Network Insight Institute

Peter Leonard and Carolyn Lidgerwood

Peter Leonard and Carolyn Lidgerwood, Gilbert & Tobin

When we are asked to consider what regulatory approaches we should use in relation to Australian content on new media, the starting question is whether we are talking about how to ensure that creation of Australian content continues as traditional media adopt different delivery methods, or how to encourage more Australian content on these media forms. Our take on the issue is the latter approach, but it is equally valid to take the former approach. So, in looking at regulatory approaches to Australian content in new media, the starting questions must be: is intervention in the market place necessary or desirable, and if so, what should the practical objectives of regulation be?
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Yet another approach to the issue of content regulation has been discussed in the context of the recent Regional Radio Inquiry conducted by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications, Transport and the Arts. The report of the committee's investigation into the adequacy of radio services in regional areas is contained in a report called Local Voices, an Inquiry into Regional Radio (September 2001; www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/cta/irindex.htm). It provides an interesting overview of the state of regional radio at the moment. The committee was given the job of considering the adequacy of radio services in regional Australia and it considered how the radio landscape in the country has been changed in the past decade by a combination of technological, economic and regulatory developments. It observed that regional radio services were characterised by an increasing degree of networked, pre-recorded, automated and syndicated programming and that these changes have led to fewer local voices, which the committee described as the very essence of regional radio. There are common themes between these elements and what could be features of new media services that aim to meet demand from local audiences.

The committee stated that in its view, local radio is radio that: provides news and information that is of interest to, and specifically about, that local community; provides an outlet for the community to broadcast announcements and for businesses to advertise their wares or services; provides a forum for the community to hear the voices of its own region, and reflects back to the community its own identity and in doing so helps shape that identity; and resides within, and is predominantly derived, produced and presented by, the local community.

It is worth noting that some submissions to the inquiry process suggested that commercial radio services in regional areas should be required as a condition of their licences to provide local services, using local announcers rather than programming which was networked from a distant hub. The practical goal of that kind of regulation would be to ensure that regional services contain local voices rather than urban or distant voices. In this context, the cultural issue is less about what is Australian and more about what is immediate, relevant, local. This might raise some of the issues that were raised by Terry Cutler. The committee did not actually accept this as part of its recommendations, but it has referred the matter to the ABA so that at the end of the current licence area planning process, the ABA will be conducting an audit to determine the degree to which the licence area planning process has provided for localism and diversity and the level of community satisfaction with radio services in that area. Assuming that the ABA actually does this, following direction from the Minister, that could be an interesting process for new media to feed into. If local radio is not particularly meeting community needs, then there may well be an opening for other new media forms. (Note that after the Seminar, the ABA responded to reductions in commercial TV local news bulletins by announcing an inquiry into the adequacy of regional TV news; see news release 'ABA to investigate adequacy of regional TV news', 22 November 2001; www.aba.gov.au/abanews/news_releases/2001/84nr01.htm).

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