Small Screens: Essays on Contemporary Australian Television

by Michelle Arrow (Editor), Jeannine Baker (Editor), Clare Monagle (Editor)

There has been a lot happening on Australia's small screens. Neighbours turned 30. Struggle Street was accused of poverty porn. Pete evangelised Paleo. Gina got litigious. Netflix muscled in. The Bachelor spawned The Bachelorette. Peter Allen's maraccas were exhumed. The Labor Party ate itself. Anzac was an anti-climax. And so much more...Join us as we survey the Australian televisual landscape, and try to make sense of the myriad changes transforming what and how we watch. We've come a long way since Bruce Gyngell welcomed us to television in 1956. We now watch on demand and wherever we want, in our lounge rooms and on our devices. But some things stay the same. The small screen is still a place for imagining Australia, for better or for worse. Small Screens challenges and celebrates our contemporary TV worlds. (Cultural Studies) [ Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Australian Television]Ã?Â?Ã?Â?

208 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating collection of essays about Australian television, focussing on specific programmes televised in 2015. Although I live in Australia I did not watch any of the programmes discussed during 2015 (though was an avid 'Neighbours' watcher as a child when it was a new show). Nonetheless, these were interesting discussions and evaluations of these programmes, which ranged from reality TV like 'The Bachelor' to staples in Australian homes like 'Neighbours' and docudramas like 'Not the Boy Next Door' (about the life of Peter Allen). For readers outside of Australia, this may still be of interest in terms of the intellectual discussion of genres or to give you an insight into the kinds of programmes screened in Australia. Given the relative hegemony of the broad Western culture, there are likely to be similar television programmes that you could just as easily insert into many of the discussions (with the exception of the essay related to Anzac Day and the Gallipoli landing, a quintessentially Australian/New Zealand piece).