#vilekyle; The 123 on the ABC; Popcorn kernels content; Advertising fair/fowl play

Episode 41: November 25-28, 2011 - click to download episode

As the end of the year looms closer; on this penultimate episode of FOURTH ESTATE for 2011, the team chooses to reflect upon the TV prospectives for the ABC; plus finding out more about user-generated film-making techniques and advertising tactics causing controversy...

....And speaking of controversy, KYLE SANDILANDS has stepped on toes (again).

Spin doctoring 101; Wolf Creek 2; Cyberkids

EPISODE AIRING: NOVEMBER 18-21, 2011

click above link to download episode 

This week, the show begins to count down for the finale of 2011 on THE FOURTH ESTATE! But still jam-packing it all in before then, including:

PR AND SPIN DOCTORING - THE ASSETS BEHIND THE CAMPAIGNING: KATE AUBUSSON

An in-depth look at just how crucial the spin is on the campaign trail in the US, as the Republican party awaits..

WOLF CREEK 2 ALREADY MET WITH HOWLS OF DISDAIN: MIG CALDWELL


The complex diversity that the Australian landscape offers is often borrowed from by creative artists: allowing the environment to set the scene. None truer than the hit 2003 film, WOLF CREEK, which GREG MCLEAN based around true murders of recent history - so what good - asks SONYA HARTNETT, author and critic for a new analysis of WOLF CREEK by CURRENCY PRESS - will a sequel (due to shoot early next year) do?


CHILDREN AND MEDIA CONSUMPTION: DYLAN BARBER

While TV remains the dominant media platform, experts have raised concern for children using new technologies that their parents might not understand or control. GLEN CULPIT, Vice-president of the AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL ON CHILDREN AND THE MEDIA, is concerned about the current state of play in the children’s market

Subscriber Drive 2011: Part 2 - SBS Overhaul; Noozdesk; Magazine Week; political cyberspace

EPISODE AIRING OCTOBER 28-31, 2011

(Click to download episode on the link above)

This week, again, we dabbled in the madness of live broadcasting for Subscriber Drive at 2ser, all of us united in our efforts to raise much-needed funds to ensure the future of independent radio, such as that which is presented on THE FOURTH ESTATE. 

A massive thank you to all who phoned in!

SBS to overhaul news programming - NATHAN COATES

News of the world now about the citizens with online journalism project NOOZDESK - MIG CALDWELL

Publishers Australia initiate a NATIONAL MAGAZINE WEEK - ANNIE WYLIE

The politics of cyberspace - DYLAN BARBER

Media misinformation and memory; Googling the Fringe; Press freedom in the Middle East; Australian Screen Studies

EPISODE AIRING 16-19 SEPTEMBER, 2011 click to download episode

This week, we welcome the initiatives that inspire the SYDNEY FRINGE FESTIVAL; as well as examine the repercussions of inaccurate reports in the media and catch up with head of Screen Studies at the Australian Film Television and Radio School 

MEDIA MISINFORMATION - MIG CALDWELL   

STEPHAN LEWANDOWSKY of the University of Western Australia has dedicated much of his professional life examining the problems that arise from misinformation and memory and how the public interpret inaccurate reports.

As he reports in a piece recently published in The Conversation: "Warning: your journalism may contain deception, inaccuracies and a hidden agenda", the act of correction is usually ignored by memory recall.

GOOGLE-EYED ARTWORK - ANNIE WYLIE

Google 'Uncanny Valley', go to page 3, and create an artwork based on something you see.

This is the task that 25 artists were given by Hardware Gallery in Enmore, Sydney as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival this year. The results have been varied, from knitted banana's to urban landscapes and everything in between.

MIDDLE EASTERN PRESS FREEDOM - TIM ROXBURGH

Egyptians say that the country’s ruling military council is using the chaos as an excuse to roll back the hard-won freedoms that the country has recently had a taste of.

Rania Al-Malky is the editor in chief of Daily News Egypt and was in the country recently

INDUSTRY KNOW-HOW POMO STYLE - MIG CALDWELL

Many aspire towards cracking it big time in the film making business but as the digital technologies progress and transcend into our daily lifestyle more and more media personnel face redundancy

But for head of Screen Studies, DR KAREN PEARLMAN, the blending of digital and physical worlds has been a long time coming.

SBS + NITV = the future; Goin' ga-ga for digital radio; Film Industry 101

EPISODE AIRING SEPTEMBER 9-12, 2011 click to download 

SBS to merge with NITV - DYLAN BARBER

- The proposal to merge SBS with the National Indigenous Television Service (NITV) to create a stronger and easily accessible digital content channel, as DYLAN BARBER spoke to NITV for comment

Goin' ga-ga for digital - ANNIE WYLIE

- Annie Wylie goes ga-ga as she climbed aboard the new wave being enjoyed by radio in the world of online broadcasting, why even community radio stations are the conformist by comparison!

