation of Ọyọ̀ ́ State, Ibadan (BCOS) after pioneering Yorùbá broadcasting on Africa’s first television station Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) twenty years earlier.4 Fálétí’s career spanning close to seven decades dovetails public services with private engagement with drama production. He was one of the earliest organizers of a drama performing company in 1949 to produce his own plays. His career development can be divided into three phases: the formative traditional drama performance phase, the literary drama phase which dovetails into his career as a public servant in a symbiotic relationship and his post public service movie production phase which coincided with the efflorescence of the Nollywood. The three works examined here straddle Fálétí’s second and third phases of engagement in drama production. Both Basọrun Gáà (to be hereafter referred to as Gáà) and Ṣawo Ṣẹgbẹ ̀ rì ̀ were first staged in the second phase of Fálétí’s development as a theatre practitioner. In addition to being staged in the theater, Gáà and Ṣawo Ṣẹgbẹ ̀ rì̀ were produced for tele[1]vision audiences as dramatic thrillers and became household favourites in the ‘70s and ‘80s at the time of his career as a radio/television broadcaster. Fálétí’s retirement from public service provided the opportunity needed to build on the experience gained in the television industry to launch a full-blown film production career for which his earlier experience seems to have been a tutelage. Àfọ̀njá (2002), Gáà (2004) and Ṣawo Ṣẹgbẹ ̀ rì ̀ (2005) are part of the products of this final phase. Although Àfọ̀njá preceded the other two in movie 1 Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Sage, 2012. 2 Barker. 2012, 17 3 Barker, 5. 4 Nigerianfilms.com. February 17, 2008. Accessed Aug 10 2018. Authority and Moral Conflicts in the Films of Adébáyọ Fálétí 173 production, it was the last to be written among the three and is organically a prequel which builds on the success of Gáà and extends a thematic continuum in the Fágúnwà-esque manner of the novels Ògbójú Ọde Ninu Igbó Irunmọlẹ and Igbo Olódùmarè. While Àfọ̀njá and Gáà are historical drama based on actual events in the history of the Yorùbá Empire, Ṣawo Ṣegberi is purely fictional and is based on a postcolonial Nigerian setting. The movies therefore take a reverse order to the chronology of writing and stage performance while Ṣawo Ṣẹ̀gbẹ̀rì, which was the first to be staged among the three, was not written for stage and television performance until it was script-written for film production.5 Àfọ̀njá, Gáà and Ṣawo Ṣẹgbẹ ̀ rì ̀ are each set in a cosmopolis where the Yorùbá citizens have to deal with other nationals in the context of Yorùbá mores within a broader cosmopolitan ethos. In Àfọ̀njá and Gáà that context is provided by the empire phase of Yorùbá civilization in which Yorùbá civilization was the dominant point of reference; in Ṣawo Ṣẹgbẹ ̀ rì ̀ the drama is situated in the context of postcolonial Nigerian city, in a nation that boasts large ethnic nationalities of which the Yorùbá are only one and in which Yorùbá culture is mediated by the postcolonial state with its symbol of the English language as the means of communication and its cultural spin offs. Fálétí demonstrates the mastery of dramaturgy in Àfọ̀njá and Gáà by juxtaposing the dynamics of running a state originally built on a confederation of city state structure very much like the Greek city state structure, at the latter’s comparative stage of political evolution, with a new imperial structure and the conflicts generated by the flux of the two systems; whereas in Ṣawo Ṣẹ̀gbẹ̀rì moral conflict is generated by interpersonal amatorial clashes as well as models of expertise.

Introduction to Broadcasting System Concepts. This article provides a brief glossary of broadcasting terminology preceded by reference material on the economic, technical, legal, cultural and ideological terminology of broadcasting, consisting of the French equivalents of the following terms : freedom of the press, independent government bodies, broadcasting permits, grant of authority to private enterprise to undertake public services, contract conditions, networks, satellites, community antenna, standards, image, multi-media corporations, advertising markets, audience ratings, sponsoring, electronic buying, radio/tv receiver license fees, ‘highest cultural bidders’, theme channels, programme production financing, and cinema films.

The study evaluated perception and opinion of the listeners of international radio services – British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) and Voice of America (VOA) – for Pakistan and Afghanistan listeners in their regional language i.e. Pushto. Similarly, Focused Group Discussions were held to analyze the nature of reporting of these two broadcasters and to eke out a strategy for constructive coverage of the war on terror. The results of the study showed that that majority of population living in border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, do not appreciate the involvement of outsiders in their matter but still there is a great scope for international broadcasters to shape the opinion of local as less than fifty percent population is still in the favor of West and perceived it as friendly. It was revealed that radio listeners of BBC and VOA in Pakistan and Afghanistan are in favor of using force against terrorism and militant groups. Contrary to that, they do believe the content of the BBC and VOA radio is leading them astray because the ground realities are different and these channels are portraying it differently. The researchers identified an array of issues that characterize reporting of these two broadcasters. These include serving the strategic interests of US and UK, propaganda and mass persuasion. The experts agreed that due to lack of alternative source of information in the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan was the key reason for the popularity of both BBC and VOA

La explotación del archivo mediático, como repositorio de la producción y reflejo de la expertise del medio, se presenta como posibilitador para la innovación de la oferta mediática y la rentabilización de recursos propios bajo la premisa del periodismo como servicio (JAAS o journalism as a service). Esta investigación analiza las iniciativas de explotación del archivo en el contexto digital que están desarrollando las radios generalistas públicas en España y Portugal, entendidas como ejemplos de experimentación susceptible de ser rentabilizada también por el sector privado. En ambos casos, se explota el archivo en la oferta programática y digital, pero RTP va un paso más allá creando colecciones temáticas al servicio del ciudadano a partir de fondos corporativos, que ejemplifican la innovación a partir de la historia.

NOKIA is one of the ‘e-generation’ companies, which relies on the web to conduct their everyday business, demanding richer and more personalized experience. Its objective is ‘to transform the Digital Age to a truly Mobile Age’, giving everyone access to information. Nokia is the undisputed global king of mobile communication. Its strategy is to become a global player in telecommunications through ‘collaboration and innovations'. It has made spectacular innovations in mobile communications. It brought technologies such as General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) as the mobile moves third generation (3G). Nokia has established their cutting edge technology and trend settling lifestyle offerings while unveiling their mobile handset products. In 3G services, Nokia will give e-mail, weather information maps, rout planning, traffic information, bank account data, views, travel information, etc. Nokia adopted a strategy of mergers, acquisitions, alliance and collaboration to gain superiority in technology and competitive advantage. While Nokia is the market leader in handset manufacturing with 35.3% share, Ericsson is the king of wireless network equipment with 33% market share. Nokia's performance was impressive during 1996–2000. Nokia's future growth areas include market leadership in security infrastructure for corporates, supplying solutions to help corporations block viruses and intruders at their network gateways.

Journalists and media researchers globally are increasingly expressing concern about trends in the news media industry which would appear to suggest a dire future for quality journalism, and thus democracy, in many developed democratic nations. The US State of the News Media report, now produced annually, regularly reports concerns by journalists and editors—and those who study them—about decreasing investment by news corporations in quality journalism (Pew Centre, 2005; 2006; 2007; 2008). The Australian Press Council has presented its own study to mirror that of the Pew Centre in an effort to report on the Australian context (APC, 2006; 2007). The author has, with colleagues from Griffith University, conducted research into the Australian community broadcasting sector for the past nine years. The research conducted since 1999 has been broad but this article will focus on one element of the research—the news and information services of community broadcasting. The community broadcasting sector is worthy of close investigation, because it is one of the few areas of the Australian media landscape that continues to grow. Importantly, quantitative research into the community sector indicates that 57 percent of the Australian population tune in at least monthly to a community radio station—and more than one in four listen at least weekly (McNair Ingenuity, 2008, p. 4). This article investigates the nature of community news offered by the Australian community radio sector through the perspectives of journalists and producers who deliver the news, and the audiences who access it.

In April of 2023, Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, was given Royal Assent to amend Canada’s 1991 Broadcasting Act to regulate transnational, American-based online streaming services that lack intrinsic reason to enhance and foster conceptions of a distinctive ‘Canadian identity.’ Under this contentious new scope of broadcasting legislation, alongside radio and television, Internet streaming services are now required to, among other things, make maximum or predominant use of Canadian creative resources in the creation, production, and distribution of programming or otherwise contribute to those Canadian resources in an equitable manner, as well as support the production and distribution of original Canadian content (CanCon) in both official languages. From a critical political economic perspective, this introductory paper explores how Bill C-11 is a legislative measure aimed at countering the economic and cultural hegemony of online streaming giants, which predominantly disseminate American and other global content. As set forth in Section 3(1) of the 1991 Broadcasting Act, the Canadian broadcasting system should safeguard, enrich, and strengthen the cultural, political, social, and economic fabric of the nation; however, cultural objectives cannot be met without first achieving economic objectives. This paper argues that the Online Streaming Act seeks to safeguard Canada’s cultural industries by ensuring that CanCon is prioritized and protected against the encroachments of a relentless capitalist market driven by transnational corporations, which necessitates a delicate balancing of economic and cultural objectives.

One of the formations which helps to shape the meaning of modern pop music is the charts. In theory, the charts define the most popular of popular musics, the goal, the pinnacle of success. Both professionals and audience dedicate large amounts of time and money to producing and consuming this series of comparative market histories produced at rapid and regular intervals. Technology is bent to the service of the research in order that the figures be produced more quickly and with the appearance of accuracy. But why should we be interested in the Top 40 itself rather than its music? Writers on pop have provided us with some detailed descriptions of the charts (Frith 1978; Harker 1980; Wallis and Malm 1984; Street 1986), but few have noted that this level of consumer obsession with sales figures is almost unique to the record industry. Consumers of other commodities do not usually consult a specialist book or magazine in order to discover the past sales history of their favourite brand, nor do they listen to particular radio stations in order to ascertain the best selling product of the week. Why then should the sales results of EMI, Polygram, WEA and others be of interest to their consumers when the same data about multi-national corporations in other market sectors are primarily of interest to market insiders and analysts? An important caveat needs to be added in that popular music is now not the only type of cultural production that foregrounds sales figures. More recently popular literature (the ‘Bestsellers List’), video and films have all begun to use this format but in none of these cases is the chart as central as it is with pop music.

In this paper will explain the functioning of the system of GFS (Government Finance Statistics) in the public sector in Kosovo. GFS is part of a series of international guidelines on statistical methodologies that have been issued by the International Monetary Fund. GFS was produced by the IMF’s Statistics Department in fulfillment of its mission to provide strong leadership for the development and application of sound statistical practices, and is published in service of the worldwide trend toward greater accountability and fiscal transparency.GFS will help the Ministry of Finance to prepare the annual data according to GFS and annual government finance statistics.It will also explain the classification of public expenditure in the public sector at central and local level and classification of public enterprises in Kosovo with specific budget. GFS refers generally to the central government, the public sector, including public enterprises, which in post-war Kosovo are not included in the Kosovo budget, except Radio Television of Kosovo, which is an extra budget unit. GFS also aims at co-operating or intermingling the public sector with the private sector. The public sector under the GFS structure consists of all resident institutional units directly or indirectly controlled by resident government units, which means all units of the general government sector and resident corporate corporations. The GFS Guide is a very important guide that facilitates the use and application of data and fiscal analysis for reporting purposes to anyone who wants to implement the GFS structure. Kosovo's benefit and benefit is of great importance as the IMF wants to help Kosovo in the field of fiscal data and the way it is reported. In addition to Kosovo, the IMF is helping other Balkan countries. However, according to GFS the costs or concretely the public accounting should be recorded according to accrual accounting principle. Thus, the government sector should move from accounting principle to cash basis, in accrual accounting principle.

Nowadays, with strong development of Science and Technology, integrated circuits continue to dominate not only in the field of digital information. Over the last several years, Technological television industry has taken huge strides and powerful transformation to meet with government’s policy about digitization of television all over the country in period 2015 – 2020. Stemming from the practical needs of “localization of products” and mastering of technological design of DVB-T2 transmitter (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial for Second generation), the authors have made an effort to research in algorithm, designed and tested in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. DVB-T2 is mainly aimed to replace the current standard DVB-T. The main motivation of DVB-T2 is to provide broadcasters with more advanced and efficient alternative to DVB-T standards. In DVB-T2 transmitter system, digital audio, video, and other data are compressed into a single signal to be transmitted on a single RF channel, using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) with concatenated channel coding and interleaving. The higher offered bit rate makes it a suited system for carrying HDTV signals on the terrestrial TV channel. The next generation broadcasting systems should be designed to make full use of spectral resources while providing reliable transmissions in order to enable services like multichannel HDTV (High Definition Television) and innovative data casting services. The efficient usage of the radio spectrum can be achieved by the introduction of Single Frequency Networks (SFN). Digital transmitter DVB-T2 implemented on FPGA using a software Xilinx System Generator for DSP tool and Xilinx ISE Design Suite 14.7. System Generator for DSP is in conjunction on environment MATLAB-Simulink that is capable of simulating the proposed hardware structures that is synthesized and implemented by the programmable elements in Field-programmable Gate Arrays. In this project, adaptative MPEG-TS bitrate converter is designed to allows to increasing or reducing the MPEG TS rate by adding or filtering NULL packets. The entire digital transmitter DVB-T2 is integrated in one chip Xilinx FPGA Kintex-7 XC7K325T-1FFG676. Experimental design on development Kit NetFPGA-1G-CML of Digilent Corporation is performed at design department of technology center of Vietnamese Communications Television Development JSC. Authors are continuing to improve products, put into practical applications to replace the digital terrestrial television broadcasting stations that are being used in Vietnam. The article named “Implementation of FPGA-based DVB-T2 transmitter for a second generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting system” presents the research results, design methods, test results to compare, evaluate the accuracy of algorithm implementation. The results open up new directions for technological television in Vietnam.

Abstract: An experimental trial was conducted to determine: (1) if there was any demand for regular radio programming distributed as digital audio files over the Internet, (2) if the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was willing to distribute programming in this format, and (3) what implications such a service would have for the corporation. Both sample and regular radio programs were digitized using computer sound equipment and made available via FTP, Gopher, and World Wide Web. Analysis of the traffic logs and a review of the comments submitted by users showed a very high demand (possibly all that was possible with this trial configuration) and a keen interest in the service. CBC has decided to adopt the trial and start a permanent service on the Internet. The trial identified a number of issues that will have to be addressed for this service, including archival storage, copyright, royalties, production changes, and electronic commerce opportunities. Résumé: Un essai expérimental a été effectué afin de déterminer: (1) s'il existe une demande pour des émissions radiophoniques ordinaires distribuées sous forme de fichiers audionumériques sur l'Internet, (2) si la Société Radio-Canada (SRC) était disposée à distribuer des émissions dans ce format, et (3) les répercussions que pourrait avoir un tel service sur la SRC. Des émissions de radio échantillons et ordinaires ont été numérisées à l'aide de matériel de sonorisation informatisé et ont été offertes via FTP, Gopher et sur le World Wide Web. L'analyse de la densité du trafic et l'examen des observations présentées par les usagers ont indiqué une demande très élevée (probablement maximale, compte tenu de la configuration de l'essai en question) et un grand enthousiasme pour ce service. La SRC a décidé d'avaliser l'essai et d'offrir un service permanent sur l'Internet. L'essai a permis d'identifier un certain nombre de questions-clés sur lesquelles il faudra se pencher pour ce service, dont le stockage des archives, le droit d'auteur, les droits d'exploitation, les modifications à la réalisation d'émissions et les possibilités de commerce électronique.

Abstract: This presentation addresses the problems of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), situating them within the broader framework of the decline of public service, that is, both the concept of public service and the institutions which embody it. Using the CBC as an example -- and interpreting it in terms of the movement towards globalization -- this paper analyzes the mechanisms which lead to the dismantling of national public services. Finally, beyond the bureaucratic solutions too often imposed, it proposes some avenues of reform for public television and for public service in general, whose adaptation to the changing reality is essential to its credibility. Résumé: Cet article s'intéresse aux ennuis de la Société Radio-Canada en les situant dans le cadre plus large du déclin du service public, c'est-à-dire du concept de service public comme des institutions qui l'incarnent. En utilisant Radio-Canada comme exemple, et à la lumière du mouvement actuel de mondialisation, cet article analyse les mécanismes qui conduisent au démantèlement des services publics nationaux. Il propose en conclusion, au delà des solutions bureaucratiques trop souvent imposées, quelques avenues de réforme de la télévision publique, et du service public en général, dont l'adaptation à la réalité changeante est essentielle à sa crédibilité.

Abstract: In 1992, constitutional governance was re-established in Ghana, and private broadcasting made legal for the first time. This paper explores one of the responses of the state-owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to this novel situation, the opening of regional FM radio stations. Primary data for the paper was obtained from visits to six of the stations and interviews with station directors and other staff in July 1998. The political economic context in which the stations were established, their structures, and programming are examined. Evidence from this study indicates that with the new stations the GBC is expanding and enhancing its public service mandate. At the same time, institutional structures and scarce financial resources combine to prevent the Corporation from becoming independent of vested interests: government, commerce, or NGOs. Résumé: En 1992, on rétablit un gouvernement constitutionnel au Ghana et on légalisa la radiodiffusion privée pour la première fois dans ce pays. Cet article explore une des réponses à cette nouvelle situation de la part du radiodiffuseur d'état, le Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) : l'ouverture de stations de radio FM régionales. Les données de cet article furent recueillies lors de visites de six de ces stations en juillet 1998 et d'entrevues avec les directeurs des stations et d'autres membres du personnel. L'article examine le contexte politico-économique de la création, la structure et la programmation de ces stations. Les données recueillies pour cette étude indiquent que, grâce aux nouvelles stations, le GBC est en train de prendre de l'extension et de mieux remplir son mandat de service public. En même temps, cependant, les structures institutionnelles et les ressources financières peu abondantes de la Corporation empêchent celle-ci de gagner son indépendance par rapport à certains organismes intéressés : le gouvernement, les entreprises et les associations à but non lucratif.

