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Professor Tom O'Regan, ca. 2011
Tom O'Regan Tom O'Regan i(A11761 works by)
Born: Established: 10 May 1956 Gayndah, Gayndah - Mundubbera area, Biggenden - Gayndah - Monto area, Central West Queensland, Queensland, ; Died: Ceased: 17 Jul 2020 Brisbane, Queensland,
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 Re-reading Personal Influence in an Age of Social Media Tom O'Regan , Nicholas Carah , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media and Cultural Studies , vol. 35 no. 3 2021; (p. 437-454)

'This article explores the many parallels – but also discontinuities – between the interpersonal communication medium and research enterprise pursued by Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld in Personal Influence (1955) and the social media agenda and associated research enterprise of Facebook and Instagram. The essay begins with a discussion of ‘personal influence’ as the concept was first developed in the 1950s, outlining its historical context and initial limited application. It then shows how key ideas of Personal Influence can be seen as having been applied and embedded in the very fabric of social media itself. Yet Facebook represents a significant departure from both Katz and Lazarsfeld’s research agenda and from the market research and information regime of traditional media. Their audience research work of 1955 was avowedly public and transparent in its commitments. They were providing a market research product for advertising agencies, advertisers and media providers to re-purpose. In contrast, Facebook is private, proprietorial and opaque in its research provision. Facebook combines, under one roof, the roles of market research provider, media provider, and advertising agency. By prioritizing the collection and analysis of individual user profiles, Facebook has created a media enterprise that seamlessly integrates user-generated content, data collection, analysis, strategy, media provision and associated advertising machinery.' (Publication abstract)

1 Some Reflections on the ‘policy Moment’ Tom O'Regan , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media and Cultural Studies , vol. 35 no. 3 2021; (p. 401-413)

'The widespread focus on policy moments in Australian cultural, academic and political debates is discussed, also describing the processes of policy formation. The narrowing gap between ‘unattached’ intellectuals and academics or cultural critics and ‘bureaucratic’ intellectuals in their participation in policy formation is considered unnecessary and ineffective.' (Publication abstract)

1 1 The Emergence of Australian Film Criticism Tom O'Regan , Huw Walmsley-Evans , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television , vol. 38 no. 2 2017; (p. 296-321)
'In this article, we trace the emergence of film criticism in Australia, from the period of its first appearance in the 1920s to its formalisation in the academy in the 1970s. Through an examination of trade, fan, newspaper and journal publications, we identify along the way four significant moments when broader industrial, public and institutional configurations gave rise to different kinds of film criticism: an ‘independent commentary moment’ (the 1920s), a ‘film as film moment’ (1930s), a ‘film appreciation moment’ (1950s–1960s) and a ‘production principle moment’ (1970s). Each attended to some new way of taking up and being with film and is associated with its own particular array of practices. This historical trajectory of film criticism was characterised by increasing complexity and variety. Rather than replacing or displacing existing forms, each new form of film criticism built upon existing forms, produced new layerings and relations among critical forms. Using Bennett’s [Making Culture, Changing Society (Abingdon, 2013), 125.] perspectives on the relation between culture and government, we identify film criticism as a form of expertise for adjudicating films and guiding their uptake. In this way, we show film criticism as being shaped not only by the shifting priorities of film and the film world, but also by broader contingencies of media, education and public culture. This lens reveals an important Australian difference when compared to the US, Britain and continental Europe: the Australian uptake of a film-as-film aesthetics in longer form film writing and reviewing is very much a response to and a consequence of the coming of sound rather than of the late silent period. We end with some remarks on the contribution this national trajectory of film reviewing made to the formation of film writing in the Australian academy and to the revival of Australian film-making, which both began in earnest in the 1970s.' (Publication abstract)
1 1 The Film Reviewing of Kenneth Slessor : A Cine-aesthetics of the Sound Cinema Tom O'Regan , Huw Walmsley-Evans , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 2 2016; (p. 211-222)
'This paper examines the film reviews of Kenneth Slessor, an Australian poet, journalist and war correspondent best known for his contributions to Australian poetry between the two world wars. His film reviews of early Hollywood, British, and Australian sound cinema were an important part of his journalism at Smith’s Weekly from 1931 to 1940. Mostly overlooked until recently these reviews reveal a sophisticated approach towards the new (sound) cinema. The criteria he advanced for evaluating film and the range of qualities he discerned, criticised and celebrated in films were based on appreciating film as a unique artform with its own formal repertoire and modes of production. While such standpoints are now familiar in film reviewing, at the time he was writing such standpoints were just coming into being. Close attention to Slessor’s film reviewing discloses a fecund critical imagination attuned to cinema’s range. He deserves wider recognition as a distinctive voice on the cinema in general and Australian cinema in particular.' (Publication abstract)
1 Kenneth Slessor Goes to the Movies Tom O'Regan , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Inside Story , January 2016;