Film biz basics - MIG CALDWELL and MARTY LEWIS

- The film biz: is there really any chance to screen your work to an audience beyond a youtube upload? we get the insider's view on just how tough it is to market yourself locally..

Bob Brown; Screen Australia; Jon-Jon Goulian

Episode airing 2nd-5th September

This week the team speaks with BOB BROWN; SCREEN AUSTRALIA and new hot thing in literature...

click above and below to download show file or stories

Bob Brown in conversation with NATHAN COATES

Nathan Coates interviews the Greens leader over the calling for a Parliamentary inquiry into the Australian media but there is lack of agreement on how to support print media diversity leaving the print media market in question

Is it curtains for Australian TV? DYLAN BARBER  

Answering to problems facing television regulation that stem from its dated Broadcasting Services Act, 1992, Communications Minister STEPHEN CONROY has launched an online convergence review.

And recent publications indicate that since 2008, foreign content has increased by 154 per cent while Australian content has grown by only 59 per cent, according to a new report by Screen Australia.   

Literally avoiding mid-life crisis - MIG CALDWELL

Newest "It" boy considered the hottest in new author talent within all the right circles, JON-JON GOULIAN had his memoirs published, The Man in the Grey Flannel Skirt, off the back of a pitch and a need to fend off an existential crisis with the dawning of his 40th birthday.

Universal rights; cyber sexism; Crikey weighs in; industry acting up

EPISODE AIRING: AUGUST 26-29, 2011

This week, we examine the monumental passing of GENERAL COMMENT 31, within the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, as well as online sexism, government intervention within the media and why local actors are unlikely to call Australia home...

download show file above or stories below

FREE SPEECH ONLINE UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED

MIG CALDWELL spoke to Queensland University's NICOLAS CARRAH: a media lecturer who felt compelled to offer an opinion on the passing of GENERAL COMMENT 31 under ARTICLE 19 of the UNITED NATIONS' HUMAN RIGHTS declaration, including a policy for free speech within the online context of publication.

BATTLE OF THE SEXES ONLINE

At a recent conference held for WIKIPEDIA, it was revealed that 90% of its users are male: an increase over the years. This divide creates an imbalance on the site, with more male oriented topics discussed, and a heavily masculine coverage of all information. ANNIE WYLIE investigates.

TAKE SOME INITIATIVE FOR THE MEDIA

According to CRIKEY'S ERIC BEECHER, Government should help fund new media ventures, he says and that Senator Bob Brown and the Greens should stop “posturing about the theory of media diversity and do something about its practice.” as NATHAN COATES found out from speaking with him.

STRUGGLING ACTORS FLY COOP FOR SUCCESS

Local production is at an all-time low and the shift towards reality-based TV series is leaving local actors little choice but to pursue their dreams further afield.

Reporter TRACY ALEXANDER speaks to local actors about the limits to AUSTRALIA’S entertainment industry and whether they can be overcome.

The role of online media and London riots; Fairfax radio for sale; film-goers experience

Episode 26: August 12-15, 2011

(click to download full episode above)

This week, the show looks at the role of online media in the wake of London's horrific riots: there are many arguments citing its presence as both good and evil. 

Plus we get through the whizz-bang new technologies adapted to the cinema-going experience and evaluate the worth of Fairfax Radio.

#1: SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE LONDON RIOTS - WENDY COLLIS

CLAIRE MARSHALL: an ex-pat now living in London offering a first-hand account and personal use of online media and its uses and problems that have led to a weighted argument over the presence of the internet London riots.

#2: FAIRFAX FOR SALE - DYLAN BARBER
STEVE AHERN offered his thoughts on the national network of Fairfax Radio, up for sale, after only three years. The general thought is the failure to effectively align the print and radio bodies (which include 3AW in Melbourne, 2UE in Sydney and 4BH in Brisbane).

#3: SCRATCH'N'SNIFF CINEMA - ANNIE WYLIE

And ANNIE WYLIE caught up with Sydney Uni's, DR. BRUCE ISAACS, a film studies expert one the culture of the experience that comes from going out to the movies and how the incorporation of 3, even 4 dimensional viewing options; swivelling chairs and other such technologies plays a part in the overall movie experience.

Play School's mid-life crisis; Murdoch's minions and not sold on government ads...

SHOW AIRING: 22-25 JULY (CLICK TO DOWNLOAD)

This week, we delve further into the News of the World in the aftermath of Murdoch's public disgrace, PROF. ALAN KNIGHT, takes on the hard issues: from accountability to the reportage of the scandal as offered up by Murdoch's own, Australian newspaper.

He also confronts CAROLINE OVERINGTON over her op-ed pieces as NATHAN COATES reports.

