Making a World View? Globalisation Discourse in a Public Broadcaster.

André Spicer

Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

February 2004 Department or Management The University of Melbourne

Abstract This thesis examines whether globalisation can be approached as a discourse through a study of a public sector broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It moves away from ‘first wave’ treatments of globalisation as a universal process that transforms all localities. More recent ‘second wave’ accounts of globalisation as a process embedded in local institutions lead to the conclusion that the most significant dimension of globalisation is the fact it is a persuasive language. To examine how a language like globalisation is a meaningful social phenomenon, I draw on theories of discourse. After considering a range of approaches to discourse in organisation, I focus on critical discourse analysis. This leads me to treat globalisation as a set of texts mobilised through discursive action that produce relations of socio-cultural power. The specific relations of socio-cultural power associated with globalisation discourse are the construction of legitimate roles, stakeholders, and space. To study globalisation discourse at the ABC, I draw on the methodology of discourse analysis. In the first part of the empirical study, I examine which discourses were evident between 1953 and 2000, and what relations of power these gave rise to. I do this by analysing the broadcasters annual reports between 1953 and 2000. I identify seven dominant discourses, each of which were associated with different constructions of stakeholders, legitimate roles and space. In the second part of the empirical study I use a historic analysis of the annual reports to investigate how these discourses changed. I found that there were three significant shifts in each discourse. These shifts were from nationalism to multiculturalism, from multiculturalism to the market, and from the market to the new media environment. Each of these shifts involved a restructuring of how discourses were configured. In the final part of the empirical study I examine how the currently dominant discourse – the new media environment – was resisted through discursive action. In order to do this I look at alternative discourses propagated by a staff union and a consumer pressure group. I identify four strategies these groups used to resist new media environment discourse.

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Reflecting on my findings, I point out globalisation discourse has only appeared quite recently in association with ‘new media environment’ discourse. Of particular interest is how this and other discourses constructed the space in which broadcasters were positioned. I argue that at the centre of production of space are spatial scales. Next I note that a range of groups were involved in constructing the multiple spatial scales in which the ABC was positioned in. Then, I identify how the processes of resistance appears to be an attempt to rearticulate the spatial scales the broadcaster is situated in. Finally I acknowledge the extra discursive processes involved in the production space not dealt with in this thesis. This leads me to surmise that globalisation discourse involves one among many constructions of spatial scales. I conclude with some reflection on possible contributions of the thesis.

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Declaration This is to certify that (i)

The thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD

(ii)

Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used,

(iii)

The thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices.

André Spicer

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Acknowledgments There are many people who have played a role in helping me begin, settle into, slog through, and ultimately complete this work. Let me thank my supervisors Graham Sewell and Cynthia Hardy for the support, the opportunities and above all the discipline. I would like to acknowledge the financial support received during my study. The Department of Management provided funding to present work at conferences throughout my candidature as well as an excellent working space. I would like to particularly thank Howard Dick for ensuring doctoral students had access to adequate resources. The Graduate School at the University of Melbourne also provided a Melbourne Research Scholarship and a Melbourne Travelling Scholarship that allowed me to complete this work. I also thank the following: Berris and Alan Spicer, Shayne Grice, Ralph Stablein, Annie Wilkinson, everyone who passed through 166 Nicholson St, Mark Cunningham, Michelle Soo, John Selsky, Campbell Jones, Andy Sturdy, Simon Booth, the people at UMPA, Susan Ainsworth, Julie Connelly, Steffen Böhm, Chris Land, and Markus Perkmann. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the University of Warwick for providing a stimulating intellectual environment for finishing the thesis. In particular I would like to thank two people who have shared this process most closely with me. Peter Fleming for his inspiration, friendship and care over the last four years. Mel Strauss for everything, including moving to the other side of the world and the painful editing.

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Brief Table of Contents ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... 2 DECLARATION............................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ 5 BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... 6 EXTENDED TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................... 7 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 11 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 13 GLOBALISATION ........................................................................................................ 38 TAKING GLOBAL BABBLE SERIOUSLY............................................................... 71 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 107 DISCOURSES AT THE ABC ..................................................................................... 126 SHIFTING DISCOURSES AT THE ABC ................................................................. 166 RESISTING THE NEW MEDIA ENVIRONMENT ................................................ 200 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: FROM DOMINANT DISCOURSE TO SHATTERED SOCIAL SPACE ................................................................................. 233 APPENDIX ONE: CHRONOLOGY OF VENTURES, POLICY, AND STRUCTURAL CHANGES AT THE ABC, 1950 – 1999......................................... 266 APPENDIX TWO: CORE GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION RELATING TO THE ABC ................................................................................................................................ 294 APPENDIX THREE: NUMERICAL SUMMARY OF DISCOURSES IN ABC ANNUAL REPORTS, 1953-2000 ................................................................................ 296 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 297

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Extended Table of Contents ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... 2 DECLARATION............................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ 5 BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... 6 EXTENDED TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................... 7 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 11 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 13 WHAT IS GLOBALISATION? ............................................................................................ 15 GLOBALISATION DID IT! ................................................................................................ 16 ASSESSING GLOBALISATION .......................................................................................... 18 APPROACHING CRITIQUE ............................................................................................... 22 A Critique of Domination.......................................................................................... 22 A Critique of Representation .................................................................................... 25 Critiquing Representation and Domination.............................................................. 28 GLOBALISATION DISCOURSE AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR ................................................. 30 Globalisation at the ABC .......................................................................................... 32 OUTLINE OF ARGUMENT ................................................................................................ 35 GLOBALISATION ........................................................................................................ 38 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 38 THE FIRST WAVE ........................................................................................................... 41 Political Institutions.................................................................................................. 43 Economic Institutions................................................................................................ 46 Cultural Institutions .................................................................................................. 53 Spatial Organisation................................................................................................. 56 The Limits of the First Wave..................................................................................... 58 THE SECOND WAVE ....................................................................................................... 59 Political Institutions.................................................................................................. 61 Economic Institutions................................................................................................ 62 Cultural Institutions .................................................................................................. 65 Spatial Organisation................................................................................................. 67 The Limits of Second Wave ....................................................................................... 68 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................. 70 TAKING GLOBAL BABBLE SERIOUSLY............................................................... 71 ORGANISATIONAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ...................................................................... 74 Tropological Studies ................................................................................................. 79 Semiology.................................................................................................................. 81 Deconstruction.......................................................................................................... 84 Foucauldian Approaches .......................................................................................... 86 Critical Discourse Analysis ...................................................................................... 92

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Summary ................................................................................................................... 97 STUDIES OF GLOBALISATION DISCOURSE ...................................................................... 98 Texts .......................................................................................................................... 98 Discursive Action .................................................................................................... 100 Socio-Cultural Power ............................................................................................. 101 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND QUESTIONS .............................................................. 104 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 107 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 107 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ................................................................................................. 108 EMPIRICAL SETTING .................................................................................................... 112 Public Broadcasting................................................................................................ 112 THE ABC AND CONTEXT. ............................................................................................ 114 History..................................................................................................................... 114 Legislation............................................................................................................... 115 Competitors............................................................................................................. 117 Stakeholders............................................................................................................ 118 DATA COLLECTED ....................................................................................................... 121 ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................... 122 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................ 125 DISCOURSES AT THE ABC ..................................................................................... 126 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 126 CIVIL SOCIETY ............................................................................................................. 127 Higher Order Discourse ......................................................................................... 128 Legitimate Role ....................................................................................................... 128 Space ....................................................................................................................... 130 Stakeholders............................................................................................................ 131 Summary ................................................................................................................. 131 COMMUNITY ................................................................................................................ 132 Higher order discourses ......................................................................................... 132 Legitimate Role ....................................................................................................... 133 Space ....................................................................................................................... 134 Stakeholders............................................................................................................ 135 Summary ................................................................................................................. 135 MEDIA MARKET .......................................................................................................... 136 Higher Order Discourses........................................................................................ 136 Legitimate role ........................................................................................................ 137 Space ....................................................................................................................... 138 Stakeholders............................................................................................................ 139 Summary ................................................................................................................. 140 GOVERNMENT .............................................................................................................. 141 Higher-order discourses ......................................................................................... 141 Legitimate role ........................................................................................................ 143 Space ....................................................................................................................... 144 Stakeholders............................................................................................................ 146 Summary ................................................................................................................. 147 8

AUSTRALIAN CULTURE ................................................................................................ 148 Higher order discourse ........................................................................................... 148 Legitimate role ........................................................................................................ 148 Space ....................................................................................................................... 151 Stakeholders............................................................................................................ 151 Summary ................................................................................................................. 152 DIVERSITY ................................................................................................................... 152 Higher order discourse ........................................................................................... 152 Legitimate role ........................................................................................................ 153 Space ....................................................................................................................... 155 Stakeholders............................................................................................................ 156 Summary ................................................................................................................. 156 INTERNATIONALISM ..................................................................................................... 156 Higher-order discourse........................................................................................... 157 Legitimate role ........................................................................................................ 158 Space ....................................................................................................................... 160 Stakeholders............................................................................................................ 160 Summary ................................................................................................................. 161 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................ 161 SHIFTING DISCOURSES AT THE ABC ................................................................. 166 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 166 FROM NATIONALISM TO MULTICULTURALISM............................................................. 168 Diversity.................................................................................................................. 169 Civil society............................................................................................................. 171 Community .............................................................................................................. 172 Australian Culture .................................................................................................. 173 From Nation-Building to Reflecting Diversity........................................................ 176 THE RISE OF THE MARKET ........................................................................................... 177 Media Market.......................................................................................................... 178 Civil Society ............................................................................................................ 180 Government............................................................................................................. 181 Diversity.................................................................................................................. 184 International ........................................................................................................... 184 Australian Culture .................................................................................................. 185 From Representing Diversity to Efficient Service Provision.................................. 186 NEW MEDIA ENVIRONMENT ........................................................................................ 187 Media Market.......................................................................................................... 187 International ........................................................................................................... 190 Civil Society ............................................................................................................ 190 Government............................................................................................................. 192 Community .............................................................................................................. 193 Diversity.................................................................................................................. 194 From National Player to International Competitor................................................ 195 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................ 196 RESISTING THE NEW MEDIA ENVIRONMENT ................................................ 200

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INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 200 RESURRECTING OLD DISCOURSES ............................................................................... 203 USING SHARED DISCOURSES........................................................................................ 208 Independence .......................................................................................................... 209 Public Service ......................................................................................................... 214 Australian Culture .................................................................................................. 217 Accountability ......................................................................................................... 219 Summary ................................................................................................................. 220 APPROPRIATING NEW DISCOURSES.............................................................................. 220 The New Media Environment.................................................................................. 221 Media Market.......................................................................................................... 223 Locality ................................................................................................................... 225 IMPORTING DISCOURSES .............................................................................................. 226 Anti-Managerialism ................................................................................................ 226 Anti-Neoliberalism.................................................................................................. 230 RESISTANCE AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE .......................................................................... 231 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: FROM DOMINANT DISCOURSE TO SHATTERED SOCIAL SPACE ................................................................................. 233 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 233 REVIEW OF FINDINGS ................................................................................................... 234 PRODUCING SPACE ...................................................................................................... 237 Capitalist Structure vs. Political Action ................................................................. 241 Multiple Spatial Scales ........................................................................................... 245 APPROPRIATING SPATIAL SCALES................................................................................ 248 Scale as Object of Struggle ..................................................................................... 249 Formal Struggle, Informal Strategies ..................................................................... 250 WIDENING THE PRODUCTION OF SCALE ....................................................................... 253 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................ 257 Contributions .......................................................................................................... 259 Closing .................................................................................................................... 264 APPENDIX ONE: CHRONOLOGY OF VENTURES, POLICY, AND STRUCTURAL CHANGES AT THE ABC, 1950 – 1999......................................... 266 APPENDIX TWO: CORE GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION RELATING TO THE ABC ................................................................................................................................ 294 EXTRACT FROM THE AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING AND TELEVISION ACT, 1942. SECTION 59................................................................................................................................. 294 EXTRACT FROM AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION ACT, 1983. .................. 294 APPENDIX THREE: NUMERICAL SUMMARY OF DISCOURSES IN ABC ANNUAL REPORTS, 1953-2000 ................................................................................ 296 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 297

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List of Figures Figure 2.1: Two Waves of Globalisation Research .......................................................... 42 Figure 3.1: Approaches to Organisational Discourse ....................................................... 78 Figure 3.2: A map of critical discourse analysis............................................................... 93 Figure 3.3: A model of globalisation discourse .............................................................. 105 Figure 4.1: Aspects of discourse analysis at the level of organisations.......................... 109 Figure 4.2: Broadcasters operating in Australia in 2000. ............................................... 119 Figure 5.1. Summary of discourse at the ABC ............................................................... 127 Figure 6.1: Discursive shifts at the ABC, 1953-2000..................................................... 167 Figure 7.1: Resistant Discourses at the ABC.................................................................. 203

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“To think globality is to think the politics of thinking globality” -Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

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I Introduction One of the reasons why I think there is no hope today for future possibility is precisely because people feel there is no alternative to the capitalist system, and even more to the neo-liberal form of capitalism which is dominant today. And the left is in great part responsible for that, because they seem to have capitulated to this dominance of capitalism and they are not thinking of another alternative . . . for instance, there is a belief that because of globalisation nothing is possible, and this becomes the dominant discourse (Mouffe, 2002:135).

“Everywhere we hear it said, all day long” (Bourdieu, 1998:29). Talk of globalisation has become pervasive. The demand to take heed of the planetary nature of social relations echoes through every corner of organisational life including the media, health care, the non-profit sector, governments, education, and business. Discussion about the pressing realities of global interconnection has become so commonplace that we are no longer surprised to come upon statements like the following: The twenty-first century could well become the ‘global century’, even if rapid globalisation of people, products, and markets slows from its blazing mid-1990s pace. Increasingly organisational participants are urged to act local, think global (Parker, 1998:6).

Globalisation is here to stay, and while there may be inevitable hiccups and setbacks, there is no going back for anyone. (Giddens and Hutton, 2000:215).

In each of these rushed diagnoses a single word (globalisation) captures a dizzying array of changes sweeping the contemporary social world. These statements claim that the apocalyptic shifts associated with globalisation necessarily lead to fundamental transformations in organisations of all types. Social actors must adapt to globalisation or perish in the face of it. Throughout this thesis I aim to open up the apparent realities of globalisation. Instead of treating it as an obvious phenomenon to be accurately charted, I will follow David Harvey (1995) and ask, “why is it that the word ‘globalization’ has recently entered into

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our political discourse in the way it has? Who put it there and why?” (p. 1) and why is it “words like ‘imperialism, ‘colonialism’, and ‘neo-colonialism’ have increasingly taken a back seat to ‘globalization’ as a way to organize thoughts and chart political possibilities” (p.1). I ask how and why organisational actors use the word globalisation to analyse and diagnose the social world. The word globalisation not only describes the empirical facts of social changes occurring in political, economic, and cultural institutions as well as the organisation of time and space. Instead, I argue that globalisation is one particular representation of the social world. Moreover, it is a powerful representation that can have important effects on how organisational actors may conceive of the social world and what becomes a viable possibility for action. The language of globalisation also involves a process of domination. It posits a narrow definition of the social world, de-legitimising many possible ways of understanding and acting upon social life. I posit that powerful representations of globalisation are the object of political struggle and play an important role in political institutions, the public sphere, scholarly debate and the day-to-day politics in organisations. Focusing on the organisational manifestations, I look at a public broadcaster in Australia called the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Exploring the politics of representing globalisation at the ABC, I aim to draw out an alternative to conceiving of globalisation as a rock-hard reality that must simply be confronted with the aid of a healthy dose of pragmatism. The introduction provides a provisional definition of globalisation. I then note that globalisation is one of the most recent meta-narratives employed to explain a wide range of social processes. Like any contentious meta-narrative, globalisation has been subject to a number of interpretations. Taking two interpretations of globalisation as my launching point, I argue that it is necessary to see globalisation as a process inherently bound up with relations of domination, and as a ‘myth’. Instead of merely rejecting globalisation as a collective lie, I argue that we need to approach it as a powerful representation. Making this argument in an organisational context, I mobilise two streams of thought at the centre of critical management studies – the critique of domination, and the critique of representation. I argue that to understand globalisation, we must study how representations of globalisation are intimately involved with the construction and

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reconstruction of relations of domination. I turn to the public sector, and more specifically public broadcasting in Australia, to locate a specific context in which to examine the discourse of globalisation. This setting is ideal because globalisation discourse has served as a lynch pin in ongoing efforts restructure the organisation. I conclude this chapter with an outline of the argument throughout the rest of the thesis.

What is Globalisation? What exactly do we mean when we use the term globalisation? While acknowledging a complex and rapidly growing debate about globalisation (see: chapter two), a commonly accepted definition would describe globalisation as a rapid increase in trans-territorial flows. According to such an account a flow is “the movement of physical artefacts, people, symbols and information across time and space” (Held et al, 1999: 16; see also: Castells, 1996; Appadurai, 1996). A trans-territorial flow crosses tradition boundaries in social space such as national borders (Cerney, 1995; Scholte, 2000). Initial attempts to define globalisation have sought to document the massive quantitative increase of various global flows such as trade, foreign direct investment, migration, international political institutions, phone calls, international travel, and Internet connections (see for instance: UNTCAD, 1997) Focusing on the quantitative increase in trans-territorial flows, we miss the major qualitative transformations that globalisation also entails. That is, by simply counting the global flows of goods, services and people we ignore the processes that pattern or structure these flows. An adequate definition of globalisation would need to look for changes in the underlying processes that pattern these trans-territorial flows. There are at least two qualitative transformations that are central in defining globalisation. The first is the restructuring of social relations in time and space. This happens as shifts in transport and communications technologies as well as the mode of capitalist accumulation rapidly compress our experiences of time and space (Harvey, 1989). This means social relations are dis-embedded (Giddens, 1990) or deterritorialised (Scholte, 2000) from particular localities. Here, social action is increasingly inter-linked across space. These extensive inter-linkages lead to more profound change in the way social actors experience the

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world, resulting in the “intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole” (Robertson, 1992: 8). As well as the reconfiguration of space and time, globalisation involves the emergence of supra-national institutions and the transformation of territorial institutions. These institutional transformations include the extension and intensification of the world capitalist economy (Wallerstein, 1974, 1979; Amin, 1989, 1997; Arrighi, 1994), the global spread of institutions associated with the nation state (Meyer et al, 1997), market oriented restructuring of the nation state (Weiss, 1998), changes in the system of international relations (Rousseau, 1990) and the rise of supra national political institutions (Held, 1995). Each of these institutional transformations provides the framework that underpins the more experiential transformation of time and space. Therefore, a provisional definition of globalisation would be that it is the quantitative increase in trans-territorial flows that are patterned by qualitative changes in the spacetime organisation and institutional arrangements (for a similar definition see: Held et al, 1999: 1-29).

Globalisation Did It! The quantitative and qualitative transformations associated with globalisation are offered by many social scientists as a catch all explanation for some of the most profound social changes that confront organisational and social actors. Globalisation is posited as the most recent meta-narrative which accounts for a variety of changes in all sectors of social life. For instance, globalisation has been used to explain changes in global wealth: as economic relations become stretched across the global, there is an increasing liberalisation of trade that in turn produces wealthier national economies (Bhagwahti, 1998). This global stretching of economic relations has also increased the comparative advantage of nations, resulting in a generalised increase in production (Krugman, 1996). Globalisation is also said to provide increased access for large parts of the world’s population to consumer goods (OECD, 1993) and information (Rousseau, 1990). Globalisation also accounts for the development of trans-national corporations that allow the efficient transfer of knowledge and innovations between countries (Dunning, 1993).

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Finally, the creation of global interconnections results in a decline of nationalist sentiments typically associated with wars (Held, 1995), and an increasingly cosmopolitan attitude (Beck, 2000). While each of these processes attributed to globalisation are broadly positive, researchers have also demonstrated how globalisation explains many profoundly negative outcomes. These include a multinational economy dominated by large corporations that produced an ongoing concentration of wealth into the coffers of the world’s rich (Chossudovsky, 1997) and a widening gap between a mobile ‘global’ class and a fixed class of ‘locals’ who are deprived of access to the various benefits of globality (Bauman, 1998). Globalisation has also been blamed for the harmful ecological practices such as cash cropping, over-use of transportation, the spread of polluting industries, and consumerism (Shiva, 1989). Social justice is also said to be a victim of globalisation as third-world women are incorporated into industrial and service industries (Nash and FernándezKelly, 1983; Erenreich and Hoshchild, 2003), and increasingly oppressive work arrangements such as un-safe and de-unionised sweatshops become more widespread (Seabrook, 1996). The restructuring and decline of the modern welfare state has been one of the most keenly felt ‘outcomes’ of globalisation (Habermas, 1999). This occurred as activities have shifted from being part of the nation state to becoming part of the global market. This has had a profound effect on the public sector organisations as they have either been sold onto the global market, been subjected to disciplines of global competition, or have been pushed to become more mindful of the global market. The social outcomes ‘explained’ by globalisation are certainly wide ranging. It appears that globalisation has become the central reference point in the assessment of social life. It is as if there are many intermediate processes in social life, but when these are peeled away we ultimately reach the core explanatory variable of globalisation. Indeed, we might be led to the conclusion that globalisation is rapidly taking its place alongside other meta-narratives produced by the social sciences such as ‘modernisation’ or ‘capitalism’ (Mignolo, 2000).

