'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.' (Publication summary)
'Arrow, Baker and Monagle begin Small Screens: Essays on Contemporary Australian Television with a suggestion that engaging with television operates as a type of ‘cultural duty’ for citizens (vii), and they have brought together a group of historians who demonstrate the change and continuity associated with this duty. Nick Herd kicks off the collection with a fantastic overview chapter on local television. He presents the data alongside effective summaries of key incidents in television history around technological change, advertising and censorship. The chapters that follow demonstrate that these changes have not ‘killed’ television culture, but transformed it into a series of subcultural communities, and they produce snapshots of many of these communities alongside a comprehensive argument for the continued importance of television.' (Introduction)
'Viewing habits have changed, but TV is still at the forefront of cultural change'
'Arrow, Baker and Monagle begin Small Screens: Essays on Contemporary Australian Television with a suggestion that engaging with television operates as a type of ‘cultural duty’ for citizens (vii), and they have brought together a group of historians who demonstrate the change and continuity associated with this duty. Nick Herd kicks off the collection with a fantastic overview chapter on local television. He presents the data alongside effective summaries of key incidents in television history around technological change, advertising and censorship. The chapters that follow demonstrate that these changes have not ‘killed’ television culture, but transformed it into a series of subcultural communities, and they produce snapshots of many of these communities alongside a comprehensive argument for the continued importance of television.' (Introduction)
'Viewing habits have changed, but TV is still at the forefront of cultural change'
