tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/radio-national-9818/articlesRadio National – The Conversation2016-11-25T05:48:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/693972016-11-25T05:48:43Z2016-11-25T05:48:43ZChanges to Radio National are gutting a cultural treasure trove<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147528/original/image-20161125-15344-5knzuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The latest RN makeover is largely about talk – a cheap format that costs little to produce.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tracey Nearmy/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“RN is the home of big thinking, big ideas, and the national conversation,” <a href="https://radio.press.abc.net.au/ideas-network-rn-announces-2017-lineup">the statement </a>from ABC management said. It seems odd that, in pursuit of that notion, RN intends to halve the output of its documentary program, Earshot; cease almost all music broadcasting; abort its flagship sound art show, Soundproof, and a short-form storytelling show, PocketDocs; and dispense with the services of respected religious broadcaster John Cleary as well as seven music and features producers.</p>
<p>Cleary’s show, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/sundaynights/">Sunday Nights</a>, deals with “religion and ethics, beliefs and values, as they shape the issues affecting daily life in Australia and around the world”. Given how much religion has informed the geopolitical landscape since 9/11, it is extraordinary that the ABC would terminate a presenter who is not only manifestly expert in this sensitive area, but whose ratings are also remarkable. Often, they were within a few points of the popular host Tony Delroy, who until recently occupied the slot weeknights.</p>
<p>The new schedule continues the gradual undermining of the specialisation that has been crucial to RN’s output and success. RN producers are often noted experts or intellectuals in their field, with the added virtue of understanding the radio medium.</p>
<p>Their collective output is a cultural <a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-national-is-a-leader-in-cultural-radio-heres-why-26799">treasure trove</a>, which has been increasingly gutted – from the evisceration of radio drama and the loss of top-notch producers and shows in 2013 to the digital-driven remit of today. As Robyn Ravlich, an award-winning former RN producer who still freelances for the network, told me, the best public radio is about much more than talk:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The value of radio features and other creative forms is long-lasting … and beneficial in that complex ideas and stories can be told in imaginative ways that engage listeners. They are a necessary adjunct to more topical talk programs, which lose currency and value very quickly.</p>
<p>RN should not just be a collection of programs with talking heads that report on what’s happening. Public service broadcasting has a special mandate to create radio that is artistic and in itself a contribution to culture.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147525/original/image-20161125-15356-pcdfdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147525/original/image-20161125-15356-pcdfdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147525/original/image-20161125-15356-pcdfdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147525/original/image-20161125-15356-pcdfdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147525/original/image-20161125-15356-pcdfdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147525/original/image-20161125-15356-pcdfdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147525/original/image-20161125-15356-pcdfdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147525/original/image-20161125-15356-pcdfdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kim Williams.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the latest RN makeover is largely about talk – a cheap format that costs little to produce. There’s What Keeps Me Awake, a talkfest with “high-profile Australians” to be hosted by former News Corp boss Kim Williams; Arts Weekly, “a snappy conversational podcast about the arts”, hosted by Cassie McCullagh. A weekly panel-based show, God Forbid, will discuss religious and ethical issues – but only for an hour, compared to Cleary’s four.</p>
<p>There are positive changes. An Indigenous Unit will be created, along with three junior producer positions. But while hiring young producers could be said to bring fresh ideas and approaches, seasoned staff see it more cynically, as a recruitment of cheap labour. </p>
<h2>A toxic atmosphere</h2>
<p>So toxic is the atmosphere at RN that none of the RN employees I spoke to for this article would be named. At the time of writing, a meeting of some 60 Sydney staff had passed a unanimous motion of <a href="https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/abc-staff-pass-no-confidence-motion-management">no confidence</a> in RN management, complaining of a lack of consultation about the changes, an erosion of producer control over program content, an undermining of specialist content and a top-heavy management-to-producer ratio.</p>
<p>The changes were announced by Judith Whelan, RN’s new Head of Spoken Word Content – an appointment that senior staff found bizarre, given her lack of experience in audio (she is a former magazine and newspaper journalist and editor).</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147514/original/image-20161125-15362-zdrxiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147514/original/image-20161125-15362-zdrxiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147514/original/image-20161125-15362-zdrxiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147514/original/image-20161125-15362-zdrxiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147514/original/image-20161125-15362-zdrxiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147514/original/image-20161125-15362-zdrxiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147514/original/image-20161125-15362-zdrxiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147514/original/image-20161125-15362-zdrxiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There is tension within the network.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vanessa Pike-Russell/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Corporate-speak has crept into the creative realm, with one manager saying at a meeting this week that RN needed to deliver a “return on investment”. This is a departure from the loftier language of the ABC <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/how-the-abc-is-run/what-guides-us/legislative-framework/">Charter</a>, which describes “programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community”. </p>
<p>Recent ABC audience <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/cm/lb/7890592/data/abc-ozpod-audience-research-data.pdf#View%20the%20full%20survey%20results%20and%20research.">research</a> into podcasts delineates listener demographics by age. Says one RN staffer: “That may work for selling shoes but it does not apply to purveying knowledge.” The push, the staffer says, is for content that is “young, sexy, funny or foodie”.</p>