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Assessing Globalisation While many social scientists at least tacitly agree that globalisation is a new metanarrative which explains dizzying changes in social life, there are important fractures in how it is assessed. Casting an eye across the literature we notice that there are at least four major assessments of globalisation–that it is positive process, that it is broadly negative, it is a reality that must be faced, and that it is a myth. As we shall see, each of these assessments leads the analysis of globalisation in quite a different direction. Theodore Levitt’s (1983) seminal article provided a remarkably clear assessment of globalisation as an overwhelmingly positive process. He celebrated what he saw as the central dynamic of globalisation - the spread of the multinational market across the entire surface of the earth. This has been hastened by modern communication technologies that “carry everywhere the constant drumbeat of modern possibilities to lighten and enhance work, raise living standards, divert, and entertain” (p. 93). The multinational consumer goods firm was presented as the hero of a rapidly globalising world where consumers are released from the purgatory of nationally controlled markets and local commodities. They are able to indulge in a consumer orgy of “McDonalds from the Champs Elysées to the Ginza, of Coca-Cola in Bahrain and Pepsi-Cola in Moscow, and of rock music, Greek Salad, Hollywood movies, Revlon cosmetics, Sony televisions, and Levi jeans everywhere” (p.93). The assumption that populations throughout the world accepted the spread of western consumer items with open arms is extended by others who have argued that the globalisation of free markets and the spread of a liberal democratic system of values represents a concluding point in historical development (Fukuyama, 1992). The fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent decline of actual existing alternatives to capitalism in Eastern Europe not only meant the spread of McDonalds but also the spread of liberal democratic capitalism. The global triumph of free market capitalism is seen to lead to a decline in repressive nation-states and the emergence of significant opportunities for individuals throughout the world: With the end of communism, the decline of the nation state, the building of a single world economy, the spread of democracy throughout the world, and the new revolution in telecommunications, the opportunities, for individuals, families, companies and institutions are

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far, far greater than they have been in our lifetime. The global paradox tells us that the opportunity for each of us as individuals are far greater than at any time in human history (Nesbitt, 1994: 2745).

This assessment centres on the argument that globalisation allows the liberation of the individual through the spread of free markets and North American style liberaldemocracy. Such an appraisal would claim that globalisation is a broadly positive process. The most widespread assessment in the current debate about globalisation, however, suggests that the process is not unfailingly positive. A number of commentators have sought to treat globalisation as a reality that confronts social actors and must be faced with a healthy dose of pragmatism. Thomas Freidman (1999) provided an excellent example of this position. Parting ways with abiding supporters, Friedman conceded that globalisation might have some less savoury consequences. While Freidman’s commentary acknowledged the conflicts and uncertainties, he believed that globalisation is an inevitable process that will ultimately benefit everyone. Represented as a natural phenomenon, attempts to challenge or even question the process are said to be akin to raging at the dawn: I feel about globalization a lot like I feel about the dawn. Generally speaking, I think it’s a good thing that the sun comes up every morning. It does more good than harm. But even if I didn’t much care for the dawn there isn’t much I could do about it. I didn’t start globalization and I can’t stop it – except at a huge cost to human development – and I’m not going to waste my time trying. All I aim to think about is how I can get the best out of this new system, and cushion the worst, for the most people (Friedman, 1999: xviii).

The only option that Freidman’s analysis of globalisation affords an organisational actor is to behave like a good pragmatist and accept the new realities it brings. They must assess this ‘global dawn’ with a cold rational gaze, and seize the opportunities it presents. Anthony Giddens (1998) is another representative of the ‘globalisation as reality’ assessment. He presented the process as a spectral and uncontrollable social force that propels far-reaching changes. Giddens assessment is tempered by the same pragmatism that underpins Freidman’s; although we may choose to see globalisation as positive or 19

negative depending on our ideological framework, it is nevertheless a powerful reality that must be faced: We live in a world of transformations, affecting almost every aspect of what we do. For better of worse, we are propelled into a global order that no one fully understands, but which is making its effects felt upon us all (Giddens, 1998:7).

Seen as so systematic and far reaching, globalisation cannot be ignored. The only option left is a kind of healthy pragmatism that moves beyond ideology of the left and right (Giddens, 1994) by acknowledging the realities of globalisation and letting actors simply ‘do what works’ (see also: Giddens and Hutton, 2001). Although they differ significantly in their assessment of globalisation, those who promote a morally neutral approach appear to agree that the process should not be denied. Rather, a realistic assessment should be made with the aim of various social actors pragmatically adapting to it and taking advantage of the process. The third position in the debate around globalisation does not approach the process with either celebration or cool pragmatism. Instead, those working within this approach see globalisation (at least what they call ‘corporate defined globalisation’) as a fundamentally negative process that needs to be called into question. A veritable explosion of popular (e.g. Brecher and Costello, 1994; Bordieu, 1998; Klein, 1999, 2002; Hertz, 2001; Pilger, 2002; Stiglitz, 2002) and social scientific critiques of globalisation (e.g. Korten, 1995; Amin, 1997; Bauman, 1998; Mittelman, 2000; Petras, 2001) have advanced such a questioning. The central strand that runs throughout each of these critiques is that the rise of global capitalism has seen multinational corporations and their supporting institutions become more dominant while the power afforded to citizens has been progressively undermined. The critics of globalisation have argued that the global economy tends to have disastrous consequences for social justice, welfare, sovereignty, and the environment. Because of these undesirable outcomes, critics have argued it is necessary to contest contemporary globalisation processes. However, at the same time as these critics call into question corporate driven globalisation, they also affirm the process as the most pressing reality of social life. For instance, Brecher and Costello argue that “like it or not, our lives and our children’s lives will be lived in the global economy” (p.11).

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Even critics of the global economy present it as the fundamental horizon in which a society’s collective future, and futures of institutions should be measured against. These three assessments of globalisation seem to be characterised by considerable disagreement about the outcomes. Nevertheless each appears to agree that globalisation is the fundamental process that is reshaping institutions and organisations. The fourth position in the globalisation debate has called this assertion into question. Instead of seeing globalisation as good, bad or simply ‘real’, this approach holds that globalisation is largely a myth that bears little resemblance to the empirical reality of the contemporary social world. The best representatives of this position are Hirst and Thompson (1996) who have empirically examined the extent of the global economy. Using a data set of flows of trade and foreign direct investment they have demonstrated that the economy is not particularly global, but tends to be focused around the triad of North America, Europe, and Japan. Moreover, using historical data they have demonstrated how the world economy was in fact more global (at least in terms of trade and foreign direct investment flows) prior to 1914. This has led them to conclude that all the political rhetoric and social scientific theory about the increasingly global nature of the economy does not reflect the truth of the matter. Instead of advancing it as a new explanatory framework, globalisation should be labelled as a myth (see also: Bradley et al, 2000), a buzzword (Scholte, 1996), or even ‘global babble’ (Abu-Lughod, 1991). These critics conclude that globalisation should be treated as an inaccuracy that needs to be dismissed from political and social scientific debate. There seems to be significant and mounting evidence that globalisation is not an unfailing positive process that leads to individual emancipation. Instead, it involves the reconfiguration of relations of domination (see: chapter two). This means there is a convincing case for accepting the assessment of globalisation as bound up with relations of domination. However, following this assessment assumes that globalisation is simply ‘out there’ and exists in empirical reality. As we have seen, such claims have been fundamentally questioned in recent research that treats globalisation as a myth. To simply call globalisation a myth and dismiss it as a viable object of analysis, however, ignores

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the fact that the very presence of such ‘mythical’ discussion of globalisation is an important empirical phenomenon. In order to understand the presence of this myth (or what I will call discourse) of globalisation it is necessary to mobilise a critical study in another sense. That is, instead of only being interested in processes of domination associated with globalisation, we also need to inquiry into the processes of representation. Instead of attempting to uncover the reality behind the rhetoric of globalisation, such a study would focus on representations of globalisation discourse themselves. Moreover, this study would ask how these processes of representation are bound up with relations of domination. This leads me to propose a critical analysis of globalisation that would undertake a dual critique of representations of globalisation and domination associated with globalisation.

Approaching Critique In order to develop a critique of globalisation discourse in an organisational context, I shall turn to the field of critical management studies. This field has produced a powerful critique of the processes of organisational domination. It has also developed a critique of the representations that shape how organisational actors understand and produce the social world. In what follows, I shall chart out what is meant by each of these forms of critique, and attempt to bring them together to provide a broad point of guidance in studying representations of globalisation in a public broadcaster.

A Critique of Domination Critical management studies is a growing tradition that has called into question the objectivity and politically neutral assumptions that underscore the bulk of work on organisation (Alvesson and Willmott, 1996, 2003). This field has broadly sought to highlight the processes of domination central to organisational life. Early attempts to sketch out a critical study of management and organisation were tempered by the environmentalist and humanist reaction to technocracy during the 1960s (e.g. Scott, 1974). This stream of thought emphasised processes of organisational decay, scarcity and descent in place of the dominant fascination with organisational growth, abundance and consensus. Central to this was a call for organisation and management studies researchers

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to abandon dominant approaches associated with functionalism and become more attuned to the ‘darker side’ of organisations, in particular issues of domination. Later work developed this account of domination in organisations by drawing on a lineage of Marxist thought to chart process of becoming which renders “social arrangements which seem fixed and permanent (as) temporary, arbitrary patterns and any observed social pattern are regarded as one among many possibilities” (Benson, 1977: 3). This also involved a commitment to the praxis of “free and creative reconstruction of social arrangements on the basis of a reasoned analysis of both the limits and potentials of present social forms” (p.5). Because of the overwhelming commitment to a critique of domination, critical studies of organisation were said to be very particular kinds of knowledge about organisations. Instead of labouring under technical interests and aiming to control nature and people, or working with practical interests that aimed to develop hermeneutic and historical understandings of a specific situation, a critical study of organisation would attempt to develop emancipatory knowledge (Stablein and Nord, 1985; see also: Habermas, 1971). This knowledge would be emancipatory insofar as it aims to develop autonomy and responsibility by challenging regimes of domination. This central concern for emancipation has driven a body of research in organisation and management studies that: documents the production of social domination by organisation, shows how this is fractured with contradictions and, develops a praxis that challenge relations of power with an emancipatory interest. While Critical Management Studies has only recently developed the kind of institutional basis usually associated with a scholarly field (Fournier and Grey, 2000; Zald, 2002), it has drawn on already established strands of research that examine domination in organised life. These include Marxist labour process theory which has developed a critique of capitalist employment relationships (e.g. Braverman, 1974; Burawoy, 1979), work inspired by the Frankfurt school of critical theory which has attempted to develop a critique of instrumental rationality in organisations (e.g. Alvesson, 1987; Alvesson and Willmott, 1992), and feminist approaches which have developed a critique of patriarchy in organisation (for a review see: Calás and Smirchich, 1996). The central concern throughout each of these studies is

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developing a critique of the multifarious relations of domination in and around organisations. As yet, the growing enterprise of critical management studies has produced only a handful of sustained engagements with the issue of globalisation. There have been some wide ranging investigations of changes in the capitalist labour process under globalisation such as studies of the nature of manufacturing work in export processing zones (e.g. Ong, 1987; Pena, 1997). This work shows how systems of domination developed in western production processes during industrialisation have been rapidly reproduced across the planet. These include technocratic systems like scientific management, patterns of gender oppression, and routines of work and non-work life. Such observations led researchers like Pena (1997) to claim that the growth of the global supply chain has meant Marx’s ‘satanic mills’ have been spread across the globe. There has also been a building research effort to investigate the role of global commodity chains in structuring power relations (Gareffi and Korzeniewicz, 1996). One particular fertile area of critical analysis has been studies of the commodity chains of athletic footwear companies that show the link between gendered oppression through advertising and through the third world labour process (Carty, 1997). Further, this work shows how the official narratives deployed by the Nike Corporation in their advertising and public relations campaigns silenced the stories of oppression faced by these women (Boje, 1999). Finally, recent work has emphasised the role local and national institutions have played in developing exploitative work relationships in the global foot-ware commodity chain (Frenkel, 2001). Critical studies of globalisation in this tradition therefore largely consist of investigations of the web of relations of power and domination in work and organisation. These include the labour processes in global commodity chains, the role of instrumental rationality such as scientific management, and relations of patriarchal domination at work. Some of these studies have argued that technologies of representations such as advertising and public relations are integral in legitimating the repressive relationships imbued in global commodity chains.

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A Critique of Representation While critiques of domination provide an excellent basis for documenting the more material forms of domination exercised in and around organisations, they do not provide us with a fully-fledged framework to understand how the myths of globalisation are bound up in the process of domination. In order to flesh out an approach that allows us to understand these myths as empirical phenomena, I shall turn to the rapidly growing critical literature on representation in organisation. This stream of literature has been inspired by early work on postmodernism in organisation studies that challenges the assumption that any process of knowledge (including both functionalist and critical studies of management) can represent a rationally organised social world in an unproblematic fashion (Cooper and Burrell, 1988; Hassard and Parker, 1993; Hassard, 1993; For review see: Hancock and Tyler, 2001). In place of the ‘modernist’ assumptions that have driven both critical and orthodox investigations of work, post-modern approaches seek to “decentre the human agent from its self-elevated position of narcissistic ‘rationality’ and shows it to be essentially an observer-community which constructs interpretations of the world, these interpretations having no absolute or universal status” (Cooper and Burrell, 1988:

94). In place of these ‘modernist

metanarratives’, Gergen (1992: 213-5) argued for a kind of knowledge that replaces the real with the representational, understands these representations as a communal artefact, and emphasises the need for ‘ironic self reflection’ in place of modernist critique (Gergen, 1992; see also: Rorty, 1989). This move towards a critique of representation produced an explosion of research that sought to reveal the inconsistencies, indeterminacy and paradoxes in dominant representations of organisations (e.g. Cooper, 1990; Linstead, 1993a, 1993b; Linstead and Grafton-Small, 1993). Others have been quick to point out the ethical vacuum opened up by approaching social processes as merely a chaotic representation (Parker, 1992). To avoid this danger, researchers in critical management studies have abandoned many of the grander claims associated with post modernism such as the death of metanarratives to focus on the more sustained task of developing a critique of representation in organisations. This involves asking which representations of organisations are

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marginalised, which representations consistently appear, and what power dynamics each of these representations engenders. Such a critique involves questioning how a series of powerful representations in and around organisations arrest the slippery nature of meaning by discursively fixing it, thereby ‘making up’ the objects and subject they purport to describe. A specific rendering of post modernism that emphasised the chaotic and slippery aspects of organisations influenced earlier critiques of representation. The resulting research program was largely reflexive, investigating how theories represent organisations in ways that marginalise aspects of organisational life and do not conform to standards of reason, rationality and causal logic. According to this approach, orthodox theories of organisation have seen the feminine, the irrational, the sensual, the chaotic and the unreasonable written out (Linstead, 1993a). Others have drawn on the work of Michel Foucault (1966, 1967, 1973, 1976, 1977) to document the tight interrelationship between dominant representations of a particular phenomena in organisations, the power relations these representations engender, and the subjectivity positions which are constructed (see: chapter three). Researchers working in this tradition have addressed themselves to particular languages in organisation like enterprise discourse (du Gay, 1996), human resource management discourse (Townley, 1994), and total quality management discourse (Sewell and Wilkinson, 1992). This focus on more localised practices of representation has lead to relations of domination in organisations being reconceptualised as working through micro-practices instead of large-scale systems (e.g. Clegg, 1989). The move towards an analysis of how power manifests in micro-practices of representation, and in particular discourses that are mobilised in an organisational context, has been accompanied by a reformulation of how critical management studies conceptualises emancipation (Alvesson and Willmott, 1992). It was been argued that the concept of emancipation should remain at the heart of critical management studies, but that it requires significant revisions due to recent challenges of post-structuralism to

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‘grand narratives’ in organisation studies (e.g. Cooper and Burrell, 1988). The ‘modernist’ view of emancipation was said to rely on an overly cognitive and intellectual approach to social change, providing an essentialist account of social power based on a singular framework, with a tendency towards one-sided negativism. Instead of committing to this, critical management studies should seek to be committed to microemancipation that focuses on: Concrete activities, forms, and techniques that offer themselves not only as means of control, but also as objects and facilitators of resistance and, thus, vehicles for liberation. In this formulation, processes of emancipation are understood to be uncertain, contradictory, ambiguous, and precarious (Alvesson and Willmott, 1992: 446).

A micro-emancipatory critical management studies would be one that trains its gaze on the more mundane and everyday forms of power relations and more located struggles that occur around these microphysics of power in organisation such as the language we use to describe the world. Taking inspiration from the critique of representation, globalisation would be treated as a dominant representation of the social world that organisations exist within. This representation shapes how people talk about this world, which in turn engenders certain relations of power. The aim of a study inspired by this framework would be to trace out these systems of representation (or discourses), and show how these were linked to changes in space-time and institutions typically associated with globalisation. It would also examine how these discourses were challenged through various processes of microemancipations. Work in critical management studies has gone some way in developing a critique of representations associated with globalisations. One example is Bannerjee and Linstead’s (2001) review of the literature on representations typically associated with globalisation such as multiculturalism and post colonialism. Steingard and Fitzgibbons (1995) also aimed to develop a critique of representations of globalisation in orthodox managerial literature by “unpack[ing] the subterfuge of globalisation” through a deconstructive method that shows how the “dichotomising tendency of language usually ‘silences’ or ‘does violence’ to one half of the dichotomy” (p.32). The paper does contain a series of polemics against four very broad myths of globalisation (‘globalisation leads

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to one healthy world culture’, ‘globalisation brings prosperity to person and planet’, ‘the global market spreads naturally’, and ‘management literature presents a value-free representation of globalisation’). Developing a critique of representations of globalisation, Spich (1995) compares the discussion and debate around globalisation in organisation and management theory with the standards associated with a scientific discourse. He argued that because this diffuse and wide spread ‘forum’ of debate about globalisation does not live up to the standards of science, globalisation itself should be treated either as a myth or an ideology. While each of these papers remain at a rather generalised level of polemic, they do call into question widespread representations of globalisation discourse found in organisation and management theory. In particular they seek to gesture towards some of the relations of power that are produced and reproduced by orthodox representations of globalisation. This thesis aims to ground these largely speculative critiques of globalisation discourse in a specific organisational context. Doing so will allow me to see how globalisation as linguistic framework is mobilised by dominant actors, how it comes to be treated as a value-free assessment of the social world, and how it gives rise to relations of power that might be contested. Looking at an organisational context also enables an examination of the complexities of globalisation discourse. This highlights how these discourses may be preceded and linked up with other discourses in an organisation, and how they may be negotiated and contested by actors.

Critiquing Representation and Domination These two strands of critique appear to sit uneasily alongside one another. A critique of domination largely examines the creation and re-creation of systems of domination and charts out the possibility of emancipatory action that challenge systems of domination. In contrast, critiques of representation examine how objects and subjects are fixed by discourses that in turn engender relations of power. Such critiques shy away from recommending an analysis of epoch breaking change in favour of analysing the microprocesses of resistance that may be already at work (see also: Gibson-Graham, 1996).

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The critique of representation opens up a vista of the more unorganised and decentralised forms of domination and struggles that take place in and around organisations by emphasising the more localised processes of emancipation. Exclusively focusing on ‘micro-processes’ of power and struggle runs the risk of abandoning the ability to appeal to larger scale accounts of systems of domination (Reed, 1997, 1998, 2000). For writers like Eagleton (1991, 1996), it is vital to hold onto at least some aspects of equally largescale critical narratives when developing an adequate understanding of powerful macroprocesses like globalisation. Indeed Alvesson and Kärreman (2000a) identify globalisation as a classic instance of a ‘mega-discourse’ that works by constructing a very broad vision of the entire political economy. Consequently, it is necessary to approach globalisation with at least some commitment to large-scale social narratives. The need to use these large-scale narratives, however, does not preclude an analysis of microprocesses of power. Rather, a phenomenon like globalisation should be approached by cautiously inciting grand narratives like globalisation while simultaneously examining the more specific and localised systems of domination and struggle recommended by Alvesson and Willmott (1992). A dual commitment to a cautious analysis of large-scale social systems of domination and the microphysics of power pushes the development of quite a different account of globalisation than is currently offered in the study of organisation. The bulk of orthodox approaches to globalisation aim to capture the process of globalisation through a series of rational models that will help dominant actors to respond to globalisation in a more efficient and appropriate manner. In contrast, a critique of domination and representation would seek to develop an understanding of globalisation that gives voice to relations of domination at both the global and localised level. Bringing these two strands of critique together with a broad understanding of globalisation (e.g. Held et al, 1999), we can outline what a critical approach to globalisation might look like. Such an approach would attempt to explain the transformations of time-space and institutions associated with globalisation through the shifts in representations of the social world and relations of domination associated with

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them. Further, a specifically organisational inquiry would attempt to chart out how these transformations occurred within a specific organisational context, and how these changes were advanced, negotiated and resisted by the various actors involved. In the next section I shall argue that public broadcasting organisations provide an excellent setting in which to examine the specific machinations of globalisation discourse.

