Stations such as 5TCB, 2SER and FBI have all been struck hard. 5TCB had to going off air in April after 25 years on air “citing financial problems,” while FBI was forced to hold extensive and intrusive fundraisers to raise awareness of the fact that no contributions means no  radio station.

I am a volunteer for radio station 2SER and I can tell you first hand some of the things that are threatening the existence of community radio in contemporary society. To elaborate more on the impact the financial crisis has on the situation I’ll start off by saying that 2SER has 90 000 listeners a week, less then 7% contribute to the station.

Since the GFC hit Australia the number of listeners has not dropped but the number of people contributing has, with 33% of listeners now saying they can’t afford to donate. Apart from this aspect, 2SER is part of Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) which is made up of over 21 000 volunteers that donate their time and efforts to power the stations and deliver content.

Many of these volunteers, myself included, have been personally affected by the GFC and find it difficult to keep donating their time without getting paid as they have to start putting more of their efforts into their paid jobs. Whilst I continue to volunteer much the same I can definitely say my financial situations suffers greatly from the fact I have to spend less time at my ‘real’ job.

This type of situation would not have affected me so much in the past because I would have been able to find a job that I could work fewer shifts in however, now many jobs are firing employees that can’t work a lot of shifts and replacing them with those that can. So I have been affected in this way, luckily I am still a student and don’t need to pay for many of the necessities most of the other volunteers need to.

So the GFC has hindered the flow of money coming from sponsors and subscribers, as well as making it more difficult for volunteers to keep donating their time.  2SER is now looking at different methods of boosting the number of subscribers.

It is holding a  Radiothon during the month of October and encouraging people to donate, subscribe or re-subscribe by offering prizes, discounts, privileges and hosting various events around Sydney that require an entrance fee.

However, all of these require volunteers to donate more of their time to answer calls and manage events. In the 2SER office there are sheets of paper stuck to the wall with dates and times of events requiring volunteer assistance. The pages look almost empty with hardly any volunteers able to spare anymore time.

Apart from volunteers, a smaller percent of funding comes from advertising and support from artists. Unlike commercial radio, community stations like 2SER play more Australian and un-signed artists and focus their advertising on local events and music. This type of not mainstream music limits listeners to those that are interested in more underground events and artists.

Comparing this type of approach to say a station like, 104.1 Today F.M. community radio focuses more on their personal style of content and prides itself on being informative. Commercial radio aims to please everybody and it more set on being entertaining then informative. Unfortunately, this type of broad content captures a larger variety of audiences in more age groups.

Commercial radio is also able to host larger personalities and events and give away bigger and more prizes then community radio. Ultimately a community radio station like 2SER caters to a younger demographic which is interested in the arts and real news, they do not get their listeners through ‘shock’ techniques and flashy prizes, but unfortunately this does limit the amount and type of listeners that tune in, in turn decreasing financial funding and advertising funds.

Seeing the many reasons community radio stations suffer financially in normal circumstances and how this is exasperated during the GFC, it becomes clear why they will find it difficult to keep up with the switch to digital radio now.

Digital radio works by “turning both sound and data into digital signals at transmission and then decoding them at the other end.” With most community radio stations to yet even make the switch to playing music using MP3’s, this type of digital upgrade will almost be impossible.

Austereo stations 104.1 Today F.M. and Triple M are supporting the change and it may mean that all stations will now be forced to upgrade as contemporary society is always striving for better and faster technology. This will mean that many radio stations, such as 2SER will literally be wiped out.

With the combination of the GFC, the introduction to digital radio and generally less commercially driven content, the community radio may not be able to survive as a contemporary media practice for too much longer. However  5TCB’s broadcasting general manager, Michelle Bawden, said that “it’s interesting that sometimes you don’t get that degree of support until you’re at a disaster point- until things are really tough.” Hopefully community support will keep community radio up and running no matter what.

The  little thing under the bed is an alarm clock, when it is clicked on it rings and you hear the sound-file “No! I’m still tired.” Also when you click on the word sleepy ‘z’ comes out and you hear snoring. The word tired floats onto the bed from a blank screen.

“Our identities have no bodies…we obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlighetened self-interest and commonweal, our governance will emerge”

                                                                                                                                                                                               -John Perry Barlow                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Our identity is no more real then our soul, our feelings or our beliefs. It’s tangibility can be glanced at through choice of clothes, profession or even music tastes, but that is only how we identify ourselves. In a lot of cases our own identity it beyond our choosing, such as when it comes down to “a physical feature of the body…a genealogy or a cultural preference” people are then placed into groups with others that share the same “trait.” 