<p>Much of the tension at RN derives from a division between the digital-first operations of the network (which make podcasts such as the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/firstrun/">First Run</a> series and ran a popular <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/ozpod/">OzPod</a> conference in September) and the longstanding “linear” RN producers, presenters and sound engineering staff. </p>
<p>The latter resent being portrayed as “fuddy-duddy, leftie conservatives, resistant to technical change”, as one put it, given that, since the days of the crystal set, radio has never been static – and RN has often been ahead of the curve.</p>
<p>While podcasting has enjoyed a <a href="https://theconversation.com/video-didnt-kill-the-radio-star-shes-hosting-a-podcast-59987">much-vaunted boom</a> since 2014, UK media scholar Kate Lacey has pointed out that “radio invented liveness, mass communication, participatory media and mobility”. But what’s old is new, and if <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/rn-podcasting/">podcasting</a> can help RN grow the “30+ digitally-savvy audiences” that, according to a recent memo, “the ABC is seeking to capture” (and garner the desired one in every two Australian listeners), it needs to be harnessed to the hilt. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147516/original/image-20161125-15365-1m8daxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147516/original/image-20161125-15365-1m8daxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147516/original/image-20161125-15365-1m8daxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147516/original/image-20161125-15365-1m8daxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147516/original/image-20161125-15365-1m8daxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147516/original/image-20161125-15365-1m8daxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147516/original/image-20161125-15365-1m8daxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147516/original/image-20161125-15365-1m8daxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There will be new podcast-first offerings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rawpixel.com/shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As part of the changes, there will be new podcast-first offerings: The Edge, a science and health-themed show hosted by polymath broadcaster Natasha Mitchell; This is About – about “the beautiful, awkward and dismal stuff that actually happens to people” – and The Real Thing, a show about “real Australia”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, an internal “RN Production House” will create audio-rich packages to mark significant events, embed content across the network and produce short-form and history-based work as podcasts.</p>
<h2>An international success story</h2>
<p>Nowhere does the ABC management press release say why there should be a “focus on key specialist talk content”, as opposed to, say, documentary.</p>
<p>RN’s expertise in documentaries and features is world-beating, as its swag of prestigious awards, from the Prix Italia to the New York Radio Festival, shows. This <a href="http://australianaudioguide.com/radio-is-dead-long-live-radio-documentaries-and-features/">decades-old tradition</a> has been continually eroded, with the earlier axing of lauded shows such as Radio Eye, The Listening Room, The Night Air, 360 Documentaries and <a href="https://theconversation.com/axing-hindsight-and-rear-vision-would-be-historically-shortsighted-32226">Hindsight</a>, RN’s history showcase. </p>
<p>Yet outside Australia, the perception of RN’s features’ success is very different. Former BBC producer and Prix Italia winner Alan Hall, who now runs an independent UK audio production company, says of the changes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It appears bizarre deliberately to diminish the ABC’s distinctiveness and quality – in the loss of PocketDocs, Soundproof and much more – at a time when the global nature of the audio landscape has seen a great movement of listeners … beyond national borders. The best Australian radio production speaks across the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prominent American audio figure Julie Shapiro founded Soundproof in 2014 and is now executive producer of <a href="https://www.radiotopia.fm">Radiotopia</a>, an independent podcast network in the US, which makes the kind of podcasts whose success RN’s First Run seeks to emulate. Writing of the changes in US public media outlet <a href="http://transom.org/2015/julie-shapiro/">Transom.org</a>, Shapiro said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The loss of Soundproof and what it stands for – honouring creativity and imagination, taking risks, and believing in the power and importance of art in our lives – is everyone’s loss.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Earlier this week, Fairfax Media caused a kerfuffle by reporting that RN was expected to “cease to exist as an on-air transmission by the year 2020”. The story was quickly pulled. Soon after, the ABC issued a firm <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/statements/abc-statement-regarding-changes-to-rn-22-november-2016/">repudiation</a>. It said in part: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are categorically no plans to end linear broadcasting on RN. We expect it to be a full linear service well beyond 2020. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whelan emailed RN staff “to put to bed once and for all the false idea that RN is slated for a digital-only future”. The idea of a podcast-only RN disturbs many as it would mean less equitable access to its valuable content for those Australians without adequate internet or phone support. </p>
<p>There are other reasons why maintaining RN as an actual radio network is vital. The serendipity of hearing something you didn’t expect to come across, which happens when you switch on a radio but is less likely in a self-curated podcast ecology, is crucial if we are to counter the echo chambers that arguably contributed to the rise of demagogues such as Donald Trump. </p>
<p>Some experienced RN hands see the latest changes as being about something quite sinister – the eventual dismantling of RN. “Digital is only a smokescreen,” one told me. </p>
<p>Others see the promotion of conservative figures such as Kim Williams and Tom Switzer (who has links to the right-wing IPA think-tank) as ominous signs of a political agenda.</p>
<p>It has been rumoured for years that key shows Breakfast, Drive and investigative program Background Briefing might be transferred out of RN to the jurisdiction of News.</p>