A. Ross JOHNSON is a History and Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and Senior Adviser at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Johnson was a senior executive of RFE/RL from 1988 to 2002, serving as director of Radio Free Europe, director of the RFE/RL Research Institute, acting president, and counselor of RFE/RL. He was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2002 to 2016 and senior staff member of the RAND Corporation from 1969 to 1988, where he specialized in East European and Soviet security issues. He is author of the book Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. The CIA Years and Beyond.

This essay investigates technical aspects of the history of aviation in the Republic of China, focusing on the period between 1920 and 1937. It suggests that Chinese authors and administrators came to see the establishment of technical infrastructure as dependent on the education of personnel who could assume responsibility for maintaining and expanding Chinese aviation ventures, rather than on specific technologies or practices. Magazines and journals in the 1920s reflected concerns with the establishment of weather observation and reporting, radio communications, and technical education in service of aviation; the last of these was critical for the first two. Provisions for technical work and training were reflected in contracts that were drawn up in the years around 1930 to establish three aviation projects in the Republic: the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), the Eurasia Aviation Corporation, and Southwest Airlines. Subsequent contracts and reports for CNAC and Eurasia in the years before the 1937 outbreak of war with Japan suggested a particular emphasis on the technical education of personnel as an important step in building Chinese aviation infrastructures.

Public service broadcasting (PSB) across the world is in crisis. This article examines how, if at all, normative academic ideals of public service broadcasting inform discussion about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Canadian news media. The researchers undertook a quantitative (N = 467) and qualitative (n = 29) content analysis of five years of Canadian news media coverage about the CBC published between January 1, 2009, and April 30, 2014. Their systematic analysis of this research found little connection was made between the CBC and discussions of public service values. This study contends that the pre-eminence of neoliberal discourse represents a serious assault to broadcasters with a public service ethos.Partout dans le monde, la radiodiffusion en tant que service public est en crise. Cet article examine comment les idéaux normatifs académiques de la radiodiffusion publique contribuent à alimenter le débat sur la Société Radio-Canada (SRC) dans lesmédias canadiens. Dans le cadre d’une analyse de contenu quantitative (N = 467) et qualitative (n = 29) portant sur cinq années de couverture médiatique canadienne à propos de CBC (1er janvier 2009 au 30 avril 2014), nous avons constaté qu’il y avait peu de relation entre les valeurs de la SRC et celles qui sont liées au service public dans les nouvelles diffusées par les médias canadiens. Cette recherche fait valoir la prééminence dans le débat d’un discours néolibéral qui soulève plusieurs enjeux éthiques quant à son adéquation avec les valeurs liées au service public en tant que tel.

The present article addresses media pluralism from a critical perspective, as a guarantor of attention to social and cultural diversity. The study focuses on deaf individuals, and an analysis is conducted of subtitles as one of the services that guarantees universal access to the contents offered by Spanish Radio and Television (Radiotelevisión Española, RTVE) for social and cultural diversity. Likewise, given the changes in audiovisual consumption in the form of streaming, and the rise of on-demand content, an analysis is not only performed of linear television, but also of live online and on-demand content. For this, a quantitative analysis was performed of a random sample of more than 5000 RTVE programs (2017-2018), to establish the number of subtitled programs for deaf individuals, their schedule, and the types of contents that included this service. Also, a qualitative analysis was performed on a sample of 72 programs distributed among the different channels belonging to this public corporation. Lastly, to evaluate the quality and suitability of the subtitles, an online survey was provided, which was completed by 183 deaf individuals who were users of the RTVE subtitles. Through this combination of methods, we were able to analyze and evaluate the cultural pluralism of RTVE through the subtitles provided for the deaf, associating it with the defense of the fundamental right of freedom of expression and social inclusion, values that must be guaranteed in democratic societies.

The availability of a large number of smartphones, widespread internet access and the penetration of high bandwidth, coupled with competitively priced data plans, spurred tremendous growth in the Indian media and entertainment industry, particularly in the realm of over-the-top (OTT) platforms. The demand for OTT services surged even further during the lockdown period brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The focal point of this case lies in the entry and expansion of the multinational corporation ‘Netflix’ within India. The case delves into the company’s employment of the marketing mix to address the escalating demand for the novel OTT service in India amid intensifying competition and emerging challenges. In its eagerness to produce original content, Netflix appeared to have inadvertently offended and disregarded the sentiments, religious emotions and beliefs of its audience, resulting in consumer protests. This, in turn, led to the formulation of various regulations governing the content presented on OTT platforms. Owing to its controversial and insensitive content, Netflix faced backlash in India and globally, leading to legal battles in several countries. A recent instance occurred on September 18, 2021, where Nona Gaprindashvili, a Georgian chess prodigy who made history as the world’s first female grandmaster, took legal action against Netflix for defamation and invasion of privacy. This lawsuit was filed in a federal district court in California in response to their show titled ‘Queen’s Gambit’. The core of the lawsuit revolves around a scene in the final episode of the show, wherein a radio commentator suggests that Gaprindashvili was not regarded as a significant contender by her male counterparts. The lawsuit accuses Netflix of belittling Gaprindashvili’s achievements to craft a more sensational narrative and dismissing her previous defamation claim without issuing a public apology or retraction ( https://www.npr.org/2021/09/18/1038442947/nona-gaprindashvili-netflix-lawsuit-chess-queens-gambit ).

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards," the Queen remarked. "What sort of things do you remember best?" Alice ventured to ask. "Oh, things that happened in the week after next," the Queen replied in a careless tone. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass. It would seem, odd as the notion may appear at first glance, that memory can in fact be thought of as working in two directions: both backwards and forwards. Take, for example, the commonly enough expressed sentiment that one should avail of every opportunity that life presents to "learn from experience". Isn't to do so, in fact, a projection into the future of the 'memory' that has been gained in the past, and stored in the present? Isn't the implication that, with a little careful observation of last week, one can begin to 'remember' what happened in the week after next? Consider now the development of a revolutionary new communications technology. Who are its pioneers? Experience has taught that there are at least three categories of person (or organisation) which are to be found wherever tomorrow is being actualised. They are the visionaries, the enthusiasts, and the entrepreneurs -- though some may argue that this last category would better be called economic opportunists. Of course, these are not, and shouldn't be thought of as, completely distinct categories, separated by impermeable barriers; one can be in all three as easily as not. The early days of Radio fit this model. As an infant technology it was fostered by visionaries like Marconi, enthusiasts like the many around the world who cobbled together their own home-made transmitters and receivers, and entrepreneur/opportunists like Frank Conrad of Westinghouse, whose 8XK transmitted periodically during the first world war to test equipment made by the company for the American military (Mishkind). The emergence of interactive networked computing, and ultimately of the Internet, fits this model too. There were early visionaries like Douglas Engelbart, and the MIT professor J.C.R. Licklider, who were among the first to see a potential for more than simply large scale number crunching in the fledgling electronic computing industry (Rheingold 65-89). Enthusiasts include the North Carolina students who created Usenet, and the Chicago hobbyists who "triggered the worldwide BBS movement because they wanted to transfer files from one PC to another without driving across town" (Rheingold 67). As for entrepreneur/opportunists, well, organisations like Netscape, Yahoo!, and Amazon.com leap to mind. When revolutionary development is underway the potential for change is seen to be boundless. Radio was quickly recognised as a means to cross vast distances, and difficult terrain. It became a lifeline to ships in distress, bridging the dreadful isolation of the unforgiving oceans. It was put to use as a public service: the US Agriculture Department's broadcasting of weather reports as early as 1912 being some of the earliest radio broadcasts in that country (White). Similarly, Westinghouse's 8XK, along with many other fledgling stations, broadcast the results of the US presidential election on the night of November 2nd, 1920 (Mishkind). The "wireless" telegraph helped to join that huge nation together, and having done so, went on to inform and entertain it with news, concerts, lectures and the like. The democratising potential of the new medium and its easily disseminated information was soon recognised and debated: "Will Radio Make People the Government" demanded a 1924 headline in Radio Broadcast, an early industry magazine (Lappin). All this inevitably gave rise to questions of control; for a free medium could also be seen, depending on one's point of view, as a dangerous, anarchic medium. Perhaps those who pay for it should control it; but who is to pay for it, and with what? For a long time there was no clear vision anywhere of how the medium could be made to turn a dollar. In England a tax on the sale of radio hardware was introduced to fund the newly formed, and government owned, British Broadcasting Corporation. Such a model was rejected in the US, however, where large corporations -- among them AT&T, Westinghouse and General Electric -- gradually gained the upper hand. The system they put in place at first involved the leasing of airtime on large networks to commercial 'sponsors', which subsequently grew into direct on-air advertising. It won't have escaped the notice of many, I'm sure, that much of this could just as easily be about the Internet in the 1990s as Radio in the 1920s. And this is where memory comes into play. Certainly there are many, and profound, differences between the two media. The very nature of the Internet may seem to many to be just too decentralised, too anarchic, to ever be effectively harnessed -- or hijacked if you prefer -- by commercial interests. But it was, at one time, also impossible to see how Radio could ever show a profit. And sure, commercial Radio isn't the only kind of Radio out there. Radio National in Australia, for example, is a publicly funded network that does many of the good things a relatively uncoerced technology can do; but is this aspect of the medium central or marginalised, and which do we want it to be? Robert Mc Chesney considers that "to answer the question of whither the Internet, one need only determine where the greatest profits are to be found". This is a fairly bleak view but it may well be true. To find out for yourself where the Internet is likely to go, exercise the memory of the past, and you might remember the future. References Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There: The Annotated Alice. Ed. Martin Gardner. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965. 166-345. Lappin, Todd. "Deja Vu All Over Again." Wired. 11 Aug. 1998 <http://www.wired.com/wired/3.05/features/dejavu.php>. McChesney, Robert. "The Internet and US Communication Policy-Making in Historical and Critical Perspective." Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 1.4 (1995). 30 May 1998 <http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue4/mcchesney.php>. Mishkind, Barry. "Who's On First?" 20 Aug. 1995. 11 Aug. 1998 <http://www.oldradio.com/archives/general/first.php>. Radio Museum. 11 Aug. 1998 <http://home.luna.nl/~arjan-muil/radio/museum.php>. Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community: Surfing the Internet. London: Minerva, 1995. Surfing the Aether. 11 Aug. 1998 <http://www.northwinds.net/bchris/index.htm>. White, Thomas H. "United States Early Radio History." 25 Jul. 1998. 11 Aug. 1998 <http://www.ipass.net/~whitetho/index.php>. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Paul Mc Cormack. "Remembering the Week after Next." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 1.2 (1998). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9808/week.php>. Chicago style: Paul Mc Cormack, "Remembering the Week after Next," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 1, no. 2 (1998), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9808/week.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Paul Mc Cormack. (1998) Remembering the week after next. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 1(2). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9808/week.php> ([your date of access]).

Tourism is one of the leading economic sources for several countries compared to modern IT industries growth. Ethiopia is one of the leading cultural and tourism revenue-based country, and having huge tourism hot spots for national and international tourist visitors. Specifically, in the Amhara national regional state capital, Bahir Dar, Lake Tana (origin of Blue Nile River) has been very well known to national and international tourists. However, the Lake Tana Basin is still unable to provide sufficient high bandwidth and good signal reception though 3G wireless mobile technology service is deployed. Bandwidth constraint and weak signal strength is creating problems for the society residing and for visitors inand- around many islands of Lake Tana geographical areas. The research work carried out the study for 3G wireless mobile radio access and microwave transmission path link performance in the city and around Lake Tana Basin. Out of two phases of research works, in this paper, we focus the first phase and partly second phase research results for both Inter and Intra- Cluster 3G Network in complete manner. Hence, we analyzed various measures like coverage signal power conditions, various BTSs antenna sizes, geographical mapping issues and other supporting performance parameters. All importance analytical performance study and measures for two major cluster networks both inter and intra-cluster 3G Networks which are geographically located edging curve in and around Lake Tana Basin. Ultimately, complete analysis and results are supported as prime study for Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) technical support before expanding / migrating to 4G from 3G WCDMA network on Lake Tana Basin and also enhance the culture and tourism cost trade -off for both Amhara region of Ethiopia and national wide Ethiopia.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is in the midst of significant change as a result of budgetary pressures from the government and the challenge of the oncoming digital age. Lack of funding and dwindling resources have forced the ABC to shut down many of its regional services and to outsource many of its formerly in-house productions. However, there do appear some ways in which the ABC might meet, as the rhetoric goes, "the challenge of the digital era". Traditionally, the role of the ABC has included the provision of comprehensive coverage of, and service for, the whole of Australia, including regions that would be economically unfeasible for commercial operations to penetrate. Recently, however, budgetary cuts have eroded this role substantially, with the axing of state based current affairs and the cessation of Radio Triple J's planned expansion into regional Australia. The Internet has provided a potential, if problematic, stop-gap solution, through the launch of the ABC's online news service. Internet based news solutions have few of the production-end overheads of the television service. There are no expensive studio set ups, no presenters, no cameras, just text that can be quickly keyed into the system and formatted for instantaneous, non-linear delivery. I should note at this point that currently, this "delivery" is in the passive sense of the word: users must search out the content and download it onto their machines. In Internet jargon, this is called "pull" technology. New technologies being developed promise to "push" the content automatically and directly to a user's computer. The ABC's implementation, taking advantage of all these benefits, is text-based, comprehensive, updated constantly, and easy to use. Currently, however, delivery of Internet-based content is tied to the existing phone network, and with most Internet service providers based in state capitals, regional Internet access is hindered by the cost of long-distance calls. The potential exists, nonetheless, for the ABC to achieve truly national coverage by methods that bypass existing structures. The planned shift by Australian TV networks to digital transmission has the potential to enable new possibilities for public broadcasting. A digital infrastructure could allow information and programming to be cheaply produced at the local level, then recompiled centrally and redistributed across the country. The convergence of computer and television will enable a greater variety of content to be sent to the home -- and, possibly, sent back out again in an altered form. Such a transformation of the way we experience television may well alter the concept of public broadcasting beyond recognition, if not render it obsolete. However, these possibilities, although reasonable given projected advances in technology, so far largely remain fantasy due to the debate over regulation between the Federal government and the commercial networks. It remains to be seen whether the ABC will be able to take advantage of the new opportunities. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Nick Caldwell. "Looking to a Digital Future: Thoughts on the New ABC." M/C Journal 1.1 (1998). [your date of access] <http://www.media-culture.org.au/9807/abc.php>. Chicago style: Nick Caldwell, "Looking to a Digital Future: Thoughts on the New ABC," M/C Journal 1, no. 1 (1998), <http://www.nedia-culture.org.au/9807/abc.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Nick Caldwell. (1998) Looking to a digital future: thoughts on the new ABC. M/C Journal 1(1). <http://www.media-culture.org.au/9807/abc.php> ([your date of access]).