Image courtesy of the ABC

PLAY SCHOOL hits middle age, with the popular ABC local production celebrating its 45th anniversary, and so ANNIE WYLIE spoke to DARCE CASSIDY: a spokesperson for FRIENDS OF THE ABC weighs in on the quality of Aunty and local TV and in-house production under its current head of TV, KIM DALTON.

And, should tax-payers cough up for the new ad campaign about carbon tax? TIM ROXBURGH reports on the responses from political opposition.

DOWNLOAD STORY FILES

(RIGHT-CLICK AND SAVE AS ON LINKS BELOW)

• NEWS OF THE WORLD: PART 1 - NATHAN COATES
• NEWS OF THE WORLD: PART 2 - NATHAN COATES
• HAPPY BIRTHDAY PLAYSCHOOL - ANNIE WYLIE
• GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING - TIM ROXBURGH

Publishing plays rough; musician meltdown mania; local talent further afield?; NOTW and Australian industry regulation

Show airtime: July 15-18, 2011

CALLS TO ABOLISH THE AUSTRALIAN PRESS COUNCIL 

As the News of the World phone hacking scandal deepens, NATHAN COATES spoke about whether the role of our AUSTRALIAN PRESS COUNCIL needs to have more impact on media accountability, or as is suggested by PETER FARRIS, QC, abolishing it altogether.


PENGUINS ROUGHING IT FOR PUBLISHING INDUSTRY
MIG CALDWELL played around with the short story performance group, PENGUINS PLAY ROUGH, on the debut of the released of their selected published short stories, available in hard copy and on the hard drive... 


SAVE SPACES FOR AUSSIE FACES
Will current laws allow for local acting talent to be scoped out further afield? It has been revealed that Foreign Performer Guidelines could be amended to allow for the hiring of international talent to fill the roles on local TV productions funded by taxpayers.
The ‘Save Spaces for Aussie Faces’ campaign is petitioning against such changes as SIMON WHIPP, Director of Actors Equity, explained to JESS WINGARD.


MUSIC PERFORMANCE ANXIETY A SERIOUS CONDITION
And is it a case of nerves, or something more serious? MIG CALDWELL spoke to Professor of Psychology and Music Director of Australian Centre for Applied Research in Music Performance, DIANNA KENNY: the founder of a new study, suggesting the existence of musician performance anxiety is all too real...

Launching community radio into the digital era!

Episode 15: 27-30 May, 2011

We finally achieve a digital presence with select Sydney community broadcasters including, notably, Radio 2ser, being added to the digital spectrum

Radio 2ser staff and volunteers at digital launch

The show marks its debut on the community digital spectrum as declared by Marie Bashir in Sydney’s Darling Harbor, the future of broadcasting is finally here and available to the community sector, as LEANNE TORPEY reports

NATHAN COATES decides to face off in the ring between Bob Brown and media bias or "hate media"

Plus MIG CALDWELL host up an on-air mass group therapy session for victims of telco abuse, and believe me, you’re not alone out there and it's being addressed by the right people ie industry body, ACMA, due to publish findings into the goings-on by telcos to its customers under self regulation.

And KIM TAN speaks to the man responsible for the Colourfest Film Festival: now in its second year as a way of offering up a bit of colour to an arguably bland anglo cinema world

Video Mojo; Citizen journalism conflict; Censorship centre-stage; Citizenship and social media

Episode 11: April 29- May 2

Download any of the stories or episodes of the show, right-click and save the titled hyperlinks

The NT Mojo project: Mig Caldwell:

AKA Northern Territory Mobile Journalists:
A government funded collaboration between IVO BURUM of BURUM MEDIA and the Territory's Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE) that saw a handful of locals armed with an iPhone and some basic reportage skills to report on the real issues occurring within their communities.

Armed with nothing but the digital recorders and some recently acquired skills, eleven members from some of the most remote communities in the NT were specially selected to be trained as "Mojos" or mobile journalists.

The citizen journalist and conflict zone reporting: is there enough protection - Nathan Coates:

Nathan Coates spoke to TOM MORTON of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) about the recent death of citizen journalist, MOHAMMAD NABBOUS in Libya, and why it didn't make the tally of fatalities as published by the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ)Citizen journalism is growing in the face of dangerous regimes and may be particularly relevant in Libya where high levels of civilian casualties are being reported

X-Ratings for theatre? Ellie Schneider

There have been calls to implement a classification system within the performing arts world, as the new touring production of BERTOLD BRECHT'S, BAAL, features controversial scenes some have deemed unsuitable for a mainstream audience.

Social media and citizenship - Annie Wylie

A poll conducted by the Australian National University (ANU) aimed to qualify our use of social media such as twitter and facebook and the general values attributed to the Web 2.0 era of online interaction.

