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Introduction
1 July 1932 was the first time when the Australian ABC went on air. It controlled twelve radio stations which were; 2FC and 2BL in Sydney, 4QG in Brisbane, 6WF in Perth, 3AR and 3LO in Melbourne,5CL in Adelaide, 2CO at Corowa, 4RK in Rockhampton, 7ZL in Hobart, and the relay stations 2NC in Newcastle, and 5CK at Crystal Brook. The stations opened with sports programs, children’s sessions and other news and they opened in the morning and evening with a break in transmission in the day. All of the programs in the ABC stations were live until 1935 when a recorder disk was installed in the studios in Sydney (Inglis, 2002).
During the world war II years, programs had to be submitted three weeks before broadcast to the censors and due to this, there was no broadcast in the news for the months that followed. The department of information took control of the nightly national news in June 1940 before giving it back to ABC in September same year. There was enormous development since then including a mobile recording unit, satellite broadcasting in the 1980’s, changed the organization from commission to corporation, changes in program format, and establishment of new corporations to upgrade ABC radio services.
Main body
ABC has always been an attractive topic for the media, editors know that many of the viewers are occasional viewers and listeners because they prefer listening and watching the commercial stations. ABC is a permanent field of contest by the parties in the organization and between the interest groups as well as the government as every one takes keen interest on its operations.
In the recent years, ABC has had to endure more than its fair share of sorrow and labor and therefore many organizations including the national party needs to chip in to save ABC from passing away which may be very soon if nothing is done about its situation. Criticism has been drawn from all corner hence ABC needs to receive sufficient funding to enable it to produce quality programs so as to remain as the country’s most unique asset. If this does not happen any time soon, the Australians will soon be denied the quality programs which they have always enjoyed and especially if the ratings prospects determines what broadcast is.
Tim Bowden who has been with ABC for almost half of its lifetime says that it is no longer possible for ABC to create programs which are based on oral history because in the recent times, the radio producers would not be allocated to a specific topic for long as the situation is just a sample of the more expensive medium of television. He further says that the budget cuts which have been inflicted by the government of Howard alone, has forced ABC to abandon most of the in house comedy, drama and documentary productions (Buckell, 2002).
However, there was no sympathy offered to ABC in the Australian’s editorial in the column headline which read that ‘ dear Aunty ABC, you are looking old’ was published. The writer said that the rural people still benefit from the services provided by ABC which the commercial operators fail to operate or provide to the people. On the other hand, the writer however, says that the urban audiences don’t need a public broadcaster, in fact, the urban dwellers wonder why all taxpayers should subsidize the small and well off audience of ABC with a penchant for programs which could be provided by the pay or commercial televisions which are mostly available in the urban areas.
ABC has for along time been in the broadcast field in Australia and due to it being a public broadcaster, many of the audience of the radio stations and those who watch the TVs, especially those in the urban areas have opted for the commercial television and radio stations because they have better and more entertaining programs. This has made it to be unpopular among the higher population of Australia. This population feel that ABC has failed to focus on what people really want to hear and watch and the audience opt to pay for other stations which are more captivating, (Cunningham & Turner).
As a result of the negative impact of ABC to the general audience, the corporation has used many alternatives for survival in the industry. This includes an inauguration of a new music station for the listeners so that they can have a variety of music to listen to. ABC corporation has also launched ABC on line and a survey carried out shows that it is one of the most visited websites in Australia. The ABC online which was launched in 1995 has won media category in the Australian Internet awards contest for five years continuously. The online ABC has enabled people to read the news in the websites, listen to radio stations, and can watch and listen to programs many days after they have been on air and they still listen to programs which are off air due to the test ticket which are usually done in the stations.
ABC has also changed the kind of music played in its stations such as triple J so as to get more audience and be able to compete with its commercial competitors in the country.
ABC has also entered into a joint enterprise of ABC radio, ABC on line and Monash university which has yielded a thirteen part series of the subject of what digital technology may be doing to people’s lives. Such collaborations are easily spread from the universities to public cultural institutions such as archives, art galleries and libraries so long as there is presence of skill, imagination and money Inglis, 2002).
In the past decade, ABC has been under repeated attacks from the government and the right-wing ideologues due to its left-wing bias and as a result, the budget of ABC has been slashed by the government and there has been installation of pro-government figures which have been placed in its board of directors so that it can spy on the undertakings of the corporation, (Corvin, 2006). Due to this act by the government, it seems that their mission for intimidating the journalists and editors has been accomplished since they have been instilled with fear of documenting issues which have negative message regarding the government or the United States. Due to this, the Australian people have been denied the honest objective of the critical world events examination because the real events which are happening in the world are not shown to them and the people only see what the government want them to see but not the actual events taking place in the world (Buckell, 2002).