'The celebrated poet invented his own way of writing about the films of the early sound era, says Tom O’Regan' 

1 What Matters for Cultural Studies? Tom O'Regan , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies , vol. 14 no. 3 2013; (p. 458-462)
1 Styles of National and Global Integration : Charting Media Transformations in Australian Cities Tom O'Regan , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , March vol. 5 no. 3 2012; (p. 223-238)
'Australian film and television production is concentrated in two principal cities, Sydney and Melbourne, and dispersed among the metropolitan centres of Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and the next rung of cities and regions including the Gold Coast, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin among others. National and international integration is reshaping the relations among, the television programming taking place within, and the production capabilities and infrastructures of these cities. This article considers the national distribution of screen production capabilities and how media design interests in their coordination, development and control of production activity interact with location interests seeking to sustain production work across these cities.' (Editor's abstract)
1 Defining a National Brand : Australian Television Drama and the Global Television Market Tom O'Regan , Susan Ward , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , March vol. 35 no. 1 2011; (p. 33-47)

'One option for television drama producers confronted by rising production standards and increasing costs is to become more international in orientation, leading to speculation that national and cultural boundaries may become less important at the higher end of drama series production. Television drama would then become the ‘decontextualised space for universal modes of storytelling’, with lifestyle and reality television formats the more likely vehicles for expressing ‘cultural specificity’. But national and cultural boundaries do matter. The particularities of national television cultures – local policy configurations, historical and cultural influences, technology uptake, the size and wealth of national economies – all impact on the ability of television producers to engage with the global trade in television fiction. This article examines the way in which this global trade internalises and works with national particularities through the sense of a national brand that locates Australian content within a certain value hierarchy. The following discusses three successful examples of internationalised television programming – McLeod's Daughters (2001–2009), Sea Patrol (2007–), and the children's series H2O: Just Add Water (2006–) – that have worked within international perceptions that differentiate Australian content according to perceived cultural sensibilities and national image.'

Source: Abstract.

1 y separately published work icon Local Hollywood : Global Film Production and the Gold Coast Ben Goldsmith , Susan Ward , Tom O'Regan , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2010 9115045 2010 single work criticism

'The first book about Australia's very own outpost of Hollywood. Hollywood films and television programs are watched all over the world. Using the Gold Coast as a case study, this important new book shows how a combination of circumstances created our own outpost of Hollywood in Australia. ' (Source: TROVE)

1 Experimenting with the Local and the Transnational : Television Drama Production on the Gold Coast Tom O'Regan , Susan Ward , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 20 no. 1 2006; (p. 17-31)
1 'Knowing the Processes but Not the Outcomes' : Australian Cinema Faces the Millennium Tom O'Regan , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Culture in Australia : Policies, Publics and Programs 2001;
1 New Stories for a Digital Age Tom O'Regan , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Story / Telling 2001;
1 Australian Cinema as a National Cinema Tom O'Regan , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Film and Nationalism 2001; (p. 89-136)

'"What does Australian cinema have in common with other national cinemas—no matter how diverse?" This chapter answers this question by establishing the characteristics of national cinemas generally through a survey of different aspects of Australian cinema. In inspecting Australian and other cinemas, I aim to generalize the shape and outlook of national cinema as a category. Like all national cinemas, the Australian cinema contends with Hollywood dominance, it is simultaneously a local and international form, it is a producer of festival cinema, it has a significant relation with the nation and the state, and it is constitutionally fuzzy. National cinemas are simultaneously an aesthetic and production movement, a critical technology, a civic project of state, an industrial strategy and an international project formed in response to the dominant international cinemas (particularly but not exclusively Hollywood cinema). Australian cinema is formed as a relation to Hollywood and other national cinemas.'

Source: Abstract.