Introduction Australia's rich multicultural fabric is woven with the threads of diverse ethnic communities, each bringing unique cultures, languages, and traditions to the tapestry of the nation. Central to the experiences of immigrants and refugees in Australia is ethnic broadcasting, which serves as a bridge between their past and present, homeland and host country. This article delves into the multifaceted landscape of ethnic broadcasting, exploring its historical significance, current challenges, and potential pathways for future development. Historical Significance of Ethnic Broadcasting Immigrants and refugees continue to seek avenues to maintain ties with their home countries, preserve cherished memories of their origins, and find support as they adapt to life in a new environment. This need is especially pronounced for individuals who are not proficient in the primary language(s) of their host nation. Governments in countries attracting migrants recognise the importance of engaging with migrant communities to enhance their integration and bolster their contributions to national productivity. For example, the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, M.J.R. Mackellar, noted when establishing ethnic radio in Australia that due to "a steady decline in foreign-language content on established commercial and national radio channels", and "a large increase in the non-English-speaking population in Australia", "the government ha[d] pushed ahead with ethnic radio" to provide "information, entertainment, and educational" facilities (Mackellar). Presently, the Australian Government provides annual funding to support ethnic broadcasting, which includes covering the production costs of ethnic programs for local communities, establishing new programs for specific language groups, and developing innovative projects that benefit culturally and linguistically diverse communities (Courtney). Insufficient attention has been devoted to evaluating the evolving needs and interests of various migrant communities over time (Dissanayake 113). This decline can be attributed to the satisfaction of listeners' interests through advancements in information technology and their increasing proficiency in English (Australian Bureau of Statistics), enabling them to access information from mainstream media sources. In the year 2020, there arose a pressing need to reevaluate the purposes and role of ethnic broadcasting, considering both practical and theoretical perspectives such as listeners' access to new technology to consume information, attracting volunteers, and limited financial support (Anderson et al. 57). Also, insights gained from such assessments could significantly contribute to meeting listeners' expectations, informing policy decisions in this domain, and guiding the work of content creators (Ewart 133) and also the channels in between these two ends of the spectrum, such as station managers. It is imperative to acknowledge that the role of ethnic broadcasting has evolved with broadcasting and production technology, necessitating a nuanced approach in research and creative endeavours within this sector. Furthermore, the shifting digital landscape and the widespread use of social media as a customisable platform for communication underscore the need for adaptation and innovation in ethnic broadcasting practices (Budarick). Despite its importance, ethnic community radio remains relatively understudied by researchers and academics, highlighting a gap in understanding the current dynamics of the ethnic broadcasting industry (Ewart 123). Current Challenges Facing Ethnic Broadcasting In this study, I aim to incorporate my perspective as an ethnic broadcaster to address the needs of migrants presently living in Australia. While government funding has been allocated to meet operational costs and support content development, there remains a gap in addressing the specific needs of listeners and enhancing the skills of ethnic radio presenters. Presenters of ethnic radio programs in Australia often struggle to discern the language preferences and information requirements of their audience. This challenge stems from a lack of regular communication with listeners, leaving broadcasters unaware of the issues that hold significance within their communities. To address this gap, it is essential to develop radio programs that cater to the interests and information needs of ethnic populations. These programs should cover a range of topics, including immigration matters, cultural events, council decisions, and the promotion of talents within these communities. Unlike mainstream commercial media, ethnic radio programs have the unique opportunity to focus on issues that are often overlooked but are highly relevant to ethnic audiences. Furthermore, there is a need to engage the second generation of migrants by encouraging their participation in radio programs conducted in languages they are comfortable with. This initiative not only fosters inclusivity but also ensures the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage to younger generations. Additionally, adapting program formats to align with the evolving needs and expectations of ethnic audiences is crucial for maintaining relevance and engagement. As highlighted by Tanikella, radio producers play a pivotal role in translating the needs of listeners into program formats that resonate with diasporic communities (170). By responding to the demands of their audience and reflecting locally constructed identities, media producers contribute to the representation of community identities in the public sphere. This underscores the importance of designing radio programs that are sensitive to the diverse needs and preferences of ethnic communities, thereby fostering a sense of belonging and cultural continuity. It is crucial for migrants to have access to information about available facilities, their rights, and opportunities for settling in their new country. Research into ethnic media in Australia highlights its significant role in connecting migrants to transnational networks, preserving cultures and languages, navigating new identities and communities, and facilitating adjustment to life in Australia (Hopkins, qtd. in Budarick). The growth of ethnic radio programs in Australia has been notable since its inception in 1975. Presently, the Australian community radio sector produces a substantial amount of ethnic radio content, with over 2,070 hours broadcast weekly in more than 110 languages across 80 radio stations, including six full-time ethnic stations. This vast array of programming engages over 4,000 volunteers from 125 cultural and ethnic groups (NEMBC). However, to ensure the effective support of ethnic minorities in Australia through broadcast radio, financial backing is essential. Community radio stations rely heavily on volunteers, with over 22,000 individuals contributing their time to these stations across Australia. Despite the significant volunteer effort, paid full-time equivalent staff employed by community radio stations numbered 900 in 2023 (Treasury). In recognition of the importance of ethnic media in supporting minority communities, the Australian Federal Government, through the Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF), allocated $4.18 million from Federal Budget 2022-23 for ethnic content development purposes (CBAA, "Federal Budget 2022-23"). Additionally, various state governments continue to provide funding for ethnic radio programs through relevant agencies (Letch 18). Despite government support at both federal and state levels, the number of ethnic radio programs remain the same serving the relevant ethnic groups. However, this article suggests the need for restructuring within the ethnic broadcasting sector, particularly in content development, to better meet the diverse needs of ethnic audiences. Ethnic Radio Programs Characteristics of ethnic radio programs are multifaceted and influenced by the unique nature of the medium as well as the diverse preferences and behaviours of their listeners. Firstly, radio as a medium engages the sense of hearing, prompting listeners to visualise and imagine based on auditory stimuli. This concept, as articulated by Smythe (qtd. in Beck), underscores the importance of creating vivid "audio pictures" for listeners, especially in ethnic radio where individuals often seek to evoke nostalgic memories of their homeland. Ethnic radio programs serve as a conduit for migrants to reconnect with their cultural roots, offering aural representations of familiar sounds and languages in the absence of electronic communication resources. Additionally, Gary Ferrington distinguishes between hearing and listening, highlighting that while hearing is a physiological process, listening involves the psychological attribution of meaning to auditory input (61-7). This differentiation is pertinent in understanding how radio audiences interact with and interpret program content. Audience engagement with ethnic radio programs can be categorised into active and passive listenership. Active listeners demonstrate a high level of involvement with specific programs, frequently engaging through calls, messages, and interactions with presenters. In contrast, passive listeners tune in intermittently and may not exhibit loyalty to any station or program (Padmakumar 614). Ethnic program listeners tend to lean towards active engagement due to the limited frequency of broadcasts and their desire to stay connected with their cultural community. They often approach radio listening with echoic memories of music and language from their homeland, seeking familiarity and emotional resonance in the programming. For instance, some listeners may prefer original versions of songs from their country, even if they are no longer popular locally (Anderson et al. 21). Moreover, active ethnic radio listeners play an integral role in shaping program content and community engagement. They provide feedback, request songs, share information, participate in fundraising events like radiothons, and even express interest in becoming presenters themselves. This active involvement reflects a deeper sense of connection and ownership within the ethnic radio community (Anderson et al. 36). Conversely, passive listeners may view radio primarily as background music, enjoying the ambience without actively engaging with specific content. Their interaction with the medium is more incidental, often occurring while multitasking or attending to other activities. Overall, the characteristics of ethnic radio programs are shaped by the interplay between the medium's auditory nature, the preferences of diverse listeners, and the cultural significance of maintaining connections to one's heritage. Active engagement, nostalgic resonance, and community involvement are central themes that distinguish ethnic radio programming in its ability to cater to the needs and interests of migrant communities. To navigate the development of the technology and the challenges related to changes in the listenership, ethnic broadcasters must embrace innovative strategies that cater to the evolving needs of their audiences. One approach involves redefining the role of ethnic radio programs to encompass a broader range of topics, including immigration matters, cultural events, and community news. By diversifying content and engaging with listeners' interests, broadcasters can enhance the relevance and appeal of their programs in the digital age. Empowering Ethnic Radio Presenters Ethnic radio program presenters play a crucial role in delivering culturally relevant content and facilitating community engagement. However, recruiting skilled presenters poses challenges, particularly when specific language requirements must be met. Therefore, it is suggested, language fluency should not deter younger people from becoming involved in the sector, and youth ethnic programming in English, or a mixture of languages, should be supported (Anderson et al. 47). Kalinga Seneviratne, a former ethnic radio presenter turned academic, attests to the pivotal role of community radio in fostering broadcasting careers for migrants in Australia (11): “if not for (ethnic) community radio, I have no doubt that I would never have become a broadcaster in Australia”. There are many examples that can be given. Encouraging second-generation migrants to participate as presenters and listeners is vital for sustaining ethnic radio audiences. Surveys suggest that allocating more airtime to music could attract younger listeners, but the language preference for music content remains ambiguous (Anderson). Addressing the relevance of ethnic media for the next generation is a pressing concern, given their evolving cultural identities and media consumption habits (Papoutsaki et al. 23). However, engaging second-generation migrants poses challenges, as older community members often serve as cultural gatekeepers and are hesitant to relinquish control over language and content (Australian House of Representatives). Additionally, community radio stations can only offer limited technical training, focussing on basic broadcasting skills due to resource constraints (Cohen 1016). Training programs provided by stations like 3ZZZ, 3CR, and 3MBS cover fundamental broadcasting knowledge but may not adequately prepare presenters for professional standards (3ZZZ). Effective broadcasting requires mastery of technical operations, vocal delivery, language proficiency, and community knowledge (Beaman 43; Fleming 6-7). Acquiring essential skills enables individuals to effectively communicate through radio, aiding new and emerging communities in their transition. The Community Media Training Organisation (CMTO) could address this need by developing a new pathway course tailored to ethnic listenership, as existing training programs such as Presentation, Advanced Presentation, Audio Editing, Copywriting for Sponsorship, Creating Social Media Content, Music Interviewing, etc. (CMTO) are primarily focussed on general program presentation at community radio stations. To compete with mainstream radio, ethnic broadcasters must prioritise professionalism and engaging presentation styles to attract and retain listeners (Wolfenden 5-21). Ultimately, the success of ethnic radio hinges on the ability of presenters to bridge cultural divides, cater to diverse audience needs, and maintain high-quality programming standards. As Australia continues to welcome new waves of migrants and refugees, there is a pressing need to support their settlement process and integration into society. Ethnic radio programs play a crucial role in providing information, language support, and community connections for recently arrived migrants. By updating program formats and language groups to reflect changing demographics, broadcasters can ensure that their programs remain relevant and accessible to all members of the community. Public Service Broadcasting and New Media Public service broadcasting in Australia encompasses entities like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), which are funded by the government but operate independently in terms of programming decisions. These broadcasters are tasked with promoting national identity, as well as informing and entertaining audiences (Lobato & Meese 121; Cinque 11-16). The ABC, operating under a statute and receiving public funds, is expected to adhere to standards of objective journalism, distinct from commercial media driven by private interests (Finkelstein). On the other hand, SBS radio programs are tailored to language groups rather than nationalities, allowing for diverse listenership across cultures (Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications). Programs cater to various community needs, including news, current affairs, arts, culture, and sports (ibid.). Public service broadcasting in Australia differs from community broadcasting in several aspects, including licencing, ownership, operational structure, and funding policies. While national broadcasters like the ABC and SBS receive indirect government funding, community broadcasters operate as not-for-profit entities with community ownership structures. Community broadcasters are further distinguished by their obligation to broadcast local content and to represent the community they serve (CBAA). The landscape of ethnic media in Australia now faces competition from emerging digital platforms, spanning radio, television, and streaming services accessible via smartphones and computers. The next section will explore the impact of these alternative media forms on migrants' lives in Australia. Embracing New Technologies Community broadcasting has historically faced limitations in content development. However, it can be argued that community radio is where innovative content and radical programming thrive, without facing the limitations imposed by commercial interests, industry guidelines (ACMA), and broadcasting technology. Community radio primarily caters to audiences via AM/FM radio sets and digital devices. Digital convergence has transformed broadcasting, necessitating a diverse range of technology, personnel, and management skills in today's multi-platform media environment (CBAA). Presently, listeners access radio programs through various channels, including live streaming from radio stations, mobile apps like TuneIn, personal assistant apps such as Google Home and Amazon Alexa, and even television. The availability of archived content on the Internet further enhances accessibility for listeners, a feature not present in traditional radio broadcasting. Audio content producers have embraced alternative publishing methods beyond traditional FM and AM frequencies, including Internet radio, MP3 players, podcasts, and streaming services like Spotify. However, the digital transformation of radio broadcasting raises questions about the medium's nature and mode of delivery, as highlighted by scholars like Dubber and Lacey (Berry). Online streaming allows radio stations to reach audiences beyond their geographic boundaries, offering a more diverse listener base (Jackson Pitts & Harms 274). Internet radio, characterised by live or scheduled audio (and sometimes video) streaming over Internet Protocol (IP), can be accessed via computers and mobile phones with 4G or 5G data connection. Unlike conventional radio, listeners cannot request songs or participate in talkback shows, but they enjoy the flexibility of selecting content according to their preferences. Compared to terrestrial radio stations, Internet radio is cost-effective, requiring minimal infrastructure and often operating from home-based studios (Berry 7-22). Therefore, Internet radio is growing every day and mobile devices are going to play a very important part in the future of radio. According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, Australians are listening to more audio delivered over the internet in 2022–23 compared to the previous year (ACMA). Moreover, ethnic media, including social media platforms, play a significant role in fostering social bonds among elderly individuals (Du et al.). Ethnic groups utilise various social media apps to create closed groups, share community-related information, and maintain cultural connections. For instance, platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Viber host private groups like 'Aussie Connect', catering to specific ethnic communities in Australia. In summary, conventional radio listeners are transitioning to novel audio listening technologies that offer personalised content experiences. Therefore, this article suggests developing new formats for ethnic radio programs, considering essential factors such as audience preferences, content guidelines, and leveraging available technology for listener benefit. Conclusion In conclusion, ethnic broadcasting in Australia stands at a crossroads, facing both challenges and opportunities in the evolving media landscape. By addressing the changing needs of diverse ethnic communities, empowering presenters, and embracing new technologies, broadcasters can continue to serve as a vital resource for migrants and refugees. Through collaboration, innovation, and a commitment to cultural preservation, ethnic broadcasting can chart a course towards a more inclusive and connected future for all Australians. References 3ZZZ. "Volunteer and Training." 2024. <https://www.3zzz.com.au/event/3zzz-broadcaster-training-course/>. Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). "Communications and Media in Australia: Trends and Developments in Viewing and Listening 2022–23." 2023. <https://www.acma.gov.au/publications/2023-12/report/communications-and-media-australia-trends-and-developments-viewing-and-listening-2022-23>. ———. "Community Broadcasting Participation Guidelines." 2010. <https://www.acma.gov.au/publications/2010-06/guide/community-broadcasting-participation-guidelines>. Anderson, Heather, et al. "Connecting Communities in a Digital Media Era: Australian Ethnic Community Broadcasting in the 21st Century." Griffith University, 2023. <http://hdl.handle.net/10072/429259>. Anderson, R. "NEMBC Membership Survey Results." The Ethnic Broadcaster. Abbotsford, Vic.: NEMBC, 2013. Australian Bureau of Statistics. "Permanent Migrants in Australia." 2021. <https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/permanent-migrants-australia/latest-release>. Australian House of Representatives. Submission 108. 2006. <https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=cita/community_broadcasting/subs/sub108.pdf>. Beaman, J. Programme Making for Radio. London: Routledge, 2006. Beck, A. "Is Radio Blind or Invisible? A Call for a Wider Debate on Listening-In." 1999. <https://www.dmd27.org/cog.html>. Berry, R. "Podcasting: Considering the Evolution of the Medium and Its Association with the Word ‘Radio’." Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media 14 (2016): 7-22. Budarick, J. "Ethnic Media and Migrant Settlement." Global Media Journal (2020). <https://www.hca.westernsydney.edu.au/gmjau/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GMJAU-Ethnic-media-and-migrant-settlement.pdf>. Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA). Community Radio Broadcasting Codes of Practice. 2018. <http://www.cbaa.org.au/sites/default/files/media/Community%20 Radio%20Broadcasting%20Codes%20of%20Practice%202008.pdf>. ———. "Federal Budget 2022-23." 25 Oct. 2022. <https://www.cbaa.org.au/article/federal-budget-2022-23>. ———. Voices & Vision Community Broadcasting in Australia. 2010. <https://www.cbaa.org.au>. Cinque, T. Subtext: Are We Really Just Mass Media Sponges? Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Cohen, E. "‘We are staying in our Country—here’: Israeli Mediascapes in Melbourne." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34 (2008): 1016. Community Media Training Organisation. 2024. <https://cmto.org.au/media-training/pathways-courses/>. Courtney, Chantelle. “Explainer: What Is Ethnic Funding?” CBF, 28 Mar. 2023, <https://cbf.org.au/explainer-what-is-ethnic-funding/>. Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. 2023. <https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/media-technology-communications/radio/abc-sbs-radio>. Dissanayake, C. "Tuning the Migrant Voices: A Study of Sinhala Language Ethnic Radio Programs in Melbourne." Master’s thesis. Melbourne: Deakin University, 2014. <https://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30067407>. Du, J.T., Tan, Y., & Xu, F. "The Information Context of Elderly Chinese Immigrants in South Australia: A Preliminary Investigation." Information Research 24.1 (2019). <http://www.informationr.net/ir//24-1/isic2018/isic1820.html>. Ewart, J. "Exploring the Unity in Australian Community Radio." Media International Australia 142 (2012): 123-134. Ferrington, G. "Audio Design: Creating Multi-Sensory Images for the Mind." Journal of Visual Literacy 14.1 (1994): 61-67. Finkelstein, R. "The Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation." Report to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, 28 Feb. 2012. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2012. <https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20120320233242/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/132662/20120321-1002/www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/independent_media_inquiry.html>. Fleming, C. The Radio Handbook. London: Routledge, 2009. Jackson Pitts, M., and R. Harms. "Radio Websites as a Promotional Tool." Journal of Radio Studies 10 (2003): 274. Letch, K. "Review of Content Development Funding." Melbourne: Community Broadcasting Foundation, 2014. Lobato, R., and J. Meese. "Australia: Circumvention Goes Mainstream." In Geo-blocking and Global Video Culture. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2016. 120-128. Mackellar, M.J.R. "Ethnic Radio Will Benefit Both Migrants and Australians." Press release. 1977. <http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/doc/mackellar_1.pdf>. National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters Council (NEMBC). "Ethnic Community Broadcasting: Strengthening Social Cohesion and Citizenship—Pre-Budget Submission 2024-25." 2023. <https://www.nembc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/NEMBC-Federal-Pre-Budget-Submission-2024-25.pdf>. Padmakumar, K. "Understanding the Passive Listeners of FM Radio Stations in South India." Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies 5 (2015): 614. <https://www.ojcmt.net/article/understanding-the-passive-listeners-of-fm-radio-stations-in-south-india-5682>. Papoutsaki, E., E. Kolesova, and L. Stephenson. "Curated Proceedings of the Ethnic Migrant Media Forum 2014: Are We Reaching All New Zealanders? Exploring the Role, Benefits, Challenges & Potential of Ethnic Media in New Zealand." Auckland: Unitec ePress, 2017. <https://www.unitec.ac.nz/epress/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ethnic-migrant-media-forum-2014_curated-proceedings>. Seneviratne, K. "Giving a Voice to the Voiceless: Community Radio in Australia." Media Asia 20 (1993): 11. Tanikella, L. "Voices from Home and Abroad: New York City's Indo-Caribbean Media." International Journal of Cultural Studies 12.2 (2009): 170. Treasury. "Community Broadcasting Matters to Australia’s Wellbeing and Progress." 2023. <https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-03/c2023-379612-community_broadcasting_association_of_australia.pdf>. Wolfenden, H. "‘I know exactly who they are’: Radio Presenters’ Conceptions of Audience." Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media 12 (2014): 5-21.