<p>If that were to happen – and with production expertise asset-stripped, music performance culled and so many features and specialist programs gone or scattered incoherently in a podcast-first sphere – the undermining of the “big thinking” RN would be well on the way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69397/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Siobhan McHugh receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She has produced many documentaries for ABC RN and continues to be associated with RN as a freelance producer. She has an association with Fairfax Media, as consulting producer on the podcast Phoebe's Fall.</span></em></p>Sweeping changes proposed at Radio National undermine the network’s specialist knowledge and documentary-making savvy. Yet amid the echo chambers of social media, we need RN more than ever.Siobhan McHugh, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/346992014-12-01T03:18:58Z2014-12-01T03:18:58ZA gift adrift: what the loss of RN’s Poetica means to poets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65899/original/image-20141201-20594-1jn2vyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia's long-running poetry program, Poetica, is one of the victims of the cost-cutting at the ABC.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yasunari(康就) Nakamura(中村)/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s long-running literary flagship program – <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/">Poetica</a> on Radio National (RN) – is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/24/abc-news-division-axe-100-jobs-budget-slashed-top-tv-programs">slated for axing</a> in 2015. It’s one more casualty of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/abc">cuts to the ABC budget</a>, announced last week.</p>
<p>For the first time since 1946, ABC Radio will be without a dedicated poetry program. </p>
<p>Barry Hill, a poet and radio critic for The Age from 1978 to 1990, placed the blame not with the Government but squarely on the broadcaster’s shoulders: “Shamelessly,” <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/poetry-flagship-show-poetica-struck-down-by-abc-20141129-11vr4z.html">he wrote</a> in The Age, “the Australian Broadcasting Corporation beheaded poetry”. </p>
<p>Hill points beyond the budget to what he sees as the “mega culprits”. These include the ABC’s “managerial corporate ethos” and its “insipid grasp of what might be called a critical culture”. </p>
<p>Even if true, it hasn’t always been the case.</p>
<p>Poetry has had a safe home on radio since the ABC’s inception on July 1 1932 – as Mike Ladd details in his <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/75th-anniversary-of-abc-radio/3250424">75th anniversary of ABC Radio</a> – when the bells of Sydney’s General Post Office first were broadcast to the nation. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Joseph Lyons <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/nationalinterest/whose-abc/3280026">issued</a> the station with a charter to “provide information and entertainment, culture and gaiety” while serving “all sections and to satisfy the diversified tastes of the public”. </p>
<p>Early on, as Ladd recounts, poetry appeared on ABC radio in the form of (usually Shakespearean) dramas. Douglas Stewart was the first Australian author to have his verse dramas broadcast – beginning with The Fire on the Snow in 1941 and Ned Kelly in 1942 – followed by Colin Thiele, Rosemary Dobson and others. </p>
<p>In 1946 <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/thompson-john-joseph-11849">John Thompson</a> – poet, editor and moreover the father of actor Jack Thompson – founded Australia’s first weekly program dedicated to poetry. Quality Street ran for an impressive 27 years before being replaced by Sunday Night Radio 2 in 1973.</p>
<p>Founded by Richard Connelly, Julie Anne Ford, and Rodney Wetherell, Sunday Night Radio 2 ran regular, full-length features on poetry, as did its 1981 successor, Radio Helicon, whose executive producer was at one time the poet <a href="http://johntranter.com/00/index.html">John Tranter</a>.</p>
<p>Another long-running program, The Poet’s Tongue, appeared in 1957 and ran until 1986. In the early days the producers drew on actors, Judy Davis among them, to perform the poems. Soon the program employed the more contemporary idea of featuring the poets themselves to read and discuss their work. </p>
<p>In 1986 the Poet’s Tongue was replaced by Richard Buckham’s The Poetry Feature, a 30-minute segment slotted into the Sunday Fictions, which ran until 1994. After a brief poetry-free stint following the axing of Sunday Fictions, a program called Box Seat ran for a couple of years before morphing into Poetica in 1997.</p>
<p>Airing every Saturday afternoon since 1997, Poetica has produced more than 900 programs, 60% of which have featured Australian poets. At its peak it reached 90,000 listeners per week. According to some sources it currently attracts as many as 60,000 listeners per week, with more on the internet.</p>
<p>Produced by <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/mike-ladd/2987890">Mike Ladd</a>, Poetica draws on live readings, studio-based poetry features and on-location recordings. It is admired in the English-speaking world for the way it presents poetry, embedded in rich soundscapes, carefully crafted to enhance comprehension and heighten the listener’s experience of the poem.</p>
<p>Not only has Poetica brought poetry to a broad audience, it has also amassed a free online <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/past-programs/">archive</a> from which past programs can be downloaded by researchers and the general public. And not to be overstated, it has provided much-needed exposure for poetry publishers and a source of income for poets in the form of copyright fees. </p>
<p>A freelance radio producer, Prithvi Varatharajan, described the axing of Poetica to me as “a huge loss to Australian audiences”. He elaborates: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>George Orwell, in his essay <a href="http://orwell.ru/library/articles/poetry/english/e_poetry">Poetry and the Microphone</a>, spoke about the ‘possibilities of the radio as a means of popularising poetry’. Poetica was doing just this in Australia, and the overwhelming majority of online feedback shows just how appreciative audiences have been of the program. We can only hope that there is some room for poetry on the ABC in the future, after Poetica is gone.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It has been suggested that RN will replace Poetica – along with its axed cousins, Bush Telegraph, Into the Music, Hindsight and 360 Documentaries – with a multi-purpose, weekday feature-slot that will run commissioned 28-minute radio documentaries from freelance producers.</p>