Globalisation Discourse and the Public Sector Globalisation discourse is not limited to multinational businesses and trans-national agencies. With the alleged death of the nation state and rise of the multinational market (Ohmae, 1990; 1995), the concept of globalisation has also become legal currency in the public sector. Proponents of globalisation argue that efforts to regulate aspects of national life such as culture and the economy have become increasingly difficult due to the massive traffic of commodities, images, capital and people across borders. According to this perspective, the multinational market has taken over the national state in citizen’s ‘life-world’ (Habermas, 1999; Crossley, 2003). This narrative of a shift from the nationstate to the multinational market quickly became a self-fulfilling prophecy as many countries throughout the world adopted neo-liberal policies. These policies aimed not so much to destroy the nation state as change the role of the state vis-à-vis the international market (Fligstein, 1996; Ó Riain, 2000). In particular, neo-liberal policies saw the government withdrawing from direct service provision in order to take on a legislative and policing role (Jessop, 1992; Strange, 1996). The result was the wholesale deregulation of many sectors, the withdrawal of government services and the rise of private sector operators. Organisations remaining in the public ownership were to give up the public sector bureaucratic ethos to become more market oriented and enterprising. The neo-liberal restructuring of the state lead to profound changes in many sectors including education, utilities, housing, welfare, and health (Kelsey, 1995, 1999). As organisations in every sector of the economy aimed to be ‘globally competitive’ there was a profound and well-documented shift in the structure, culture and employment practices of public sector organisations (Pusey, 1991). At the organisational level, this meant a profound change in organisational practices, organisational culture and identity,

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as well as the sources and allocation of funding. The human consequences involved painful job losses as well as the retraction of many government services from citizen’s lives. Underpinning these more obvious changes in public sector organisation was a transformation in the understanding of the social field they operated within as the global market replaced the nation-state. A fundamental part of this transformation was the rise of the lexicon of globalisation. This meant a change in the very language used to describe the operating contexts of public sector organisations. It was only by and through this language that complex dynamics of the operating context could be diagnosed as having something to do with globalisation. This meant that the language of globalisation did not just describe the social field that public sector organisations confronted. Rather, it played an active role in constructing how this context could be spoken about and acted upon. Furthermore, the language actors could use to talk about this context had profound effects on the horizons these organisation were seen to operate within.

One part of the public sector that globalisation discourse has profoundly affected is public broadcasting. This happened as public broadcasters from quite diverse traditions were all pressured to orient their operations towards the market. This involved privatising aspects of their operations and becoming increasingly commercially oriented (EtzioniHalevy, 1987). A mixture of neo-liberal government policies and a boom in new technologies facilitating cross border broadcasting by large multinationals like CNN. In many cases this exacerbated the precarious position of public broadcasters (Avery, 1993; Tracey, 1998). Public broadcasters around the world were seen as operating in an environment dominated by large multinational corporations that harnessed new technologies and aggressively took advantage of more open national media markets. This resulted in public broadcasters disposing of the public service ethos in favour of the instrumental reason of commercial broadcasters. The lynch-pin of this change was the rapid replacement of the discourses and practices associated with the public service with another set of discourses and practices that placed the globalised commercial media market at the centre of the organisations operations: Buried deep beneath the rubble of the old order were such concepts as public good, public interest, community, public culture, citizenship, governance, and increasingly the nation-state. The decay

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of the latter in particular suggested the real extent of the triumph of the corporatist ethic. There remained few if any national markets which could satisfy the needs of companies. The terms ‘global markets’ and ‘globalization’ were chanted with incessant fervor and even greater volume, and nothing was to be more globalized than communications. Indeed the very nature of evolving communications technologies – with their sheer capacity to allow the individual to construct his or her own communications – placed them in powerful lock step with the new and dominant discourses of the last twentieth century, that of the culture of the market, an enclosing system of values, assumptions, and social practices from which it is difficult, even impossible to escape (Tracey, 1998:52).

For Tracey, the central common experience among public broadcasters throughout the world was the rise of the discourse of the neo-liberal market. This pushed public broadcasters to adopt managerial approaches commonly found in the private sector.

Globalisation at the ABC Many of these changes to public broadcasting across the world are afoot in the Australian context. Ken Inglis’s (1983) definitive history of Australia’s major public broadcaster, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), details the rise of commercially oriented practices after the election of a conservative government in 1975. After coming to power the conservative Liberal party and National-Country party coalition sought to ‘restrain’ the increased public spending put in place by the previous Labour party. The ABC became one of the central targets of these spending cuts. This lead to a major government review that recommended restructuring including separating the broadcaster from the national broadcasting legislator, changing the size of the governing body of the organisation, and introducing changes in staffing practices (Green, 1976). This was followed by a second inquiry (Dix, 1981), which affirmed the principals of public service broadcasting while at the same time making an important step towards the broadcaster becoming more market oriented. The Dix report recommended the broadcaster develop more business-like practices. Part of this involved restructuring the organisation as well as changing the name from the Australian Broadcasting Commission to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. New legislation and organisational changes designed to make the ABC more business like heralded the rise of neo-liberalism as an influential bundle of language and practices. 32

This more market focused attitude was associated with a round of budget cuts, a hostile government attitude towards the broadcaster, staffing cut-backs and commercial and managerial initiatives (Davis, 1988). This corresponded with a period when the organisation’s senior ranks became increasingly sympathetic to neo-liberal views (Molomby, 1991). Propositions for the future of the ABC that had previously been considered sacrilegious now frequently appeared. Probably the most contentious example of this was the suggestion that the ABC should take on advertising or sponsorship to reflect the commercial realities of the day. This meant the public service role of informing, educating, and entertaining faded into the background as the goals of efficiency and increased audience share became increasingly important (Dempster, 2000). Market based reasoning became the central driver in the transformation of the ABC. When combined with shifts in technology it produced the “assumption that a technological sea change will sweep away most of the edifice of a dear old monument” of public broadcasting (Williams, 1996:4). Market-oriented discourse that positions the ABC in a global media environment is a prominent theme in research and commentary. Recent accounts of the changing logics at the ABC emphasise how free-market reason has taken on renewed force, particularly as it has been linked with the language of globalisation (Jacka et al., 1997; Inglis, 1997, 2000). According to this heady mix of market focused neo-liberalism and the narrative of the global intensification of the markets, the broadcaster should respond to the forces of globalisation or face certain decline. The prominence of globalisation discourse in public broadcasters in general, and the ABC in particular, make this an ideal research site. Developing a critique of representations associated with globalisation at the ABC would involve examining how this language constructs the world it purports to describe, how it is linked with relations of power, and how these dominant representations are contested. In order to do this I have focused on the central conduit of dominant discourses at the ABC – namely the organisation’s annual report. These annual reports provide a record of the dominant representations of the social world the ABC operates within. In order to scrutinise if,

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when, and how the discourse of globalisation emerged I have analysed the reports produced between 1953 and 2000. This historical perspective also illustrates which other representations dominated at the ABC during the period. This shows the complexity of globalisation discourse. Developing a critique of representation, I will seek to demonstrate how discourses such as globalisation constructed the social world in which the ABC exists. Developing a critique of domination, I will seek to demonstrate how these dominant constructions of the social world were central in constituting power relations by shaping how the ABC’s operating context may or may not be talked about. This thesis asserts that dominant discourses (such as globalisation) can be actively challenged. I document the discursive struggles engaged in by two stakeholder groups who actively contested the most recent dominant discourses at the ABC. These groups are a consumer pressure group (the Friends of the ABC), and a staff union (the Community and Public Services Union). They mobilised counter discourses in media releases, member’s newsletters and speeches. Examining these allows me to develop a critique of representation insofar as it shows how the language used to describe the broadcaster’s social world was not a transparent description of the truth of the matter, but an interested articulation. It also allows a critique of domination insofar as it uncovers how dominant power relations that define the social field in an interested way are themselves objects of emancipatory struggle. By developing a critique of representation and domination associated with the globalisation discourse at the ABC, I hope to make three significant contributions. First, I will advance studies of globalisation by demonstrating how talk about globalisation should not be dismissed as a mere myth (cf. Hirst and Thompson, 1996). Instead, I would like to show that this talk is a worthy empirical phenomenon that is intimately intertwined with relations of power and domination. Moreover, I would like to show how globalisation discourse is central in reconstructing time-space and the intuitional arrangements that define globalisation. Second, I hope to extend studies of organisational discourses. By examining globalisation as a discourse I would like to add another phenomena to this rapidly developing field of inquiry. I would also like to further

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materialise discourse analysis by illustrating the importance of certain language to struggles around palpable organisational change. Further, I would like to extend studies of how actors use discourses to negotiate, and at times resist, processes of domination in organisations. Third, I aim to make a contribution to the small but growing debate about globalisation discourse (see: Chapter 3). Focusing on how globalisation discourse is used in an organisational context, I hope to demonstrate the complexities of the discourse, its possible linkages with other discourses, and the uses actors make of it.

Outline of Argument In order to develop a two-fold critique of globalisation in an organisational context, it seems germane to ask the following questions. What are the major approaches to theorising globalisation? If globalisation can be treated as a discourse, how does discourse work in organisation? How can we study a discourse like globalisation in an organisation? What discourses were evident in public broadcasting? How did these discourses change? How were dominant discourses resisted? And finally, what can all these questions tell us about the study of globalisation and discourse? By asking these questions, some possible criticisms arise: Is it correct to label a process like globalisation as a discourse, or should it be treated as social structures, or something else entirely? I work through eight chapters to answer these interconnected questions. In this first introductory chapter I have endeavoured to lay out the broad parameters of my study by arguing for an intertwined critique of representation and domination involved with globalisation discourse at the ABC. The second chapter will positions my treatment of globalisation as a discourse within the broad sociological literature on globalisation. I will argue that this extensive and complex literature can be divided into at least two ‘waves’ of research. The first wave sees globalisation as a loosely connected social system comprising changes in technology and social structure that fundamentally alters all aspects of social life. The second wave argues that globalisation may not be as systematic and global as we think, because localities continue to be fundamentally important in shaping the processes associated with globalisation. Given the importance second wave accounts of globalisation put on localities, I conclude this chapter by asking

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whether globalisation should be discarded as merely ‘global babble’ (Abu-Lughod. 1991), or whether it is possible to approach this ‘babble’ seriously as a sociological phenomenon. In the third chapter, I consider how the talk of globalisation can be understood. Drawing on an emerging ‘third wave’ of research, I argue that globalisation may be treated as a discourse that is actively used to shape the world in its own image, making some courses of social action appear rational while marginalising others. In order to understand globalisation as a discourse, I begin with the debate around the social construction of reality. I then link this to the notion that discourses are a central aspect of the social construction process. After clarifying what is meant by discourse, I turn to the few empirical studies on globalisation as a discourse. Because of the dearth of such studies, particularly at an organisational level, I move to the growing literature exploring different types of discourse in an organisational context. Drawing on this now comprehensive literature, I argue that discourses such as globalisation construct power relations, which can be resisted through a variety of discursive strategies. After outlining the specific research questions, the forth chapter ask how globalisation discourse might be studied. Drawing on the method of critical discourse analysis, I focus on how a particular understanding of social life is constructed, and how language is linked with power relations. In order to study the discourse of globalisation, I focus on the case of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In the fifth chapter I ask whether globalisation is an important discourse at the ABC and whether other discourses were evident throughout the broadcasters history. I ask how each of these important discourses constructed space, stakeholders, and a legitimate role for the ABC. To answer this question I draw on an analysis of ABC annual reports between 1953 and 2000. In the sixth chapter I investigate how these discourses changed throughout the period studied. Here I link changes in discourses to shifts in power relations. Given that discourses are constantly contested, the seventh chapter asks how globalisation discourse has been negotiated and resisted. In order to answer this question

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I draw on an analysis of newsletters and media releases by the two groups (the Friends of the ABC and the Community and Public Sector Union) that resisted the ABC’s enthusiastic adoption of a particular version of globalisation discourse. In the eighth chapter, I bring together the three empirical chapters and argue that globalisation discourse is one of a number of powerful discourses used to talk about and contest the ABC’s space, legitimate role and stakeholders. I use this discussion to draw out the three significant themes that emerge in my data – the construction of global space, the contestation of dominant spaces, and the multiple processes through which space is produced. In order to explore these issues I draw on Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) concepts of ‘social space’ and ‘spatial scales’. I conclude the thesis by bringing the entire argument together and asking how my analysis contributes to the broader literature or globalisation and organisational discourse.

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II Globalisation There was this Englishman who worked in the London office of a multinational corporation based in the United States. He drove home one evening in his Japanese car. His wife, who worked in a firm which imported German kitchen equipment, was already at home. Her small Italian car was often quicker through the traffic. After a meal which included New Zealand lamb, Californian carrots, Mexican honey, French cheese and Spanish wine, they settled down to watch a programme on their television set which had been made in Finland. The programme was a retrospective celebration of the war to recapture the Falkland Islands. As they watched it they felt warmly patriotic, and very proud to be British (Williams, 1983:177).

Introduction Raymond Williams insights into the problems with nationalism have become a common current in the social sciences. Analytical frameworks based on the nation are said to be increasingly irrelevant because the nation has been superseded by a new trans-national system. A rapidly growing literature has attempted to makes sense of this trans-national system by introducing the analytical framework of globalisation. This explosion of research on globalisation has made it increasingly difficult to agree on a precise definition. Held et al (1999) provided one of the most encompassing definitions of the process as the quantitative increase in trans-territorial flows that are patterned by quantitative changes in the spatial organisation and institutional arrangements. An investigation of globalisation would involve looking for increases in flows that crosses territories like the nation state. A study of globalisation would also be an analysis of the qualitative changes involved with spatial organisation and institutional arrangements. The major types of institution transformed by globalisation are political institutions, economic institutions, and the institutions of culture (Held et al, 1999).1 Moreover, these ‘global transformations’ are intertwined with one another. It is therefore necessary to examine 1

Here I follow Held et al (1999) and use a Durkheimian conception of institutions. This treats an institution as a social experience external to the individual that structures and shapes modern social life. Alexander explains Durkheim’s concept of institutions as “a product of joint activity and association, the effect of which is to ‘fix,’ to ‘institute’ outside us certain initially subjective and individuious ways of acting and judging” (1983 vol 2:259). These institutions include religion, law, economic systems, and political systems. It is important to note that I am not inciting the concept of institution as it is used in the theory of neo-institutionalism in organisation studies (e.g. Scott, 2001).

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globalisation as a multi-dimensional process, which necessitates an examination of the interlinked changes in spatial organisation, political institutions, economic institutions, and the institutions of culture. The globalisation debate comprises very different disciplinary traditions and theoretical backgrounds. Those involved in the debate have examined changes in political, economic, and cultural institutions as well as spatial organisation. Due to the multidisciplinary character of the debate, the diverse approaches within research on globalisation seem to defy classification. Some have overcome this problem by carving up the literature according to claims about the reality and causal strength of the globalisation process (Giddens, 1998; Held et al, 1999). Others have attempted to classify the globalisation literature according to causal explanations (Scholte, 2000), central points of contention (Gullién, 2001a), or seminal theorists in the debate (Burawoy, 1999; Beynon and Dunkerley, 2000). Probably the greatest commonality underling the variety of positions on globalisation is their explicit or implicit social theories (Robertson, 1992). Each study of globalisation builds upon a set of core sociological assumptions about structure and agency, universality and particularity, parts and wholes, stability and change. Two broad sets of assumptions underpin studies of globalisation. The first of these assumptions takes global society to be an entity universal in nature, and comprises a series of interlinking social changes that are relatively co-ordinated. These changes are seen to form a whole defined by a series of well-entrenched social structures. A basic and unchanging social process underpins the whole. Such studies suggest that the processes of globalisation form a relatively coherent and unbending system of global social order which Ross and Trache (1990) calls ‘the new leviathan’. An alternative social theoretical underpinning can be found in more recent work on globalisation (Appadurai, 2000). This work tends to assume that a global society comprises a series of particular and quite different local processes. These processes do not fall into a well co-ordinated global system. Rather, globalisation processes are

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embedded in a range of particular locations (Guillién, 2001b). Instead of assuming that a single universal logic underlies all processes of globalisation, this tradition approaches globalisation as made up of a series of constantly shifting and changing logics. Therefore, the process of globalisation would comprise a series of relatively un-coordinated local processes of change. If we follow this approach we must train our empirical gaze upon the acting out of globalisation processes within each locality. There is a third group of studies that do not seem to approach globalisation as a phenomenon driven by transformations within social life such as spatial organisation or institutional configurations. Instead, they posit globalisation as the result of technological changes. For instance, Marshell McLuhan argued that communications technologies led to the extension of our senses over space. Here, previously distant events come into the terrain of our everyday life, producing a ‘global village’ (McLuhan and Foire, 1967; McLuhan and Powers, 1989). A similar logic underlies arguments that the spread of transportation and communications technologies has led to the emergence of a single global market (Levitt, 1983), the increasing porosity of the borders of nation states (Rosneau, 1990), and the shattering of our experience of space-time and the associated re-configuration of relations of social control (Virillo, 1999). Some have even argued that technical changes have rendered space irrelevant (O’Brien, 1992). Although these analysts present extremely diverse interpretations of globalisation, they all agree that communications technology plays a pivotal role in the stretching social relations across the globe. This strict focus on technology relies on a patently unsociological explanation that assumes globalisation is determined by technology. Following such a technological determinist position leaves us unable to explain how changes in specific aspects of social life such as the economy, culture, geography, and political systems may actually be located within changes to social institutions. Indeed these social changes may actually employ technologies to achieve their particular socially determined ends. An analysis of globalisation strictly focused on communications technology risks falling into a kind of technological determinism whereby the globalisation of social life is seen merely as the production of technology. I shall ignore

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this position because it relies on largely technical rather than social explanations of the process of globalisation. In this chapter, I will follow the two broad sets of assumptions that underpin sociological explanations of globalisation. This allows me to divide studies of globalisation into at least two broad ‘waves’ (Koffman and Youngs, 1996). The first wave of research on globalisation has developed accounts of the changing social institutions involved with the globalisation process. These accounts have detailed how globalisation comprises coordinated changes in the institutions of culture, politics, and the economy as well as spatial organisation. Second wave globalisation researchers have argued that the focus on a singular process of global change ignores the agential negotiation and reproduction involved with the process. In order to address this lacuna, second wave researchers have examined how the variety of globalisation processes are negotiated and how they have transformed particular localities. Reviewing first and second wave approaches, I shall detail how each of them has treated changes in spatial organisation and the institutions of culture, politics and economics (for summary see: figure 2.1). I conclude by detailing some critiques of the increasingly dominant ‘second wave’ approach to globalisation.

The First Wave In order to develop a sociological account of globalisation that does not repose on technical explanations, a sustained stream of research has examined the co-ordinated institutional changes associated with globalisation. As I have indicated in the introduction, these ‘first wave’ accounts of globalisation were founded on social theoretical assumptions that a single over-riding telos drives the social system; that these changes in the social system are experiences in a relatively universal fashion; and, an unchanging logic underpins the process. This led such studies of globalisation to chart the singular system that serve as a foundation for the process of globalisation. Some have argued that globalisation involves the rise of a new organising principal in social life linked with fundamental changes to the nation state and the global market. For instance, Ross and Trache (1990) have drawn on Hobbes’s theory of the modern state to argue that the global market is rapidly replacing the modern nation state as the ‘new leviathan’ of

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social life. Others have drawn on world systems theory and chart out the structure of the global system and the various sub-systems (e.g. Sklair, 1995). Still others have attempted to link the process of globalisation with other meta-theoretical narratives that purport to uncover the inexorable logic of modern social life such as modernity (e.g. Giddens, 1990; Spybey, 1996), capitalism (e.g. Harvey, 1989), ‘the network society’ or postindustrialism (e.g. Castells, 1996).

Social-theoretical assumptions

Political institutions

Economic institutions

First Wave • Institutions and spatial organisation part of a relative organised global system • Decline of nation state • Rise of trans-national institutions • Re-organisation of international relations system • Globalising dynamics of capitalism • Rise of trans-national economic institutions • Increased global economic flows

Cultural institutions

• Rise of western consumer culture • Rise of instrumental reason

Spatial organisation

• Decline of space as ordering factor • Creation of ‘global spaces’ • Redistribution of industries • Unable to account for local difference, processes of negotiation, or resistance

Critiques

Second Wave • Institutions and space organisation a product of embedded local systems • Active participation of nation state in globalisation process • Continued importance of nation state • Different types of national capitalism • National embeddedness of economic institutions • Continued concentration of economic flows around the nation • Processes of cultural hybridisation • Diaspora cultures • Active use and interpretation of consumer culture • Located-ness of global spaces • Importance of ‘spatial fixes’ for global capital • Leads to rejection of globalisation that ignores its continued existence in language.

Figure 2.1: Two Waves of Globalisation Research

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While each of these approaches suggests different overarching systems to explain the globalisation process, all assume that globalisation is based on a series of co-ordinated changes in the various institutions that make up social life such as the economy, politics, and culture as well as spatial organisation. Moreover, these co-ordinated changes are seen to be inexorably driving towards a globally interlinked society. Following this approach, the task of the social analyst is to understand and define the exact nature and logic underpinning these relatively universal systemic changes, and chart the particular manifestations of these changes in each sector and space of social life. An extensive body of sociological literature has addressed this task by fleshing out the systemic changes involved with globalisation. This literature has examined specific changes in economic, political, and cultural institutions and the organisation of space. In what follows I will outline some of the major changes documented by social scientists working within this perspective.