Despite the unique contributions of ABC on rural affairs, science, religion and education, critics have ignored that and in turn they have conducted attacks against ABC and have demanded for balance and accountability. The critics mean that because it provides a balances world of commercial print and the media broadcast, their ideologies are biased therefore their organization must be destroyed, (Phillips & Lindgren, 2002).
There was fear in the ABC management especially to the response of the Vietnam war as some of the journalists asked embarrassing questions, the Iraq war has also led to ABC being accused of all the bad things which included treason as the fearless 5% journalists asked and raised real issues which were generally ignored by other commercial broadcasters. Not only was it seen as bad enough to question the Australian politicians about the real reasons for the war in Iraq, but according to the critics it was worse to question the Bush administration on the attacks which it carried against Iraq.
Most of the claims concerned the Iraqi war and the questioning of the U.S claims, tactics and assumptions and as the George Bush policies ruin more than Baghdad, the complains from the Bush Australia supporters are louder now than ever (Adams, 2008).
Many people view ABC as a watch dog for the Australian media, this is because it usually conducts investigations and exposes the media bias as well as breaches which have been conducted by other stations on journalistic ethics and standards which have been set in the country. Australia desperately needs a media watch dog like ABC which will monitor information of the misinformations which are fed to the consumers who are unsuspecting about many of the news raging from politics and to football matters.
ABC should continue surviving because there is need to expose the untruthful and damaging comments which are being passed about many things such as the Melbourne football club which include disgraceful statements that it will be the next Fitzroy. However, the worrying bit of all this is that the misinformations received by people are from trusted sources such as newspapers and journalists who are experienced and therefore people see no reason as to why they should doubt them. Such sources are like Reuters which was previously viewed as an agency which dispensed honest news for years but it is criticized for bringing biased news and even doctoring pictures of war scenes and the Australians ends up getting the wrong message (Jack, 2008).
Back in the 1990s, triple J station was the station which was being listened by most of the youth as they found it interesting and educative. It was a leader in broadcasting unique blend of music and its announcers were no only knowledgeable and amusing but they also had relevant youth topics which talked about cultural and social events happening in the world.
Today however, the station seems to have trouble connecting with its audience and especially the youth and rather than facing the challenge and try to regain the glorious days, the station blames Nova which is a competing station, the audience and even the former government which was headed by Howard. The youth feels that triple J station does not understand their audience. They claim that it is arrogant, the music is not to the customers taste and the announcers are boring and the on air presentations are mediocre and just bad and distasteful. For triple J to be good and become popular once more, ABC needs to play commercially popular music so that their audience have an alternative for their songs. They also need to understand the music played by its competitors like Nova and therefore come up with good music for the teenagers for if they fail to do that very soon then it will be hard for ABC to maintain the radio station and might even come to a close.
As a way of trying to get back the young audience, ABC corporation has taken several measures so as to get triple J’s glory back. To effect the measures therefore, triple J has changed its ‘old’ Arnold Frolows and has been succeeded by a young person whom they hope will be able to rekindle enthusiasm for the rock station to the young people in Australia. It has also relaunched in a bid to rebuild the station and also try to change course of its recent steady slide of ratings. Due to this, the station is changing and trying to catch up with its competitors who seem to capture the attention of most of the young people. triple J also organized a big day out in 2006 which was part of the station trying to win back the young audience. The station has launched a series of TV programs which are available on line. Triple J has started an independent news team for covering the news and issues which are related to the youth the young generation. These topics includes environment, education and news on music and music stars (The grapevine, 2007).
Conclusion
In conclusion, ABC corporation has taken Australia far and therefore Australia needs it and relies on it for the best news. Although ABC may be said to have a small number of audience which makes its critics fail to see the importance of the station, the corporation is as important to the people as any other corporation because it acts as a watch dog for the people of Australia. ABC is not likely to send home 1000 of its staff since it is slowly gaining its fame and with more effort, the corporation will be back to its good old days when people listened to no other station apart from it.
References
Adams P, bias brigade eager to dance on ABC’s grave, 2008. Web.
Buckell, J, (2002), Can’t write, can’t spell and can’t find a story,HigherEducation Section, Sydney, News Limited.
Colvin, M. (2006), Government appoints ABC board members, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008.
Cunningham, S. and Turner, G. The media and communications in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, Australia, (eds). Jack, W, That sinking feeling, 2008. Web.
Inglis, K. (2002), Anty at seventy: health report on the ABC, ANU national Institute of Social sciences. 2002. Web.
Phillips, G & Lindgren , M, (2002) Australian Broadcast Journalism Manual, Melbourne, Oxford University Press.
The grape vine, (2007), Triple J is losing touch and the ratings, 2008. Web.
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