This year marks several anniversary milestones of an eminent Australian and Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) recipient, Dr Geoffrey James Cornish MBBS, abbreviated as GC throughout this letter. GC is especially renowned for a long and esteemed career in medicine, and for playing an integral, real-life role as a prisoner-of-war (POW) in World War II’s tragic "Great Escape", upon which the popular 1963 movie is based. Several journalistic and literary works (cited later) that celebrate and underscore GC’s remarkable life/professional career have previously been published through or in association with: the Aircrew Association, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian ex-POW Associations, the Australians at war film archive, an authorised biography, a community radio interview of a Cornish Family member, a historiographer’s (class) treatise, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), various newspapers, and 60 Minutes Australia. The esteemed medical career of GC includes, but is certainly not limited to, innovations in cardiac rehabilitation and anaesthetics, as well the establishment of vital Red Cross blood banks throughout regional Australia, all having significant community impact. Indeed, GC’s life of service, that extended into his eighties, contains many other dimensions and achievements of distinction which this letter briefly summarises. Additionally, original to this letter are ten short audio messages of inspiration from GC that the first Author recorded almost 20 years ago and which to best knowledge have until now never been publically released. While other more formal audio recordings of GC are available online (e.g., award acceptance speech, interview), the audio recordings of this letter are unique in their manner of personal articulation, especially towards those within his famed walking program, and the manner in which they exude the optimism and warmth that were synonymous with GC. Along with the aforementioned life summary and audio recordings, the letter also contains memoirs and photographs donated by the Cornish Family (via the second Author, daughter of GC), and subtly explores the spirituality of the quietly determined and modest man that was GC. The primary GC milestone falling in 2021 is the 100th year birthday (June) anniversary, but this year also coincides with 80th and 75th year anniversaries of respective capture as a POW whilst a Captain in the Royal Air Force (RAF), and returning to Australia to commence medical studies. Perhaps fittingly, the 100th year birthday anniversary is shared with the 2021 service centenary of the RAAF which in 1939 processed GC’s service application on behalf of the RAF. However, this socially significant letter in no way aims to glorify its unavoidable war aspect, but instead glorifies faith and humanity, as well as the strength of a man constituted by caring and generosity towards others, found within the confines of such conflict and other adversities. In a perfectly succinct narrative, journalist Tara Brown of 60 Minutes Australia describes in [1] GC’s life as a touching and inspirational story of humble heroism and enduring spirit resembling an adventure novel, but being far more fascinating than any work of fiction.

The relevance of the task of creating a mobile combined station of digital tropospheric and satellite communications of the microwave range, which simultane­ ously operates in 2 modes: horizontal communication and direct visibility, substantiates an analytical review of the current state of tropospheric communication in the world. The technical characteristics of the advanced developments of digital troposphere stations and control systems of foreign companies Comtech Systems, Raytheon Corporation, General Dynamics, Advantech Wireless are presented. It is shown that the RTM-100 tropospheric modem, with a bandwidth of 50 Mbit/s and more, which provides stable communications under multipath conditions when using direct error correction turbocompression (FEC) and supports work with Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) data ports and SNMP protocol is the key Elements for creating a new mobile combined digital troposphere and satellite communications station. The analysis of the current state and development trends of radio-relay communication, as well as the spectrum of widespread use of modern digital radio-relay communication. The OptiX RTN 900, a new generation of IP-based digital radio relay system with a split structure, is one of the first systems to support TDM, packet and hybrid transmission platforms. The system supports communication in 2G networks, voice and data services in 3G networks, broadband data services in LTE networks. Radio relay systems of NEC, NERA, Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Nokia Siemens Networks (former Alcatel-Lucent) companies implement adaptive modulation and coding (Adaptive Coding & Modulation — ACM), which allows you to change the parameters of the radio channel when changing the propagation conditions of radio waves and thereby technology AFM allows the operator to reduce their capital costs during the construction of RRL by installing antennas of smaller diameters or by building longer communication intervals. The bandwidth of digital radio relay stations has grown to 5.5 Gb / s (Ericsson) and for this new sections of the millimeter wave range have been mastered: 71…76 GHz, 81...86 GHz. The development of the terahertz frequency range opens up great op­ por­ tunities for a significant increase in throughput and security and secrecy. An analytical analysis showed the promise of creating a mobile combined station of the digital tropospheric and satellite microwave range, corresponding to the development trends of tropospheric and microwave radio communications, is an urgent task for Ukraine.

Diaspora This article looks at diaspora through the transformations of an established public service broadcaster, the BBC World Service, by considering some of the findings of the AHRC-funded Tuning In: Contact Zones at the BBC World Service, which is part of the Diasporas, Migration and Identities program. Tuning In has six themes, each of which focuses upon the role of the BBC WS: The Politics of Translation, Diasporic Nationhood, Religious Transnationalism, Sport across Diasporas, Migrating Music and Drama for Development. The World Service, which was until 2011 funded by the Foreign Office, was set up to cater for the British diaspora and had the specific remit of transmitting ideas about Britishness to its audiences overseas. Tuning In demonstrates interrelationships between the global and the local in the diasporic contact zone of the BBC World Service, which has provided a mediated home for the worldwide British diaspora since its inception in 1932. The local and the global have merged, elided, and separated at different times and in different spaces in the changing story of the BBC (Briggs). The BBC WS is both local and global with activities that present Britishness both at home and abroad. The service has, however, come a long way since its early days as the Empire Service. Audiences for the World Service’s 31 foreign language services, radio, television, and Internet facilities include substantive non-British/English-speaking constituencies, rendering it a contact zone for the exploration of ideas and political opportunities on a truly transnational scale. This heterogeneous body of exilic, refugee intellectuals, writers, and artists now operates alongside an ongoing expression of Britishness in all its diverse reconfiguration. This includes the residual voice of empire and its patriarchal paternalism, the embrace of more recent expressions of neoliberalism as well as traditional values of impartiality and objectivism and, in the case of the arts, elements of bohemianism and creative innovation. The World Service might have begun as a communication system for the British ex-pat diaspora, but its role has changed along with the changing relationship between Britain and its colonial past. In the terrain of sport, for example, cricket, the “game of empire,” has shifted from Britain to the Indian subcontinent (Guha) with the rise of “Twenty 20” and the Indian Premier League (IPL); summed up in Ashis Nandy’s claim that “cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the English” (Nandy viii). English county cricket dominated the airways of the World Service well into the latter half of the twentieth century, but the audiences of the service have demanded a response to social and cultural change and the service has responded. Sport can thus be seen to have offered a democratic space in which new diasporic relations can be forged as well as one in which colonial and patriarchal values are maintained. The BBC WS today is part of a network through which non-British diasporic peoples can reconnect with their home countries via the service, as well as an online forum for debate across the globe. In many regions of the world, it continues to be the single most trusted source of information at times of crisis and disaster because of its traditions of impartiality and objectivity, even though (as noted in the article on Al-Jazeera in this special issue) this view is hotly contested. The principles of objectivity and impartiality are central to the BBC WS, which may seem paradoxical since it is funded by the Commonwealth and Foreign office, and its origins lie in empire and colonial discourse. Archive material researched by our project demonstrates the specifically ideological role of what was first called the Empire Service. The language of empire was deployed in this early programming, and there is an explicit expression of an ideological purpose (Hill). For example, at the Imperial Conference in 1930, the service was supported in terms of its political powers of “strengthening ties” between parts of the empire. This view comes from a speech by John Reith, the BBC’s first Director General, which was broadcast when the service opened. In this speech, broadcasting is identified as having come to involve a “connecting and co-ordinating link between the scattered parts of the British Empire” (Reith). Local British values are transmitted across the globe. Through the service, empire and nation are reinstated through the routine broadcasting of cyclical events, the importance of which Scannell and Cardiff describe as follows: Nothing so well illustrates the noiseless manner in which the BBC became perhaps the central agent of national culture as its cyclical role; the cyclical production year in year out, of an orderly, regular progression of festivities, rituals and celebrations—major and minor, civic and sacred—that mark the unfolding of the broadcast year. (278; italics in the original) State occasions and big moments, including those directly concerned with governance and affairs of state, and those which focused upon sport and religion, were a big part in these “noiseless” cycles, and became key elements in the making of Britishness across the globe. The BBC is “noiseless” because the timetable is assumed and taken for granted as not only what is but what should be. However, the BBC WS has been and has had to be responsive to major shifts in global and local—and, indeed, glocal—power geometries that have led to spatial transformations, notably in the reconfiguration of the service in the era of postcolonialism. Some of these massive changes have involved the large-scale movement of people and a concomitant rethinking of diaspora as a concept. Empire, like nation, operates as an “imagined community,” too big to be grasped by individuals (Anderson), as well as a material actuality. The dynamics of identification are rarely linear and there are inconsistencies and disruptions: even when the voice is officially that of empire, the practice of the World Service is much more diverse, nuanced, and dialogical. The BBC WS challenges boundaries through the connectivities of communication and through different ways of belonging and, similarly, through a problematisation of concepts like attachment and detachment; this is most notable in the way in which programming has adapted to new diasporic audiences and in the reworkings of spatiality in the shift from empire to diversity via multiculturalism. There are tensions between diaspora and multiculturalism that are apparent in a discussion of broadcasting and communication networks. Diaspora has been distinguished by mobility and hybridity (Clifford, Hall, Bhaba, Gilroy) and it has been argued that the adjectival use of diasporic offers more opportunity for fluidity and transformation (Clifford). The concept of diaspora, as it has been used to explain the fluidity and mobility of diasporic identifications, can challenge more stabilised, “classic” understandings of diaspora (Chivallon). A hybrid version of diaspora might sit uneasily with a strong sense of belonging and with the idea that the broadcast media offer a multicultural space in which each voice can be heard and a wide range of cultures are present. Tuning In engaged with ways of rethinking the BBC’s relationship to diaspora in the twenty-first century in a number of ways: for example, in the intersection of discursive regimes of representation; in the status of public service broadcasting; vis-à-vis the consequences of diverse diasporic audiences; through the role of cultural intermediaries such as journalists and writers; and via global economic and political materialities (Gillespie, Webb and Baumann). Tuning In thus provided a multi-themed and methodologically diverse exploration of how the BBC WS is itself a series of spaces which are constitutive of the transformation of diasporic identifications. Exploring the part played by the BBC WS in changing and continuing social flows and networks involves, first, reconfiguring what is understood by transnationalism, diaspora, and postcolonial relationalities: in particular, attending to how these transform as well as sometimes reinstate colonial and patriarchal discourses and practices, thus bringing together different dimensions of the local and the global. Tuning In ranges across different fields, embracing cultural, social, and political areas of experience as represented in broadcasting coverage. These fields illustrate the educative role of the BBC and the World Service that is also linked to its particular version of impartiality; just as The Archers was set up to provide information and guidance through a narrative of everyday life to rural communities and farmers after the Second World War, so the Afghan version plays an “edutainment” role (Skuse) where entertainment also serves an educational, public service information role. Indeed, the use of soap opera genre such as The Archers as a vehicle for humanitarian and health information has been very successful over the past decade, with the “edutainment” genre becoming a feature of the World Service’s broadcasting in places such as Rwanda, Somalia, Nigeria, India, Nepal, Burma, Afghanistan, and Cambodia. In a genre that has been promoted by the World Service Trust, the charitable arm of the BBC WS uses drama formats to build transnational production relationships with media professionals and to strengthen creative capacities to undertake behaviour change through communication work. Such programming, which is in the tradition of the BBC WS, draws upon the service’s expertise and exhibits both an ideological commitment to progressive social intervention and a paternalist approach drawing upon colonialist legacies. Nowadays, however, the BBC WS can be considered a diasporic contact zone, providing sites of transnational intra-diasporic contact as well as cross-cultural encounters, spaces for cross-diasporic creativity and representation, and a forum for cross-cultural dialogue and potentially cosmopolitan translations (Pratt, Clifford). These activities are, however, still marked by historically forged asymmetric power relations, notably of colonialism, imperialism, and globalisation, as well as still being dominated by hegemonic masculinity in many parts of the service, which thus represent sites of contestation, conflict, and transgression. Conversely, diasporic identities are themselves co-shaped by media representations (Sreberny). The diasporic contact zone is a relational space in which diasporic identities are made and remade and contested. Tuning In employed a diverse range of methods to analyse the part played by the BBC WS in changing and continuing social and cultural flows, networks, and reconfigurations of transnationalisms and diaspora, as well as reinstating colonial, patriarchal practices. The research deconstructed some assumptions and conditions of class-based elitism, colonialism, and patriarchy through a range of strategies. Texts are, of course, central to this work, with the BBC Archives at Caversham (near Reading) representing the starting point for many researchers. The archive is a rich source of material for researchers which carries a vast range of data including fragile memos written on scraps of paper: a very local source of global communications. Other textual material occupies the less locatable cyberspace, for example in the case of Have Your Say exchanges on the Web. People also featured in the project, through the media, in cyberspace, and physical encounters, all of which demonstrate the diverse modes of connection that have been established. Researchers worked with the BBC WS in a variety of ways, not only through interviews and ethnographic approaches, such as participant observation and witness seminars, but also through exchanges between the service, its practitioners, and the researchers (for example, through broadcasts where the project provided the content and the ideas and researchers have been part of programs that have gone out on the BBC WS (Goldblatt, Webb), bringing together people who work for the BBC and Tuning In researchers). On this point, it should be remembered that Bush House is, itself, a diasporic space which, from its geographical location in the Strand in London, has brought together diasporic people from around the globe to establish international communication networks, and has thus become the focus and locus of some of our research. What we have understood by the term “diasporic space” in this context includes both the materialities of architecture and cyberspace which is the site of digital diasporas (Anderssen) and, indeed, the virtual exchanges featured on “Have Your Say,” the online feedback site (Tuning In). Living the Glocal The BBC WS offers a mode of communication and a series of networks that are spatially located both in the UK, through the material presence of Bush House, and abroad, through the diasporic communities constituting contemporary audiences. The service may have been set up to provide news and entertainment for the British diaspora abroad, but the transformation of the UK into a multi-ethnic society “at home,” alongside its commitment to, and the servicing of, no less than 32 countries abroad, demonstrates a new mission and a new balance of power. Different diasporic communities, such as multi-ethnic Londoners, and local and British Muslims in the north of England, demonstrate the dynamics and ambivalences of what is meant by “diaspora” today. For example, the BBC and the WS play an ambiguous role in the lives of UK Muslim communities with Pakistani connections, where consumers of the international news can feel that the BBC is complicit in the conflation of Muslims with terrorists. Engaging Diaspora Audiences demonstrated the diversity of audience reception in a climate of marginalisation, often bordering on moral panic, and showed how diasporic audiences often use Al-Jazeera or Pakistani and Urdu channels, which are seen to take up more sympathetic political positions. It seems, however, that more egalitarian conversations are becoming possible through the channels of the WS. The participation of local people in the BBC WS global project is seen, for example, as in the popular “Witness Seminars” that have both a current focus and one that is projected into the future, as in the case of the “2012 Generation” (that is, the young people who come of age in 2012, the year of the London Olympics). The Witness Seminars demonstrate the recuperation of past political and social events such as “Bangladesh in 1971” (Tuning In), “The Cold War seminar” (Tuning In) and “Diasporic Nationhood” (the cultural movements reiterated and recovered in the “Literary Lives” project (Gillespie, Baumann and Zinik). Indeed, the WS’s current focus on the “2012 Generation,” including an event in which 27 young people (each of whom speaks one of the WS languages) were invited to an open day at Bush House in 2009, vividly illustrates how things have changed. Whereas in 1948 (the last occasion when the Olympic Games were held in London), the world came to London, it is arguable that, in 2012, in contemporary multi-ethnic Britain, the world is already here (Webb). This enterprise has the advantage of giving voice to the present rather than filtering the present through the legacies of colonialism that remain a problem for the Witness Seminars more generally. The democratising possibilities of sport, as well as the restrictions of its globalising elements, are well represented by Tuning In (Woodward). Sport has, of course become more globalised, especially through the development of Internet and satellite technologies (Giulianotti) but it retains powerful local affiliations and identifications. At all levels and in diverse places, there are strong attachments to local and national teams that are constitutive of communities, including diasporic and multi-ethnic communities. Sport is both typical and distinctive of the BBC World Service; something that is part of a wider picture but also an area of experience with a life of its own. Our “Sport across Diasporas” project has thus explored some of the routes the World Service has travelled in its engagement with sport in order to provide some understanding of the legacy of empire and patriarchy, as well as engaging with the multiplicities of change in the reconstruction of Britishness. Here, it is important to recognise that what began as “BBC Sport” evolved into “World Service Sport.” Coverage of the world’s biggest sporting events was established through the 1930s to the 1960s in the development of the BBC WS. However, it is not only the global dimensions of sporting events that have been assumed; so too are national identifications. There is no question that the superiority of British/English sport is naturalised through its dominance of the BBC WS airways, but the possibilities of reinterpretation and re-accommodation have also been made possible. There has, indeed, been a changing place of sport in the BBC WS, which can only be understood with reference to wider changes in the relationship between broadcasting and sport, and demonstrates the powerful synchronies between social, political, technological, economic, and cultural factors, notably those that make up the media–sport–commerce nexus that drives so much of the trajectory of contemporary sport. Diasporic audiences shape the schedule as much as what is broadcast. There is no single voice of the BBC in sport. The BBC archive demonstrates a variety of narratives through the development and transformation of the World Service’s sports broadcasting. There are, however, silences: notably those involving women. Sport is still a patriarchal field. However, the imperial genealogies of sport are inextricably entwined with the social, political, and cultural changes taking place in the wider world. There is no detectable linear narrative but rather a series of tensions and contradictions that are reflected and reconfigured in the texts in which deliberations are made. In sport broadcasting, the relationship of the BBC WS with its listeners is, in many instances, genuinely dialogic: for example, through “Have Your Say” websites and internet forums, and some of the actors in these dialogic exchanges are the broadcasters themselves. The history of the BBC and the World Service is one which manifests a degree of autonomy and some spontaneity on the part of journalists and broadcasters. For example, in the case of the BBC WS African sports program, Fast Track (2009), many of the broadcasters interviewed report being able to cover material not technically within their brief; news journalists are able to engage with sporting events and sports journalists have covered social and political news (Woodward). Sometimes this is a matter of taking the initiative or simply of being in the right place at the right time, although this affords an agency to journalists which is increasingly unlikely in the twenty-first century. The Politics of Translation: Words and Music The World Service has played a key role as a cultural broker in the political arena through what could be construed as “educational broadcasting” via the wider terrain of the arts: for example, literature, drama, poetry, and music. Over the years, Bush House has been a home-from-home for poets: internationalists, translators from classical and modern languages, and bohemians; a constituency that, for all its cosmopolitanism, was predominantly white and male in the early days. For example, in the 1930s and 1940s, Louis MacNeice was commissioning editor and surrounded by a friendship network of salaried poets, such as W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, C. Day Lewis, and Stephen Spender, who wrote and performed their work for the WS. The foreign language departments of the BBC WS, meanwhile, hired émigrés and exiles from their countries’ educated elites to do similar work. The biannual, book-format journal Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT), which was founded in 1965 by Daniel Weissbort and Ted Hughes, included a dedication in Weissbort’s final issue (MPT 22, 2003) to “Poets at Bush House.” This volume amounts to a celebration of the BBC WS and its creative culture, which extended beyond the confines of broadcasting spaces. The reminiscences in “Poets at Bush House” suggest an institutional culture of informal connections and a fluidity of local exchanges that is resonant of the fluidity of the flows and networks of diaspora (Cheesman). Music, too, has distinctive characteristics that mark out this terrain on the broadcast schedule and in the culture of the BBC WS. Music is differentiated from language-centred genres, making it a particularly powerful medium of cross-cultural exchange. Music is portable and yet is marked by a cultural rootedness that may impede translation and interpretation. Music also carries ambiguities as a marker of status across borders, and it combines aesthetic intensity and diffuseness. The Migrating Music project demonstrated BBC WS mediation of music and identity flows (Toynbee). In the production and scheduling notes, issues of migration and diaspora are often addressed directly in the programming of music, while the movement of peoples is a leitmotif in all programs in which music is played and discussed. Music genres are mobile, diasporic, and can be constitutive of Paul Gilroy’s “Black Atlantic” (Gilroy), which foregrounds the itinerary of West African music to the Caribbean via the Middle Passage, cross-fertilising with European traditions in the Americas to produce blues and other hybrid forms, and the journey of these forms to Europe. The Migrating Music project focused upon the role of the BBC WS as narrator of the Black Atlantic story and of South Asian cross-over music, from bhangra to filmi, which can be situated among the South Asian diaspora in east and south Africa as well as the Caribbean where they now interact with reggae, calypso, Rapso, and Popso. The transversal flows of music and lyrics encompasses the lived experience of the different diasporas that are accommodated in the BBC WS schedules: for example, they keep alive the connection between the Irish “at home” and in the diaspora through programs featuring traditional music, further demonstrating the interconnections between local and global attachments as well as points of disconnection and contradiction. Textual analysis—including discourse analysis of presenters’ speech, program trailers and dialogue and the BBC’s own construction of “world music”—has revealed that the BBC WS itself performs a constitutive role in keeping alive these traditions. Music, too, has a range of emotional affects which are manifest in the semiotic analyses that have been conducted of recordings and performances. Further, the creative personnel who are involved in music programming, including musicians, play their own role in this ongoing process of musical migration. Once again, the networks of people involved as practitioners become central to the processes and systems through which diasporic audiences are re-produced and engaged. Conclusion The BBC WS can claim to be a global and local cultural intermediary not only because the service was set up to engage with the British diaspora in an international context but because the service, today, is demonstrably a voice that is continually negotiating multi-ethnic audiences both in the UK and across the world. At best, the World Service is a dynamic facilitator of conversations within and across diasporas: ideas are relocated, translated, and travel in different directions. The “local” of a British broadcasting service, established to promote British values across the globe, has been transformed, both through its engagements with an increasingly diverse set of diasporic audiences and through the transformations in how diasporas themselves self-define and operate. On the BBC WS, demographic, social, and cultural changes mean that the global is now to be found in the local of the UK and any simplistic separation of local and global is no longer tenable. The educative role once adopted by the BBC, and then the World Service, nevertheless still persists in other contexts (“from Ambridge to Afghanistan”), and clearly the WS still treads a dangerous path between the paternalism and patriarchy of its colonial past and its responsiveness to change. In spite of competition from television, satellite, and Internet technologies which challenge the BBC’s former hegemony, the BBC World Service continues to be a dynamic space for (re)creating and (re)instating diasporic audiences: audiences, texts, and broadcasters intersect with social, economic, political, and cultural forces. The monologic “voice of empire” has been countered and translated into the language of diversity and while, at times, the relationship between continuity and change may be seen to exist in awkward tension, it is clear that the Corporation is adapting to the needs of its twenty-first century audience. ReferencesAnderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities, Reflections of the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1983. Anderssen, Matilda. “Digital Diasporas.” 2010. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/diasporas/cross-research/digital-diasporas›. Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. Briggs, Asa. A History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Volume II: The Golden Age of Wireless. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995. Cheesman, Tom. “Poetries On and Off Air.” 2010. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/diasporas/cross-research/bush-house-cultures›. Chivallon, Christine. “Beyond Gilroy’s Black Atlantic: The Experience of the African Diaspora.” Diaspora 11.3 (2002): 359–82. Clifford, James. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. Fast Track. BBC, 2009. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sport/2009/03/000000_fast_track.shtml›. Gillespie, Marie, Alban Webb, and Gerd Baumann (eds.). “The BBC World Service 1932–2007: Broadcasting Britishness Abroad.” Special Issue. The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 28.4 (Oct. 2008). Gillespie, Marie, Gerd Baumann, and Zinovy Zinik. “Poets at Bush House.” 2010. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/diasporas/about›. Gilroy, Paul. Black Atlantic. MA: Harvard UP, 1993. Giulianotti, Richard. Sport: A Critical Sociology. Cambridge: Polity, 2005. Goldblatt, David. “The Cricket Revolution.” 2009. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0036ww9›. Guha, Ramachandra. A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of an English Game. London: Picador, 2002. Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” Identity: Community, Culture, Difference. Ed. Jonathan Rutherford. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990, 223–37. Hill, Andrew. “The BBC Empire Service: The Voice, the Discourse of the Master and Ventriloquism.” South Asian Diaspora 2.1 (2010): 25–38. Hollis, Robert, Norma Rinsler, and Daniel Weissbort. “Poets at Bush House: The BBC World Service.” Modern Poetry in Translation 22 (2003). Nandy, Ashis. The Tao of Cricket: On Games of Destiny and the Destiny of Games. New Delhi: Oxford UP, 1989. Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge, 1992. Reith, John. “Opening of the Empire Service.” In “Empire Service Policy 1932-1933”, E4/6: 19 Dec. 1932. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/diasporas/research.htm›. Scannell, Paddy, and David Cardiff. A Social History of British Broadcasting, 1922-1938. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991. Skuse, Andrew. “Drama for Development.” 2010. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/diasporas/core-research/drama-for-development›. Sreberny, Annabelle. “The BBC World Service and the Greater Middle East: Comparisons, Contrasts, Conflicts.” Guest ed. Annabelle Sreberny, Marie Gillespie, Gerd Baumann. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 3.2 (2010). Toynbee, Jason. “Migrating Music.” 2010. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/diasporas/core-research/migrating-music›. Tuning In. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/diasporas/index.htm›. Webb, Alban. “Cold War Diplomacy.” 2010. 30 Nov. 2010 ‹http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/diasporas/projects/cold-war-politics-and-bbc-world-service›. Woodward, Kath. Embodied Sporting Practices. Regulating and Regulatory Bodies. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