1 A Tale of Two Cities : Dark City and Babe: Pig in the City Tom O'Regan , Rama Venkatasawmy , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Twin Peeks : Australian and New Zealand Feature Films 2000; (p. 187-204)

Examines the paradox of Australian films, made locally using Australian crews, but with all aspects of local identity and imagery erased.

1 1 y separately published work icon Australian National Cinema Tom O'Regan , London New York (City) : Routledge , 1996 8189440 1996 single work criticism (taught in 1 units)
1 y separately published work icon Beyond 'Australian Film'? : Australian Cinema in the 1990s Tom O'Regan , 1995 Perth : Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University) , 1995 Z1612245 1995 single work criticism During the 1970s and 1980s Australian cinema was largely produced and financed in Australia and centred on Australian themes and locations. In the 1990s, as Tom O'Regan notes, 'Australian directors and Australian-based productions do not just tell stories set in Australia. The production industry is more internationally integrated than at any time in the recent past. And even those self-evidently 'Australian films' with a modest budget, an Australian cast, setting and crew - like P.J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding (1994) and Rolf de Heer's Bad Boy Bubby (1994) - have some international financing.' O'Regan's paper, written and published in the mid-90s, asks then: 'If such "Australian" films still account for the majority of the features produced, coproductions and greater international involvement from project inception have become more important as the 1990s brought major structural change to the industry.
1 y separately published work icon Australian Film in the 1970s : The Ocker and the Quality Film Tom O'Regan , Perth : Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University) , 1995 Z1612142 1995 single work criticism

Tom O'Regan examines the two types of Australian filmmaking which dominated the local cinema experience during the 1970s. The 'ocker' film, represented by Don's Party (1976), The Adventures of Barrie McKenzie (1972), Stork (1971) and Alvin Purple (1973) celebrated the contemporary Australian. The second type of production, the 'quality' film - those such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Caddie (1976) and My Brilliant Career (1979) are positioned between art-cinema and classic Hollywood filmmaking.

The essay argues that the ocker films were central to public definitions of Australian cinema in the first half of the decade; while quality films were central in the second half of the decade. 'These films, the filmmaking milieu that produced them and the all too public debates surrounding them,' writes O'Regan, 'provided a particular experience of the cinema.'

1 y separately published work icon Australian Television Culture Tom O'Regan , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 1993 19976689 1993 multi chapter work criticism

'Australian television has been transformed over the past decade. Cross-media ownership and audience-reach regulations redrew the map and business culture of television; leading business entrepreneurs acquired television stations and then sold them in the bust of the late 1980s; and new television services were developed for non-English speaking and Aboriginal viewers.

'Australian Television Culture is the first book to offer a comprehensive analysis of the fundamental changes of this period. It is also the first to offer a substantial treatment of the significance of multiculturalism and Aboriginal initiatives in television.

'Tracing the links between local, regional, national and international television services, Tom O'Regan builds a picture of Australian television. He argues that we are not just an outpost of the US networks, and that we have a distinct television culture of our own.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 The Rise and Fall of Entrepreneurial TV : Australian TV, 1986-90 Tom O'Regan , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Screen , Spring vol. 32 no. 1 1991; (p. 94-108)
1 y separately published work icon Australian Film in the 1980s Tom O'Regan , 1989 Perth : Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University) , 1995 Z1612169 1989 single work criticism

In this essay Tom O'Regan explores the Australian film industry in relation to filmmaking, audiences and government influence. 'It would be difficult to find a more interesting period in Australian film history than the 1980s,' he writes. 'There was the experiment of a government inspired tax shelter: the so-called tax incentives which provided levels of production funding and activity that had been hitherto unheard of in Australian film production. The average number of feature films made per year doubled from 15 in the 1970s to 27 in the 1980s when some 65 mini-series were also made. Additionally the budgets for all these rose sharply. The incentives exempted film production from the full pressures of the market. They permitted the industry to withstand the pressures for internationalisation by providing cheap finance and insisting on Australian creative control to secure the tax benefits.'

The 1980s saw a boom in the production television mini-series, including Vietnam (1987), and the release of several blockbusters, the most significant being Mad Max 2 (1981), Gallipoli (1981), The Man from Snowy River (1982), and the international box-office hit, Crocodile Dundee (1986). It was also an era when Australia's art cinema flourished, principally through the works of Paul Cox.

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