<p>Certainly a new program offers consolation, but in its contraction of scope and expertise the successor looks to be far from commensurate with the cultural gift that was Poetica.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Lea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s long-running literary flagship program – Poetica on Radio National (RN) – is slated for axing in 2015. It’s one more casualty of the cuts to the ABC budget, announced last week. For the first…Bronwyn Lea, Senior Lecturer in the School of English, Media Studies and Art History, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/322262014-10-01T01:02:29Z2014-10-01T01:02:29ZAxing Hindsight and Rear Vision would be historically shortsighted<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60460/original/2x6npzzn-1412123382.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With little national history programming at the ABC, Hindsight and Rear Vision are precious.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/foshydog/4331015075/in/photolist-7AHzTH-4NA1Rf-8nBP8j-MgARB-8CJ37X-ktSqFd-92Dthg-nQqc6o-7yCRDq-9pSqSk-6vdoGA-9sbboc-9br69e-ecRPDC-arUrz-bbCBVX-7FPU2G-oPEjQb-5pfutL-37gAp9-SKde5-5LzGxa-4Npt1h-9pjZv7-amPCSo-eRnNoU-92GceP-8ZK9Ce-8Xmuf6-92KiQN-jSARuT-o1U1zJ-9Megck-eJ69zK-3svh4L-7Ag5iG-9V8UuP-4sLqi-asFrFE-5iE8SG-4EvPe1-6S6uZb-653867-yt8p7-8eXjV1-BTgu4-5V9xs2-9kCNHd-9egoK5-7gFndC">Allan Foster</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week it was widely reported that several of the ABC’s best-known programs on television and radio may be axed. Among those under threat is the ABC’s only program solely devoted to history across all channels and stations, RN’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/">Hindsight</a>. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/">Rear Vision</a>, which places contemporary events in their historical context, is also under threat. If those proposals are carried out, there will be no regular history programs on “our” ABC. </p>
<p>The ABC’s <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/how-the-abc-is-run/what-guides-us/legislative-framework/">Charter</a> states it must broadcast programs that “contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community”. Historical understanding underpins those aims, and I don’t think the ABC can fulfil them without Hindsight. </p>
<p>Since it began in 1997, Hindsight has consistently delivered a far broader array of historical stories on radio than television. While historical dramas and documentaries on television tend to garner more attention than those on radio, Australian history on the ABC in the last 20 years has been, at best, a sporadic affair. </p>
<p>Attempts to create regular history programs (Rewind) failed, in-house documentary production has disappeared, and both drama and documentary have proven highly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/gillard-government-can-remake-history-by-adopting-a-neglected-idea-496">government funding</a>. While some excellent social history series and programs have been broadcast (The War That Changed Us – 2014; Utopia Girls – 2012; First Footprints – 2013; The Making of Modern Australia – 2010), they are still rare. Lightweight topics (such as ABBA and Skippy) and simplistic treatments of complex themes are still all too common in history documentaries.</p>
<p>That’s where Hindsight is vital: it offers hugely diverse histories, told in rigorous, imaginative ways. Radio National has history in its DNA. When it launched in 1985, it created its own Social History Unit, helmed by Tim Bowden. Under Bowden, the Social History Unit rode the wave of the social history and oral history booms of the 1970s and 1980s: not just telling histories of “ordinary” people, but allowing those people tell their stories in their own words. </p>
<p>Bowden’s collaboration with historian Hank Nelson – <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10999627?selectedversion=NBD42113437">Prisoners of War: Australians Under Nippon</a> – was the first time many POWs had ever spoken of their experiences as prisoners of the Japanese during the second world war. Their accounts – broken by sobs, told in halting whispers – have lost nothing of their power today. </p>
<p>It is hard to imagine that these men, silent for so long, would have been able to speak of their experiences on television: it was the intimacy of radio – its very lack of images – that made telling their tales possible.</p>
<p>Hindsight’s great strengths have always been the range and scope of the stories it covers, and the craft and imagination with which they are told. Hindsight features typically combine interviews with accounts by eyewitnesses or descendants (or readings from actors), music, archival audio and recorded sounds to produce complex, in-depth narratives of our past. </p>
<p>Unlike television, which is limited in subject matter by the need for archival images and film, Hindsight can tell stories from any historical time-frame. Hindsight has been especially good at foregrounding the kinds of histories we only rarely (if ever) see on ABC television, such as Indigenous, women’s, migrant, and family histories. Where will those voices be heard if Hindsight is lost? </p>
<p>The surprise success of <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/australia">This American Life</a> (and of narrative podcasting more broadly) reminds us radio can still captivate audiences with compelling stories. Its power is extremely well-suited to historical narratives. </p>
<p>Radio features (such as those produced at Hindsight) evoke time and place with sound, accent and music, allowing the listener to imagine the personalities behind the voices. Our television history documentaries, in contrast, increasingly favour leaden and literal dramatic reconstruction. </p>
<p>Hindsight makes history accessible to a far larger audience than history books can. Academic history books typically sell (far) fewer than 1,000 copies, while almost 90,000 people listen to the two Hindsight broadcasts every week. And consider this: the final episode of the beautiful ABC TV series <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/war-that-changed-us/">The War That Changed Us</a>, produced for a vastly larger budget and with considerably more publicity than a typical Hindsight feature, attracted just <a href="http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2014/09/tuesdays-not-so-funny-for-please-like-me.html">472,000 viewers</a>. </p>
<p>Hindsight has provided a crucial avenue for historians to explain their research to a large audience.</p>
<p>As we head into the centenary of WWI commemorations, it is more vital than ever that we remember our history is more than stories of Anzacs: Hindsight offers the ABC the best chance to meet its charter obligations while showing us our history in all its diversity. </p>
<p>As historian <a href="http://history.cass.anu.edu.au/node/320">Frank Bongiorno</a> noted in an email to me this week, “if the ABC axes Hindsight, it would not merely be killing a program but, at least so far as Australia is concerned, a genre: history on radio”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32226/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Arrow made a program for Hindsight in 2013. She does not work for the ABC.</span></em></p>Last week it was widely reported that several of the ABC’s best-known programs on television and radio may be axed. Among those under threat is the ABC’s only program solely devoted to history across all…Michelle Arrow, Associate Professor in modern history , Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/267992014-05-27T03:50:29Z2014-05-27T03:50:29ZRadio National is a leader in cultural radio – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48982/original/262w83h8-1400568494.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Against all the odds, apparent "relics" from the golden era of radio appear to be undergoing transformation and renewal.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andreanne Germain</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you value the ABC’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/">Radio National</a>? I would argue you should.</p>