Political Institutions One of the central dynamics of globalisation highlighted by first wave accounts is change in the political institutions of society. These changes involve the shift from politics being strictly based on the nation state towards it being increasingly global in nature. Social scientists have documented these shifts in ideology, the state, and international relations. Changes in the ideologies that shape and motivate political institutions around the world are an important part of globalisation (Rupert, 2000). The central shift in this ideological system has been the rise of neo-liberalism as a dominant political ideology. Francis Fukuyama’s book The End of History and the Last Man is one of the most famous endorsements of global neo-liberalism. Responding to the collapse of communism as an existing political system, Fukuyama argued that the 1990s saw economic and political neo-liberalism become the only viable political system. Fukuyama called for the withdrawal of the nation-state from many aspects of social life. The vacuum left by the nation state and its institution would be filled with market regulated exchange relations (see also: Hayak, 1962; Freidman, 1962). As neo-liberalism became one of the most dominant political ideologies in countries across the globe, the nation state withdrew

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from many roles in public life. The result has been a market-oriented restructuring of nation states throughout the world (Bourdieu, 1998), wholesale deregulation of previously nationalised markets though dismantling system of trade barriers and state subsidies (Fox Piven, 1995), and an increasing prevalence of technocratic solutions to processes of development (Cox, 1996). According to critics, this has induced an increasing instability in national and economic and political system (Gray, 1998), and the spread of social suffering in the lives of the poor, workers, and the other disadvantaged groups (Bourdieu at al, 1999). According to first wave studies of political institutions, one of the most notable outcomes of neo-liberalism has been the decline of the nation state as an influential institution. With the growth of trans-national flows of capital, nation states have become increasingly unwilling and unable to regulate flows of finance, goods and information within and across their borders (Ohmae, 1990, 1995). Similarly, the increasing neo-liberal restructuring has made the nation state increasingly unable to control the flow of capital, images, and technology across and within its borders (Burcach et al, 1997). This poses a significant challenge to the nation state in terms of its sovereignty (Sassen, 1996), its authority in its citizens’ life worlds (Korten, 1995), and its ability to regulate effectively (Held, 1995). Radically different conclusions have been drawn from these apparently similar diagnoses of the contemporary social world. For some, a world of ‘freedom and opportunity’ for individuals and multinational companies emerges from the death of the nation state (Ohmae, 1990). For others, the increasingly global scope of capital unlocks the possibilities for global resistance to capitalism and possibly an international socialist order (Burchach et al, 1997). Others have pointed out that the decline of the nation state may create insurmountable tension between the demands of the global marketplace and the objectives of the state (Rodrik, 1997). The globalisation process therefore represents the global market coming to replace the institution of the nation state as one of the central structures ordering social life. As well as the declining influence of the nation state, globalisation also involves the rise of a powerful political system above the nation state. This can be seen in the increasing

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importance of various global political institutions like the United Nations as well as other transnational governance organisations like the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank (Held, 1995). While the charters of these institutions are based on sovereignty of the individual nation-states, the actions and regulations imposed by these transnational organisations means that nation-states are not in complete control of their affairs. Alongside these global political institutions, there are now also regionally based transnational organisations such as the European Union, ASEAN, and the Commonwealth. Global civil society provides a third category of transnational political arrangement comprising a network of large transnational nongovernmental organisations like Greenpeace, Oxfam, and Amnesty International. As these institutions have evolved, they have developed principals that are not wholly based on national sovereignty. They comprise an increasingly independent form of global governance (Hardt and Negri, 2000). Together, transnational institutions, regional agencies and global non-government organisations have joined a set of institutions of governance that supplement or even replace the various arms of the nation state (Held, 1995).

Scholars in the field of international relations have argued that the rise of globalisation involves a change in the international relations system. The end of the cold war and disappearance of the Soviet Union as a super power has heralded a transformation in the relations between nation-states. This transformation signified a move from a bipolar international relations system to a unipolar system. Some have argued that this has resulted in the United States of America becoming a single global hegemon in the international relations system (Gowan, 1999). Others contended that the international relations system is no longer strictly based on nation states, but on a ‘plurilateral’ structure comprising different institutions (Cerney, 1995). While dissent exists regarding the precise form of the system of international relations, commentators have broadly agreed that globalisation involved a fundamental shift in the way countries relate to one another.

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The political dimension of globalisation involves a re-ordering of political systems including the rise of neo-liberalism as a dominant ideology, the declining importance of the state with the rise of the global market, and a new international relations system. According to first wave accounts, these changes in political institutions may form a new political arrangement throughout the globe that is largely based on a series of transnational political institutions.

Economic Institutions One of the central themes found in political accounts of globalisation involves the increasing importance of the global market in nation states. The principal dynamics at work in developing global economic institutions have been shifts (and continuities) in the dynamics of capitalist accumulation, changes in the economic institutions like multinational corporations, and changes in the specific patterns of economic transactions. First wave accounts explain changes in the economic institutions involved with globalisation through the dynamics of capitalist accumulation. Indeed, seminal studies of the political economy of capitalism such as Smith (1776/1970), Ricardo (1871/1969), Marx (1890/1973) point to the internationalising tendencies involved in the capitalist economy. Adam Smith recognised that the division of labour among countries necessitates international trade (1776/1970:15-19) as well as the internationalisation of capital. Smith pointed out that as capital continues to increase within a particular national economy, it reaches a limit of productive capacity, and begins to spill into the international economy through trade: When the stock of any country is increased to such a degree that it cannot be all employed in supplying the consumption and supporting the productive labour of that particular country, the surplus part of it naturally disgorges itself into the carrying trade, and is employed in performing the same offices to other countries (Smith, 1776/1970:334).

Here, capital knows no national borders. In order to continue to be used and employed, capital continues to spread to an international level. Ricardo (1817/1973) also made links

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between the economic system of capitalism and the globalisation of trade. He famously argued that each nation should concentrate their productive effort on goods or services that they have a comparative advantage in growing, making or performing. Goods and services produced by countries best suited to the task should then trade with less adept countries without the barriers of tariffs, quotas, and restrictions: Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employment as are beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is admirable connected with the universal good of the whole. By stimulating industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers bestowed by nature, it distributes labour most effectively and most economically: while, by increasing the general mass of production, it diffuses general benefit, and binds together by one common tie of interest and intercourse, the universal society of nations throughout the civilised world. It is this principal which determines that wine shall be made in France and Portugal, that corn shall be grown in America and Poland, and that hardware and other goods shall be manufactured in England (Ricardo, 1817/1973:81).

Here, Ricardo expounded his notion of comparative advantages of nations in producing particular goods. Ricardo concluded that international trade is the most rational means of coordinating production because each country can focus on industries they have a comparative advantage in and are therefore cost effective. Contemporary commentators have used a Ricardian analysis of the rise of international trade to describe and defend the explosion of trade between nations heralded by globalisation (Krugman, 1996; Bhagwati, 1998). Marx (1890/1973) argued that the internal dynamics of capital drive the development of a global marketplace. He contended that one of the central dynamics of the capitalist system is the transformation from money (m) into capital (c), which is invested in the means of production (such as labour, machinery and land). This then produces a commodity that is sold to a market for a sum of money larger than was previously invested (m’). This difference between the original sum of money outlaid and the price a commodity is sold for constitutes the capitalist’s profit. In order to continue increasing, capital must expand the means of production available to it by ensuring there are more people to labour, more machinery, and more land to produce crops, while at the same time expanding the market that will purchase these commodities.

Therefore, the

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dynamics of capitalism itself drives the global expansion. This incessant search for new markets and means of production leads to the increasing irrelevance of national borders in economic interaction and production: The need for constantly expanding markets chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere . . . The Bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. . . All established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industry, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilized nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but material from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home but in every quarter of the globe. In place of old wants satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant land and climes. In the place of old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations (Marx and Engles, 1848/1948:46-7).

One of the primary means by which capital grows is geographic expansion, where it spreads relations of production into areas hitherto untouched by capitalist production (Harvey, 1982). In order to initially incorporate non-capitalist countries into the expanding networks of production and consumption, Marx shows that there needs to be a process of what he calls ‘primary accumulation’. This involves “nothing else than the process whereby the worker is divorced from ownership of the means of labour; a process which, on the one hand transforms the social means of subsistence and the social means of production into capital; and on the other, transforms the actual producers into workers” (Marx, 1890/1973: 792). Primary accumulation therefore involves the development of people with nothing to offer but their labour, and systems of production governed by the laws of capital. For Marx, these radically new social systems emerge during periods when established social systems are violently overthrown. One example of such a process is the eighteenth century enclosure movement in England that forced peasants off the land by enclosing the common land they relied upon. Without a source of livelihood they were forced into cities in search of work. A second example is the violently established colonial regimes that confiscated the lands of colonised people and pressed them into

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labour and often slavery. Each of these processes of primitive accumulation represented the violent destruction of traditional relations of production, and their replacement with capitalist relations of production (Marx, 1890/1973: Chapter 25). The connections between the geographic expansion of capitalism and systems of capitalist domination on a global level have been traced out in successive Marxist works. Lenin (1917/1970), for example, argued that imperialism is the outcome of the drive of monopoly capitalism to export capital (not commodities) across the world. In order to provide destinations for capital, a series of colonies were established that different capitalist nations had monopoly power over. The entire globe was divided up into colonies amongst a series of different monopoly capitalist states: Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the big international trust has begun, in which division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed (Lenin, 1917/1970:86).

Lenin’s account of imperialism illustrated a relationship between capitalism and the push to invest capital on an increasingly ‘global scale’. Central to the geographic expansion of capitalism was the establishment of colonies by large capitalist countries that served as a source of raw materials and labour that fuel the continued expansion of capital. Rosa Luxemburg (1972) also examined the relationship between capitalism and international geographic expansion. Drawing on Marx’s theory of primitive accumulation, she argued that capitalist accumulation is achieved through bringing noncapitalist social relations into the capitalist milieu. The primary expression of this process was the international spread of capitalist relations under the guise of imperialism: We find that capital has been driven since its very inception to expand into non-capitalist strata and nations, ruin artisans and peasantry, proletarianize the intermediate strata, the politics of colonialism, the politics of ‘opening-up’ and the export of capital. The development of capital, has been possible only through constant expansion into new domains of production and new countries (Luxemburg, 1972:145).

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An account of the internationalising nature of capitalism has been further developed in world systems theory (Wallerstein, 1974, 1979; Chase-Dunn, 1989). According to this approach “capital was from the beginning an affair of the world economy and not of nation-states . . . (and) has never allowed its aspirations to be determined by national boundaries” (Wallerstein, 1979: 19). Because of the innately international dimension of capitalism, world systems theory has rejected an analysis of national capitalist economies in favour of examining the dynamics of the international system. According to world systems theory, the international capitalist system involves a series of core capitalist countries that provided capital, a series of semi-peripheral economies, and a series of peripheral or feeder economies that provided commodities and labour. These relations are not equal, but based on core countries exploiting the value produced by peripheral countries. The political-economic literature on capitalism builds a case that the global spread of production and consumption is inherent to capitalism. A number of authors have pointed out that capitalist accumulation tends to change, leading to shifts in the international structure of capitalist accumulation. During monopoly capitalism, the nation-state and its colonies were the central locus of capitalist accumulation (Baran and Sweezy, 1966). In place of monopoly capitalism there was a rise in ‘post-industrial’ or ‘disorganised’ capitalist accumulation that occurred on an international scale (Lash and Urry, 1987. Harvey, 1989). In order to understand the dynamics of ‘post-industrial capitalism’ a number of social scientists have drawn on Daniel Bell (1973) and Alain Touraine (1974) who have argued theoretical knowledge became a central source of value. Computer and information technology became a central driver of the production process (Piore and Sable, 1984), resulting in a profound re-organisation of the economy and production. A major aspect of this reorganisation under post-industrialism has been the geographic dispersal of production throughout the world (Dicken, 1998), the establishment of global commodity chains (Gereffi and Kornseniewicz, 1994), and a network economy that stretches across international borders and operates on a real time basis (Castells, 1996).

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A major effect of the appearance of post-industrial capitalism has been a shift in patterns of employment. In particular the process of globalisation has brought about a shift from largely industrial oriented employment to work being focused in the service sector (Jones, 1982; Reich, 1992). This movement has also been linked to the emergence of a new international division of labour, where production work becomes increasingly located in countries peripheral to the international economy that can offer significantly cheaper industrial labour (Fröbel et al, 1984). Economies at the core of the capitalist accumulation process become the locus of so-called post-industrial work largely concentrated around the knowledge and service industries. While the dynamics of capitalist accumulation have motivated globalisation, the continued expansion of the capitalist economy has been underpinned by changes in the regulatory and institutional arrangements of the international economy. The most obvious aspect of this is the rise of a series of transnational organisations that regulate and restructure global economic flows including the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Each of these economic institutions has played an important role in restructuring the world economy along neo-liberal lines. The process of restructuring has occurred as each of these institutions provided loans, consultancy advice and regulation aimed at establishing market-oriented regimes (Held et al, 1999: chapters 3 and 4).

Another significant institutional change is a shift in the international monetary system. Until World War Two, the international economic order was maintained by the Gold Standard as exchange rates were pegged to the amount of Gold held in national banks. This was dismantled under the Bretton Woods agreement that saw currencies pegged to the US dollar. As the Bretton Woods financial order began to crumble in the 1970s the US dollar was floated, and other currencies followed suit (Held et al, 1999 chapter 4). This resulted in a global financial market that was no longer strictly regulated and displayed increasingly chaotic tendencies (Perleman, 1996). Thus the global economy became characterised by incessant risk (Beck, 1996, 2000). According to some, this produced ‘Casino capitalism’ (Strange, 1986) resulting in increasingly volatile periods of 51

global financial crisis such as the 1997-8 financial crisis that began with the crash of Thai currency and subsequently swept the world’s financial markets (Gowan, 1999).

Alongside the logic of capitalism and changes in global economic institutions, there have been changes in basic economic flows. Conventional economic accounts focus on the rapid increase in international economic transactions. They define globalisation as “a process of increased international economic activities. It is characterised by increasing liberalisation of international trade for goods and services and of international capital movement (both financial and direct investment)” (Chen et al, 1998:2). Following this definition of economic globalisation, the first dimension of global economic transactions is the rise of international trade. International Monetary Fund data shows an absolute increase in world trade (measured in terms of imports) of 8443% between 1950 and 1996 (IMF, 1980. IMF, 1996). As well as increasing in absolute terms, world trade has increased as a percentage of GDP from about 8% in 1956 to about 14% in 1993 (Held et al, 1999). World trade has also increased as a percentage of production from 7% in 1950 to about 17% during the early 1990s (Krugman, 1995). These increases in international trade have not been liberally distributed throughout the world, but tend to be concentrated around core capitalist countries (Wallerstein, 1974, 1979; Hirst and Thompson, 1996). The trade flows from peripheral countries to core countries tends to be in raw materials and low margin manufactured goods while trade from core countries to the periphery is in manufactured goods and ‘post-industrial’ services such as retail and financial services.

The second set of international economic transactions associated with globalisation is foreign direct investment flows. United Nations statistics on flows and stocks of foreign direct investment show a successive increase in direct investment during the 1980s and 1990s (UNTCAD, 2002a). The inflows of foreign direct investment increased from 59 billion dollars (at current prices) in 1982 to 735 billion in 2001. Although this growth in foreign direct investment was remarkably steady until 2000, there were significant falls in foreign direct investment during 2001. There has also been a rapid growth in cross-border mergers and alliances from 151 in 1990 to 601 in 2000 (UNTCAD, 2002a) as well as

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rapid increases in other global financial flows such as derivatives trading which has increased from the value of 618.3 billion in 1986 to 9,884.6 billion in 1996 (Held et al, 1999:208). The foreign exchange market also increased rapidly from 17.5 trillion dollars in 1979 to 297.5 trillion dollars in 1995 (Held et al, 1999). Even more notable is the rapid shift in the ratio of foreign exchange to trade, which increased from 1:12 in 1979 to 1:60 in 1995. This indicates that foreign exchange has been increasingly used for speculative purposes instead of paying for trade (Held et al, 1999:209). The international trade in shares or equity has increased from 42 billion in 1986 to 119.6 billion in 1994 (IMF, 1995:190). These various increases in cross border flows amount to a significant globalisation of capital.

The final aspect of global economic transactions is the rapid rise in non-monetary interfirm transactions such as non-equity arrangements between organisations. These usually embody joint ventures, research and development projects, and strategic alliances (UNTCAD, 1997). These cross border non-equity arrangements between organisations have also rapidly increased since the early 1980s (Nunnkeham et al, 1994). This denotes a further increase in global flows within international companies that may not be measured through traditional metrics of trade or capital flows. The development of an increasingly globally interlinked economy is a further aspect usually associated with globalisation. These accounts show how this is driven at a systemic level by the internal dynamics of capital, at a more institutional level by the development of trans-territorial institutions that regulate these flows, and through the increase of global flows themselves. According to this perspective, these co-ordinated changes produce a singular global capitalist economy that increasingly infringes upon economic life across the planet.

Cultural Institutions Globalisation processes in political and the economic institutions has been accompanied by change in the institutions of culture throughout the world. The most important changes

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include the global dominance of western consumer culture, technical rationality, and other processes of cultural colonisation. For first wave studies, a central part of the globalisation process involves the increasing prominence of western consumer culture. This has occurred as western culture industries like global media conglomerates have developed an increasingly dominant international presence during the latter part of the twentieth century (Shiller, 1969). This has resulted in the proliferation of North American popular culture throughout the world. Most insidiously, this has involved the spreading commercialisation of culture and associated middle class American values (Shiller, 1969; Horkheimer and Adorno, 1969). More recent critics of global culture have documented how culture has become increasingly standardised and distributed on a mass scale through commercial apparatuses modelled on the methods of mass marketing and scientific management employed by the McDonald’s fast-food chain (Rizter, 1992; Barber, 1995). For cultural critics this constitutes a process of cultural imperialism because western culture increasingly dominates the lives of people in other parts of the world (Tomlinson, 1991). Ulrich Beck (2000) builds on this point by claiming local cultures are profoundly effected by international cultures as “symbols from the publicity and image departments of multinational corporations” distributed by satellites make “it possible to overcome all national and class boundaries and to plant the carefully devised white glitter of white America in the hearts of all around the world” (p.43). According to some, American culture has swamped national media ecologies around the world, replacing local programmes focusing on local concerns with American popular culture (Mattelart, 1979). Alongside the spread of American commercial culture, some commentators have argued that globalisation involves the global spread of modern and, in particular, western intellectual frameworks. The most prevalent modern intellectual framework, technical rationality, has spread throughout the world in many forms and has taken over local and traditional knowledge systems sometimes with disastrous consequences (Amin, 1989. Latouche, 1996). One of the most ubiquitous and increasingly wide spread forms of technical rationality is (neo-liberal) economic reason (Mitchel, 1998; Spivak, 1999).

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Seminal accounts of globalisation (e.g. Giddens, 1990; Waters, 1995; Spybey, 1996) have pointed out that the process represents a continuation of the global spread of the process of modernity. Because of the de-traditionalisation of social relationships it drives, globalisation is understood as tied up with modernity. This detraditionalisation has happened as people engaged in the reflexive critique and analysis of traditional knowledge systems in a given society. Other writers have taken care to point out how the global spread of modernity is part of a broader process of cultural colonisation. For instance, Mignolo’s (1999) study of the history of Latin America shows how these dominating cultural frameworks have been associated with different universalising principals that he calls ‘global designs’: From the project of the Orbis Universalis Christianum, through the standards of civilization at the turn of century, to the current one of globalization (global market), global designs have been the hegemonic project for managing the planet. This project changed names and hands several times, but the times and names are not buried in the past. On the contrary, they are still alive in the present, even if the most visible is the propensity towards making the planet into a global market. However, it is not difficult to see that behind the market as the ultimate goal of an economic project that has become an end in itself, there is the Christian mission of the early modern (renaissance) colonialism, the civilizing mission of the secularized modernity, and the development and modernization projects after World War Two. Neo-liberalism, with its emphasis on the market and consumption, is not just a question of economy, but of new forms of civilization (Mignolo, 1999:22).

Like other work in the post colonial tradition (e.g. Saïd, 1978; Dirlik, 1997; Spivak, 1999) Mignolo’s argument shows how the worldwide spread of the market operates through a series of universalising cultural logics. According to this framework, globalisation represents the most recent manifestation in a process of colonialism that attempted to create particular forms of ‘civilisation’ such as christianisation, imperialism, and modernisation. Each of these universalising and colonising cultures were bound up with the power of coloniser over colonised. Here, global cultures in the guise of western consumer culture and modern universal reason are a central part of the globalisation process.

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These accounts of the global spread of culture shows that it involves the increasing dominance of a series of predominantly western cultures over what had previously been very diverse localised cultures. As globalisation proceeds, a culture of instrumental rationality and consumerist popular culture colonises all other previously existing forms of culture. According to advocates of this position, a singular global culture is produced which increasingly infuses the life-worlds of people across the planet.