I am frequently asked what religion I believe in, when I state that I don’t believe in any they often go on to ask what my parents believe in, when I inform them that they too don’t believe in anything there are some people who become exasperated and say ‘but what about your grandparents…what are you by blood??!!’

They are no longer interested in who I am as an individual- they are trying to classify me. Judging and choosing and picking people to be friends with, hire for a job  or teach is far more sensible if you can group them. As Simon During states in the reading, “identity is won at the price of reducing individuality.” 

Although is seems that identity is a futile matter to work on, as we are already grouped, it is still largely based on our perception of reality. “Individuals don’t have a single identity, they have identities,” which means that once we are stripped of our color and cultural heritage we still have plenty to be judged on. 

When a Christian Italian man is in the company of other Christian Italian men, they do not sit around thinking to themselves ‘we are so Christian and Italian and manly’, they judge each-other on the other aspects of their “identities.” These other aspects tend to come from how they “internalise…images of themselves” and ultimatly how they want their image to be externalized and are a type of “hybridity” of identities. 

This raises the issue of “identity politics” a political attempt to justify all identities and put them on an equal playing field. However, it’s greatest downfall is that is “erase[s] internal differences.” When these men start to disagree about treatment of women in third world countries- that fact that they are all Italian and Christian does little to help them. 

Identity politics is the result of fierce division in an attempt to justify identity. Women don’t need different things in life to men, just as Muslims don’t need different things to Jewish people. This type of politics is fighting for the rights of people that all deserve the same rights and should be fighting together for unity- rather then to have each of their  needs met separately but under a different name. 

A Utopia aside, identities are how we communicate with society, amongst society, amongst ourselves and within ourselves. Just as information is easier to take in when it is presented in table form, life is easier to comprehend when everything is grouped- it leaves less room for chaos.

Bibliography

During, Simon. “Debating Identity” In Cultural studies: A Critical Introduction, Routledge: London, 2005, 145-152. 

z3292296

                                                                                                                                                          – James Dawes The Language of War

As a society we follow the ‘rules’ of grammar together, we agree on a correct way of speaking and writing and therefor come to a mutual understanding of what is said and what is meant. However, what happens when we only learn something but aren’t given the opporunty to understand it? That is the relationship the majority of us have with grammar.

There is no better way to  exemplify grammar manipulation then through propaganda, and there is no better way to empitomise propaganda then through war. Annabelle Lukin breaks down grammar beyond word and sentence structure in Reporting War: grammar as covert operation.

A linguist or a good journalist can use grammar to “conceal and distort real meaning.” Unfortunatly, instead of using their powers for good, they tend to be the speech writers for presidents, politicians and even US Defense Secreteries as- seen with Donald Rumsfeld.

When Rumsfield was asked to comment on the Baghdad Museum looting incident, he simply stated “stuff happens.” Camouflaged as an immature and evasisive response, his choice of  words actually used the thought out technique of “middle voice.” He made the ‘looting’ a seperate entity, therefor eliminating a source of blame.

This is how the experience of war “harms language.” Grammar finds all the loopholes and moves through them relentlessly until we are in a jumbled state of passiveness. Nobody is to blame, nothing is wrong, maybe war isn’t so bad, it’s pretty good for the country isn’t it?

Knowing that a bomb can not throw itself, and a gun needs somebody to pull the trigger, why do we still so willingly accept the middle voice in writing? Because, as Luking put it, “the use of language is always ideological.”

Rather then simply a way of living, Michel Foucault explained ideology “[as] an almost ideal way of life for society.” This plays on his concept of “ideological neutrality.” We accept the “passive” and “middle” voices of the media because we want to believe what is being said.

Playing on language and grammar allows the ideal society to be ‘created’ without technically telling a lie. During times of war society is particularly susceptible to this ideological language because we, as humans, don’t want to lose hope.

And so the language of war uses the greatest cencorship tool, grammar, to create “silence.”

Bibliogrpahy

Lukin, A. “Reporting War: Grammer as Cover Operation” Dissent (2003), 14-20.

z3292296

I’m sorry, but there is no better way to put this; time, space and experience ARE  highly tied into the Teresa Rizzo’s concept of flow and the now apparent “post-flow era.” Time plays into in a simple way, having playlists and PDR’s such as Foxtel iQ, lets us personalise our “media time.” This ‘personalisation’ is revolutionary to the pre conceived notion of flow, where media created “images, sounds and feelings” to mass audiences, working on a level appropriate to all and expecting to be perceived as the centrality of a home. Contrary to the belief that we are now living in a “post-flow era” we are living in an era with the largest range of flow ever. Every new media outlet and source has it’s own flow, all media types have their own flow, every single person is now receiving their own personalise flow. 