<p>Over the course of 80 years, Radio National (RN) has demonstrated it is more than just a broadcaster. From its earliest emanation as the national network of the first ABC (1932), to RN’s precursor Radio 2 (1947-1985) it has established itself as one of our most significant, albeit critically overlooked, cultural institutions. </p>
<p>RN offers a peculiarly Australian variant of the well-established “cultural radio” form of programming and production culture which is foundational to public service broadcasting (PSB) – first established in the 1920s by the BBC.</p>
<p>Cultural radio can be distinguished by its reliance on “built programming” – <a href="http://ifc2.wordpress.com/2004/04/05/thirty-years-of-the-international-radio-feature-virginia-madsen/">feature</a> , specialist and “magazine” programs – and in employing producers who cross professional boundaries: journalists, documentarians, intellectuals and authors. </p>
<p>Having survived multiple crises, RN today continues to support a diversity of forms (online and broadcast), through which it evolves and sustains a national conversation around in-depth public discussion of ideas, politics, the arts, science, indigenous affairs, history and religion.</p>
<p>RN’s type of specialist and feature programming is rarely found on commercial radio stations, nor are they typical of any other network of the ABC. But what exactly is the significance of this frequently underestimated cultural institution with its unique “<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745620695">rich-mix</a>” approach to broadcasting? </p>
<p>It has been strange to discover how unexamined this distinctive broadcaster is, and how easily this form of radio seems to have been neglected even by those who have critically and historically addressed PSB. </p>
<h2>Core PSB values</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49089/original/j2djv368-1400646918.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49089/original/j2djv368-1400646918.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49089/original/j2djv368-1400646918.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49089/original/j2djv368-1400646918.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49089/original/j2djv368-1400646918.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49089/original/j2djv368-1400646918.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49089/original/j2djv368-1400646918.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49089/original/j2djv368-1400646918.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kit</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his book <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Public_Service_Broadcasting.html?id=Im_VMgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Public Service Broadcasting</a> (2013), English media historian David Hendy explains the core PSB values which include: working for the public good, furthering democracy, and encouraging the free and open sharing and continual remaking of culture in the broadest sense – a key part of the ongoing educative Enlightenment project. </p>
<p>These values are regarded by some critics as old-fashioned, unnecessary or diminished in an environment of digital plenty, but Hendy argues it is crucial the PSB “project” be re-visited and re-assessed in its historical evolution. </p>
<p>A network such as RN is a place, a site, unlike any other in broadcast media: here original “creation” is possible as is in-depth “research” over a huge range of subjects. The institution’s function and role is assertively “cultural” and goes far beyond the simple transmission of talk, music or news. </p>
<p>Uniquely in terms of the medium, this model of radio offers the curious listener (not defined as an elite) an entry point and a space for listening, exploration and participation within what we might still describe as the public sphere.</p>
<h2>The rise of the podcast</h2>
<p>The traditional cultural “rich mix” variety of PSB dating from the 1930s and 40s, did not disappear with television or even with media convergence, and is certainly not dying as many commentators or even those within radio organisations might have expected as little as 15 years ago. </p>
<p>Instead, audiences have expanded as output increasingly mixes <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundproof/">innovative ideas</a> with those older forms developed in the golden age. The resulting mix of traditional and new hybrid forms with enhanced opportunities for their dissemination online is instead creating renewed excitement around the audio medium, and in particular for those distinctive kinds of more intensive listening. Convergence is proving to be this type of radio’s greatest friend.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49048/original/684ssp6g-1400630474.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49048/original/684ssp6g-1400630474.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49048/original/684ssp6g-1400630474.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49048/original/684ssp6g-1400630474.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49048/original/684ssp6g-1400630474.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49048/original/684ssp6g-1400630474.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49048/original/684ssp6g-1400630474.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49048/original/684ssp6g-1400630474.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich of WNYC’s ‘Radiolab’ performing live on stage at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Kelly</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Evidence of the relatively new (since 2000s) but continuing growth in this type of programming and channels can be seen with BBC’s Radio 4, which produced <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/feb/22/milton-jones-nurse-mclevy-jamie-cullum-review">record figures</a> for the last quarter of 2013 with a weekly reach of 11.2 million listeners, as was noted by <a href="http://theconversation.com/rns-creative-audio-unit-whats-that-all-about-26454">Mia Lindgren on The Conversation earlier this month</a>. Radio 4’s huge <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/siteusage/#bynetwork">podcasting/streaming</a> download numbers appear to be the highest for any outlet in the UK. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, given RN’s output of specialist and feature styled programming, the station has continued to have the <a href="https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/abc-radio-podcast-figures-62-million-listeners-last-month">highest podcast downloads</a> overall within the ABC since 2005, even as its average quarterly ratings have stayed lower than other ABC networks such as Local Radio or Triple J. In 2012, RN recorded a total of 22.9 million downloads for its programs according to the ABC’s <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ABC-Annual-Report-2013-lo-res.pdf">2013 Annual Report</a>.</p>
