Mark Duffett
Rather than developing in isolation, media technologies emerge from a context of social practice. Each new medium has to be naturalised before users will accept it. Webcasting is the digital streaming of video data. As an embryonic media technology it remains technically inferior to other video platforms and actually represents an unintended use of the web. Paul McCartney’s December 1999 show at the Cavern in Liverpool, UK, took webcasting beyond specialist users. The show was staged for mass exposure and timed for net transmission. On and off-line publicity naturalised it by making tenuous comparisons to original Beatles gigs and commenting on the size of the subsequent internet ‘audience’. 'Little Big Gig', as McCartney’s show became known, encouraged the further disappearance of ‘live’ events into the realm of mediation. In short, the penetration of webcasting and the digital commodification of pop was encouraged by offering established content.
Fiona Martin and Helen Wilson
Over its 70 year history the ABC has attempted to map the spatiality of the Australian nation with TV and radio networks – networks designed in part to service regional and remote Australia with information and entertainment. However, until recently the ABC's ability to reflect the diverse experiences, ideas and perspectives of regional Australians in broadcast media was largely restricted by geography, a federalist heritage, limited resources and the concentration of ABC resources in urban centres.
With its development of a publicly funded WWW service, ABC Online, the ABC revisited the problem of connecting Australians in 'the bush' with those in the city. In September 1999, it launched an online gateway to 'local' (metropolitan and regional) websites, called The Backyard. This paper investigates the ABC's changing vision of localism by comparing its local radio spaces with the evolution, concept and functions of its local web spaces.
Megan Mullen
The history of cable television in the USA has always reflected a tension between those who see in the technology a promise for a more progressive television future and those who see it as a lucrative business opportunity. This has been true since the 1950s, when a select group of small-town CATV (community antenna) entrepreneurs began to think of non-broadcast-derived programme options (eg Associated Press news text, weather channels, movies) to offer their subscribers. The countervailing forces became particularly apparent, however, during the 1970s, when satellite-delivered cable channels first became a reality and there was limited experimentation with interactive television.