Spatial Organisation As well as charting changes in the institutions of social life, first wave researchers have examined how changes in globalisation involve the profound re-ordering of the spatial organisation of society. This re-organisation of social life has been driven by broad systemic changes such as the compression of space, the rise of new global spaces such as ‘global cities’, and the changing geographic distribution of industries. First wave studies of globalisation have argued that the decline of the nation state and the rise of a trans-national economy have resulted in physical distances in space rapidly disappearing. These studies have posited the disappearance of distance as an important factor in the organising of the social world (O’Brien, 1992). This ‘end of geography’ argument regards social relations as no longer fixed in a particular space (Scholte, 2000). The increasingly deterritorialised flows of information, people, and finance means space has ceased to be an important factor in social life. For theorists like Harvey (1989) and Giddens (1990) space has not so much disappeared as it has been radically altered through the process of ‘space-time compression’. Drawing on earlier geographic research that points out the close relationship between space and time, Giddens has argued that the experience of space-time is radically changing as the distances routinely traversed by successive generations of people become larger and cross both regional and national borders. The result is a process of time-space compression where people can traverse vast spaces in far less time due to transportation technologies such as affordable air travel and communications technologies. While some see this as a stunningly new process produced by telephones and global computer networks, Giddens points out that space-time

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compression has antecedents in other processes of modernity such as the introduction of the steamships and railways. Globalisation also involves the creation of new types of ‘global space’ such as ‘world cities’ (Freidmann, 1986). These large urban agglomerations influence the structuring of global relations of production. They are important basing and concentration points for the flow of trans-national capital. World cities also attract flows of migrants and become focal points for many social contradictions that rapidly exceed the ability of the state to control. This has lead other researchers to argue that large urban agglomerations are more important than nation states as economic units (Soja, 1996). As Sassen (1991) has pointed out, these global cities are important points of spatial concentration for global financial markets and their supporting institutions. Castells (1989) emphasised the transformation of cities from being industrial centres to ‘informated’ spaces. The prevalence of information technologies has seen cities transformed from being spaces of ‘place’ that are specific and located to being spaces of ‘flows’ that are criss-crossed by various movements. The creation of new spaces like global cities or ‘informated’ urban regions led to a shift in the geographic distribution of industries. Global cities play an important role as postindustrial enclaves where ‘knowledge’ industries and service industries are located (Castells, 1989). Researchers have also looked at the shifting distribution of industrial operations that has occurred as entire manufacturing complexes have relocated from one part of the country to another. Often these large-scale shifts are driven by competition amongst destination regions to offer industrial relations like cheaper wages and deunionised workforces. This had pushed many companies from the highly industrialised areas like the mid-west of the United States or the north of England to export processing zones in less developed countries. An example is the Maquliadoras on the MexicanAmerican border (Pena, 1997). This has triggered the wholesale de-industrialisation of particular regions such as the American ‘snow-belt’ and the northern parts of England (Massey and Meegan, 1982).

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Taken together, the shifting spatial distribution of industry, the creation of new spaces such as global cities, and the compression of space and time have led to fundamental changes in the spatial organisation of societies.

The Limits of the First Wave The first wave of research has provided an account of the systematic stretching of social relations that has created a global system. This has happened through a series of interlinked changes in the political system, the economic system, the cultural system and the organisation of space. This has occurred within the political system as the rise of neoliberal ideology, the decline of the nation state, the rise of trans-national political institutions, and the transformation of the international relations order produced a global system of governance. Within the economic system this has taken place as the internationalising drive of capital, the appearance of global economic institutions, and the explosion of global economic transactions have produced a globally integrated economy. The rise of a global culture driven by international commercial media networks and the prevalence of modern reason has produced an increasingly global culture. In the case of spatial organisation this has occurred through the re-ordering of space and time, the creation of new global spaces, and the redistribution of industry. For first-wave approaches, each of these shifts is inexorably interlinked with the other changes. This web of change has ultimately produced a new global social system. Social scientists working within the first wave of globalisation research have argued that changes associated with globalisation are interlinked and have fundamentally reshaped the global social system. This has lead to preoccupations with themes of ‘global systems’ (Sklair, 1995), ‘the new leviathan’ (Ross and Trache, 1990), and ‘the new world order’ (Chaitanya, 1995; Gills, 2000). Each of these conceptions relies on the notion of globalisation as a well ordered social system. However, as Aronson (1990) warned, attempts at building systematic explanations of globalisation are “indicative of a Parsonian approach, transferring from an artificially isolated and unified society to the global condition” (1990: 222). As with any structuralist analysis of social life, the role of agents tends to become effectively reduced to being the bearers of systemic process. This

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means that collective and individual actors are only able to adapt to the over-whelming structural pressures of globalisation because the global system “imposes itself as a natural phenomena that cannot be controlled or predicted, only accepted and managed” (Castells, 1989: 349). As first wave accounts of globalisation provide us with an understanding of how a series of interlinked social changes lead to a global system, they position actors as being only protagonists or victims of the process of globalisation. This effectively blinds first wave studies of globalisation to the processes through which located actors take up the structures of globalisation, thereby adapting, negotiating and resisting this apparently ‘natural’ global system.

The Second Wave The first wave literature on globalisation sought to trace the emergence of a global system driving changes in economic, political, and cultural institutions as well as the organisation of space. The thesis lying at the heart of this research asserts that a coordinated global system transforms the lives of all social actors. Due to the extensiveness and intensiveness of these changes, theorists (e.g. Castells, 1989; Giddens, 1990) have claimed it is difficult, if not impossible, to challenge or contest the processes of globalisation. This means first wave studies assume globalisation is a universal process that systematically swamps all aspects of social life upon the surface of the earth. The focus on the universal aspects of globalisation has lead to a neglect of how globalisation also comprises a series of particularities (Robertson, 1992). By emphasising the homogeneity associated with globalisation, the heterogeneous processes of globalisation are downplayed or even ignored (Appadurai, 1990, 1996). By downplaying these localised processes, first wave accounts are unable to account for agency. This has rendered them unable to explain how an apparently global system has produced a variety of different outcomes in particular localities. Consequently, such accounts miss the heterogeneity and difference produced by globalisation processes. In order to account for heterogeneity and the variety of localised adaptations, a ‘second wave’ of globalisation literature has appeared (Koffman and Youngs, 1996). These more localised accounts take a sceptical stance towards earlier literature on globalisation that

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emphasised the newness, heterogeneity and muscularity of the globalisation process. They move the focus away from universal uniformity to ask how actors located in very particular relations actively reproduce globalisation. By developing a focus on the local embeddedness and active negotiation of globalisation processes this work has questioned strong claims about the universal and homogenising nature of globalisation. Roland Robertson (1992, 1995) has argued that, in order to study globalisation, there needs to be a focus on how global processes such as capital flows are reproduced in particular localities. For him, it is important to recognise the subtle dialectic of the global and local because “the local is not best seen, at least as an analytic or interpretive departure point, as a counterpoint to the global. Indeed, it can be regarded, subject to some qualification, as an aspect of globalisation” (Robertson, 1995: 30). A second wave study of globalisation involves an analysis of the instances of the localities in which ‘globalising’ tendencies are reproduced. Arjun Appadurai (1990, 1996) has provided a more fully developed theoretical approach for a second-wave study of globalisation. He argues that it is necessary to examine how global flows such as the informational scape, the finacioscape, the ethnoscape, and the mediascape meet in a series of localised ‘disjunctures’. At these local meeting points, these ‘scapes’ come together and take on some degree of empirical and ontological reality experienced as actually-existing social life. In order to study the coming together of these local disjunctures, Appaduari (2000) suggested that globalisation should be studied from ‘below’. This means eschewing macro-sociological approaches that attempt to develop an overall view of how the process of globalisation changes social institutions, and instead focusing on how global flows are taken up and actively negotiated. For Appaduari, these located processes of negotiation give rise to a ‘globalisation from below’: A series of social forms has emerged to contest, interrogate, and reverse these developments and to create forms of knowledge transfer and social mobilisation that proceed independently of the actions of corporate capital and the nation-state system (and its international affiliates and guarantors). These social forms rely on strategies, visions, and horizons for globalisation on behalf of the poor that can be charaterised as ‘grassroots globalisation’ or, put in a slightly different way, as ‘globalisation from below’ (Appadurai, 2000:3).

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In order to see these ‘glocalised’ processes (Robertson, 1995) or ‘globalisation from below’ (Appadurai, 2000), it is necessary to recognise many of the complexities and negotiations at work. A second wave account involves paying attention to the located social processes that reproduce globalisation. It also involves examining how apparently global processes are negotiated and changed by localised actors. This involves developing a dual level analysis of how global social processes are enacted in specific, located settings. The task of developing a located analysis of globalisation has been carried forward by a number of sociologists. They have asked how globalisation is produced within localised political, economic and cultural institutions as well as the organisation of space.

Political Institutions While first wave studies of political institutions focused on the creation of global system of governance, second wave research has examined the local processes of political change. In particular, these studies have argued that globalisation processes do not necessarily result in a wholesale shift from political systems that are based around the nation state towards a system of global political institutions. Instead, second wave studies of political institutions assert that nation states have actively participated in and encouraged the process of political globalisation.

Instead of assuming that globalisation brings about the complete irrelevance of the nation-state, recent work in political science has shown how the nation state actively participates in and encourages globalisation: It is not a question of whether capital’s internationalisation results in a decline of the state, but rather how the state continues to participate in capital’s internationalisation in order to reproduce itself (Yeung, 1998a: 298).

This means that the nation state is an important conduit or locality though which globalising processes are reproduced. Researchers like Yeung (1998a, 1999) have argued that globalisation actually brings about a shift (not a decline) in the role and responsibilities nation states. This modification in the relationship between the nation61

state and the global economy “does not eliminate the state or the national economy (in many ways it strengthens them) but ascribes different functions, different spaces, and different historical trajectories to a variety of ‘economies’ and populations within and across the state” (Cameron and Palan, 1999:288). The function of the nation state shifts from supporting the market and playing a social welfare function towards playing a largely legislative role that supports the neo-liberal market. The role of the state becomes restricted to attracting capital, regulating to produce favourable conditions for its expansion (Cerney, 1995) and addressing problems produced by globalisation that global economic actors like multinational corporations are unwilling to address (Bauman, 1998). While it may be tempting to assume globalisation signals the retreat of states out of economic policy, second waves studies have highlighted the role of nation state in regulating globalisation. The best example of this is the interventionist measures used by East Asian states to develop into global economies (Strange, 1996). Indeed, the very engagement of a given state with the global economy is the product of policy decisions by that state (Weiss, 1999). States play an ongoing role in developing the policy and governance structures through which global markets operate (Fligstein, 1996). The importance of the state to processes of globalisation has perhaps been pushed to its extreme by Meyer et al (1997) who argued that it actually involves the global extension of the principals of the nation state and its associated institutions. Second wave research on the political institutions involved in globalisation has pointed to the enduring importance of specific nation states in globalisation processes. It questions the thesis that we have experienced the ‘end of the nation state’ and the subsequent rise of all-powerful global political institutions. Instead, second wave studies of political institutions have emphasised the active role that states play in globalisation processes.

Economic Institutions As well as dismissing grandiose claims about the death of the nation state, second wave research has queried whether globalisation processes led to the increasing dominance of a global market. Second wave research on economic institutions has shown how

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globalisation has reordered relations between states and markets and how this reordering is contingent on local conditions: Globalization does not consist of an inevitable march to a neo-liberal order but is a politically contested process in which different state-market models of interaction come into conflict locally, nationally, and trans-nationally (Ó Riain, 2000:188).

Studies in this tradition have drawn on theories that emphasise the social embeddedness of economies (Polayni, 1949; Granovetter, 1985). These theories highlight how different countries engagement with the global market depends on the complex milieu of local cultural, economic, political and legal institutions. This growing tradition of economic sociology identifies how particular engagements of the nation state with the global market have lead to four different permutations of the state-capital relationship. These are “the liberal state of the Anglo-American sphere of influence, the social rights state of parts of the industrialised west, the development state of East Asia, and the socialist state of Eastern Europe and China in particular” (Ó Riain, 2000:192). The sheer diversity of modes of economic and state relationships shows that they are no universal models of state-capital relations. Instead, these relations are embedded in a broader range of social, cultural and political factors. Second wave accounts of globalisation dispute claims of a rapid rise in global economic institutions. Recent economic sociology has used theories of embeddedness to argue that although trade has increased, this does not mean that a singular global framework of capitalism has come into being. Instead, there are nationally diverse economic institutions, economic action and ‘worlds of production’ (Storper and Salias, 1997). These worlds of production include service-based industry of the ‘interpersonal world’, the outwork type industries of ‘market world’, the knowledge-based industries of the ‘world of intellectual resources’, and the standardised production of the ‘industrial world’. These different worlds of production link up with economic action and expectations that is located within particular nations. For instance, there are different worlds of production at work in France in high technology and fashion industries, in Italy with distinct interpersonal networks, and the United States with high technology industries.

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Other studies also demonstrate that the rise of a global economy does not mean that organisations take on a standarised form throughout the world (Whitley, 1999; Gullién, 2001b). Rather, organisations are profoundly shaped by the different institutional milieus they develop within: Countries and organizations do not gravitate towards a supposedly universal model of economic success or organisational form as they attempt to cope with globalisation. Rather, the mutual awareness globalisation entails invites them to be different, namely, to use their unique economic, political, and social advantages as leverage in the global marketplace (Gullién, 2001b: 3).

By emphasising this local embeddedness, economic sociologists have been able to challenge the thesis that the global economy comprised a single stable process with standardised organisations. Instead they have argued that it involves a series of distinct and locally embedded economies and organisations. The importance of the local embeddedness of economies and the organisations within them has been given further weight by recent economic research that questions whether there has in fact been a wholesale move away from national markets towards a global market. Hirst and Thompson (1996) highlighted the continued importance of national economies. Using a historical analysis of world foreign direct investment and trade flows, they demonstrated that there is little evidence of convergence of macroeconomic indicators and policies throughout different countries (see also: Boyer and Drache, 1996). Gordon (1988) also questioned claims of the meteoric rise in the global economy. Drawing on a statistical analysis of international trade, he argued that many claims about the globalised economy and the international division of labour are incorrect: We have not witnessed movement towards an increasingly ‘open’ international economy, with productive capital buzzing around the globe, but we have moved rapidly towards an increasingly closed economy for productive investment, with production and investment decisions increasingly dependent upon a range of institutional policies and activities and a pattern of differentiation and specialisation among the countries in the LDCs (Less developed countries) (Gordon, 1989: 63).

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Gordon has argued that the crumbling of monopoly capitalism drove changes in the global economy. Similarly, Fox-Piven (1995) has argued that domestic consumption is not served by an overabundance of foreign goods, but continues to be largely satisfied by domestic production capacity that is domestically owned. Second wave studies show that globalisation does not spell the end of located economies and the rise of a global economic system. Rather, embedded national economies and national business systems continue to shape economic activity, resulting in the ongoing regional or national concentration of economic flows.

Cultural Institutions One of the aspects of second wave research most attuned to the importance of national differences is inquiry into the effects of globalisation on cultural institutions. Following pleas for more located analyses of globalisation processes, the object of ‘second wave’ studies has been an investigation of how processes of globalisation are constantly reinterpreted in different localities: The trends of Globalization shows nothing as clearly as the continual reinterpretation of the cultural programme of modernity; attempts by various groups and movements to redefine the discourse of modernity in their own terms. At the same time, they bring about a repositioning of the major areas of contestation in which new forms of modernity are shaped (Eisenstadt, 2000:24).

This emphasis on localised adaptation challenges the claim made by first waves studies that globalisation brings about the homogenisation of culture throughout the world. The cultural homogenisation thesis is replace with an emphasis on hybridisation where definable and separable cultures becoming linked up and juxtaposed resulting in a “global mélange” (Pieterse, 1995: 45) of cultures such as “Thai boxing by Moroccan girls in Amsterdam, Asian rap in London, Irish Bagels, Chinese tacos and Mardi Gras Indians in the United States” (p.53). Understanding global culture involves examining the relays between cultures and the related processes of hybridisation, creolisation and mixture, instead of homogeneity (Friedman, 1995). These strange interconnections between particular cultures have given rise to a complex series of mixtures and an intermingling of cultures instead of a single dominant global culture (Hannerz, 1995).

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Two important streams of research in cultural studies have investigated processes of hybridisation central to globalisation. Diaspora studies investigate how migratory culture are neither entirely located at home nor entirely at their point of arrival (Gilroy, 1993). Diaspora cultures are the result of complex negotiations between different cultures that produce a surprising set of combinations. Gilroy’s (1993) seminal analysis shows how the identity of Africans transported to the northern Atlantic region during the era of the slave trading did not involve the reproduction of African identities drawn from their original homeland and traditional cultures. Nor were the cultures subsumed by their new homes such as Europe or North America. Rather, Black people on either side of the Atlantic have developed an identity that cannot be reduced to a point of departure (Africa) or point of arrival (America or Europe). It is within this ‘third space’ between the home of traditional societies and the new society where a Diaspora culture appears (Bahabha, 1995). The invocation to look at culture as interplay between destination and arrival has produced a raft of studies including work on Asian Diaspora cultures in Australia (Cunningham and Sinclair, 1999), Caribbean Diaspora cultures in England (Hall, 1995), and Chinese in the United States (Louie, 2000). A second stream of research investigating the mixture and shifting nature of culture examines Creole or hybrid cultures, documenting the appearance of unique cultures from a shifting agglomeration of different cultures (Braithwaite, 1973; Garcia-Canclini, 1995). For instance, Garcia-Canclini (1995) emphasises geographic regions which he calls ‘border-lands’ where extensive contact between cultures occurs. To illustrate the dynamics of hybrid cultures he concentrates on the intersection and mixing of North American consumer culture and Mexican culture around the US – Mexican border region. A number of writers extend this concept by emphasising that hybridity is not just the preserve of marginal cultures and specific areas, but also lies at the heart of apparently dominant cultures (Young, 1995). Studying these ‘third spaces’ of cultural exchange and interchange (Bhabah, 1995), it becomes apparent that globalisation does not involve the domination of a single culture over another, but a global flow of cultures linked to multiple and on-going negotiations between diverse peoples.

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The emphasis on local negotiation in second wave approaches to globalisation has also spawned studies that look at how media images are taken up and adapted during consumption in different social and cultural contexts. A vibrant school of ‘user response’ research has demonstrated how the global spread of apparently standardised cultural products, like television shows, does not necessarily represent a one-way process of cultural homogenisation (Fiske, 1989). Rather, audiences tend to interpret such programming in accordance with their own histories, personal experiences and political struggles (Ang, 1985). Similarly, consumers throughout the world engage with a ubiquitous consumer product such as McDonalds fast food in very different ways (Smart, 1999). Different located cultural milieus lead to a Big Mac representing vastly different things in Russia than it does in China, the United States or France. This work shows how the cultural institutions of globalisation are understood and interpreted in different and often creative ways in specific localities: These spaces of the local, within the practices of everyday life under global capitalism, can provide the spawning ground for various ‘surreptitious creativities’ of reuse, recording, deterritorialised invention (Wilson and Dissanayake, 1992:4)

This stream of research reminds us that it is not sufficient to abstract global cultural flows from the particular locality in which they are reproduced; we should examine the variety of localities that cultural flows are produced and reproduced within. Such a located analysis would show how the traditions and cultures that already exist within each particular locality have a fundamental effect on global flows of culture.

Spatial Organisation There has been some excellent research on the local processes of spatial re-organisation involved with globalisation. This research has built on the concerns for local embeddedness and negotiation found in studies of cultural, economic and political institutions. In an important study of the spatialised nature of apparently spaceless processes like financial markets, Sassen (1991) examined how the global economy is reproduced by a spatially situated network of large multinationals as well as a range of support services such as advertising and consultants located in the very specific regions

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of New York, London and Tokyo. Similarly, spatially mobile capital becomes fixed in a particular space when investment costs are sunk in a particular asset like a factory (Clarke and Wrigley, 1995). Other geographic researchers have pointed out how global economic flows tend to be situated in specific regional networks such as family business networks that shape the circulation of Chinese capital in South East Asia (Yueng, 1998a, 1998b, 1999). In a similar vein, David Harvey’s (1982) book on the geography of capitalism has argued that in order for capital to continue to expand and accumulate, a series of spatial fixes must be erected. This means capital must be invested in a range of located means of production that have a spatial character. This geographic research demonstrates that space has not become irrelevant. Instead, apparently global processes like financial markets tend to be spatially fixed - embedded in a range of geographically fixed networks of other institutions and relationships.

The Limits of Second Wave Second wave studies of culture, politics, economic institutions and spatial organisation challenge the view that globalisation is a process that leads to similar results throughout the globe. This has heralded an examination of how the processes associated with globalisation are actively negotiated and reproduced by actors in specific embedded locations. At the heart of second-wave studies is the argument that “globalization is neither a monolithic nor an inevitable phenomena. Its impact varies across countries, societal sectors, and time. It is contradictory, discontinuous, even haphazard” (Guillén, 2001a: 255). Because it is difficult to develop a ‘global’ theory of globalisation, second wave theorists developed accounts that focus on the local conjuncture of global flows. This has lead to studies of industrial diversity in globalised markets (e.g. Storper and Salis, 1997; Gullién, 2001b), the intersection between global and local cultures (e.g. Friedman, 1995; Garcia-Cancelli, 1995), the differing responses of nation states to the global market (e.g. Ó Ririan, 2000), and the located ness of apparently global business activities (e.g. Yeung, 1998a). This focus on local and specific processes provides a far more complex and attuned understanding of the process of globalisation that recognising local embeddedness and processes of local negotiation.

