50170 Australian Communication and Cultural Policy

This subject examines how public policy processes attempt to rationalise the political, economic, technological, and social conditions underpinning Australia's communication and cultural industries. Despite the rhetoric of free market competition, national governments still attempt to foster, constrain, control or otherwise regulate broadcasting, telecommunications, the internet, and cultural production and consumption.

This subject starts by examining the present and future of television, and then looking at telecommunications issues, including the development of broadband and the increasing importance of global media regulation. This is such a broad topic that students need to look at a wide range of issues including digital television broadcasting, data-casting and multi-channelling; cultural subsidies and quotas for film and television production; commercial and public service broadcasting, the impact of convergence and the increasing relevance of telecommunications regimes in broadcasting; intellectual property; and international issues, including the role of the WTO in the communications sector and the impact of globalisation on national communications systems.

Students are encouraged to explore critically and analyse how and why governments construct markets, condition technological futures, and support and circumscribe cultural outcomes. In the assignments and tutorials, students research and investigate current policy processes and analyse industry positions. The focus is mainly on understanding policy formulation in a governmental sense but theoretical concepts such as political, economic and cultural power, the public sphere and civil society are also examined.

The subject comprises lectures, including lectures by industry specialists, followed by tutorial discussions on the readings/research set for each week.