AbstractRadio occultation (RO) by the Earth's atmosphere of the transmitted signals of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems' satellites has improved numerical weather prediction, has benefited atmospheric process studies, and benchmarked climate change by its strong traceability to the international definition of the second. Until now, research with RO has been isolated to the few centers that actually process the data and impracticable elsewhere because of limitations on data formats, organization and volume of the data, download bandwidth, and the lack of a database that can be queried before downloading data. We announce the availability of RO data in the Registry of Open Data of Amazon Web Services (AWS). RO data are freely available for download for the user and free to process and store for the manager of the repository. RO data as processed by the COSMIC Program Office at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, by the Radio Occultation Meteorology Satellite Application Facility (ROM SAF), by EUMETSAT, and by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory are available beginning with calibrated (excess) phase, extending to bending angle and refractivity and to retrievals of pressure, temperature and water vapor. The same RO repository also contains a metadata database that permits simple querying, filtering, and download of data using a Python application programming interface provided by this same project. Four tutorial demonstrations are provided as jupyter notebooks to provide representative samples of code to perform common research activities with RO data, including database querying and analysis, inter‐center comparison of RO retrieval performance, and atmospheric process studies.

Un arbitre vient à la conclusion qu'en vertu des dispositions de la convention collective de travail en cause, les employés techniciens assignés par un sous-traitant lié par contrat avec la Société Radio-Canada pour la production d'une série d'émissions télévisées, étaient directement dirigés et contrôlés, dans leur travail, par l'équipe de production de cette dernière Société, et cela d'une façon constante et continue, tout comme s'il s'était agi de ses propres employés. Il s'agit alors d'un contrat de services personnels et non d'un contrat à forfait ou d'« entrepreneur », pour autant que ces employés sont concernés. De plus, il ne s'agit pas d'un travail exhorbitant des fonctions ordinaires de la Société couvertes par la convention en cause, mais d'opérations techniques identiques à celles couvertes par cette convention. Enfin, le contrat entre l'employeur (Radio-Canada) et le sous-traitant (Editel Production Limited) en est un, dans les faits, de « location d'équipement » (rental of equipment) et lorsque l'employeur loue de l'équipement, tel que stipulé à l'article 47.1 de la convention collective, NABET a juridiction sur cet équipement. Si (quoiqu'il n'y ait aucun élément de mauvaise foi en l'occurence de la part de l'employeur) l'employeur était autorisé à continuer la pratique prévue à ce contrat de sous-traitance, ceci équivaudrait, en fait, à enlever au syndicat (NABET) et à ses membres la juridiction sur un travail ailleurs couvert par la convention collective en vigueur et exécuté normalement par ces derniers. Aux termes de cette décision, l'expression « assigner » à l'article 47.2 de la convention collective inclut, non seulement l'assignation de travail à des employés de Radio-Canada autres que ceux représentés par NABET, mais aussi à des « personnes » qui viennent de l'extérieur, du moment qu'elles agissent sous la surveillance et la direction constante de cette Société. En conséquence, considérant les exigences de la convention collective à son article 47, l'arbitre fait droit au grief syndical. Il est important de remarquer qu'il s'agit d'une décision « de principe » et qui doit valoir pour l'avenir. Elle ne devrait pas s'appliquer à l'émission même qui en est l'objet. Radio-Canada devrait pouvoir continuer la production de cette émission selon le contrat intervenu avec le sous-traitant, car il n'y a pas mauvaise foi de la part de Radio-Canada, il s'agit d'un litige de caractère nouveau entre les parties dont chacune pouvait prétendre avoir la bonne interprétation ; les dommages seraient trop considérables envers tous les intéressés si on y mettait fin présentement, aucun préjudice n'est causé aux membres du syndicat en matière de travail et de sécurité d'emploi; enfin, Radio-Canada n'a pas présentement, les disponibilités en personnel technique pour mener seul cette émission à bonne fin selon l'horaire et la programmation déjà établis.1 (1) In the Matter of a Special Arbitration based on a memorandum of agreement and in the matter of an Arbitration of a grievance processed under the provisions of a Collective Bargaining Agreement in operation between: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Employer, and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Trade Union. Board of Arbitration: His Honour Judge J.C. Anderson, single arbitrator. Belleville, Ontario, June 28, 1966.

The media industry is an important element of the information society and an integral part of the national economic system, which provides the public need for communication services and, in particular, such a resource as current information. As a component of the business environment, it ensures the production and distribution of media products and advertising. The media industry is characterized by the rapid pace of transformation of its structural components and the uneven dynamics of this process. The article considers the factors that will influence the development of both the global and domestic media industry. The main ones are: changes in the structure of consumption towards an increase in the share of digital media products, the appearance on the global market of new producers of media products, the development of media corporations, an increase in the advertising budgets of the share of Internet sources and online commerce, Internet security and legal regulation of relations with digital platforms, changing the speed of content creation due to the rapid development of technologies and artificial intelligence programs. The article notes that the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On Media", in which the regulation of this sphere is coordinated with the relevant EU directives, should streamline organizational and legal relations in the media sphere and will contribute to updating its structure. The changes that took place in certain segments of the media market are highlighted. The television market of Ukraine was characterized by the concentration of TV channels in media holdings, and its structural and technical changes are related to the transition of television to digital broadcasting, the coding of satellite signals of TV channels, and the banning of a number of TV channels. The radio market saw a decline in the popularity of over-the-air radio and an increase in online consumption, with three quarters of the market divided between four radio groups. The publishing market is characterized by a reduction in the range of printed publications and their circulations, and the segment of periodicals is characterized by an accelerated transition to their electronic versions. The study of the changes that have taken place in the media sphere since the full-scale military invasion revealed their main factors, including: changes in infrastructure and reduction in coverage of the territory of Ukraine, reduction of the audience, changes in consumer preferences of target audiences, deterioration of the financial situation, etc. The further transformation of the media industry will be its reaction to the appearance of new challenges in the external environment.