<p>In the US, the cult “public radio” program and podcast <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/">Radiolab</a> enjoyed more than 2 million downloads a month in 223 countries in 2012. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/thisamericanlife/">This American Life</a> – also broadcast on RN – <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/jad-abumrad-the-man-who-made-public-radio-sexy/article4179048/">garnered huge audiences</a> internationally for a canny re-invention of a narrator-driven documentary show. </p>
<p>From these hybrid, sometimes experimental yet highly popular new radio/podcast/online “shows”, we might begin to understand how there is really something very interesting happening in the neglected precincts of this old-but-revitalising variety of media.</p>
<h2>A new golden era or radio’s “new wave”</h2>
<p>How is it then that against all the odds, apparent “relics” from the “golden era” of radio appear to be undergoing transformation and renewal? </p>
<p>In part, the answer lies in the fact that this kind of radio is ideally suited to time-shifted digital distribution, part of what American scholar Lewis Hyde has called a <a href="http://www.lewishyde.com/publications/the-gift">“gift culture”</a> of <a href="http://www.lewishyde.com/publications/common-as-air">“the creative commons”</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed without this kind of radio model to build on, to be renovated and hybridised, could we have expected such exponential rises associated with <a href="http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:16890;jsessionid=99E73E279CFE061783E94A0D3879A602">podcasting</a>? “Flow programming” models, <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745620695">the dominant radio form</a> worldwide, do not present themselves well for time-shifted mobile listening, yet the intensive production and specialist cultures and defined formats associated with cultural “rich-mix” outlets do. </p>
<p>And there seems to be a rising demand for this kind of “quality” programming as produced and curated by PSBs.</p>
<p>Issues of financial stability remain critical for the ABC, especially with this month’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-budget-2014-arts-and-culture-experts-react-26638">federal budget announcement</a> of a further 1% funding cut. As the ABC considers its response, it’s an appropriate time to contribute to the public discussion about the particular value of RN in the overall mix of ABC activities. </p>
<p>Like BBC Radio 4 and National Public Radio (NPR) in the US, RN contributes significantly with its programs, expertise and research to multi-platform innovations in media communications, as well as to podcasting and diverse collaborative cultural projects. This points to its hidden value to the wider culture and media of Australia; and that’s why documenting it within its historical evolution is so important to understanding the emerging radio/audio “new wave”.</p>
<p>The success of cultural radio within the digital domain also fits with the original PSB ethos to lead, not merely to follow.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Virginia Madsen receives funding from the ARC (Discovery Projects Scheme). Madsen was a former employee of the ABC (producer for ABC Radio 2, Radio National and ABC Classic FM), and has contributed original audio programs as an independent feature and documentary producer over the years.</span></em></p>Do you value the ABC’s Radio National? I would argue you should. Over the course of 80 years, Radio National (RN) has demonstrated it is more than just a broadcaster. From its earliest emanation as the…Virginia Madsen, Senior Lecturer/Convenor Radio, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/264542014-05-08T20:38:38Z2014-05-08T20:38:38ZRN’s Creative Audio Unit – what’s that all about?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48052/original/2pdvvtwj-1399530832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More people – and pets? – want to produce creative radio content.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">zoomar</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>ABC Radio National’s new Creative Audio Unit (CAU) launches on Sunday, with two new shows – [Radiotonic](http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/radiotonic/](http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/radiotonic/ ) and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundproof/">Soundproof</a> – presenting a mix of fiction and non-fiction, essays, radio dramas, soundscapes, composed audio features and radio art.</p>
<p>So how does this fit in with the broader context of radio and the medium’s prospects? </p>
<p>The formation of the CAU <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-25/radio-national-plans-program-cuts-to-save-money/4279846">was announced in 2012</a> at a time when a number of controversial cuts were being made to arts programming at RN. Its remit is to carve out a new space for creative audio work across genres, media and forms, and in service of this, a large portion of the CAU budget is allocated for commissioning new works from artists, writers, musicians and radiomakers in Australia and internationally.</p>
<p>It will also approach institutions such as museums, festivals, theatres and galleries to further explore the ways in which radio is made and what constitutes material for radio.</p>
<p>Around the world, radio is enjoying a renaissance. Creative forms of radio production, <a href="http://theconversation.com/a-word-in-your-ear-how-audio-storytelling-got-sexy-20431">radio features and audio storytelling have become sexy</a> and, unlike some naysayers have claimed, neither video nor new media killed the radio star. </p>
<p>Rather, radio, always the most versatile of media, has reinvented itself to take advantage of what digital technology has to offer. Audio content is no longer ephemeral but can now be accessed, captured, preserved, reshaped and shared with audiences through a variety of platforms.</p>
<p>This reinvention can be illustrated in three ways:</p>
<p>1) The audience is listening more than ever</p>
<p>2) More people want to produce creative radio content</p>
<p>3) The body of academic work in radio studies is growing</p>
<h2>Listening more than ever</h2>
