Chris Oliver-Taylor appeared at residence giving an introduction on the ABC’s innovation convention, Futurecast.
The general public broadcaster’s first ever chief content material officer strode across the stage with the vitality of a Silicon Valley exec as he spoke in regards to the want for the general public broadcaster to suppose, work and use expertise creatively.
About midway by, he stated that the ABC “should be on the centre of social cohesion”. After which, a bit later, he reiterated these feedback.
“I discussed social cohesion earlier. The ABC should play a elementary position within the continued evolution of Australia, and that dialog performs a big a part of that social cohesion,” he pressured.
It’s not simply Oliver-Taylor saying that both. In June, new ABC chair Kim Williams warned in a speech of “the menace posed to nationwide cohesion by the best way the web, social media and in some situations, synthetic intelligence-generated supplies that are altering our public debates and denying our media establishments of their capability to boost democracy and create new concepts and nationwide cultures we will name our personal”.
Williams later explicitly made the case for the ABC being an answer to this concern of social cohesion, and linked the broadcaster’s public funding to this mission, in a podcast with 9 broadcaster Neil Mitchell in July.
“Funding that’s justified by the ABC in making a case to authorities, in making a case for the work that must be completed in areas reminiscent of social cohesion,” he stated.
The time period “social cohesion” is getting a exercise, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese regularly citing it as each a trigger for concern and a purpose for his authorities.
Pitching the ABC as one of many forces defending Australia towards assaults on cohesion isn’t a drastic reimagining of the broadcaster. Its constitution lays out a must “contribute to a way of nationwide identification and inform and entertain, and replicate the cultural variety of, the Australian neighborhood” — one thing that will appear to be a key part of social cohesion.
However the particular phrasing is the newest try to make the case for the ABC utilizing the values and rhetoric of the federal government of the day. The ABC’s output isn’t simply good leisure and knowledge, the argument goes; it’s additionally vital for stopping issues from boiling over. We have to discover and fund the subsequent Bluey for nationwide safety causes.
Because the enterprise fashions that fund conventional media proceed to break down, there may be rising stress on the federal government from different media firms to cease funding an organisation that competes with them for eyeballs however with out the identical business pressures. On this atmosphere, the ABC is at all times seeking to sharpen its case for why it ought to nonetheless exist.
Does the ABC have a task to play in “social cohesion”? Tell us your ideas by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please embrace your full identify to be thought-about for publication. We reserve the suitable to edit for size and readability.