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While the importance of particularity and locality in second wave studies of globalisation has significantly advanced the study of globalisation, it has also introduced a significant problem; if the process of globalisation has more to do with territorial located-ness, it quickly becomes a plausible option to dispose of the concept of globalisation and its systems building tendencies and returning to a strict analysis of localised or national societies. The result would be a series of particularised accounts of how global processes are engaged in a variety of exotic and not so exotic localities (for instance see: Appadurai, 2000). The research inspired by this approach would provide a finer understanding of the variety of permutations and strategies of adaptation that are central to globalisation. It would also mean globalisation studies would become a loose amalgam of specific areas that demonstrate the sheer diversity of localised engagements with globalisation. To move the study of globalisation solely in this direction would risk losing sight of the ‘global’ aspects of globalisation. Put another way, a strict focus on the particularities of different engagements with globalisation may result in a loss of understanding of the ‘universal’ aspects associated with globalisation (Robertson, 1992). In order to avoid this trap of an overly particular analysis and to understand systematic aspects of the globalisation process, let us draw on one of the classic definitions of the process. Perhaps the lynchpin of globalisation as a phenomenon is best expressed in Robertson’s celebrated definition of globalisation as the “compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole” (Robertson, 1992:8). This definition of globalisation suggests it is a global systemic process that establishes transterritorial flows, reconstructs institutions and leads to the re-organisation of space-time. It also shows that a central aspect is the apparently phenomenological aspects of “intensify(ing) our consciousness of the world as a whole” (see also: Waters, 1995:63, Albrow, 1997:88, Gullién, 2001b: 6). This raises the question of how we grapple with the creation of the ‘consciousness of the world as a whole’? To understand this we need to set aside conventional sociological approaches that focus on systems and actors in explanations of globalisation. Instead we need to look at the central generators of social consciousness - meaning and language. In the next chapter we will see that recent

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sociological accounts help us to understand how this ‘global consciousness’ is generated through meaning and language, arguing that globalisation should be treated as a discourse.

Conclusion In this review of the extensive literature on globalisation I have sought to map out approaches to the complex phenomena of globalisation in the social sciences. I have looked at two waves of globalisation research. The first wave emphasised systematic changes in political, economic and cultural institutions, as well as space-time organisation that created a ‘new global system’. These studies assumed that changes were being experienced universally and in similar ways. A second wave of globalisation research posited the global system as not particularly totalising, but rather shaped by local embedded economic, political and cultural institutions, as well as spatial organisation. This framework pushes researchers to look at the diversity of located responses to globalisation. While these second wave studies represent an important step, we should not forget that globalisation continues to be an influential framework that is used by politicians, policy makers, academics, senior managers, and the media. Instead of dismissing discussions of globalisation as ‘global babble’ (Abu-Lughod, 1991), or a myth (Johnson, 1991; Spich, 1995; Hirst and Thompson, 1996) that does not fit the reality of social systems throughout the world, in the next chapter I would like to ask whether it is possible to take this rhetoric seriously and look at the role that it plays in the reconstruction of social life.

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III Taking Global Babble Seriously The world does not exist outside its expression Deleuze (1993: 132)

Towards Globalisation Discourse The ‘first wave’ of literature treats globalisation as a series of changes in cultural, economic, and political institutions as well as the organisation of space which has led to the increasing trans-continental and inter-regional extensity and intensity of social life (Held et al, 1999). These changes were seen to form a closely linked system with similar impacts irrespective of setting. First wave studies have generalised the reach and impact of globalisation processes from the experience in western cities to the entire world. Such attempts to develop a total theory of globalisation thereby run the risk of marginalising the specificities of how globalisation is experienced and produced in particular localities. In order to recognise how embedded actors reproduce specific globalisation processes a ‘second wave’ of globalisation research has developed an account of ‘globalisation from below’ (Appaduari, 2000). As we have seen in the previous chapter, this second wave literature pays particular attention to local engagements with globalisation processes. Second wave research has helped to account for the diverse actions that reproduce globalisation processes in a myriad of ways. This has led to a far more textured account of globalisation that emphasises the heterogeneity of the procedures in which globalisation is produced over a homogeneous account of globalisation as a single system which has swept across the entirety of the social world with monotonous regularity (Robertson, 1992). While second wave studies represent an important development they also pose a central question: If globalisation is heterogeneous, fragmented, non-uniform, and uneven, how is it that a unified language of globalisation persists? Is this language simply a myth, or is it in fact a viable phenomenon for empirical analysis?

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Instead of rejecting globalisation talk as a myth that may be dispelled, a number of social scientists have approached the language of globalisation as an important social phenomenon. The historian Arif Dirlik (1999) argued that the language of globalisation does not serves the referential function of describing a process that exists ‘out there’. Instead, the language of globalisation actually assigns meaning to the process. It actively brings together a series of what were previously disparate and fragmented trends under the word, ‘globalisation’: While globalisation as a paradigm responds to a real world situation . . . it does not merely describe the world as its advocates seem to pretend, but, much like the earlier modernization discourse which seeks to transform the world in accordance with a vision that is derivative of capitalist modernity. For all its incoherence, globalisation discourse articulates or reconfigures relations of economic and political power globally. That is hegemony rules out the thinking of alternatives to its developmentalist premise. Even criticism of globalisation discourse, to the extent that it does not confront these fundamental premises, only contributes to its hegemony. (Dirlik, 1999:39)

Here, Dirlik emphasised that the language of globalisation presents a particular understanding of the world. It plays an active role in reconfiguring economic and political power by creating a dominant definition of the social world. Instead of judging whether globalisation is a correct or incorrect diagnosis, we need to see it as a language that “may serve to summon precisely the effects that such a discourse attributes to globalisation itself” (Hay and Marsh, 2000:9). Following this, we can begin to see globalisation as not just an outcome of social structural changes (as first wave interpretations do), or as embedded local negotiations (as second wave accounts do), but as a language that plays an active part in making and re-making globalisation. The language of globalisation plays an important role in reconstituting the social world it purports to describe. Seeking to understand this role, a number of researchers have approached globalisation as a discourse. This means examining globalisation as a system of signs that are used by actors to construct the objects and subjects and engender relations of power (Foucault, 1980). This entails understanding how globalisation as a language constructs the social world in a way which “create(s) or, alternatively obscure(s), the possibility of intervening to shape contemporary economic and social

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events” (Kayatekin and Ruccio, 1998: 76). Examining globalisation in such a way also “allows us to understand exactly what a globalisation discourse does. This is important because discourses are deeply political, producing material and ideological effects; put simply, the representation that most people entertain about globalisation – what they think it is and how they think it works – affects how they act” (Weldes, 2001:648). By approaching globalisation as a discourse, we become aware of how the word is used to produce the reality it purports to describe. Treating globalisation as a discourse alerts us to how it is an interested representation of social life. This allows us to move away from an examination of the process as an empirical statement about the social world that prescribes certain paths of action. Instead, globalisation can be understood as a language that configures relations of power: The usual justification for the ‘no alternative dogma’ is globalization, and the argument generally rehearsed against redistributive social-democratic policies is that the tight fiscal constraints faced by governments are only a realistic possibility in a world were global markets would not permit any deviation from neo-liberal orthodoxy. This argument takes for granted the ideological terrain which has been created as a result of years of neo-liberal hegemony, and transforms what is a conjectural state of affairs into a historical necessity. Presented as driven exclusively by the information revolution, the forces of globalisation are detached from their political dimensions and appear as a fate to which we all have to submit . . . To think in terms of hegemonic relations is to break with such fallacies. Indeed, scrutinizing the so-called ‘globalizing world’ through the category of hegemony . . . can help us to understand that the present conjuncture, far from being the only natural or possible societal order, is the expression of a certain configuration of power relations. (Laclau and Mouffe, 2001: xvi)

By treating globalisation as a powerful discourse it is possible to understand how it shapes and constrains how we speak and act upon the social world by turning one representation of social life into a historical necessity. In this chapter I will attempt to develop an approach to globalisation discourse and chart out how this discourse works in the context of organisations. Initially, this chapter seeks to clarify exactly what is meant by the discourse and how it works in the context of organisations. I define the characteristics that differentiate a study of discourse from other constructivist approaches or studies of language. Within these constraints, I find that 73

there are five major approaches to studying discourse in organisations. These are semiology, studies of tropes, deconstructive analyses, Foucauldian studies, and critical discourse analysis. Focusing specifically on critical discourse analysis, I turn to the small but growing literature that examines globalisation as a discourse. Using Norman Fairclough’s (1995) approach to critical discourse analysis, I argue that a critical analysis of globalisation discourse would involve investigating the texts which propagate the language of globalisation, the discursive action through which the language of globalisation is mobilised by actors, and an understanding of three forms of socio-cultural power effects engendered by globalisation discourse - the construction of legitimate roles for social actors, the construction of the social space in which they might act, and the construction of which important stakeholders populate this social space. I conclude by using this framework to pose three specific questions about how globalisation discourse works in the context of organisations.

Organisational Discourse Analysis Studying globalisation discourse in an organisational setting requires a clear understanding of what is meant by discourse itself. The term discourse has been used in two broad senses in studies of organisation. The first sense follows Aristotle and defines discourse as reasoned debate or discussion. This definition has become so ingrained in social scientific doxa that discourse has become a word that is used interchangeably with ‘debate’, ‘discussion’, or ‘contention’. The second way discourse has been used in organisational studies is to refer to a specific unit of analysis. According to this approach, a discourse is broadly defined as a system of texts that constructs an object (For similar definitions see: Parker, 1992; Howarth, 2000; Phillips and Hardy, 2002). I adopt the second definition of discourse as the starting point. Approaching discourse as a system of texts that constructs an object, a discursive approach entails three necessary and interconnected features: it examines processes of social construction; it seeks to understand how these processes of social construction

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happen through language; and, it examines how this language is systematically organised. I discuss each of these key points in order to show what is specific and unique about discourse analysis. The first defining feature of discourse analysis is the study of the process of social construction. Studies of social construction assume objects or subjects in social life do not have any intrinsic properties. Instead, the properties of a subject or object are only determined through the meaning that we assign to them (Hacking, 1999). The roots of a social constructivist approaches are usually located in Weber’s (1949) sociology of Verstehen and Shutz’s (1972) phenomenological approach. Berger and Luckmann (1966) provided the most celebrated statement of social constructivism. They argued that reality is socially constructed as the subjective meanings we assign to our flows of experience are made into ‘objective faculties’ that we treat as reality. Berger and Luckmann focused on social action and meaning making as the central locus in the social construction of reality. The central strand of social research involves investigating how inter-subjective processes of meaning-making occur in the ‘here’ of our bodies and the ‘now’ of present time. This situated process of meaning-making occurs through the inter-subjective use and exchange of language. The use of language is an ‘objectivation’ of subjective experience and the meaning of “language provides me with a ready made possibility of the ongoing objectification of my unfolding experience” (Berger and Luckmann, 1966: 53). Language is therefore treated as sedimentation of an ongoing process of social action that is used to remake the world in the present. Our ‘unfolding experience’ is prior to, and ultimately more important than the language into which it is deposited. Following a broadly constructivist approach would mean examining how actors make sense of a phenomena like globalisation by producing meaning about their ongoing flow of experience through the individually mobilised rubric of globalisation. The second defining feature of discourse analysis is that it assumes social construction proceeds largely through language. Unlike Berger and Luckmann, theories of discourse do not assume that there is a flow of experience that gives rise to sensation and meaningmaking that is prior to language. Rather, language gives sense and meaning to an actor’s

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sensation and understanding of a flow of experience. It is only through and by language that a social phenomenon becomes meaningful and understandable. The immanence of language in any process of meaning-making is expressed in one of Wittgenstein’s (1969:41) thought experiments. He asks what we do when we are writing a letter and ‘reaching’ for a particular word. According to Wittgenstein, this idea may appear to loom ‘before the mind’, but in saying this we are only using a metaphor. In this case, we grope for a word, then “several words are suggested and I reject them. Finally one is proposed and I say ‘That is it’” (Wittgenstein, 1969:41). The lesson to take from this is that we need to reject the idea of the primacy of processes of thinking and interpretation, and instead see this thought as constituted within language: I have been trying in all this to remove the temptation to think that there ‘must be’ what is called a mental process of thinking, hoping, wishing, believing, etc., independent of the process of expressing a thought, a hope, a wish etc. And I want to give you the following rule of thumb: If you are puzzled about the nature of thought, belief, knowledge and the like, substitute thought for the expression of thought, etc. The difficulty which lies in this substitution, and at the same time the whole point of it, is this: the expression of belief, thought etc., is just a sentence;- and that sentence has sense only as a member of a system of language; as an expression within a calculus. (Wittgenstein, 1969:41-42)

This indicates that in order to understand processes of social construction (through sensing and assigning meaning), it is necessary to understand the language used by social actors to express that thought and construct social reality. Following this focus on language, writers have argued that organisational reality is constructed primarily within language (e.g. Gray et al, 1985; Donellon et al, 1986; Alvesson and Kärreman, 2000b; Westwood and Linstead, 2000). The ‘linguistic turn’ in theories of organisation has that ensured the central concern has shifted away from how language is used to interpret an ongoing stream of experience towards how language represents organisational and social reality (Jeffcut, 1993). This strict focus on language instead of subjective or inter-subjective processes of interpretation means discourse analysis is significantly different from other studies of social construction. Discourse analysis may share the broad ontological assumptions with other constructivist approaches to organisation like phenomenology (e.g. Silverman, 1970), studies of

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sensemaking (e.g. Weick, 1979), and ethnomethodology (e.g. Bittner, 1965). These approaches certainly give extensive consideration to the issue of language, but the central focus of their analysis is on processes of meaning-making by social actors. In contrast, the central focus of discourse analysis is on the language that is used in this process. The final defining feature of discourse analysis is the assumption that language is constituted by a system of signs. This involves understanding language as not just comprising a series of words that can be brought together in any way depending on an individual’s volition. Instead, discourse analysis approaches language as a series of words, or more precisely units of meaning, which are systematically linked to one another. These linkages have a degree of endurance or ‘fixivity’ (Laclau and Mouffe, 1995). We would call these constellations of enduring linkages a system of signs. These systems of signs are then ‘used’ by social actors to represent the social world. Because they are a system, they represent the social world in a relatively systematic and predictable. The central task of discourse analysis involves tracing out these systems of signs in order to show the possible representations of the social world. Focusing on systems of signs, discourse analysis differs from the many constructivist analyses of language in organisation. Approaches to language such as conversation analysis (e.g. Drew and Heritage, 1992), studies of rhetoric (e.g. Watson, 1995), organisational symbolism (Dandridge et al, 1980), story-telling (e.g. Boje, 1991, 1995), or narrative approaches (e.g. Czarniawaska, 1997) are centrally interested in how organisational actors use language in partial attempts to construct the social world. Discourse analysis, however, focuses on the systematic nature of the language which actors use during processes of social construction. This does not mean that discourse analysis neglects the issue of how discourses are used (as we will see below). Rather, it means that an analysis of discourse begins with the systematic relationship between particular signs. This specific conception of discourse has inspired studies of a range of phenomena in organisations. Although these studies agree on a broad definition of discourse, they differ

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significantly, falling into five broad approaches – semiology, tropological studies, deconstruction, Foucauldian studies, and critical discourse analysis. I shall detail how each of these different approaches conceive of discourses, their objects of analysis, the key theorists they draw upon, the different empirical studies they have yielded, and the critiques which are typically levelled against them (see table 3.1 for summary).

Approach

Discourse approached as Master Tropes

Dimensions of analysis Text (Metaphor, Synecdoche, Metonymy, Irony)

Key Theorist(s) Burke White

Semiology

System of signs held together by an underlying semiotic

Text (via: Relation between signifiers and Semiotic code)

Saussure

Deconstructive

Gap between signifiers

Texts and Aporias

Derrida

Foucauldian

Power/knowledge/ subject relations

Texts, power relations

Foucault

Critical Discourse Analysis

Texts used by actors to engender power relations

Text, discursive action, power relations

Fairclough

Tropological

Empirical Studies

Critiques

Explanatory frameworks in OS (Manning, 1979). Metaphors in OS (Morgan, 1986) New metaphors (Hatch, 1999) Organisational processes (Vaara et al, 2003; Llwellyen, 2001) Critique (Oswick et al, 2002; Sewell, forthcoming) Organisational boundaries (Fiol, 1989) Occupational Culture (Barley, 1983) Labelling (Ashforth & Humphery, 1997) Stabilising organisation (Cooper, 1990; Chia, 1996) Classic texts (Kilduff, 1993) Organisational culture (Linstead and Graftonsmall, 1993) Power (Knights & Willmott) Enterprise culture (du Gay, 1996) Personnel (Hollway, 1991) The manager (Jacques, 1996) Interpersonal interaction (Rudd, 2000) Managerial technologies (Garnsey and Rees, 1996) Inter-organisational process (Hardy and Phillips, 1998) Environment (Welcomer et al, 2000)

Reductionist Ignores context of tropes Ignores power relations

Implies metaphysics of depth Ignores ambiguity Ignores relations of power Limited to studies of OS texts Ignores context

Analysis of power restricted to subjectivity Limited account of use of discourses Ignores social structures Surface engagement with social structural ‘context’

Figure 3.1: Approaches to Organisational Discourse

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Tropological Studies Probably the first stream of thought mobilised to understand discourse in organisation studies was Kenneth Burke’s (1945/1962) theory of tropes. This approach examined how the language we use to understand, explain and construct organisations is underpinned by variations on a handful of basic forms of language. These basic systems of explanation or interpretation construct how we understand the social world. Although Burke’s work (Grammar of Motives and Rhetoric of Motives in particular) is massively suggestive for a social science of interpretation, his theory of master tropes has been particularly influential (White, 1978). The Grammar of Motives seeks to answer the apparently simple question “what is involved, when we say what people are doing and why they are doing it?” (p. xv) with reference to the motives of “what was done (act), when or where it was done (scene), who did it (agent), how he did it (agency), and why (purpose)” (p. xv). In a short appendix to the massive answer to this question (Burke, 1945: 503-517), he argued that all explanations of social action fall into four broad forms: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Metaphorical explanations are those that attempt to develop a perspective by seeing something in terms of something else. An explanation based on metonymy instead attempts to develop a reductive explanation of the whole by referring only to a part. An explanation based on synecdoche seeks to develop a representational explanation by taking one aspect as expressing the entire dynamic of a whole. Finally, an explanation based on irony seeks to develop a dialectical by seeking to show how something is not like something else. These four master tropes are said to underpin and sequence the kind of explanations that we can give of social life, and consequently the way it is constructed. The category of irony allows the student of language to develop a critical or dialectic stance towards language, which may be able to account for change. Tropes in Organisation Burke’s master tropes have influenced the development of a particular approach to discourse analysis in organisation studies. Manning (1979) drew on Burke’s master tropes to argue that the social world is constructed through our framing of it within language. He argues that the constitution of organisation involves a linguistic process that works through four master tropes; metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony.

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According to Manning linguistic tropes structure what and how we are able to think about organisations. Subsequent research has highlighted the importance of the tropes in shaping understanding of organisations (Morgan, 1980, 1983, 1986) and constituting organisations in social scientific study (Tsoukas, 1991). Others have attempted to develop new metaphors for conceiving of organisations such as Jazz (Organization Science special issue, 1998; Hatch, 1999; Zack, 2000), psychosis (Sievers, 1999), or natural places (Walck, 1996). Researchers have also sought out the role metaphors play in organisational processes like culture building following a merger (Vaara et al, 2003), professional-manager interaction (Llwellyen, 2001), strategy making (Lissack, 1997), entrepreneurs coping with and understanding uncertain external environments (Hill and Levenhagen, 1995), and information systems development (Kendall and Kendall, 1993). Still others have sought to identify the metaphors underpinning many aspects of organisational life such as those associated with the military (Winsor, 1996), or networks (Wallemacq, 1998). More recently, Oswick et al (2002) and Sewell (Forthcoming) have argued that the focus on metaphors as a trope has led to an over-emphasis on convergent frameworks for understanding the social world at the expense of frameworks of divergence and difference. In order to develop such an approach they have argued for the need to mobilise tropes like irony.

Critiques Tropological studies of organisations provide an excellent account of the ‘grammar’ underpinning the explanations mobilised to talk about and understand organisational life. However, this approach invites three points of criticism. The first critique is that tropological studies are reductionist, assuming that there are four and only four master tropes that underpin all social action. Such a strict analytical framework may actually reduce the many different social grammars that are actually used in developing explanations. This may be particular pertinent when we attempt to apply Burke’s tropes outside the language of western scholarship where it was initially developed. The second critique is that it ignores the contexts in which each explanatory tropes operates (Gusfeild, 1989). By training our focus on underpinning tropological frameworks, we reduce social relations to a cognitive operation of explanation. This leads us to lose sight

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of the various aspects of ‘context’ such as the social structures that these explanations appear and operate within. The final critique of a tropological approach is that stops short of engaging with the relations of power that tropological explanations are bound up with. This means accounts of power are only ever an addition to tropological studies, not a central aspect.