<p>Audience <a href="http://www.rajar.co.uk/">research</a> shows the listeners are there. The UK’s Radio 4 produced <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/feb/22/milton-jones-nurse-mclevy-jamie-cullum-review">record figures</a> for the last quarter of 2013 with a weekly reach of 11.2 million listeners, up from 10.9 million in the same period in 2012. These are the highest figures since 1999, and lead BBC director of radio <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/talk-stations-all-grow-their-audience-uk-radio-listening-rises-new-high">Helen Boaden to remark that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>despite the ever-increasing competition for people’s time and the growing range of online audio providers, radio is thriving in the digital age.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Audiences are also listening across markets. In Australia, a 2013 <a href="https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/we-radio-medium-and-more-importantly-advertising-platform">Citi Research report</a> states that the commercial radio market is “enjoying renewed interest” with increasing advertising revenue and that the radio industry is in “a period of renaissance”.</p>
<h2>More people want to make radio</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2104&context=lhapapers">an interview last year</a>, Claudia Taranto, Executive Producer for the flagship ABC Radio National documentary program <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/360/">360Documentaries</a> described how five years ago she received an average of one story proposal a week from freelancers. Now she gets one a day. </p>
<p>Additionally, numerous new podcasts are being created and coming online. In the US, PRX’s new <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/02/welcome-to-radiotopia-a-podcast-network-with-the-aesthetics-of-story-driven-public-radio/">Radiotopia podcast network</a> is described as a “collective of the best story-driven shows on the planet … a new model for audience engagement and revenue growth in public radio”. </p>
<p>The network brings together a range of dynamic, creative podcasts – such as Roman Mars’ <a href="http://99percentinvisible.org/">99% Invisible</a>, <a href="http://www.radiodiaries.org/">Radio Diaries</a>, and Benjamin Walker’s <a href="http://toe.prx.org/">Theory of Everything</a> – under one umbrella, and is rapidly expanding the number of podcasts on offer and the audience for creative audio documentaries. </p>
<h2>Academic interest</h2>
<p>The third sign of radio’s comeback is the marked increase of academic work in the field. The academic journal Australian Journalism Review is dedicating a special issue to radio this year. The first issue of the innovative Australian open-access journal <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/rdr/">RadioDoc Review</a> was recently published and has been well-received by international scholars and radio practitioners alike. </p>
<p>RadioDoc Review aims to build and sustain a new radio documentary literacy, and will preserve the canon of works it critiques, with metadata at the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.</p>
<p><br></p>
<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/148468276&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_artwork=true"></iframe>
<p><em>‘Western Sydney Sonic Sacred’ by Sherre Delys. A sonic exploration of non-traditional sacred spaces in Western Sydney created for the CAU.</em></p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Why does radio endure?</p>
<p>Radio scholars have described the radio medium as blind, invisible, ephemeral and conversational – and therefore less mediated than other media. Listening is generally secondary to other activities, and as such radio is often taken for granted, but radio can create an intimacy unparallelled by other media. </p>
<p>But through the dimensions of sound and power of voice, radio creates an intimacy unparallelled by other media. Its ability to remain flexible in form and relevant in topic, coupled with the ease of distribution through technology, ensures it will continue to thrive in a fragmented media environment.</p>
<p>Radio literacy is increasing and audiences are eager to hear more innovative sounds and stories. The establishment of the CAU is the next stage of Radio National’s long legacy and commitment to exploring the possibilities of radio. And importantly, it’s a response to the growing international audience for creative audio content.</p>
<p>Building on its long and illustrious history, the future of radio is exciting, unknown and alive with sound.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/miyuki-jokiranta/5421766">Miyuki Jokiranta</a>, a presenter and producer with the new Create Audio Unit at ABC Radio National.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26454/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mia Lindgren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>ABC Radio National’s new Creative Audio Unit (CAU) launches on Sunday, with two new shows – [Radiotonic](http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/radiotonic/](http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/radiotonic…Mia Lindgren, Associate Professor and Head of School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/251412014-04-08T20:00:26Z2014-04-08T20:00:26ZRadio you can read? What to make of RN’s new magazine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45818/original/y8r5s4zt-1396919055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">White Paper magazine offers 'the distilled wisdom of RN' in written form.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/constantine-graphics/5405161664/in/photolist-9eCSfu-hr7xVB-4mUkeK-5evXwo-5r2fup-5r6EPm-5r2iMH-5r6D2J-5r2ffB-5r6CQY-5r6DXs-5r2izK-5r6CDG-5r6ATq-5r6CrE-5r6C5j-5r2h26-5r6Cg3-5r2gtX-5r6Deb-5r2iWH-5r6EvS-5r6EEh-5r2gQk-5r2gct-5r6Ax3-5r2gjZ-5r2jrP-5r2jfR-5r6Buu-x3oaM-78RX8P-8quBJJ-8BXng6-eHE8P-4UsJRR-6tHqt4-kuSppQ-s4X3N-8qpHYS-55mFp6-9TWen3-fs4WTy-naWjN-abUMcw-9VGxtN-5zVyUx-8VC13s-hC27dR-87F1L2">Constantine Belias</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month, ABC Radio National (RN) launched a pilot digital magazine, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/whitepaper/rn-white-paper-issue-one/5249222">White Paper</a>, which presents “the distilled wisdom of RN” in a monthly interactive offering delivered free to your tablet. </p>
<p>Newspapers have already adopted “convergent journalism”, the combination of different forms of journalism, with mixed results. So what can we read into RN’s latest project?</p>
<p>Two of the more successful iterations of convergent media put an audio expert in charge of multimedia content online: former <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org">This American Life</a> producer Amy O’Leary at the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/multimedia/">New York Times</a> and former BBC Radio producer Francesca Panetta at The Guardian. Panetta helped create <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/may/26/firestorm-bushfire-dunalley-holmes-family">Firestorm</a>, winner of a Walkley Award for Multimedia, a masterful interactive mosaic reconstruction of how one Tasmanian family survived the shocking bushfires of December 2012.</p>
