Who Needs the ABC? (Paperback)

Patrick Mullins and Matthew Ricketson

ISBN 10: 1922310921 / ISBN 13: 9781922310927

Published by Scribe Publications, Carlton North, 2022

About this Item

Paperback. Who Needs the ABC? charts how the best-trusted news organisation in Australia arrived at its current predicament- doing the most it ever has, with less than it needs, under a barrage of constant criticism. This book examines the profound changes that have swept through the Australian media, technology, and political landscapes in the past decade, and explores the tense relationship between the ABC and governments of both stripes over the past 40 years. It dispels any complacency about the ABC's future by charting the very real threat now posed by the hostility of the Liberal-National Party coalition, and the damage that it has done to the ABC over the past nine years. Amid this, Who Needs the ABC? identifies the vital role that the ABC has played and continues to play in Australia today- in its award-winning journalism, in its vast array of cultural programming on television, radio, and online, and the comprehensive service it provides, geographically and culturally, to people across the country. At a time when the truth has to vie with obfuscation and misinformation, this book offers a rejoinder to the ABC's critics, points to a way out of the ABC's current predicament, and answers the question posed by the title. Who Needs the ABC? We do. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781922310927

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Who Needs the ABC? (Paperback)
• Publisher: Scribe Publications, Carlton North
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1922310921
• ISBN 13: 9781922310927
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is under an existential threat, especially from the conservative federal government, even though it is the best-trusted news organisation in Australia, and plays a vital role in Australian life.

For years, the ABC’s funding has been slashed, forcing it to let go journalists with decades of experience in asking hard questions about anyone and everyone, including government. It has been besieged by written complaints from ministers, hectoring by prime ministers, and intense pressure on its most senior executives. Its board has been stacked with a succession of political appointees. It has been relentlessly, often baselessly, attacked by the Murdoch media.

Apart from the external attacks, the ABC has also inflicted damage on itself. It has not only shed staff but has cut important programs; contentious enterprises have been dropped and replaced by benign, inoffensive ones. It is not surprising that staff morale at the ABC has sunk in recent years.

This book details how the travails of the ABC in this period fit into a global debate about the role of public broadcasting in the modern era. Who Needs the ABC? also takes seriously the arguments made for the ABC’s break-up and privatisation, and offers a rejoinder to those calls. It doesn't shy away from the failings that have led to the ABC’s current parlous position, but it identifies the vital role that it plays in Australian cultural and democratic life, and argues for a continuation of that role — and shows how it can be done.