Semiology In order to deal with the charges of reducing the complexities and uniqueness of different systems of language back to already given grids (such as Burke’s Master tropes), studies of organisational discourse have turned to semiotics. Semiotics does not pose an already given intellectual framework and then attempt to fit particular instances of discourse within it. Rather the field of semiotics provides an approach that surfaces the unique system that orders a system of signs in a given context. Rejecting the assumption that a universal set of rules produces meaning, semioticians examine how meaning arises from a specific relationship between a group of signs (such as words) in particular texts (such as an advertisement). Underlying this set of relationships between words is a particular set of rules, or a ‘semiotic code’. Saussure (1916/1966) provided the broad theoretical framework for semiotics. In a series of lectures, Saussure outlined what he called a ‘science of signs’, arguing that a sign comprises two components. The first, the signifier, is the word or the sign itself (the word ‘star’ for instance). The second, the signified, is the ‘word-image’ referred to (the thing up in the sky to which we point on a dark night). After making the division between the signifier and signified, Saussure argued that the relationship between each component of a sign is an arbitrary one. This means any signifier may be linked with any signified. Because there is no necessary relationship between the signifier and its signified, the meaning assigned to a particular phenomenon is not given by a natural order. It is useless to investigate the relation between the word ‘star’ and the thing that shines up in the night sky. Instead, Saussure argued that the meaning of one signifier, like ‘star’, is produced by its differences from other signifiers, such as ‘sky’, ‘light’, ‘planet’, and ‘satellite’. It is only through tracing this system of differences between different words that it becomes

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possible to build a picture of how a particular signifier constructs the meaning of a given phenomena. Sassure’s semiotic theory centres on the thesis that a signifier does not more or less accurately describe a given signified, but is arbitrarily fused with a signified in accordance with the established social rules (see also: Barthes, 1967; Eco, 1976). This means that there is nothing innate in a particular object that suggests a pattern of meaning. Rather, the meaning ascribed to a given phenomenon is the product of a socially sanctioned relationship between signifiers. Using Saussure’s theory of language suggests that we can only understand a social phenomenon like ‘globalisation’ by using a series of socially sanctioned signifiers that have no necessary relationship to the social processes that it purports to describe. It is only in this pattern of signifiers that we can locate the meaning given to a social phenomenon like globalisation.

Semiological Approaches to Organisations The semiological approach has been used to investigate a number of types of discourse in the context of organisation. Some have examined the construction of boundaries in letters sent to share-holders of large American chemical companies during new venture initiatives (Fiol, 1989). This research illustrated two quite different underlying semiotic codes that shaped which statements appeared in joint venturing firms and non-joint venturing firms. Another study demonstrated how occupations are underpinned by a semiotic structure that order how signifiers fit together (Barley, 1983). This work details how a set of semiotic codes underpins the occupational culture of funeral directing, shaping such mundane aspects of work such as how the corpse should be presented for viewing, the nature of the furnishings in the funeral parlour, and how a corpse should be removed from a home. Other work has employed semiotics to examine the role of written texts such as mission statements in the construction of organisational culture (Richman and Wright, 1994). Semiotics has also been used to examine how the construction of labels shaped service encounters, inter-group encounters and organisational image and identity (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1997). Other research investigating how semiotic

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codes underpin the construction of identity and image includes work on corporate websites (Lemke, 1999), organisational badging such as the ‘Investors in People’ initiative in the United Kingdom (Bell et al, 2002), and advertising and internal communications at the Saturn motor company (Mills et al, 2001). Central to each of these studies is an attempt to surface the codes that determine how different kinds of signifiers (ranging from bodies to furniture to written text) are ordered, which then constructs a given phenomena (such as organisational boundaries, or occupational culture).

Critiques While semiotic analysis provides an excellent beginning for examining how systems of signs construct aspects of social reality, it has also been subject to some significant critiques. Many semiotic approaches in organisation studies are heavily influenced by structural interpretations of Saussure that aim to uncover “the unconscious structure underlying each institution and custom” (Levi-Strauss, 1963: 21). This goal emphases the enduring and structural nature of systems of signs that determine actions are not reducible to an actors thoughts or feelings. Consequently, semiotic studies are vulnerable to three critiques. The first is the assumption that meaning is structured by an underlying semiotic code implies a metaphysics of depth. By conceiving of language as a structure implies there are metaphysical forces underlying a given text. Semiotics assumed that if only we were careful or clever enough we could uncover and systematically describe this essence in straightforward value-free terms. The paradox here is that in order to describe this system of language in an accessible way, we could only use language, which would be presumably underpinned by another semiotic code. This points to the impossibility of actually uncovering the deep semiotic code in a non-semiotic fashion. The second charge laid against semiotics is that it leads us to ignore the ambiguities or what Derrida (1978) calls ‘play’ which exists within a linguistic structure. That is, if language were simply determined by an underlying and never-seen linguistic code, then the use we make of language would be totally decided. We would all use the same words in order to refer to these underlying structures. This would leave no room for the

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ambiguity, creativity, and the ‘slipperiness’ that characterises the use of language. Moreover, it would discount any possibility of change within structures. The third charge is that semiotic studies of organisation tend to ignore the issue of the power relations that are constructed by a particular discourse. Focusing exclusively on signs and how they come into relations with one another leads semiotics to ignore relations of power.

Deconstruction In order to respond to critiques that semiology cannot account for the ambiguities contained within any particular sign system and the charge of reductivism levelled against studies of tropes, researchers in organisation studies have turned to the work of Jacques Derrida. Derrida’s work is complex and broad ranging, covering a number of topics (for a review see: Norris, 1991). Hence, I will only give a few comments to orient a discussion on deconstruction in organisation studies (for a more extensive discussion see: Jones, 2003). Applied to discourse analysis, Derrida’s work addresses questions in Saussure, namely the relation between the signifier and the signified. Semiology explains how language is used to construct the aspects of reality by referring to the structured relation between signifiers. Derrida (1978: 351-370) took up this point and argued that this structure is never total because it always relies on a supplement. For a centred sign to make sense, it must refer to a supplementary sign, which must in turn refer to another supplement. It is only in this process of referring to the supplement, or what Derrida calls the logic of supplementarity, that a system of discourse works. Moreover, because language is always slipping towards another supplement, it becomes impossible to authoritatively trace out a stable linguistic structure. Instead, an analysis of discourse must focus on this constant slipping of language. This focus would not invoke the system of signs themselves, but the system of differences, or what Derrida (1981, 1993) calls the aporia between signs. A broad aim of a deconstructive analysis of discourse is to trace out these aporia that drive processes of meaning and social construction. Indeed, Derrida (1993) suggested that many of his works have been concerned with aporia such as life and death, gift and exchange, writing and speech, and law and justice.

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Deconstruction in Organisation Studies Work on postmodernism, in many ways, prefigured a deconstructive approach to studying organisational discourse. This work heralded the linguistic turn in the study of organisations (Cooper and Burrell, 1988; Burrell, 1988; Cooper, 1989; Hassard and Parker, 1993; Alvesson and Deetz, 1996; Calás and Smirchich, 1999; Hancock and Tyler, 2001). ‘Post modern’ studies of organisation have identified the role that discourse plays in constructing organisational life. Cooper (1989) challenged approaches that treat language as a medium that more or less accurately describes the social world, arguing that ‘“routine” approaches to the study of organization rely unreflectively on a conception of writing that represents an already constituted object from which the “construction” function of writing is excluded’ (p.494). Postmodern studies of organisation ask how states of flux and movement that characterise organisations are reified as a relatively stable and concrete entity. For post-modern studies, writing organises this state of flux into relatively stable entities and limits the possible play of disorganisation (Cooper, 1990). Robert Chia (1996) crystallised this point by arguing that organisations are given order through language. For Chia, language is organisation, and to understand the process of organisation one must understand how organisations are written. Approaching organisations as a text has led Rhodes (2000) to argue that, in developing an account of organisational life, we should undertake the practice of ‘reading’ rather ‘researching’. This focus on the fixivity and slipperiness of writing has led a number of authors to draw on a particular version of deconstruction (for review see: Jones, 2003b). This work has typically interrogated how central texts in the canon of organisation studies stabilise organisations, thereby repressing the flux of meaning and marginalising a series of possible narratives. Kilduff (1993), for instance, analysed March and Simon’s Organization to show how the text simultaneously represses, yet reinvigorates the idea of the employee as a machine. Other examples include Martin’s (1990) analysis of organisational taboos, Mumby and Putnam’s (1992) reading of bounded rationality, and Calás and Smirchich’s (1991) analysis of leadership. There have been deconstructive analyses of organisational culture (Linstead and Grafton-Small, 1993), accounting

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(Arrington and Francis, 1989), information systems (Beath and Orlikowski, 1994), decision making (Chia, 1994), organisational behaviour (Summers et al, 1997), and total quality management (Xu, 1999). In each of these studies a central theme is how organising processes are constructed in theories of organisation in a way that constitutes these processes. These studies are concerned with how modern organisations find a degree of stability through the process of writing, and how this stability is consistently menaced by the supplementary texts that constitute this stability (Westwood and Linstead, 2000).

Critiques The deconstructive approach to language in organisation tells us a good deal about how organisations are written as apparently stable and concrete entities in theories of organisation. In practice, deconstructive inquiry has largely proceeded as if the central site that organisations are written is organisational theory texts. This has made it a largely ‘reflexive’ enterprise. This points us to the first major critique of a deconstructive approach in organisation studies - that it has limited its object of analysis to largely academic texts. This unflinching focus on academic texts risks awarding omnipotence to the world of intellectual and scientific ideas in social life (Bourdieu, 1990; Eagleton, 1991). The primary focus on theoretical texts had meant a distinct lack of empirical studies of how these ideas are circulated and used in particular contexts. This is linked to a second critique of current deconstructive approaches to organisation - focusing on largely academic texts has meant relations of power engender by these texts outside the academy have been effectively ignored (cf. Spivak, 1999). This means that deconstruction as it has been configured in organisation studies largely cuts itself off from an analysis of the various contexts in which it operates.

Foucauldian Approaches While studies inspired by deconstruction have largely focused on texts to understand the processes of organising, a tradition drawing on the work of Michel Foucault has sought to show that each discourse extends beyond linguistic callisthenics. Foucault advanced the thesis that systems of language are inseparable from the construction and maintenance of 86

relations of power. His work demonstrated how ‘discourses of truth’ such as sciences do not innocently refer to a pre-existing social world, but actively constitute this world and, in doing so, reconstruct practices of power. Indeed, it is through a variety of influential discourses such as the human sciences that power relations are reproduced and maintained in modern societies: There can be no possible exercise of power without a certain economy of discourse and truth which operates through and on the basis of this association. We are subjected to the production of truth through power and we cannot exercise power except through the production of truth. This is the case for every society, but I believe that in ours the relationship between power, right and truth is organised in a highly specific fashion (Foucault, 1980:93)

The discourses of scientific knowledge are the ‘highly specific fashion’ in which power and discourses operate in modern societies. Foucault’s body of work largely comprises attempts to trace the operations of discourse, power and (in later work) subjectivity as intertwined processes. Central to each of these discursive histories is a demonstration of how apparently universal aspects of social life such as madness (Foucault, 1967), sexuality (Foucault, 1976; Foucault, 1983; Foucault, 1984), criminality (Foucault, 1977), and sickness (Foucault, 1973), are constructed in radically different ways depending on the dominant discourse of the time. Moreover, these dominant discourses construct particular subject positions, like the patient and the criminal, in ways that are intimately linked with relations of power. Foucault shows how each of these subject positions and power relations are associated with, and justify, institutions like the asylum, the clinic, or the prison. Foucault’s (1976, 1983, 1984) later work like The History of Sexuality pushes this relationship between power, discourse and subjectivity to show how these relations stretch into our own micro practices, our particular mode of experiencing our subjectivities, our desires, and our bodies. For Foucault, this tight relationship between power and discourse permeates all aspects of social life in a way that stretches from subjectivity to institutions to everyday practices.

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Foucauldian Studies of Organisation Exploring the intimate relationship between power relations and discourse, a wide range of researchers in organisation studies have drawn on the work of Michel Foucault. Knights and Willmott (1989) argued that an important dynamic of power in organisations is the construction of subject positions. These subject positions are inscribed in powerful discourses that effectively fix the way in which actors can understand and act upon themselves. Power relations therefore exist in a variety of managerial technologies that inscribe the very ‘souls’ of workers. Instances of the constructive effects of discourse and power in organisation studies include how discourse ‘makes up’ understandings of subjectivities such as the ‘economic man’ in accounting discourse (Bhiamani, 1994), the entrepreneurial employee in enterprise discourse (du Gay, 1994; du Gay, Salaman and Rees, 1996; DuGay, 1996. Fournier, 1998), the rationalised subject of personnel management (Hollway, 1991), the docile employee in human resource management (Townley, 1993, 1994), the ‘self-help’ worker (Garsten and Grey, 1997), the selfactualising subject in human relations (Rose, 1990), the relational self in Japanese workplace culture (Kondo, 1990), the disciplined self of Western corporate culture (Deetz, 1992), the paranoid self of Total Quality Management (Sewell and Wilkinson, 1992) and the audited self of accounting and consultancy discourses (Power, 1997). Researchers have also drawn upon Foucault to examine other managerial technologies, including management by objects and mentoring in an accounting firm (Covaleski et al, 1998), the constitution of senior management as hero in guru theory (Clark and Salaman, 1998), the gendered construction of the stressed or burnt out worker (Meyerson, 1998), and the construction of managerial identity in the shift from paternalist masculinity to competitive masculinity in the financial services industry (Kerfoot and Knights, 1993). Other managerial technologies that construct particular versions of subjectivity include corporate training (Ackers and Preston, 1997), competence discourse in Human Resource Management (Holmes, 1995), and various discursive technologies used in assessment centres (Newton, 1994). Specific occupational identities that have been examined as seats of power include the post-bureaucratic self in an advertising agency (Hackley, 2000), the ‘manufactured’ identity of network marketers (Kong, 2001), and the differing versions of

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‘wharfies’ identities mobilised during an industrial relations dispute (Spicer et al, 2002). Brocklehurst’s (2001) research on tele-workers follows this Foucauldian tradition by examining how power is constituted through identity. He found that the tele-workers he studied faced a kind of reverse situation whereby they suffer not so much from subjection to a relational power, but from the fact that they do not have a viable subject position associated with the workplace. While most researchers in organisation studies have focused on the construction of subject positions associated with employees, some have looked at other subjects around organisations. This has included the discourse of the client as a control figure amongst juniors in accounting firms (Anderson-Gough et al 2000), the discourse of the customer as a key control mechanism for service workers (du Gay and Salaman, 1993), differing professional discourses that make up different understandings of surgery patients (Fox, 1994), and discourses of the refugees that construct conflicting understandings of their identities and their needs (Hardy and Phillips, 1998). Foucauldian studies also demonstrate how discourses and their associated power relations are specific to particular historical junctures. At different points in history there have been radically different ways of talking about, constructing and engendering relations of power around the same phenomena. In order to trace out these historical junctures and shifts in discourses, researchers in organisation studies have drawn on Foucault’s genealogical method. This approach allows researchers to examine the discursive frameworks that emerge and allow actors to speak, construct, and act upon the world in a particular way. In order to surface these shifts, genealogical studies have looked for breaks in discourse, involving the disappearance of one set of discourse and their associated subjects, and the simultaneous appearance of new systems of language and their associated subjects. Roy Jacques (1996) produced an instructive genealogical study of shifts in discourse and power relations, examining the rise of management discourse in early twentieth century North America. He traced how the emergence of management discourse was

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accompanied by the corresponding appearance of a subject specific to this discourse: the professional manager. Similarly, accounting historians influenced by Foucault (e.g. Hoskins and Macve, 1986; Bahamni, 1994) have traced out how the appearance of double entry book-keeping as a wide-spread discursive technology during the early twentieth century and the associated rise of large corporations. They show how the rise of accounting discourse led to the appearance of a new subject position - the calculable and calculating ‘economic man’. Finally, historians of personnel management (e.g. Hollway, 1991) and human resource management (e.g. Townley, 1994) have charted how the rise of technologies like employee management involved the creation of new subject positions for workers. Crucially, in each of these genealogical studies, shifts in discourses tend to be related to shifts in the socio-cultural power relations and subject positions. Therefore, a study of discourse in an organised setting must ask when a particular discourse and power relations appeared, and what system of discourse and power relations preceded it.

Critiques Foucauldian studies provide a body of research that looks at how a wide range of discourses (usually quasi-scientific in nature) construct and maintain power relations through the production of subject positions. Like the positions that we have covered thus far, it has not been immune to critiques. The focus on power, discourse, and subjectivity has led some critics to accuse Foucauldian approaches of the reducing all relations of power to the construction of subject positions. For instance, in their polemic targeted against Foucauldian influenced studies of the labour process, Thompson and Ackroyd (1995) highlighted that the concentration on subjectivity as the sole locus of control means that “in these studies workers are not disciplined by the market, or sanctions actually or potentially invoked by capital, but by their own identity and subjectivity” (p.627). According to this critique, a strictly Foucauldian position restricts an analysis of how power manifests at the level of subjectivity. Hence, many of the complex and multifarious relations of power at work around organisations are ignored.

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This leads to the second major critique targeted at Foucauldian discourse analysis – that it does not account for issues of social structure. That is, by largely dealing with how discourses establish located relations of power through meaning, discourse analysis excludes an analysis of the social structures: Foucauldian discourse analysis is largely restricted to a tactical and localised view of power, as constituted and expressed through situational-specific ‘negotiated orders’, which seriously underestimates the structural reality or more permanent and hierarchal power relations. It finds it difficult, if not impossible, to deal with institutionalized stabilities and continuities in power relations because it cannot get at the higher levels of social organization in which micro-level processes and practices are embedded (Reed, 2000: 526-527)

These institutional stabilities may include market relations, the power of the state, relations like colonialism, kinship and patriarchy. Reed (1998:210) understands these “generative properties” as “mak(ing) social practices and forms – such as discursive formations – what they are and equip(ing) them with what they do”. The inability of discourse analysis to examine structures, such as capitalism, means some basic forms of power in organisation remain un-investigated. Focusing solely on discourse within organisation and the workplace leads to a situation where pertinent relations that do not enter into discourse are taken to not exist. Discursive analysis often overlooks social structures, such as class and the state that have become so ‘reified’ in social and mental worlds that they are ‘disappeared’. The third critique routinely mobilised against Foucauldian discourse analysis is that they leave little room for an account of how dominant discourses and the power relations they engender are resisted. According to critics, Foucauldian approaches are trapped in a kind of linguistic determinism whereby discourses necessarily have unmediated causal effect upon socio-cultural power relations which “encourages the removal of workers from the academic gaze and the distinction between intent and outcome of managerial strategy and practice is lost” (Thompson and Ackroyd, 1995: 629). Foucauldian approaches make it “hard to get a sense of how active agential selves ‘make a difference’ through ‘playing’ with discursive practices” (Newton, 1998: 425-6). Discourse analysis down-plays the

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issue of agency by approaching it as simply an effect of discourse, limiting the ability to explain how discourses are actively used (see also: Fouriner and Grey, 1998; Newton, 1999; Gabriel, 1999).

Critical Discourse Analysis A number of scholars working in the constructivist tradition have adapted Foucault’s approach in order to overcome the twin problems of discursive determinism and the myopic focus on the construction of subject positions. In particular they have sought to develop more located and contextualised studies of discourse that recognise discourses are linked to material aspects and involve a series of active uses. This has led to critical discourse analysis broadening its scope of analysis to the relations between discourses, the active use of such discourses, and the socio-cultural power relations they engender (Fairclough, 1992). These linguistic processes are seen to be a central dynamic in the reproduction of power relations in a number of fields of social life: It is an important characteristic of economic, social and cultural changes of late modernity that they exist as discourses as well as processes that are taking place outside discourse, and that the processes taking place outside discourse are substantively shared by discourse. (Chouliaraki and Fairclough, 1999: 4).

Critical discourse analysis has examined the whole gambit of linguistic practices from conversations, such as patient interactions (Wodak, 1996), institutional discourses like enterprise culture in universities (Fairclough, 1995), and mass-produced discourses like racism in the news media (Van Dijk, 1991). Norman Fairclough (1989, 1992, 1995) has developed an integrative theoretical framework that simultaneously addresses discourse, action and power in social life. He argued that discourse works on three interconnecting levels. The first level is the linguistic text itself that may be either spoken or written. This is largely the focus of semiotic studies of discourse. Examples of texts include reports, manuals, books, conversations, or interviews. The second level is the discursive practice that includes processes of production, interpretation, and circulation of a particular text. Examples of this second level include how a particular text is mobilised, appropriated and used. The

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final level is the socio-cultural practices associated with discourse. This level looks at how a text and its production, distribution, and circulation is linked with larger relations of power. Examples of this third level of discourse include a consideration of the social effects of discourse, and how they are shaped by the social context in which they are mobilised (see figure 3.2).