<h2>Extending the ideas network</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45808/original/886663hp-1396915742.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45808/original/886663hp-1396915742.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45808/original/886663hp-1396915742.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45808/original/886663hp-1396915742.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45808/original/886663hp-1396915742.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45808/original/886663hp-1396915742.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45808/original/886663hp-1396915742.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Radio National – in tablet form.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More than two years in the making, White Paper extends RN’s role as an “ideas network” that is “mobile first”, RN manager Michael Mason told me in an interview. The initiative will allow the station “to re-version and generate [the] content in different ways”. </p>
<p>The first of six pilot editions offers four long-form features on issues relating to globalisation and technology, an essay by economist Adam Creighton on the rise of libertarianism in Australia and a five-minute audio “sampler” of five ABC programs on different aspects of drones, from the psychology of using them to their role in animal rights activism, war, internet commerce and news gathering.</p>
<h2>A useful addition?</h2>
<p>White Paper has a lot going for it. The aggregation of all ABC output under specific themes is in itself a significant service to the public. </p>
<p>But White Paper also promises to unlock the vast resources of ABC archives, a digitised catalogue of the social history of the nation that is difficult for non-ABC personnel to access. </p>
<p>Creighton’s article, for instance, embeds a telling clip from a 1971 television interview with Lang Hancock, in which he inveighs against the “useless cocoon of state ownership” of mining resources. </p>
<p>Keri Phillips, presenter of RN’s excellent historical analysis program <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/">Rear Vision</a>, has a clip from 7.30 Television and a slideshow in her piece on the history of Australian foreign aid. </p>
<p>An article by Anthony Funnell of RN’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/">Future Tense</a> on the return of airships includes video clips showing low-altitude flight control and inflation, and a historical slideshow, including a shot of the <a href="http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/disaster">1937 Hindenburg airship disaster</a> that killed 36 people. </p>
<p>Claudia Taranto, Executive Producer of Features at RN told me these articles “give added value” to the radio features whence they originated: “We love the idea that they attract a new audience, through social media circulation.”</p>
<p>Then there’s the iceberg effect. </p>
<p>RN has more than 60 programs, some of whose presenters have been occupying the same “beat” for decades, an increasingly rare accumulation of expertise in the public broadcasting world. A program can only accommodate a tiny proportion of the knowledge a producer has acquired. White Paper provides a secondary outlet for this valuable research, along with more effective ways to communicate it. </p>
<p>“You can’t do data visualisation on radio,” said Taranto. “If people hear two figures, they forget any further ones”. </p>
<p>Thus Anna Watanabe’s article on lunar mining extends her <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/360/">360 Documentaries</a> program, including stunning graphics and a video clip from the University of New South Wales to illuminate the ethics of mining the cosmos for profit.</p>
<h2>The journalist in the age of convergence</h2>
<p>But what about workload? </p>
<p>In 2013 RN controversially made <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/10/04/radio-national-changes-rip-the-guts-from-features-docos/?wpmp_switcher=mobile">senior drama and features producers</a> including acclaimed investigative journalist Sharon Davis redundant, citing financial constraints. </p>
<p>Are resources being diverted from RN’s core business – making quality programs – into an attractive but unnecessary sideline? Mason pointed out that no-one works full-time on White Paper – “resourcing is built into our production flow”. What’s more, he said, posting a well-written, informed, engaging story online gets “incredible traction – it actually drives people who probably weren’t radio users to the website”.</p>
<p>The concept of ancillary long-form content came from the RN Executive, says Mason, but the White Paper project was driven by Daniel Stacey. The former RN online editor had high aspirations. “He talked about it as competing within the same space as <a href="http://www.newyorker.com">The New Yorker</a> magazine,” said Taranto. </p>
<p>That’s not as far-fetched as it might first appear. While RN’s live audience share is low – <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/ABC-Annual-Report-2011-12-Part-2.pdf">around 2.4%</a> of Australian listeners in 2012/13 – its podcast reach is strong and its older, educated demographic has clout. RN tied with Cate Blanchett at number five in the Australian Financial Review’s “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/howard-most-powerful/2006/09/28/1159337269578.html?page=2">cultural power list</a>” in 2006.</p>
<p>In style and content, White Paper far outstrips other public broadcaster offerings. The BBC has curated a comprehensive site around the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww1">anniversary of the first world war</a> and Radio Nederlands English service recently launched <a href="http://www.rnw.nl/english/dossier/Church-child-sex-abuse">“dossiers”</a> that collate multiple stories around a theme. But White Paper goes way beyond the online journalism of most public broadcasters.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Daniel Stacey has been wooed away from his creation to another publication, the Wall Street Journal. Could it be that Rupert Murdoch, its owner, sees this new, free incarnation of ABC’s premium Australian content as a threat?</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em><strong>If you are an academic or researcher working on radio or convergent media and would like to write for The Conversation please contact <a href="mailto:paul.dalgarno@theconversation.edu.au">the Arts + Culture editor</a>.</strong></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Siobhan McHugh has made freelance documentaries for RN, including a 2013 collaboration, Eat Pray Mourn, of which RN’s Claudia Taranto was Executive Producer. Four RN producers and former RN producer Sharon Davis are on the (17-member) board of the scholarly journal RadioDoc Review, of which McHugh is editor.</span></em></p>This month, ABC Radio National (RN) launched a pilot digital magazine, White Paper, which presents “the distilled wisdom of RN” in a monthly interactive offering delivered free to your tablet. Newspapers…Siobhan McHugh, Senior Lecturer, Journalism, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.