Now that we can claim internet, television and music as our own we have to ask the unfortunate question; are these spaces now our places?

“The emphasis here is on the channel as a place to visit rather that tuning in to watch a program that runs at a specific time”

Our playlists represents us, our tastes, our interests, they are personalised how we like it with what we like, so why are they any less of a place then our very own bedroom is? We no longer move through these media forms and stop when we like something. We sift out what we like and put it firmly where we want it. So when we “visit” our playlist it is not us entering a intangible space of intercommunication and sharing, we are visiting shows, music, movies that we clicked on and organised to our clocks. We have interfered with the original state they where in when media introduced them to us, took them out of context, away from commercials and introduced them to an entirely different spatial mode. They are now in our place, and we do not have to share them with anybody.

With our customised bubbles and private places the entire experience of media has shifted. There is no centre and our once continuos flow is now full of “breaks.” Changing from Youtube to Ninemsn to Facebook, the average consumer will browse and flick and change numerous times whilst engaging in media. With no centre and hardly any control of keeping consumers in one place, the flow is flipping out. The entire experience of media  now revolves around us, therefor media revolves around our needs and we can experience all types of media from the perspective of a participant rather then a passive consumer. This takes away from the bond once experiences amongst people when uniting over media and rather creates a personal bond between ourselves and media. The ‘flow’ is our friend suggesting and providing us with things we like, whilst the medium is the conversation channeling it to us. We are not even close to a post-flow era, it’s just had a little make over. 

Bibliography

Rizzo, Teresa. “Programming Your Own Channel: An Archaeology of the Playlist:. In Kenyon, Andrew, Ed. TV Futures: Digital Television Policy in Australia. Carlton, VUC: Melbourne University Press, 2007, 108-134. 

z3292296

Life is too “clutter[ed]” and full of options for our attention to be brought to something that does not target our interests from as many angles as possible. Coca Cola joins the many brands that have now taken on the “convergence strategy” approach. This “strategy” aims to provide the “total entertainment package” and find a common ground for content providers and sponsors. 

Henry Jenkin’s finds this common ground through the commercial jargon of “The Loyals” and “The Fans.” The loyals are the viewers that are dedicated to a certain series, they watch it religiously and are interested in the show/series beyond the actual episode. In ‘television world’ these people are called fans, however, without knowing it, their interest in a show makes them the perfect target for marketing campaigns that have lost their effect on the new “empowered” audience. 

Advertisers use these “loyals” to successfully build “brand communit[ies]” through effecting the consumers/viewers “touch points” and building long term relationships between them and their brands, rather then focusing on one off purchases. This means that brands tune in to the “loyals” loyalty  and interact with them via the shows that they are “fans” of. This can happen through product placement, advertising or interactive television, such as voting for their favorite contestant on American Idol. After all, we are always reminded that “every vote counts” and this makes us feel appreciated and heard. We are more likely to believe a ‘friend’ or someone that cares about us, then a faceless brand. 

Brands such as Coca Cola have recognized peoples “touch points” very well and have established themselves to be one of the biggest brands in the world through branching out into all fields that interest their target market of 12-24 year olds. Cokemusic.com attracts young people interested in music, there are concerts and bands and recording opportunities available, this makes consumers forget that they are dealing with a brand (especially a soft drink brand) and associate the name of Coca Cola with whatever that find interesting in their market. Some will associate it with music, some with skateboarding, and others with parties, whatever it is, a “brand community” has been established and there is trust. 

With “affective economics” the way to go now, advertisers are dealing with the television consumer market on an entirely different level. If it is through building communities, they must not speak their brand but speak what the consumers want to hear from the voice of the brand. When it comes to telivision campaigns it is not too easy to be evasive of commercials and most people are too media savvy to fall for the old commercial tricks. Brands now speak through the voice of the shows, hence The Loyals meet The Fans. This is how the  content providers and sponsors found their common ground, it the shows job to lure the audience with things of interest while the sponsors intertwine the ‘boring’ stuff such a way that it does not over shadow the show but grasps the loyals ‘loyalty.’ Nothing works in one dimension anymore. 

I can finally let it out….

It’s not creepy that this friendly Irish man has a blue couch set up on the side of the street and is offering everybody and anybody to sit on it and talk about their problems to him, especially not the group hug with the school girls. It’s absolutely normal, in Kleenex world. You can join this caring, giving, sharing world if you buy Kleenex and wipe away your lonely tears with their product, and only theirs! 