Introduction Music streaming represents a highly personalised, portable technology that enables a ubiquitous listening quality and transforms the relationship people have with music. It has implications for how music recordings can be engaged with and what people sense they can do with music. Streaming therefore expands the ability of users to inflect music audio across everyday life (DeNora 63), contributing to advancements in playback audio technologies that disarticulate performance spaces from listening contexts (Nowak and Bennett 53). Furthermore, they afford convenient, ostensibly inexpensive, and various opportunities to sort and organise music recordings while also enabling users to engage in personalised recommendations (Lüders 2342). Crucially, though, streaming services extend listening as a secondary activity (Lüders 2351) in which users of these technologies “listen alongside” (Drott 257) and situate music with other everyday activities. In other words, streaming services afford users the capacity to render music listening as a secondary or background activity, with “backgroundness” now a highly apparent component of streaming cultures (Hagen 238). In this article, I investigate and focus on this background quality. While not representing the only way listeners experience acts of listening while using these services, this quality of music in the background now appears firmly etched into the experiences of many users of streaming services. However, music as placed in the background is far from new. The products and the wider historical influence of the Muzak Corporation and others point to a broader use of environmental mood music that strips distinctive aural qualities to ensure it is neither too exciting nor sedate (Sterne 30). In such cases, wired radio or piped music (Lanza) is typically transmitted to supermarkets, shopping centres, elevators, public lavatories, and other semi-public commercial spaces that explicitly avoid drawing attention to the music provided (Zerubavel 19). But background music as facilitated and adopted by users of music streaming differs in some important respects: first, it is music that is typically privatised and configured in important ways by users; and second, it is provided through streaming platforms that now focus on personalisation and prediction for the user, thereby “giving listeners exactly what they want, and what they don’t yet know they want” (Prey 3). These qualities afford users the ability to place music in the background as a seemingly valued secondary activity. Streaming platforms therefore do not merely adapt to existing listening habits but actively work to frame and encourage users to adopt instrumentalised relations with music. In this sense, they can render the experience of listening to music as less of a singularly focussed activity (on the music in question), but one that partners and designates music in acts of self-care and regulation (Drott 167). Streaming services therefore importantly provide users with an increasing way to adopt music audio as a background accompaniment in navigating the everyday. They offer recommendations that suit an array of situations, and this is reflected in the perceptions of users who draw increasingly on music as a social resource. How do users experience using these audio technologies and the way platforms cater to the user’s context? And when exploring the experiences of using streaming services, in what ways might the audio provided enable or even induce listening in the background? To explore these ideas, I draw on in-depth interviews with users of music streaming services. Conducted in late 2021, these interviews were used to further understand how people used and integrated music streaming technologies. One main theme from the larger project (see Walsh, Streaming Sounds) is presented in this article to consider how streaming enables and potentially compels the use of music as background audio. I consider how these technologies inflect music as an increasingly secondary, or background dimension. Importantly, some users indicate that this capacity represents a considerable resource in managing everyday tasks and interactions, while others imply a more ambivalent view about the increased presence of music in the background. Streaming as Background Audio Streaming services enable users to partner recordings of music throughout their everyday lives and with the express purpose of placing audio in the background. Charlotte (pseudonyms are used to ensure the anonymity of participants) describes this when comparing her use of streaming to earlier formats. In her words, going back to the old days of Vinyl, you had to turn the record over and with CDs you had to change the CD. If I have friends over for dinner and I want music on in the background the streaming service allows me to choose something that will last the entire evening… . You used to buy multiple 6 CD sets, which still required you to change a CD, but I can now access that 6 CD set as a stream of music that doesn't require my attention. So, it becomes easier to have background music that you enjoy, what my uncle used to call wallpaper music. So, it’s music that you don't have to interact with to keep it going. In mentioning the idea of wallpaper music, Charlotte suggests that streaming assists her in auditorily furnishing dining with music. This compelling observation resonates with Erik Satie’s notion of furniture music, which when translated from the French—musique d’ameublement—means furnishing music, or “music which would be part of the noises around it and would take account of them” (Orledge 74). While Satie’s furniture music speaks to musical performances that respond and blend into the auditory atmosphere of a restaurant, streaming services now also offer a similar capacity that provides recorded music that is tuneful without overpowering or making itself obtrusive (Orledge 74). Others similarly describe the way these technologies now allow users to listen more ambiently. In this case, users like Elliot incorporate music into a variety of everyday activities which renders it continually present. Responding to a question about how streaming has changed the way he engages with music, Elliot replies: yeah, I definitely think so. I probably engage with it [music] a lot more than I did before streaming was invented because, again, you only really listened to the radio when you were going to and from somewhere, or listened to a CD if you were driving. But now I use it [streaming] like constantly, when I’m studying or if I’m cooking or cleaning, it’s constantly there. The idea that music recorded now can be perennial and blended into everyday activities is one dimension that streaming services enable. Crucially, though, while playing a role to auditorily furnish everyday activities, this is not a primary role but one that is rendered as part of the contextual environment. Music streaming services enable a configuration of music recordings to become present, but in a way that does not dominate one’s focus, while simultaneously acting as a companion used to dynamically enhance and shape moods (Hagen 238). Participants like Amanda reinforce this; in response to a question about whether she felt music streaming altered the way she engages with music, she suggests: Amanda: Yeah, because I never would've used music so much in a day. Like music has almost integrated into every part of my life, and it's kind of scary. Interviewer: Scary? Why would you say that? Amanda: Well because I think it's important to just sit and listen to nothing ... because it's losing the value of … like just quiet. And also, my hearing, like if the volume of music, not the literal volume hasn't changed but people in the '80s used to listen to live concerts all the time, but the prolonged exposure to music is what actually creates auditory problems. In considering the notion that streaming services have become embedded in everyday life, Amanda speaks of how streaming has seemingly altered her relationship with music. She reflects ambivalently on the quantity of her listening and how this may have meant she has lost the value of being able to listen to nothing, with music recordings perennially being heard. She also articulates concern about the physiological health of her hearing, given the way music audio has seemingly insinuated itself across many of her everyday experiences. This perception that streaming now caters widely to various situations that can also blend into the background is echoed by other participants. For example, in reflecting on the use of her music streaming, Sophie describes her tendency to use the service in two ways: Question: Could you tell me about the types of music you listen to and how you engage with music streaming services in general? Sophie: So, I'm definitely a pop princess. I listen to mostly pop ... to be honest, I think like a lot of people my age, I tend to focus on music that I first listened to in my teenage high school years. So, a lot of what I listen to is from the early 2000s, yeah, kind of pop range. I think I also listen to quite a lot of music while I work. And that stuff is not pop, because I can't concentrate [with pop]. So, I would use playlists and things like that that I like for reading and chill out. So, music that doesn't have any lyrics or things like that or any noticeable riffs in them. Just things that are calm and I can have it as background music so that I'm not distracted by all the things in the office and things like that. They'd be the two main ways that I listen. Sophie describes her use of streaming services as falling into two variants: first, a more animated and potentially nostalgic type of listening mode associated with her engagement with popular music; then second, another modality that is used to assist in her completion of work and relaxation. Music streaming in this second guise is connected to the use of music as a background or ecological feature. As Tacchi (32) suggests earlier of radio, it can provide unfocussed sounds that afford an environment that is reassuring while also one that does not demand nor distract from the task at hand. This experience is also suggested by other participants who, along with the idea of placing music in the background, suggest that streaming interfaces themselves appear to induce users to use the service in the pursuit of accompanying other activities. Consider Damien’s experience: maybe it’s the interface, it just makes me want to choose something faster. I feel pressured, I don't know why (laughs). And I guess because a lot of the time when I'm streaming, I'm doing it to accompany another activity, like if I'm going for a run or I'm cleaning or something. So, I'm not sitting down to listen to music. So, I guess that's the difference for me. Unlike choosing a movie, sitting down to choose a movie, I'm trying to find something to have on in the background. And I guess that's kind of changed the way I listen to music as well because, yeah, now it's, it's mostly an accompaniment to something. Damien draws music into his everyday life in a way that speaks to how streaming services afford a musical accompaniment “in the background”. As streaming platforms require users to navigate interfaces to access ever-expandable depositories of music (Besseny 3), they can also convey a sense of urgency in selecting music that can be used as an accompaniment to other activities. This perception of streaming services as rendering music as background was evident too for Anita, who describes how the social features associated with streaming contrast with earlier music formats: for me it might be that it [music streaming] changed how you interact with music but also the social aspect of music. It’s become so ubiquitous and so ambient that it’s taken away the specialness a little bit. I remember a time when people would get together and listen to the CDs that they bought ... . Now, you would send a YouTube video or music to somebody, and they'd listen. But it doesn't have the same kind of social, celebratory aspect to it. It has made life a lot nicer in some ways, but it has also created a different kind of connection. Anita articulates how the reception of music facilitated by streaming services, along with other social media platforms, appears to render the experience less collective and reduces its “specialness”. As Drott (167) argues, music listening in this case represents an experience that is less focussed on the music itself and renders it more ambient or ubiquitous. This is indicative of how music streaming appears to have assumed a niche for some users that enables music as an audio accompaniment in the background, which could also undermine user awareness of the artists, albums, and musicians that they stream (Nag 28). For example, Natalia in response to a question about whether she listens directly to artists or if her relationship with music has changed, indicates: no, I don’t [listen to artists] you know. I think there might have been one point in my life when I did. But these days you know, I’m pretty much purely using streaming services so it’s easy to press like, “Oh, you know what I like. Just play what I like” and then it just sort of does its own thing and then you don’t really … I think you don’t have that relationship, that kind of I guess direct relationship as in who’s this, what is this [the music recording] kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? It’s more sort of a background rather than a conscious, “Who is this? What album is it from?” This awareness of how her relationship with music has changed is revealing. It suggests that Natalia perceives streaming as a background accompaniment that furthermore corresponds with a diminished awareness of the musicians she listens to via streaming technologies. Damien also implies a similar occurrence when suggesting, in response to a question about what musicians are listed on his year-in-review playlist, that I wouldn’t be able to name … any song from those playlists despite the hundreds of hours I’ve spent listening to them. Like, I would recognise them [aurally], but I wouldn’t, yeah, I wouldn’t know the artist or any… Like it’s just a different space. Music streaming, therefore, facilitates music listening in a way that increases its presence throughout everyday life, but in a way that simultaneously renders it less primary, thereby ensuring its place in the background. As Louise explains: I think it has made it easier for me to have it [music] as a part of a soundtrack to my life, a part of what I do. Because it’s just so integrated… I mean, with technology it just allows things to be just so simplified for us that we can just access music at a click of the finger. I think that therefore music is much easier for me to have it kind of flowing through. The idea that music streaming affords an ambient quality that flows through everyday life, alongside a user's everyday activities, is suggestive of one quality that arguably has been extended by streaming cultures. It also is suggestive of how these services are designed to capture users, secure their attention, and increase “engagement” (Seaver 428)—albeit while placing music in the background. While convenience and assistance in managing interactions is a hallmark associated with earlier audio playback technologies like MP3 players (Bull), streaming services and their integration into preexisting mobile communication devices, along with the personalised services they provide, offer increasing ways to blend music into the everyday. With the digitalisation, miniaturisation, and now networking afforded by streaming technology, this now allows users to arguably expand what can be done with music in the pursuit of managing and inflecting various social contexts through the introduction of music recordings (Walsh, "'I'm also'"). As Theresa—a self-described devoted collector of vinyl—explains, her preferred music format was streaming, despite expressing the important relationship she (elsewhere in our interview) admits feeling towards her vinyl collection: oh for convenience, streaming is so much easier. I mean, you can create playlists. You can explore different artists that you wouldn't normally listen to. And you can look up a list of top 500 albums and you can tick off which ones you like and explore in that way. I think in order to listen to vinyl I have to kind of have free time where I'm able to sit down and just not have anything else going on. Whereas streaming I can be cooking or, you know, jogging or in the car. So, it's like music on the go, if you will. It might sound very clichéd but it's—it's just so much easier. But you just don't have the quality if you're into that. Even for users like Theresa—who engage with multiple formats to listen to music in various ways—streaming appears as an important secondary activity that assumes a part of how she describes her preference for listening and incorporating music. Conclusion While not the only way listeners use these technologies, a secondary or background mode that offers a personalised and responsive auditory accompaniment to the individual’s circumstances now appears to be a shared experience for users of music streaming services. The accounts and descriptions provided by users presented in this article indicate that music as background audio represents a dimension of streaming cultures that appears highly evident. It allows these users to furnish their social world with forms of aesthetic output (DeNora 74). However, the expansion of background music facilitated by streaming services can be perceived by some users as undercutting music as an autotelic aesthetic experience. Consequently, for these users, the increasing role that music streaming plays in mediating music throughout everyday life can be also tinged with feelings of nostalgic unease or ambivalence. Nonetheless, music platforms now offer personalised music that is configured to explicitly allow users to listen alongside and integrate music with their everyday activities. It is this background quality, discernible in these accounts, that is of significance in that it represents an important way that users describe their relationship to and use of music streaming technologies. References Besseny, Amelia. “Lost in Spotify: Folksonomy and Wayfinding Functions in Spotify’s Interface and Companion Apps.” Popular Communication 18.1 (2020): 1–17. <https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2019.1701674>. Bull, Michael. Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience. New York: Routledge, 2007. DeNora, Tia. Music Asylums: Wellbeing through Music in Everyday Life. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013. Drott, Eric. “Music in the Work of Social Reproduction.” Cultural Politics 15.2 (2019): 162–183. <https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-7515028>. Hagen, Anja N. “Music Streaming the Everyday Life.” In Networked Music Cultures: Contemporary Approaches, Emerging Issues, eds. Raphaël Nowak and Andrew Whelan. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2016. 227–246. <https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58290-4_14>. Lanza, Joseph. Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening and Other Moodsong. London: Quartet, 1995. Lüders, Marika. “Ubiquitous Tunes, Virtuous Archiving and Catering for Algorithms: The Tethered Affairs of People and Music Streaming Services.” Information, Communication & Society 24.15 (2021): 2342-58. <https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1758742> Nag, Wenche. “Music Streams, Smartphones, and the Self.” Mobile Media & Communication 6.1 (2018): 19–36. <https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157917719922>. Nowak, Raphaël, and Andy Bennett. Music Sociology: Value, Technology, and Identity. Abingdon: Routledge, 2022. <https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429264856>. Orledge, Robert. Satie Remembered. London: Faber and Faber, 1995. Prey, Robert. “Background by Design: Listening in the Age of Streaming.” Naxos Musicology International 1.1 (2019): 1-9. Seaver, Nick. “Captivating Algorithms: Recommender Systems as Traps.” Journal of Material Culture 24.4 (2019): 421–36. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183518820366>. Sterne, Jonathan. “Sounds like the Mall of America: Programmed Music and the Architectonics of Commercial Space.” Ethnomusicology 41.1 (1997): 22-50. <https://doi.org/10.2307/852577>. Tacchi, Jo. “Radio Texture: Between Self and Others.” In Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter, ed. Daniel Miller. London: Routledge, 1998. 25–46. Walsh, Michael James. Streaming Sounds: Musical Listening in the Digital Age. Abingdon: Routledge, 2024. <https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003273363>. ———. "‘I’m also slightly conscious of how much I’m listening to something’: Music Streaming and the Transformation of Music Listening." Media, Culture & Society (2023). <https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437231219142>. Zerubavel, Eviatar. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Social Structure of Irrelevance. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015. <https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199366606.001.0001>.

Like fire, radio waves are a natural, physical phenomenon. Like fire, humans have learned to control radio waves for our own purposes. Human civilisation itself may be predicated on our ability to conceive of and control sound in extraordinarily complex ways within our own bodies – a development that gave rise to rich oral cultures the world over and facilitated our ability to cooperate within and beyond our immediate social groups. In turn, radio waves are a finite natural resource that can be harnessed by various pieces of technology for transmission well beyond the immediate. The etymology of the word audio is of Latin origin, with further links back to Indo-Asian connections. The word “auditorium” is another Latin-originating link to audio: auditorium in its ancient Roman language refers to a lecture room and thereby identifies public presentation of speech for groups that eventually defined institutions such as parliaments, schools, and universities. In the 130 years since Guglielmo Marconi conceived of and then developed wireless telegraphy off the back of theorisation and experiments by James Clerk Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz, and others, we have created a vast global infrastructure specifically to generate and listen for radio waves. This infrastructure includes the obvious and mundane: the transmitters and receivers which have sustained a new media industry since their development. It includes the less obvious: wireless transmission of messages to ships and aircraft around the world. And it includes technologies we now barely think of as radio at all: mobile phone towers and the phones themselves still largely use the radiofrequency portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. Each of these has its place in the pantheon of human audio technologies. Other aspects of audio production and reception are just as important and culturally resonant. Technologies to enable hearing for those without it. Tools that help us translate spoken languages. The creation and sharing of audio and video over the Internet. Each of these also tells a story of the human relationship with sound and audio. Audio and radio content production and distribution have transformed in the face of the cultural, technological, and political development of the Internet. Like other media, broadcast radio has converged and submerged with digital technologies and global high-speed transmissions, now divorced from its physical, terrestrial, and local origins. Sitting at the crossroads of radio and participatory media is podcasting, a medium through which individuals, groups, and organisations can create and distribute audio storytelling on the Internet. Industries, individuals, and communities continue to grapple with these technologies. The foremost podcast platforms seek to own audio distribution channels just as they and others have come to dominate text, video, and visual media online. The National Film and Sound Archives (NFSA) of Australia, as well as the Australian commercial radio sector, this year recognised the centenary of radio on this continent. Of course, cross-continental communication systems were here long before radio. The overland telegraph was opened in 1872, and postal services operated long before that. Moreover, First Nations peoples have built complex long-distance messaging systems since time immemorial. And yet the immediacy of radio does hold a special place in the story of how fledgling towns and cities were connected and held together over the last century. This issue of M/C Journal delves into the cultural function of audio around the world and across time. The articles within demonstrate how audio production is changing alongside technology, how national policies have supported or suppressed the development and transmission of audio content, how corporations have flexed their might to shape culture, and how culture has emerged and responded to the world around it. Exploring the development of the technological component of audio and its effects and permutations on human culture has been the key element seized on by contributors to this issue to advance their intriguing – and distinctively different – directions. On all levels, it is somehow related to hearing, but it is also linked to the dissemination of creative and informational data. Through the articles in this issue, we hope to show the depth and complexity of audio research around the world: specificities of culture and policy in Europe and Asia, community radio in Australia, and the role of music in breakout, critically acclaimed films. As our contributors show, there has never been a more interesting time to re-examine audio cultures. Michael Walsh and Randall Monty each examine different audio media – music streaming and podcasts, respectively – from the perspective of their relationship to other aspects of daily life. Walsh’s interviews demonstrate the role of streaming services in offering “music in the background”, situating this use among similar uses across music history. Monty offers a reflective account of how he uses podcasts in academic research practice through listening while doing other things – chiefly commuting. In both pieces, audio as a feature of the everyday lifeworld is central. We have selected Monty’s piece as the feature article for this edition because it presents an optimistic vision of the possibilities for audio in changing research practices. The approach to audio note-taking, intentional listening, and critically assessing the podcasts accompanying each commute offers something valuable to those scholars, like ourselves, who are of the view that audio should have an increasing role in education and research. While both deal with audio in the everyday, Monty and Walsh each offer a different perspective on the role it can play: through work or leisure, in public or domestic spaces. In Jasmine Chen’s piece, we gain insight into the changing role of audio in China, first with a view of radio as a technology of the state and now of audiobooks with taboo content. Chen shows how Chinese boys’ love audio dramas such as Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation offer a unique listening experience that immerses listeners in intimate, aural fantasies. This article deftly describes how technological advancements have shifted listening experiences from public to intimate settings in an interplay of culture and technology. Elsewhere in Asia, Sian Tomkinson analyses one of Japan’s unique media subcultures: vocaloids. These characters are built on top of audio samples from voice synthesiser software and deployed as ready-made performers by vocaloid producers. Tomkinson’s analysis of an album by vocaloid producer Neru demonstrates the depth and complexity to this unique music production culture, whereas others have overlooked the affective elements of such performances. There is a healthy representation of European media in this edition. Gemma Blackwood’s careful analysis of audio in film through a case study of the acclaimed French film Anatomy of a Fall and its feature piece – a unique cover of 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. – demonstrates how a song can play a diegetic role in storytelling, drawing the audience’s attention to the strangeness of the situation and adding to the film’s overall sense of mystery. Blackwood also discusses the song’s cultural significance, arguing that its use in the film highlights how music can be appropriated and recontextualised. Sofia Theodosiadou and Maria Ristani likewise offer a close reading of the TRAUMA podcast and its role in articulating the collective trauma in the national identity of modern Greece, arising from a string of disasters in the period 1999-2023. The power of individual voices and testimonies in audio content is evidenced through their analysis. Still in Europe, Till Krause examines the cultural significance and economic impact of storytelling podcasts in Germany, while Johan Malmstedt delves into spectral analysis of Swedish radio to demonstrate how the sound of the ‘format radio’ stations has changed over time. Krause evidences the rising popularity of German serial storytelling podcasts, driven by their ability to offer listeners a compelling narrative experience that is often characterised by suspenseful storytelling and dramatic climaxes, and links this to other changes in the broader mediascape. Malmstedt shows that Sweden’s format radio stations have maintained a consistent musical identity throughout the years while still developing distinctive channel identities. Turning to Australia, Charitha Dissanayake explores the historical significance, current challenges, and potential pathways of ethnic radio broadcasting. Dissanayake makes the case that ethnic broadcasting, and particularly community radio, plays a vital role in fostering inclusivity and cultural preservation in Australia. Through ethnic programming – music, language and information –, migrants connect to their local communities whilst maintaining ties to their countries of origin. While the sector is diverse, Dissanayake argues that challenges persist, including an insufficient understanding of evolving community needs and engaging second-generation migrants. Kathryn Locke, Katie Ellis, and Katharina Wolf investigate how students and staff utilise audio in an Australian higher education setting, both in everyday and academic uses. This article highlights the value of audio options like podcast lectures, audio feedback, and audio captions for offering personalised learning approaches for students. The findings reveal a general lack of understanding around the possibilities of audio learning materials, and the need for a rethink of audio-supported pedagogy in higher education. Acknowledgments The editors would like to thank the reviewers for their work on this issue. Thanks also to Kevin Ng from Charles Sturt University for the issue's cover image.

