Happy new year to all of you media critics/creators/cretins!
The media has a strange and almost eerie presence at this time of year in the efforts to consistently churn out the 24 hour news cycle while still taking time to relax and enjoy the silly season and the summer days.
It is also a time when the majority of radio broadcasters effectively flip the tape over and play out the year again under a title such as: "The Best Of....(Insert show name)"*
This is also true of FOURTH ESTATE'S homebase: Radio 2ser, however, we are producing a series of radio features over January on Monday and Tuesday evenings from 6pm (normally occupied by national current affairs program, THE WIRE).
Entitled, "CIRCLE OF DOCOS", it is a chance to provide listeners with fresh and original content over a generally lacklustre broadcast period.
I have already contributed a piece taken and adapted from a piece that featured last year on Fourth about the Australian cinema culture in relation to Wolf Creek...
But, I am currently in the stages of producing a fresh 15 minute radio feature about the change in gamer culture, to air MONDAY 23RD JANUARY.
This will be a sidestep from the usual integrity-fuelled objective journalism that we attempt when reporting for Fourth Estate as it is to be a personal reflection on the way in which relationships are developed via the habit of gameplay.
My inspiration for this feature came from the work I did late last year for Fourth when I interviewed a researcher involved in collating new data revealing Australian gaming trends.
While at this stage, the year ahead for the Fourth Estate is still vague, I am doing my best to continue to engage with its audiences and enabling the show a public presence.
Check out ABC's POOL where I have begun to archive the shows of 2010, it is an open project, so contributions would be great!
* Check out the "Best of The Fourth Estate" every Monday afternoon from 1pm on the COMMUNITY RADIO NETWORK (CRN)
Cheers
Mig Caldwell and Team Fourth Estate