SOS! Saving NRN; the environment; the plot-twist and bad colour taste

EPISODE 10: APRIL 22-25

TO DOWNLOAD THE STORIES BELOW JUST RIGHT CLICK LINK AND SAVE-AS

SAVE NRN - Mig Caldwell: 

National Radio News enjoys a large national audience of paid subscribers, and yet the community broadcaster's future is in doubt...Enter former cadet, Luke Dufficy who started up a simple yet effective campaign plea that has driven a massive surge in support via facebook to entreat the nationally recognised journalism school, Charles Sturt University, in keeping the funds going to ensure its on-campus broadcaster, NRN, can remain on the airwaves..

SAVE THE MIND - Annie Wylie:

The Federal Government's taking a new action in deterring people to take up the smoking habit by changing all the packaging to a plain and off-putting shade of olive green. In the process, Annie Wylie discovers no colour is used lightly, check out this helpful video guide to colour psychology in advertising.



SAVE THE EARTH - Ellie Schneider: 
By getting camcorder creative with the latest in the long lineup of film competitions, this one boasts a more complex them than those on Tropfest. Winning this little film comp may lead to your cinematic masterpiece screening at the Cannes Film Festival!



SAVE THE PUNCHLINE! - Nathan Coates:
The First in all Commandments of film-review: don't give away the ending! Dave and Margaret must have choked on their popcorn after reading of esteemed Age critic giving away the twist and then magically reversing the damage via twitter...?!

Poll bludging; shielded from law; Blue King Brown and ABC self-censorship

Click here to download episode 

Just as babies are born every hour, new opinion polls are delivered almost every day in the lead up to an election. As pollsters themselves will admit, opinion polls shouldn’t be an indication of the outcome Fourth Estate reporter Lauren Day spoke to William Bowe who writes a blog for Crikey called The Poll Bludger. Download the story her

Carrie Fellner re-examines the country's shield laws - or lack thereof - after the Coalition has put shield laws back on the agenda, proposing that confidentiality between a source and journalist be a legal right. Labor's attempt in May to enact shield legislation was heavily criticized by media organisations who described them as “weak”. Click to download

Marching to the beat of your own drum takes on a whole new meaning for local activist musicians, Blue King Brown. The 6 piece band have spent the past two years working on their second album release, “worldwize” a 2 disc offering recorded in Bob Marley’s studio in Kingston, Jamaica, as Mig Caldwell discovered, click here for more  


And Mina Samandar spoke to independent film maker, Inka Stafrace, who took on the role of David to the ABC’s Goliath after they pulled the plug on her documentary “hope in a slingshot” at the last minute. ‘Hope In a slingshot’ depicts the intensity of the Israeli occupation of Palestine that was due to air later this year. Find out more here

Net neutrality; Vision Australia and the NBN; privacy issues and herpes: the film

13th-16th August

Click here to download episode

Firstly, MINA SAMANDAR, attempts to uncover what this term "net neutrality" really means, and will it mean a caste based internet usage system, thanks to Google and right-hand man company, Verizon?


MIG CALDWELL finds out why VISION AUSTRALIA proves better at National broadband network foresight..

Brittany Kleyn reexamines the privacy law debate that PAUL KEATING left off after a lecture at Melbourne University

And it's a short film comp that requires a long hard look at the likes of the HSV or herpes simplex virus, but hey, there's $10k in it potentially, as MIG CALDWELL discovered

July 9-12

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!!

30 April - 2 May

April 23-26

April 2-5

This holiday special of The Fourth Estate promises an audio mixed bag of media quirks and quibbles...

1. Brand karma:Is it the new website to assure universal payback to corporations, or is it a thinly veiled attempt at promotion? LAUREN DAY

2. The digital spectrum may prove too broad for the narrowcast: Come 2013, analogue signals will no longer emit from our TV screens, but FLINT DUXFIELD wonders over the imminent future for the remote narrowcaster services come the Big Switchover

3. Screen Queens: Does mainstream cinema accurately portray the GLBTI community? Following Western criticism over the review of censorship guidelines that regulate local film production in the Islam nation of Malaysia;when it comes to representations of homosexuality, MIG CALDWELL, finds out whether we're in fact, very similar in our characterisations...

4. The legit method of files-sharing..but at what greater cost? March 30: the modest launch date for the Australian website, guevera. It promises users free mp3 downloads from a range of artists, whilst still ensuring the artist a profit, thanks to the bucks put forward by one of the sites major onboard advertising partners. But, what's the catch and what will it mean for an industry in turmoil? MIG CALDWELL

5. The medical technology breakthrough to hold close to the heart: Research published recently details the rather worrying statistic that your chances of suffering from - and, indeed - dying from heart disease greatly increases depending on your proximity to a metropolitan area.CARRIE FELLNER found out about a technological breakthrough aiming to address these issues of distance care