Introduction The construction of meaning is specifically denoted by texts that are created and published by the mass media. To highlight how that meaning is constructed, we might take a communication research approach which then enables us to understand how mass media texts impact society. To undertake such an approach it is useful to reflect on two methods outlined by Adoni and Mane who suggest there are two communication research methodologies. “The first focuses on the social construction of reality as an important aspect of the relationship between culture and society. The second approach concentrates on the social construction of reality as one type of media effect.” (Adoni and Mane 323). Relying on Adoni and Mane’s second communication research approach and combining this with the practice of remix, we can begin to understand how practitioners construct a reality from the mass audience perspective and not the mass media’s construction. This aligns with the approach taken by the ABC Pool remix practitioners in that they are informed by the mass media’s construction of meaning, yet oppose their understanding of the text as the basis for their altered construction of meaning. The oppositional reading of the media text also aligns with Hall’s encoding/decoding theory, specifically the oppositional reading where audiences resist the dominant or preferred reading of the text (Long & Wall). If we align Deuze’s (Media Work) thinking to mass media that suggests we live in media as opposed to with media, the effects of the construction of reality have a major impact on how we construct our own lives. Until recently, that media and consequent meaning has been constructed by the mass media and broadcast into our living rooms, headphones, billboards and other public spaces where media resides. The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies and the affordances these information and communication technologies provide for the audience to talk back in new and innovative ways has challenged that traditional model of meaning construction. Now, instead of the mass media designing and disseminating meaning through our media consumption channels, the audience also has an opportunity to participate in this consumption and production process (Bruns; Jenkins; Shirky). “Remix means to take cultural artifacts and combine and manipulate them into new kinds of creative blends,” according to (Knobel & Lankshear 22) where Lessig argues that digital remix is writing on a mass cultural practice scale (Remix). Remix within this paper is considered a practice that takes the affordances of the technology and couples that with the creative ability of the artists to create socially constructed meanings through new and inventive methods. In considering socially constructed meaning, it is useful to reflect on media dependency theory, which suggests the amount of subjective reality depends on direct experience with various phenomena and the exposure to the media in relation to those phenomena (Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur). “According to the media dependency hypothesis, the degree of media contribution to the individual's construction of subjective reality is a function of one's direct experience with various phenomena and consequent dependence on the media for information about these phenomena” (Adoni and Mane 324). Remix requires a parent piece of media (the original meaning) to create a remixed child (the re-constructed meaning). There is a clear dependency relationship between the parent and child pieces of media in this arrangement, which realistically shapes how the child will be created. If this material is published in a non-institutional environment, the artist is more or less free to demonstrate what ever meaning they wish to express. However when this practice emerges from within an institutional environment, this raises concerns of the media production, namely is the media institution challenging the original meaning they placed on certain texts and are they endorsing the new socially constructed meaning provided by remix artists? Constructing new forms of meaning and challenging the preferred meaning of institutionally generated texts intrinsically connects remix to the act of online activism. Activism can be defined as “people and organisations that work to promote social or political changes” for the benefit of society (Jones 1). Scholars have noted the significance of online technologies to aid in the mobilisation of mass groups of individuals in protest. In light of the recent Arab Spring uprisings, González-Bailón et al. note “the number of events connecting social media with social unrest has multiplied, not only in the context of authoritarian regimes exemplified by the recent wave of upsurges across the Arab world but also in western liberal democracies, particularly in the aftermath of the financial crisis and changes to welfare policies” (para 1). Although the majority of work that is remixed on ABC Pool is not related to an authoritarian regime, it is representative of the frustrations many citizens have towards the inequality of distribution of wealth and power to a few privileged individuals. Remix as an online activism activity also explicitly demonstrates Hall’s oppositional reading of encoded texts. This paper will use media dependency theory as a lens to investigate how remix occurs outside of the institution to challenge the meanings created by authorities within the institutional setting, while challenging the mass media approach towards social discourse construction. To do this, the paper will focus on the case study of one remix artist, Main$treaM, who was an active participant within the institutional online community, ABC Pool. ABC Pool was a user created content space that ceased to operate during May 2013 from within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The Pool project enabled users to publish their audio, video, photography and writing on a platform that was developed and resourced by the ABC. ABC Pool was open to everyone and was governed by the same editorial policies that regulated all media and activities across the ABC in relation to the ABC Charter (ABC Act 1983). ABC Pool also operated under a Creative Commons licensing regime which enabled media to flow across platforms, for example the Internet, radio and television, while providing attribution to the original author (generally under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license). Main$treaM was one active user that engaged in remix to pursue his creative direction but to also challenge the meanings of texts that had been created by the mass media. Max Prophet$ equals Ca$h for Comments Main$treaM had been active in Pool for several months when he began publishing his remixed works. His approach towards media and its production is especially important as his technique involved challenging the societal discourse that is accepted from traditional forms of media production and reappropriating them to reflect how an audience would reconstruct them, from their Deuzian lived in experience. Main$treaM can also be classified as an oppositional reader of text in regards to how he decodes the meaning within the message (Hall). His online activist approach is obvious in his self-described profile. Main$treaM’s profile on ABC Pool says: Making animations, music & loads of max prophet$ However, his profile on Discogs (Discogs is one of the largest online music databases, where users can contribute music information and data while locating collectables within the global marketplace) reveals the artist’s creative and political perspectives: Main$treaM started off wanting to piss people off. He loathed the studio recording industry professionals & Sound Production Mass Media Culture in general. How could it be that a TV Camera can record what you say in the street, then edit it into something YOU DID NOT SAY but take a little news sample off the TV & bam: "WE WILL SUE YOU" These days it makes me sick that hard breaks & media cut ups are trendy. Not sick enough to actually stop. Main$treaM’s approach is one that challenges the stereotypical rhetoric tropes of the mass media and is concerned with choosing a remix style that aligns with the media dependency theory. That is, he draws on the one perspective which is garnered by the traditional media figureheads and applies his lived in experience with those same societal discourses to provide a significantly different meaning (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur). The tool he uses to operationalise this is the art of remix by taking multiple cultural artefacts to create new creative blends (Knobel & Lankshear). John Laws is a radio celebrity who has dominated the Australian media landscape for decades with his at times controversial ‘shock jock’ talk back radio program. He is right wing in his political alignment and has at times been the centre of controversial programming efforts that has riled Australian audiences, which also involved input from Australian media authorities. His political alignment coupled with his disregard for audience sensitivities makes Laws an ideal character for an activist remix artist such as Main$treaM to target. Main$treaM had taken comments that Laws had made, placed them out of context and remixed them to deliberately misrepresent Laws’s opinion. One track in particular, Max Prophet$, is a reaction to the controversial Cash for Comments scandal (Johnson). In this case, John Laws was accused of receiving remuneration from Toyota to endorse their products on his radio program without acknowledging this activity as advertising. Main$treaM, through one of his ABC Pool contributions Max Prophet$, selected various comments that Laws had made during his radio broadcasts, and remixed them in a format that had John Laws say he was indeed receiving large amounts of money from Toyota. His remix, in the tradition of Pauline Pantsdown, took Laws’s comments and connected them to say “That really is a terrific vehicle that Hilux Workmate, great name too isn’t it”, highlighting a clear endorsement of the Toyota product by the radio presenter. However, Main$treaM did not stop at proving his point with this one remix contribution. He also provided in addition to the Max Prophet$ contribution, many other controversial social commentary works, including Cock Cheek parts One and Two, Prickseye Picture of You and I, and Ca$h for Comment$. Each contribution focussed on a particular character trait that Laws had become known for, such as inviting input from his listeners and then hanging up on them when they provided commentary that was contrary to his opinion. “Did I call you or did you call me” was Main$treaM’s method of whimsically suggesting that Laws is a rude, right wing conservative. The public opinion within Australia of John Laws is split between support from the conservatives and disdain from the liberals. Main$treaM was attempting to provide a voice from within the liberal perspective that illuminates the public opinion of Laws. The public opinion of Laws is one cultural discourse that is difficult to define, and almost impossible to publish to the broader public. Remix, as Lessig suggests, provides the most suitable genre of mass cultural practice to interrogate both perspectives of someone as controversial as Laws, where ABC Pool provides the most suitable platform to publish remixed societal perspectives on contemporary controversial issues. However, as outlined earlier, ABC Pool is contained within the same regulatory framework as any other publication space of the ABC. Essentially by publishing this controversial work on an ABC platform is blurring the boundaries between the ABC providing a place to publish the material and the ABC endorsing the material. ABC Pool operated under a reactive mode of moderation which suggests that content can be published without any form of moderation but if it were flagged as inappropriate by another user or audience member it had to be investigated by the ABC Pool team. Main$treaM’s contemporary material contained confronting concepts, language and techniques and was flagged as inappropriate by an anonymous Pool user during 2011. In this instance, it becomes clear that remix within an institutional setting is a complicated activity to facilitate. By providing a Creative Commons licensing regime, the ABC Pool project is endorsing remix as an institutional activity, and given the ethos of ABC Pool to experiment with new and innovative ways of engaging the audience, remix is crucial to its operation. However given the complaints of the other users that Main$treaM’s material was inappropriate, the problem arose of how to manage contentious remix activity. Aligning with Jenkins’s convergent cultures and Bruns’s produsage theories which incorporates the audience into the production process, the ABC Pool project was required to promote remix as a suitable activity for its users. Remix as an online activist activity in turn attracted the societal dissent approach from remix artists, providing a problem of adhering to the rules and regulations of the ABC more broadly. In the immediacy of the complaint, a large proportion of Main$treaM’s material was temporarily unpublished from ABC Pool until the team could provide a suitable solution on how to solve the tensions. The Legal Consultation Process In an instance such as this, an ABC employee is required to consult the editorial policy people to seek their advice on the most appropriate approach on the problematic material. The ABC Editorial Policies representatives referenced the material in the then Section 9 of the Editorial Policies, which relates to user-generated content. After the consultation process, they could see no breach of the guidelines; however, given the obscene constitution of the material, they suggested the Pool team refer the material to ABC Legal, a process in the ABC known as ‘referring up’. ABC Legal had a team of media lawyers interrogate the material from a criminal law perspective. It is worth noting, in both departments, Legal and Editorial Policies, there was support for Main$treaM’s creative expression (Fieldnotes, 2011). However, both parties were approaching the material and acting in a risk management capacity to protect the integrity of the ABC brand. After receiving the approval of the editorial policy people, the ABC Pool team had to seek the advice from ABC Legal. After two weeks of investigation, ABC Legal returned the following recommendations for the Pool team: Ultimately, risk management is the deciding factor to determine if the material should be published or not, supported by a solid defense should the case go to court.There are three areas to be considered with Main$treaM’s content:CopyrightDefamatoryObscenityIn regards to copyright, it is OK to publish in this case because the works are covered by parody or satire as the pieces have a focussed angle, or subject (John Laws).Defamation is more complicated. Firstly, we have to establish if the usual person could identify the defamed person. If yes, we need to establish what imputations there are, i.e. homophobic tendencies, pedophilia, etc. For each imputation, we need to establish if there is a defense. Typical defenses are honest opinion, expressed as one’s view, or truth. Honest Opinion needs to have a base to relate it to and not just a rant – i.e. John Laws was caught in the Cash for Comments scandal but there is no evidence to suggest he is a pedophile (unless the artists knows a truth – which becomes complicated again).Obscenity comes under classification, and since Pool does not have a rating system in place, we cannot offer this as a way to avoid publishing. A standard example of this relates to a younger audience member having the same access to an obscene piece of content (as guided by Pool’s Guidelines Section 4.1 a and b).These rules are premised by how do I read it/hear it. This is how a jury of citizens will approach the same piece of content. Risk management is also present when we ask how will John Laws hear about it, and what will the community think about it.(Fieldnotes, 2011) The suggestions the legal team returned are significant in highlighting the position of a media institution that facilitates remix. What is relevant here is a public service media organisation is a specific type of media organisation that is responsible for facilitating increased citizenry through its activities (Cunningham). Martin builds on the work of Jacka and Hartley to highlight how the ABC should be encouraging ‘DIY citizenry’. She says the combination of the core Reithian values of educate, inform and entertain can be combined with new media technologies that enable a “semiotic self determination model” to construct a “national semiosis model” (Hartley 161). However, there is a clear misalignment between the values of the PSM and the remix artist. What was required was the presence of a cultural intermediary to assist in calibrating those values and engaging in a negotiation phase between the two stakeholders. A cultural intermediary is a human or non-human actor that is located between the production and consumption of cultural artifacts and aids in facilitating the negotiation space between different expertise disciplines. In this case, it was the role of the community manager to attempt to connect the two approaches and enable remix practice to continue under the auspices of the ABC. The ABC had shifted its approach towards some of the Main$treaM material, but given its regulatory framework was unable to facilitate all of his contributions. Unfortunately in this case, Main$treaM did not align with the requirements of the ABC, left the Pool community and did not continue his practice of remix within the ABC any further. Conclusion Remixed texts that are published on PSM platforms demonstrate high levels of dependency on existing mass media texts, aligning them with the approach of the media dependency theory (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur). Remixed texts are also cultural products of artists that live in media and not with media, as noted by Deuze (Media Industries, Work and Life) and are the result of mass cultural practice that manipulates the meaning of multiple cultural artefacts (Lessig). Remix as a form of online activism is also representative of Hall’s oppositional reading of texts which enable the practitioner to deepen their involvement within the social construction of reality (Adoni & Mane). Convergence cultures represent the audience’s ever-increasing desire to participate in the production of media and not merely consume it (Jenkins). The theoretical alignment of remix with these theories suggests remixed texts have a deeper and richer cultural representation than that of its institutionally produced parent text. However, collaboratively produced cultural artefacts via remix are problematised by the digital divide debate, specifically through the access of tools and knowledge for this practice. Lin terms this problem as ‘techno-elite’ where only certain individuals have access and knowledge and tools to engage in these types of cultural activities facilitated by PSM. Further, Carpentier challenges this type of participation by asking if we have access and can interact, are we really participating in a democratising activity, given the promises of online activism? Given that PSM is pursuing the concept of the audience as user, which positions the audience as a producer of content across online environments, facilitating the practice of remix should align with its core values to inform, educate and entertain (Martin). However as we have seen with the Main$treaM case, this is problematic when attempting to align the focus of a remix artist with that of PSM. In these instances the work of the cultural intermediary as the disciplinary expertise negotiator becomes critical to increase the societal representation within the production and consumption of cultural artefacts produced through the activity of remix. A public service broadcaster that is supportive of both institutionally produced texts, along with socially informed text production through remix, will be a rigorous media organisation that supports a better informed citizenry, or as Hartley suggests a self determined national semiosis model. References Adoni, Hanna, and Sherrill Mane. "Media and the Social Construction of Reality: Toward and Integration of Theory and Research." Communication Research 11.3 (1984): 323-40. Ball-Rokeach, Sandra, and DeFluer, Melvin. "A Dependency Model of Mass Media Effects." Communication Research 3 (1976): 3-21. Bruns, Axel. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Carpentier, Nico. "The Concept of Participation. If They Have Access and Interact, Do They Really Participate?" Communication Management Quarterly 21 (2011): 13-36. Cunningham, Stuart. Hidden Innovation: Policy, Industry and the Creative Sector. Creative Economy and Innovation Culture. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2013. Deuze, Mark. Media Work. London: Polity Press, 2007. Deuze, Mark. "Media Industries, Work and Life." European Journal of Communication 24 (2009): 467. Enli, Gunn Sara. "Redefining Public Service Broadcasting." Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 14.1 (2008): 105 - 20. González-Bailón, Sandra, et al. "The Dynamics of Protest Recruitment through an Online Network." Scientific Reports 1.197 (2011). Hall, Stuart. Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse. Council of Europe Colloquy on "Training In The Critical Reading of Television Language". 1973. Hartley, John. "Communicative Democracy in a Redactional Society: The Future of Journalism Studies." Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism 1.1 (2001): 39-48. Jacka, Liz. "'Good Democracy': The Role of Public Service Broadcasting." The Centre for Culture and History (2001). 2 Feb. 2013 < http://www.cmchnyu.org/pdfs/jacka.pdf >. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture - Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Johnson, Rob. Cash for Comment: The Seduction of Journo Culture. Media.Culture Series. Sydney: Pluto Press, 2000. Jones, Christopher. "Activism or Slacktivism? The Role of Social Media in Effecting Social Change." Research Paper. School of Engineering and Applied Science: University of Virginia, 2013. Knobel, Michele, and Colin Lankshear. "Remix: The Art and Craft of Endless Hybridization." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52.1 (2008): 22-33. Lessig, Lawrence. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. New York: Penguin, 2008. Lin, Yu-Wei. "The Emergence of the Techno-Elite Audience and Free/Open Source Content: A Case Study on Bbc Backstage." Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 9.2 (2012): 597-613. Long, Paul, and Tim Wall. "Investigating Audiences: What Do People Do with Media?" Media Studies: Texts, Production and Context. Eds. P. Long et al. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited, 2009. 240-72. Martin, Fiona. "Beyond Public Service Broadcasting? ABC Online and the User/Citizen." Southern Review: Communication, Politics and Culture 35.1 (2002): 42-62. Rosen, Jay. "The People Formerly Known as the Audience." Pressthink: Ghost of Democracy in the Media Machine (2006). 2 Feb. 2013 < http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/apr/25/bbc.broadcasting >. Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organising without Organisations. New York: Allen Lane, 2008.

