ABC


This is not the time for Mark Scott to build empires

Last week’s speech by ABC managing director Mark Scott advocates the creation of an expensive new ABC global television service as “an important way of putting Australian democracy on display”. But there’s a much more important place for the ABC to do that — at home, writes Eric Beecher.

#PwnedNudieRun: How Jonathan Holmes got the internet to take its clothes off

Media Watch watchers may have had a giggle when host Jonathan Holmes said “pwned” on Monday night’s show — but they’d have ROFLed uproariously if they knew it was all a Twitter-led dare that would see bloggers forced to go on a nudie run in return.

Watch the 4 Corners report: Malcolm and the malcontents

Watch the ABC’s 4 Corners report that exposed the Coalition’s deep divisions over the issue of climate change and caused further rifts within the party.

Summer in November at the ABC: it just shouldn’t happen

Mark Scott has the well-supported ambition of making the ABC into something more than just a national broadcaster. It is starting to happen in some bits, but in others it resembles a sheltered workshop. Part-time current affairs is no longer good enough.

ABC board no longer in the orbit of Planet Janet

Right-wing commentator Janet Albrechtsen, a controversial appointee by the Howard government, will not be reappointed to the ABC Board when her term expires in February.

Video of the Day: Julian Morrow’s Andrew Olle Media Lecture

The Chaser’s Julian Morrow delivers this year’s Andrew Olle Media Lecture, offering a surprisingly witty and insightful take on press freedom, censorship and media ownership.

Crikey Says: Clash of the media titans at Media140

A certain slack-jawed wonderment ran around the room at yesterday’s Media140 conference in Sydney, when a senior News Ltd journalist rose to spruik the vested corporate interests of her employer…

The ABC and Australia’s strategic policy — playing our part

ABC insider Wart Snall reports on Mark Scott’s proposed expansion of the ABC’s international presence. What part should the ABC play on putting Australia on display?

The ABC plans for world domination

Yesterday, ABC chief Mark Scott announced the broadcaster’s plans to become a global media force. Is the ABC pitching to become a propaganda arm of the Australian Government? asks Karl Quinn; and is that really something taxpayers should be funding?

Golden Retriever Digest proudly presents…

… an open letter to Kevin Rudd

The ABC needs a Pacific Solution

Mark Scott is pitching for a dramatic expansion in the ABC’s international presence, but Australia just isn’t enough of a cultural heavyweight to compete with America or the UK. Why not focus on the Pacific region, where we actually have some cultural credibility?

Mark Scott on merging media professionals and their audience

The ABC will be experimenting with new methods of producing journalism through “pro-am” collaborations between media professionals and the audience, the ABC managing director Mark Scott said at the Media140 conference in Sydney this morning, writes Margaret Simons.

The ABC gets social and local

Margaret Simons reports live from the Media140 conference, where ABC chief Mark Scott has made some announcements about Auntie’s future: a digital media project in local communities, ABC “widgets” for social media pages, and staff guidelines for using social media.

Why did the ABC axe its Good Game geek?

The ABC is under attack from Australia’s gaming community after axing one of the original hosts of its Good Game program. The bone-ee, “Junglist” (it’s a geek thing), claims the ABC wanted to make room for a female host, but all the other GG team members say otherwise.

Future of the ABC: less broadcaster, more webmaster

The shift in the ABC’s Arts programming from TV and radio to the web heralds a much larger metamorphosis for the broadcaster, in which the web is its primary form and other mediums just exist to feed it content, writes Karl Quinn.

Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: The biennial ABC indigenous staff love-in

Will the ABC executive perform a “rap dance” (a “dance” presumably pronounced with a long a) as part of their ABC indigenous staff team building? At least there are no plastic chains this year.

Wankley Awards: Getting your stolen Safran knickers in a twist

Blackface! A crucifixion! Masturbation! This week’s coveted Wankley award goes to the outrage surrounding John Safran’s new show Race Relations before it had even aired. Storm in a teacup, anyone?

Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Book launch of the year?

What book launch — dubed a “warts-and-all autobiography” — next week in Sydney is expected to ruffle a few media feathers? And ABC TV plans a big management and structural revamp.

Auntie gives Rupert a helping hand with Punch

Anyone watching the media over the past week might have been tempted to think that there was a war going on between News Limited and the ABC. Except, there is a big gap between rhetoric and reality.

News bites back at the ABC

News Digital Media CEO Richard Freudenstein hits back at the “misguided commentary and criticism” of News Corp and its Dear Leader made by ABC chief Mark Scott last week.

Your ABC and their News Limited: the media’s empire games

A speech last night by ABC chief Mark Scott was a pre-emptive strike in what will be the main media battle of the first quarter of this century — between paid content and public broadcasting.

Mark Scott’s fall of Rome fallacy

ABC chief Mark Scott’s comparison of the ongoing media revolution and the fall of the Roman Empire hardly fills one with confidence, says Trevor Cook: after the “fall” came the Dark Ages.

Scott: The ABC will always be free

Media moguls’ mission to make people pay for content will not work and cannot work, except for a few highly specialised high quality brands, ABC managing director Mark Scott said in an address last night.

Rundle: Bolter’s back on Insiders!

Andrew Bolt was back on the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, reports Guy Rundle. As usual, he talked all over everyone, maintaining a veneer of civility only until he could get a cheap shot in at David Marr about global warming.

The ABC: now Godless

ABC GM Mark Scott has failed to make good on his promise to give more mainstream coverage to religious issues since axing Radio National’s The Religion Report, says Paul Collins. An analysis of last week alone shows the broadcaster missed at least five big stories.