Bibliography

Jenkins, Henry. “Buying Into American Idol: How we are being Sold on Reality Television” In Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York NYU Press, 2006. 59-92

Caroline Savransky

Z3292296

No, Mizuko Ito never elaborated on these riveting discoveries of the consequences of mobile phone use amongst teenagers. Never-the-less a clear image has been depicted of our “undisciplined, foot-loose, mobile phone wielding”  generation and how we take advantage of the “promiscuity of social contact.”

Much like all other theories on the psychology and apparent senselessness of modern youth, Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Re-placement of Social Contact tries to uncover the complexities involved with the joy of mobile phone use amongst young people. 

Ito’s research uncovered that our appreciation of mobile phones stem from the fact that many teenagers and young adults still live at home and are within ”adult controlled institutions.” Mobile phones allow young people to contact each other without their parents or siblings interfering. It took me a moment to process the depth of wisdom encountered with this theory, all those years of research truly amounted to a revolutionary ideas. 

The text looks far too deep into the matter of mobile phone use. The fact of the matter is mobile phones where created, the creators saw the marketing potential the device had with young people and began to target youth with enticing prospects of being able to communicate to friends when not right next to friends. Youth liked this because school, homework and parents controlled when they could be with friends, and mobile phones allowed them transcend this and still communicate. It’s fun, easy, cheap and ‘sneaky’, qualities youth look for in activities. 

Perhaps we do have an un-healthy dependancy on them, but perhaps society should also stop pressuring youth to keep up to date with the latest technology and trends. Yet. something tells me it’s too late for that. With “no talking on mobile phone” signs in all Japanese public transport and general phone etiquette in place in all public arenas, mobile phones are quiet well embedded within society already and it is definitely not the youth in charge of this. 

Bibliography

Ito, Mizuko. “Mobile Phones. Japanese Youth, and the Replacement of Social Contact.” In Ling, Rich and Pedersen, Per, Eds, Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere. London: Springer- Verlag, 2005, 131-148. 

“Is it still appropriate to speak of a ‘public’ event when it ‘takes place’ and is ritually performed, at least partly, ‘at home’ and ‘in private’” pg. 106. 

I thought of my reaction to Goody when I read about the family that “shut [business] for the day” to mourn the death of Princess Diana. They watched the television all day “drinking tea and crying…until she reached her final resting place” pg. 105. That is how Diana’s funeral was played out in their life, regardless of how it actually happened in the physical place of her funeral. When an event or a person is made public everybody interprets it or them in their own personal way. You could almost say it begins to belong to the public. 

The concept of ‘Double Placing’ goes beyond the “double reality” pg.103. Apart from our mind being elsewhere, we feel as though both of the realities we are in are equally under our control. For the woman arguing with her boyfriend in  ”far-from-dulcet tones”pg.29 on the train, she disregards the fact that she is on public transport and yells at the man looking at her “Do mind?! This is a private conversation” pg.29 

Our sense of being in public is distorted because on one side she is having a private discussion but on the other the private discussion is juxtaposed with the public environment in which it is being conducted. We feel a sense of entitlement to our own reality as we become accustomed to public events, public people and public places being intertwined with out private lives and ‘belonging’ to us. 

Bibliogrpahy

Moores, Shaun. “The Doubling of Place: Electronic Media, Time-Space Arrangements and Social Relationships’ In Couldry, Nick. and McCarthey, Anna., Eds. Media Space: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age. London: Routlage, 2004. 21-37. 

He explains timeless words such as “Egyptian inscription[s]” have low time frequency, whilst daily news bulletins have high time frequencies. Don’t we create the hype and emphasis placed on these words? Everything is nothing until we make it what we want it to be. So how can Hartley say that “messing with the news [is] tantamount to messing with time itself”? We created both news and the perception of time and now we have instilled within them the power of society and wait for them to lead us.

We study time from afar and speculate over how it makes us sit down to eat at a certain interval and creates a basis of sleeping and working. We have created our OWN basis of sleeping, working, eating and then placed it within our constructed idea of time. It seems like society is struggling very hard to maintain control over life and create unity amongst people through media and time. Both entities created in our conscious and agreed upon through the compliance to such things as timetables, meal time and sleeping time. 

Bibliography

Hartley; J. (2004). “The Frequencies of Public Writing: Tomb, Tone and Time” In Jenkins, H. And Thorburn, D. (Eds)Democracy and New Media. MIT Press, USA, pp 247-269