The Australian Government has been actively evaluating how best to merge the functions of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) for around two years now. Broadly, the reason for this is an attempt to keep pace with the communications media transformations we reduce to the term “convergence.” Mounting pressure for restructuring is emerging as a site of turf contestation: the possibility of a regulatory “one-stop shop” for governments (and some industry players) is an end game of considerable force. But, from a public interest perspective, the case for a converged regulator needs to make sense to audiences using various media, as well as in terms of arguments about global, industrial, and technological change. This national debate about the institutional reshaping of media regulation is occurring within a wider global context of transformations in social, technological, and politico-economic frameworks of open capital and cultural markets, including the increasing prominence of international economic organisations, corporations, and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Although the recently concluded FTA with the US explicitly carves out a right for Australian Governments to make regulatory policy in relation to existing and new media, considerable uncertainty remains as to future regulatory arrangements. A key concern is how a right to intervene in cultural markets will be sustained in the face of cultural, politico-economic, and technological pressures that are reconfiguring creative industries on an international scale. While the right to intervene was retained for the audiovisual sector in the FTA, by contrast, it appears that comparable unilateral rights to intervene will not operate for telecommunications, e-commerce or intellectual property (DFAT). Blurring Boundaries A lack of certainty for audiences is a by-product of industry change, and further blurs regulatory boundaries: new digital media content and overlapping delivering technologies are already a reality for Australia’s media regulators. These hypothetical media usage scenarios indicate how confusion over the appropriate regulatory agency may arise: 1. playing electronic games that use racist language; 2. being subjected to deceptive or misleading pop-up advertising online 3. receiving messaged imagery on your mobile phone that offends, disturbs, or annoys; 4. watching a program like World Idol with SMS voting that subsequently raises charging or billing issues; or 5. watching a new “reality” TV program where products are being promoted with no explicit acknowledgement of the underlying commercial arrangements either during or at the end of the program. These are all instances where, theoretically, regulatory mechanisms are in place that allow individuals to complain and to seek some kind of redress as consumers and citizens. In the last scenario, in commercial television under the sector code, no clear-cut rules exist as to the precise form of the disclosure—as there is (from 2000) in commercial radio. It’s one of a number of issues the peak TV industry lobby Commercial TV Australia (CTVA) is considering in their review of the industry’s code of practice. CTVA have proposed an amendment to the code that will simply formalise the already existing practice . That is, commercial arrangements that assist in the making of a program should be acknowledged either during programs, or in their credits. In my view, this amendment doesn’t go far enough in post “cash for comment” mediascapes (Dwyer). Audiences have a right to expect that broadcasters, production companies and program celebrities are open and transparent with the Australian community about these kinds of arrangements. They need to be far more clearly signposted, and people better informed about their role. In the US, the “Commercial Alert” <http://www.commercialalert.org/> organisation has been lobbying the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to achieve similar in-program “visual acknowledgements.” The ABA’s Commercial Radio Inquiry (“Cash-for-Comment”) found widespread systemic regulatory failure and introduced three new standards. On that basis, how could a “standstill” response by CTVA, constitute best practice for such a pervasive and influential medium as contemporary commercial television? The World Idol example may lead to confusion for some audiences, who are unsure whether the issues involved relate to broadcasting or telecommunications. In fact, it could be dealt with as a complaint to the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) under an ACA registered, but Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) developed, code of practice. These kind of cross-platform issues may become more vexed in future years from an audience’s perspective, especially if reality formats using on-screen premium rate service numbers invite audiences to participate, by sending MMS (multimedia messaging services) images or short video grabs over wireless networks. The political and cultural implications of this kind of audience interaction, in terms of access, participation, and more generally the symbolic power of media, may perhaps even indicate a longer-term shift in relations with consumers and citizens. In the Internet example, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Internet advertising jurisdiction would apply—not the ABA’s “co-regulatory” Internet content regime as some may have thought. Although the ACCC deals with complaints relating to Internet advertising, there won’t be much traction for them in a more complex issue that also includes, say, racist or religious bigotry. The DVD example would probably fall between the remits of the Office of Film and Literature Classification’s (OFLC) new “convergent” Guidelines for the Classification of Film and Computer Games and race discrimination legislation administered by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). The OFLC’s National Classification Scheme is really geared to provide consumer advice on media products that contain sexual and violent imagery or coarse language, rather than issues of racist language. And it’s unlikely that a single person would have the locus standito even apply for a reclassification. It may fall within the jurisdiction of the HREOC depending on whether it was played in public or not. Even then it would probably be considered exempt on free speech grounds as an “artistic work.” Unsolicited, potentially illegal, content transmitted via mobile wireless devices, in particular 3G phones, provide another example of content that falls between the media regulation cracks. It illustrates a potential content policy “turf grab” too. Image-enabled mobile phones create a variety of novel issues for content producers, network operators, regulators, parents and viewers. There is no one government media authority or agency with a remit to deal with this issue. Although it has elements relating to the regulatory activities of the ACA, the ABA, the OFLC, the TIO, and TISSC, the combination of illegal or potentially prohibited content and its carriage over wireless networks positions it outside their current frameworks. The ACA may argue it should have responsibility for this kind of content since: it now enforces the recently enacted Commonwealth anti-Spam laws; has registered an industry code of practice for unsolicited content delivered over wireless networks; is seeking to include ‘adult’ content within premium rate service numbers, and, has been actively involved in consumer education for mobile telephony. It has also worked with TISSC and the ABA in relation to telephone sex information services over voice networks. On the other hand, the ABA would probably argue that it has the relevant expertise for regulating wirelessly transmitted image-content, arising from its experience of Internet and free and subscription TV industries, under co-regulatory codes of practice. The OFLC can also stake its claim for policy and compliance expertise, since the recently implemented Guidelines for Classification of Film and Computer Games were specifically developed to address issues of industry convergence. These Guidelines now underpin the regulation of content across the film, TV, video, subscription TV, computer games and Internet sectors. Reshaping Institutions Debates around the “merged regulator” concept have occurred on and off for at least a decade, with vested interests in agencies and the executive jockeying to stake claims over new turf. On several occasions the debate has been given renewed impetus in the context of ruling conservative parties’ mooted changes to the ownership and control regime. It’s tended to highlight demarcations of remit, informed as they are by historical and legal developments, and the gradual accretion of regulatory cultures. Now the key pressure points for regulatory change include the mere existence of already converged single regulatory structures in those countries with whom we tend to triangulate our policy comparisons—the US, the UK and Canada—increasingly in a context of debates concerning international trade agreements; and, overlaying this, new media formats and devices are complicating existing institutional arrangements and legal frameworks. The Department of Communications, Information Technology & the Arts’s (DCITA) review brief was initially framed as “options for reform in spectrum management,” but was then widened to include “new institutional arrangements” for a converged regulator, to deal with visual content in the latest generation of mobile telephony, and other image-enabled wireless devices (DCITA). No other regulatory agencies appear, at this point, to be actively on the Government’s radar screen (although they previously have been). Were the review to look more inclusively, the ACCC, the OFLC and the specialist telecommunications bodies, the TIO and the TISSC may also be drawn in. Current regulatory arrangements see the ACA delegate responsibility for broadcasting services bands of the radio frequency spectrum to the ABA. In fact, spectrum management is the turf least contested by the regulatory players themselves, although the “convergent regulator” issue provokes considerable angst among powerful incumbent media players. The consensus that exists at a regulatory level can be linked to the scientific convention that holds the radio frequency spectrum is a continuum of electromagnetic bands. In this view, it becomes artificial to sever broadcasting, as “broadcasting services bands” from the other remaining highly diverse communications uses, as occurred from 1992 when the Broadcasting Services Act was introduced. The prospect of new forms of spectrum charging is highly alarming for commercial broadcasters. In a joint submission to the DCITA review, the peak TV and radio industry lobby groups have indicated they will fight tooth and nail to resist new regulatory arrangements that would see a move away from the existing licence fee arrangements. These are paid as a sliding scale percentage of gross earnings that, it has been argued by Julian Thomas and Marion McCutcheon, “do not reflect the amount of spectrum used by a broadcaster, do not reflect the opportunity cost of using the spectrum, and do not provide an incentive for broadcasters to pursue more efficient ways of delivering their services” (6). An economic rationalist logic underpins pressure to modify the spectrum management (and charging) regime, and undoubtedly contributes to the commercial broadcasting industry’s general paranoia about reform. Total revenues collected by the ABA and the ACA between 1997 and 2002 were, respectively, $1423 million and $3644.7 million. Of these sums, using auction mechanisms, the ABA collected $391 million, while the ACA collected some $3 billion. The sale of spectrum that will be returned to the Commonwealth by television broadcasters when analog spectrum is eventually switched off, around the end of the decade, is a salivating prospect for Treasury officials. The large sums that have been successfully raised by the ACA boosts their position in planning discussions for the convergent media regulatory agency. The way in which media outlets and regulators respond to publics is an enduring question for a democratic polity, irrespective of how the product itself has been mediated and accessed. Media regulation and civic responsibility, including frameworks for negotiating consumer and citizen rights, are fundamental democratic rights (Keane; Tambini). The ABA’s Commercial Radio Inquiry (‘cash for comment’) has also reminded us that regulatory frameworks are important at the level of corporate conduct, as well as how they negotiate relations with specific media audiences (Johnson; Turner; Gordon-Smith). Building publicly meaningful regulatory frameworks will be demanding: relationships with audiences are often complex as people are constructed as both consumers and citizens, through marketised media regulation, institutions and more recently, through hybridising program formats (Murdock and Golding; Lumby and Probyn). In TV, we’ve seen the growth of infotainment formats blending entertainment and informational aspects of media consumption. At a deeper level, changes in the regulatory landscape are symptomatic of broader tectonic shifts in the discourses of governance in advanced information economies from the late 1980s onwards, where deregulatory agendas created an increasing reliance on free market, business-oriented solutions to regulation. “Co-regulation” and “self-regulation’ became the preferred mechanisms to more direct state control. Yet, curiously contradicting these market transformations, we continue to witness recurring instances of direct intervention on the basis of censorship rationales (Dwyer and Stockbridge). That digital media content is “converging” between different technologies and modes of delivery is the norm in “new media” regulatory rhetoric. Others critique “visions of techno-glory,” arguing instead for a view that sees fundamental continuities in media technologies (Winston). But the socio-cultural impacts of new media developments surround us: the introduction of multichannel digital and interactive TV (in free-to-air and subscription variants); broadband access in the office and home; wirelessly delivered content and mobility, and, as Jock Given notes, around the corner, there’s the possibility of “an Amazon.Com of movies-on-demand, with the local video and DVD store replaced by online access to a distant server” (90). Taking a longer view of media history, these changes can be seen to be embedded in the global (and local) “innovation frontier” of converging digital media content industries and its transforming modes of delivery and access technologies (QUT/CIRAC/Cutler & Co). The activities of regulatory agencies will continue to be a source of policy rivalry and turf contestation until such time as a convergent regulator is established to the satisfaction of key players. However, there are risks that the benefits of institutional reshaping will not be readily available for either audiences or industry. In the past, the idea that media power and responsibility ought to coexist has been recognised in both the regulation of the media by the state, and the field of communications media analysis (Curran and Seaton; Couldry). But for now, as media industries transform, whatever the eventual institutional configuration, the evolution of media power in neo-liberal market mediascapes will challenge the ongoing capacity for interventions by national governments and their agencies. Works Cited Australian Broadcasting Authority. Commercial Radio Inquiry: Final Report of the Australian Broadcasting Authority. Sydney: ABA, 2000. Australian Communications Information Forum. Industry Code: Short Message Service (SMS) Issues. Dec. 2002. 8 Mar. 2004 <http://www.acif.org.au/__data/page/3235/C580_Dec_2002_ACA.pdf >. Commercial Television Australia. Draft Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. Aug. 2003. 8 Mar. 2004 <http://www.ctva.com.au/control.cfm?page=codereview&pageID=171&menucat=1.2.110.171&Level=3>. Couldry, Nick. The Place of Media Power: Pilgrims and Witnesses of the Media Age. London: Routledge, 2000. Curran, James, and Jean Seaton. Power without Responsibility: The Press, Broadcasting and New Media in Britain. 6th ed. London: Routledge, 2003. Dept. of Communication, Information Technology and the Arts. Options for Structural Reform in Spectrum Management. Canberra: DCITA, Aug. 2002. ---. Proposal for New Institutional Arrangements for the ACA and the ABA. Aug. 2003. 8 Mar. 2004 <http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_1-4_116552,00.php>. Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement. Feb. 2004. 8 Mar. 2004 <http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/us_fta/outcomes/11_audio_visual.php>. Dwyer, Tim. Submission to Commercial Television Australia’s Review of the Commercial Television Industry’s Code of Practice. Sept. 2003. Dwyer, Tim, and Sally Stockbridge. “Putting Violence to Work in New Media Policies: Trends in Australian Internet, Computer Game and Video Regulation.” New Media and Society 1.2 (1999): 227-49. Given, Jock. America’s Pie: Trade and Culture After 9/11. Sydney: U of NSW P, 2003. Gordon-Smith, Michael. “Media Ethics After Cash-for-Comment.” The Media and Communications in Australia. Ed. Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2002. Johnson, Rob. Cash-for-Comment: The Seduction of Journo Culture. Sydney: Pluto, 2000. Keane, John. The Media and Democracy. Cambridge: Polity, 1991. Lumby, Cathy, and Elspeth Probyn, eds. Remote Control: New Media, New Ethics. Melbourne: Cambridge UP, 2003. Murdock, Graham, and Peter Golding. “Information Poverty and Political Inequality: Citizenship in the Age of Privatized Communications.” Journal of Communication 39.3 (1991): 180-95. QUT, CIRAC, and Cutler & Co. Research and Innovation Systems in the Production of Digital Content and Applications: Report for the National Office for the Information Economy. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, Sept. 2003. Tambini, Damian. Universal Access: A Realistic View. IPPR/Citizens Online Research Publication 1. London: IPPR, 2000. Thomas, Julian and Marion McCutcheon. “Is Broadcasting Special? Charging for Spectrum.” Conference paper. ABA conference, Canberra. May 2003. Turner, Graeme. “Talkback, Advertising and Journalism: A cautionary tale of self-regulated radio”. International Journal of Cultural Studies 3.2 (2000): 247-255. ---. “Reshaping Australian Institutions: Popular Culture, the Market and the Public Sphere.” Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs. Ed. Tony Bennett and David Carter. Melbourne: Cambridge UP, 2001. Winston, Brian. Media, Technology and Society: A History from the Telegraph to the Internet. London: Routledge, 1998. Web Links http://www.aba.gov.au http://www.aca.gov.au http://www.accc.gov.au http://www.acif.org.au http://www.adma.com.au http://www.ctva.com.au http://www.crtc.gc.ca http://www.dcita.com.au http://www.dfat.gov.au http://www.fcc.gov http://www.ippr.org.uk http://www.ofcom.org.uk http://www.oflc.gov.au Links http://www.commercialalert.org/ Citation reference for this article MLA Style Dwyer, Tim. "Transformations" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/06-transformations.php>. APA Style Dwyer, T. (2004, Mar17). Transformations. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 7, <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/06-transformations.php>