Text

Discursive practice Socio-cultural practice

(Adapted from Fairclough, 1995:98) Figure 3.2: A map of critical discourse analysis Critical discourse analysis therefore shows how linguistic practices not only describe the social world but also actively construct this social world in an interested fashion. An investigation of the dynamics of texts, their uses, and wider social effects allows a more systematic analysis of the intertwined dynamics of language and power in social life. This approach adds to the analysis of discourses and the power relations central to a Foucauldian approach by introducing a mediating level of analysis called ‘discursive action’. This level of analysis allows the analyst to examine how discourses are actively deployed, used, and resisted by various organisational participants. Critical Discourse Analysis also differs from a strictly Foucauldian approach in that it does not understand power relations as only expressed through the construction of subject positions. Instead, a wide range of objects and subjects are constructed through discourse. Moreover, critical 93

discourse analysis always recognises that discourses are mobilised in a particular context that may include non-discursive relations of power (Van Dijk, 2001). Such a far-reaching framework that brings together texts, their uses, and relations of power allows for a more nuanced analysis of the dynamics of powerful discourses in social and organisational life.

Critical Discourse Analysis in Organisation Studies Critical discourse analysis has influenced an approach to language in organisational life that avoids the discursive determinism and narrow focus on the construction of subjectivity ascribed to Foucauldian approaches. While not all of the work I will review here explicitly refers to the analytical framework of Norman Fairclough, they do all comply with the central themes of critical discourse analysis - namely an examination of a particular set of texts that are used by social actors in order to construct varying relations of power. Grant et al. (1998) have indicated the possible breadth of discourse analysis by arguing for “the significance of discourse in constructing, situating, facilitating and communicating the diverse cultural, institutional, political and socio-economic parameters of ‘organizational being’” (p.12). This has allowed critical discourse analysis to add to the broad corpus of studies that examines the construction of subjectivity. It has done so by investigating a range of other levels at which socio-cultural power relations are produced. This has resulted in the investigation of discourses at the interpersonal level such as professional-manager interaction (Rudd, 2000) and relations between top executives (Ng and de Cock, 2002). There is a substantial body of research which investigates the role of discourse in constructing objects and processes at the organisational level, such as workplace equity policies (Garnsey and Rees, 1996; Dick and Cassell, 2001), total quality management (Rosenthal et al, 1997; Rees, 2001), consumer care programmes (Sturdy, 1998), enterprise culture (Fournier, 1998), employee empowerment programmes (Collins, 1999; Dunford and Palmer, 2002), implementation of new technology (Swanston and Ramiller, 1997; Hayes and Walshman, 2000), organisational change processes (O’Connor, 1995; Morgan and Sturdy, 2000), and strategy making (Araujo and Easton, 1996; Barry and Elmes, 1997). There are also a

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growing number of studies that have looked at the mobilisation of discourse at the interorganisational level such as mergers and acquisitions (Vaara, 2002; Vaara and Tienari, 2002), industrial relations process (Selsky et al, 2003), and inter-organisational relations around stakeholders (Hardy, 1994; Hardy and Phillips, 1998). Finally there has been some research at the environmental level looking at the construction of the natural environment (Welcomer et al, 2000). We see that critical discourse analysis examines the construction of socio-cultural power relations at a range of levels from the subject to the environment. As well as extending the study of discourse from subjectification, critical discourse analysis also allows us to development an account of processes of how discourses are produced, circulated and consumed. This has led to a number of empirical analyses that show how subjects in a variety of contexts actively use discourses. In studies on the reception of Total Quality Management discourse, researchers show how many employees were not directly co-opted by the discourse. Instead, they actively used the dominant discourse as a tool in their struggles with management (Rosenthal et al, 1997). In other cases Total Quality Management discourse was co-opted by the professions in order to advance their interests (Jackson, 1995). Other research shows how some university graduates resisted enterprise and ‘new career’ discourse by drawing on a more militant register (Fournier, 1998). Similarly, the dominant discourse of ‘new higher education’ in a British university was mitigated as academic workers read and consumed this discourse (Trowler, 2001). The common insight in each of these studies is that discourses are actively deployed and used by organisational actors in surprising ways, that at times move against the authors intentions. In particular, these studies have attempted to highlight how the active use of discourses may in fact mitigate or reconstruct many of the power relations engendered by discourse. This enables actors to make dominant discourses habitable through active and creative uses (de Certeau, 1984; Fleming and Sewell, 2002). Therefore, a central part of understanding discourse involves looking at the various processes of discursive action that actors engage in.

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Critiques Critical discourse analysis represents an important addition to Foucaldian approaches. It responds satisfactorily to at least two of the three major critiques of critical discourse analysis – it provides an analysis of socio-cultural relations of power that extends beyond subjectivity, and it accounts for the active use of discourse. However, it is still partially open to the third major critique typically targeted at Foucauldian approaches – namely, the inability to account for social structures (Reed, 2000). Critical discourse analysis does attempt to address this third critique by arguing that any analysis of discourse must be sensitive to social structural ‘context’ (Fairclough, 1995; Van Dijk, 2001). This is a laudable step. However, when considering ‘context’ in actual discourse analyses it is often examined in broad, over-simplified, and under-specified manners: (I)n much Critical Discourse Analysis work, a priori statements on power relations are used as perspectives on discourse (e.g. ‘power is bad’, ‘politicians are manipulators’, ‘media are ideology reproducing machines’), and social-theoretical concepts and categories are being used in off-hand and seemingly self-evident ways (e.g. ‘power’, institutions’, also ‘the leading groups in society’, ‘business’, and so on). This leads to highly simplified models of social structure and patterns of action – politicians always and intentionally manipulate their constituencies, doctors are by definition and always the powerful part in doctor-patient relations, etc – which are then project on to discourse samples. Power relations are often pre-defined and then confirmed by features of discourse (Blommaert, 2001:15).

Most critical discourse analysts are not too shy to mobilise broad contexts such as ‘multinational capitalism’, ‘post industrialism’ or ‘globalisation’. These hasty contextualisations of discourse miss the analysis of the specifics of a context. This haphazard approach incorrectly assumes that a context like ‘globalisation’ consists of a relatively well-understood set of social trends that are the same regardless of the specific research site. This means critical discourse analysis can often repose upon hasty sketches of social structural ‘contexts’ and avoid asking more complex questions of how this context works or how it is intertwined with social construction processes in the organisation.

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Summary To conclude this section, we can see how the ‘linguistic turn’ in social sciences has involved the expansion of approaches to discourse. Initial attempts to scrutinise organisational discourse examined how discourse in organisations is underpinned by four master-tropes. While this produced a body of work detailing the importance of language in organisational life, it also relied on the assumption that all discourses are underpinned by a universal series of tropes. In order to counter this, researchers drew on semiological approaches that sought to surface the unique semiotic codes underpinning discourses. Here, semiotic studies relied on a metaphysics of depth and rendered themselves unable to account for the ambiguity and change within discourse. To account for these problems, those studying organisational discourse drew on deconstructive approaches to organisation that was particularly sensitive to the slippery nature of discourse. In practice, these deconstructive studies of organisation have been limited largely to analyses of (quasi) academic texts within organisation and management studies. This left them unable to speak about the organisational power relations they were implicated with. To overcome this problem, researchers have drawn upon the work of Michel Foucault and his account of power/knowledge/subject relations. This has proved particularly useful for studying how organisational texts construct socio-cultural relations of power that are expressed in subject positions. While this work certainly provides an excellent basis for a comprehensive approach to discourse, it does not provide an adequate account of how people actually use discourses; it tends to only analyse socio-political power relations in terms of subject positions, ignoring social structures. I have argued that Fairclough’s (1995) model of critical discourse analysis provides a framework with which to address these shortcomings in a Foucauldian approach. First, it adds an analysis of discursive action to the analyses of texts and socio-cultural power relations. Second, it expands the kinds of socio-cultural power relations we can consider from the construction of subject positions to a range of subjects and objects. Finally, critical discourse analysis attempts to identify the social structural contexts that discourse operates within. As we can see from this review, Critical Discourse Analysis provides an integrated approach which incorporates the central concerns for understanding how texts construct

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meaning (the concern of tropology, semiology and deconstruction), together with the concern for the relationship between text and power (the concern of Foucauldian work) and adds an analysis of discursive action. This means critical discourse analysis provides an understanding of discourse that examines various organisational texts, how they are used by various organisational actors, and details a wide variety of arising socio-cultural power-relations. Now that I have laid down what it means to approach discourse from a critical perspective I shall return to the specific discourse of globalisation.

Studies of Globalisation Discourse Following the tradition of critical discourse analysis in organisation studies, globalisation should not be examined as a more or less accurate representation of social life. Rather, globalisation should be approached as a language that constructs the very phenomena it purports to describe. Critical discourse analysis would see globalisation as a language contained in texts that is actively used and struggled against by various actors in order to construct a particular version of the social world. Following Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis, the focus of an inquiry into globalisation discourse would be the text, the discursive practices associated with the circulation of the text, and the sociocultural relations of power this engenders. In what follows I shall examine the small but growing literature on globalisation discourse. I shall ask which texts globalisation literature appears in, which actors have mobilised globalisation discourse, and which socio-cultural relations of power globalisation discourse constructs. This will help me to adapt Fairclough’s approach to the discourse of globalisation.

Texts Globalisation discourse appears within a wide range of texts. It initially emerged within social scientific texts (Gibson-Graham, 1996; Cameron and Palan, 1999), including Anthony Giddens’ Reith lectures (Hay and Watson, 1999), theories of international relations (Weldes, 2001), and the geo-economic theories that influenced the United States government (Ó Tuathail and Luke, 1994; Ó Tuathail, 1996; Leyshon, 1997). Others have looked at how globalisation discourse appeared within national government policy texts such as policy speeches of New Labour in England (Fairclough, 2000: viii), political

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discourse espoused by Argentine politicians (Pardo, 2001), political pronouncements in the press by Korean politicians (Kang, 2000), Canadian cultural policy (Armstrong, 2000), and regional planning discourses in Belgium (Swegendouw, 1996), and broader Europe (Brenner, 1999). Finally, there is a small but growing group of studies that have detailed the integral role of globalisation discourse in texts within organisations. Globalisation discourse has also been observed in strategy making and public reporting during restructuring in a telecommunications organisation (Larner, 1998a, 1998b), a geographic re-organisation in pharmaceutical production (Zeller, 2000), and a merger between a French and North American advertising agency (Applebaum, 1999). Texts produced during labour struggles have been examined, including a strike at a farm machinery company (Crump and Merrett, 1998), and labour struggles by longshoremen (dockers) in the United States (Herod, 1997a, 1997b). Others have detailed the interrelationship between government policy texts and organisational texts, such as in a government-industry call-centre initiative in New Zealand (Larner, 2001; Larner and Le Heron 2002a, Larner and Le Heron, 2002b), and the speeches and media coverage of senior government representatives and corporate leaders involved in restructuring the Canadian banking sector (Tickell, 2000). This growing body of studies indicates the range of texts encompassing globalisation discourse. At the organisational level there are three broad types of texts where globalisation discourse has been located: in official documents such as strategic statements and reports; in representations produced during labour conflicts such as media coverage; and, joint organisational–state produced policies and statements. Some of these studies have highlighted that globalisation only recently appeared as an important signifier. When it did emerge, it largely replaced previously pervasive discourses such as those associated with the nation state. For instance, Brenner’s (1999) study showed how the discourse of the ‘global market’ has increasingly replaced the ‘nation’ in state policy texts. Similarly, Larner (1998a) examined how the discourse of the ‘welfare state’ has been replaced by discourses of ‘global competitiveness’ in the reports and strategy texts of a telecommunications company. This suggests that globalisation discourse is not essentially connected to the state of things. Instead, it is a historically contingent system

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of signification (Cameron and Palan, 1999). Therefore, in order to study the textual aspect of globalisation discourse it is necessary to ask when this discourse arose and what other discourses it replaced.

Discursive Action Research investigating globalisation discourse has aimed to demonstrate that globalisation is not a spectral myth that transformed all aspects of human life when it appeared without any apparent human intervention. In order to do this, researchers have documented the social actors who have actively mobilised globalisation discourse, and the specific ways they have done so. One central group of social actors that have advanced discourses of globalisation are intellectuals like social scientists (Hay and Waston, 1999) and members of the policy-advice network such as think-tanks in Washington (Ó Tuathail and Luke, 1994). State actors who have played a role in advancing globalisation discourse include political leaders (Kang, 2000; Fairclough, 2000; Pardo, 2001; Watson and Hay, 2003), as well as the government departments who are responsible for producing policy (Armstrong, 2000; Swegendouw, 1996; Rosamond, 1999). Business actors such as senior managers have also played a role in propagating globalisation discourse (Applbaum, 1999; Zeller, 2000). Finally, business leaders, policy makers and political leaders have worked jointly to promote discourses of globalisation (Tickell, 2000; Larner, 2001). This suggests that the major proponents of globalisation discourse tend to be relatively elite groups such as intellectuals, government officials, and senior managers of organisations who at some point in time may advance the discourse co-operatively. Many studies assume globalisation discourse rapidly became dominant without any real process of struggle. While a growing field of studies has examined various processes of resisting globalisation per se (e.g. Mittleman, 2000; Gills, 2000; Waterman, 2001), only a small group of studies has investigated how globalisation discourse is resisted. The bulk of these studies have focused on struggles between the senior management of organisations (who have driven restructuring efforts by mobilising globalisation discourses) and labour unions (who have resisted restructuring by rejecting these

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discourses). For instance, Crump and Merrett (1998) documented how unions drew upon nationally based union discourses as well as community-based discourses in order to resist the restructuring of a farm machinery company and factory closures. Similarly, Zeller (2000) found that employee unions used discourses associated with social rights embedded in the nation state to struggle against the global re-location of research and manufacturing facilitates in the pharmaceuticals industry. Finally, Herod (2001) examined how labour struggles involve a number of different strategies of resisting globalisation. An example he gives is how previously divided longshoremen on the East Coast of the United States drew on national discourses and how workers within an aluminium plant, drew on discourses of international solidarity in their struggle against globalisation discourses. Each of these studies shows that globalisation discourses can be contested, that one of the main agents of contest are labour unions, and that discourses associated with the national state were often used in such processes of contestation.

Socio-Cultural Power Pronouncements about globalisation advanced by senior managers, academics, and representatives of the state, and contested by unions, are not innocent ways of representing the social world. They are linked to potent relations of socio-cultural power. Globalisation discourse plays an important role in ordering our understandings of the social world that actors operate within (e.g. Dirlik, 1997; Cameron and Palan, 1999; Weldes, 2001). Some have argued that one of the major power effects on globalisation is this process of ordering the social world (Hay and Watson, 2000). We must now ask which aspects of the social world that globalisation discourse ‘orders’ in the process of constructing socio-cultural relations of power. The first socio-cultural power relation bound up with globalisation discourse is the ordering of space. This argument has been made by a group of geographers who have drawn on Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) argument that global capitalism should be treated as a ‘spatial scale’ of accumulation. Broadly, a spatial scale is the geographic level that social life is seen to operate within (Smith, 2000). Spatial scales may include the body, the household, the neighbourhood, the city, the urban, the national, the regional, and the

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global. These spatial scales of accumulation are produced by spatial practice, representations of space, and imaginations of space (Lefebvre, 1991: 1-68). Focusing particularly on representations of spatial scales, geographic studies of globalisation discourses have documented the shift from the nation to the globe as the dominant space in which economic activity occurs. Some studies have documented how this re-scaling occurred during the reconstruction of urban economies. Smith (1993), for instance, showed how the gentrification of New York City involved the reconstruction and sorting of geographic scales as the city was positioned in a global scale of accumulation. Other research has demonstrated how globalisation discourse mobilised in planning processes in Belgium reconstructed the spatial scale within which the economy was understood (Swegendouw, 1996, 2000). This research demonstrated how the closure of the mines in Belgium involved a palpable shift in the scale of economic development away from the Belgian nation state towards local and global scales. The reconstruction of spatial scales of economic development has also been documented in the restructuring of a pharmaceutical company (Zeller, 2000), development projects such as dam construction in the Philippines (Kelly, 1997, 1999, 2000), and the restructuring of work relations in the farm machinery business (Crump and Merrett, 1998), and on the waterfront (Herod, 2001). Neil Brenner (1997, 1998 a, 1998 b, 1999, 2001) demonstrated how the process of rescaling driven by globalisation discourse does not simply involve the abandonment of the national scale in favour of a global scale of operation. Instead it involves a transformation of the multiple scales in which development is understood. For Brenner, the social and discursive reproduction of scale has been central to the reconstruction of economic life. Within each of these studies discourse plays an important role in the construction and reconstruction of the different spatial scales in which economic activity is positioned. The second major socio-cultural power relation constructed by globalisation discourse involves the groups consider in decision-making. I will call these groups ‘stakeholders’. Globalisation discourse re-orders which groups an actor should take into account in decision-making. For instance, when globalisation appeared in international relations

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policy it involved the re-construction of which foreign powers were considered allies and which powers were to be considered strategic threats (Ó Tuathail and Luke, 1994, Leyshon, 1997). A study of how globalisation discourse was used among marketing executives in three large transnational consumer goods companies showed that discourse of globalisation led executives to construct customers in a very specific way (Applbaum, 2000). When globalisation discourse was mobilised, nationally differentiated consumers were understood as desiring globally standardised goods. Larner’s research on the introduction of a national call centre initiative focusing on financial services revealed a similar process. This illustrated how globalisation discourse reconstructed the most important stakeholders as international competitors understood through the technology of benchmarking, users of banking services were reconstructed as consumers, and employees in call centres were reconstructed as entrepreneurial bankers (Larner and LeHeron, 2002). In each of these studies, globalisation discourse constructs the stakeholders that particular social actors should be mindful of, and which groups should be excluded from considerations. This establishes socio-cultural relations by shaping how a given organisation will perceive the social actors they encounter. The final form of socio-cultural power involved with globalisation discourse is the construction of the legitimate roles of particular social actors. Research has shown that one of the most profound effects of the language of globalisation has been that it shapes what is seen as the legitimate role for social actors like the state and public organisations. Du Gay (2000), for instance, argued that representations of the national economy found in the discourse of globalisation constructed the legitimate role of the state as the achievement of national efficiency through neo-liberal mechanisms. Similarly, Cameron and Palan (1999) detailed how globalisation discourse constructs the legitimate role state actors play in different spheres such as the economy (legislating for a globally competitive free market) and social welfare (cleaning up the ‘un-intended consequences’ of global capital). Similarly, Larner (1998a, 1999b) showed how the rise of globalisation discourse in the New Zealand telecommunications industry was related to a transformation in the legitimate role of the organisation away from developing a ‘socialpartnership’ towards developing ‘individuals’ in ‘enterprising culture’ which is

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competitive with an ‘internationalised / globalised’ economy. Finally, Tickell’s (2000) work on the Canadian banking sector shows how globalisation discourse reconstructed the legitimate role of banks in Canada as developing globally competitiveness by increasing the size of enterprises through mergers. In each of these cases, globalisation was bound up with the reconstruction of the legitimate role of a particular social actor. To summarize this section, when various actors speak of the forces of globalisation, they are not merely using a convenient signifier to describe changes that are happening ‘out there’ in the social world. Rather, the language of globalisation is absolutely central to bringing into being the world that it purports to describe. Globalisation as a discourse appears in a range of texts, including political speeches, policy, government and company reports, and publicity. These texts are typically mobilised by relatively powerful social actors such as senior academics, analysts in think-tanks, politicians, government policy makers, and senior managers. These texts are also contested and opposed by groups, in particular the trade union movement. The socio-cultural power effects the discourse of globalisation has been typically linked to include the construction of social space, stakeholders, and legitimate roles. An analysis of globalisation would therefore take each of these processes into account.

Theoretical Framework and Questions Approaching globalisation as a discourse opens up a disparate and as yet underdeveloped approach to understanding globalisation processes. By drawing on discourse analysis, it becomes possible to examine how talk about globalisation actively constructs a social world implicated with relations of power. This ‘third wave’ (Hay and Marsh, 2000) of globalisation research explains how globalised social structure (described by first wave theorists of globalisation) and the multitude of localised adaptations (described by second wave theorists of globalisation) are actively bought together and produced in the very language of globalisation. In order to provide this account, the small but growing group of empirical studies within this tradition have demonstrated: how globalisation appears in a number of texts including public policy, social sciences and organisation strategy; how these texts are mobilised by powerful actors such as intellectuals,

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government representatives, and senior managers, as well as how the discourses were resisted; and, how processes of mobilising texts resulted in socio-cultural relations such as the construction of space, stakeholders and legitimate roles.

An examination of

globalisation discourse in an organisational context involves looking at the relationship between texts that may constitute globalisation discourse, discursive practices through which these texts are produced, consumed and circulated, and socio-cultural practices that have constructive effects on the legitimate role of the organisation, its stakeholders, and its social space (see figure 3.3).

Text

Discursive Practice Socio-cultural Practice

Social Space

Stakeholders

E.g. Reports, Policy, Speeches, Publicity

E.g. Production, distribution, consumption of texts by Intellectuals, Senior Managers, Government Reps, Unions

Legitimate Roles

Figure 3.3: A model of globalisation discourse

As I have already argued, treating globalisation as a discourse involves rejecting the assumption that globalisation talk is a more or less accurate reflection of a set of processes that stretch the intensity and extensity of social relations (Held et al, 1999). Rather, I explore the discourse of globalisation in order to examine how it brings into being a social world that it purports to describe. This investigates socio-cultural power relations in the form of the construction of the legitimate role for the organisation, its

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stakeholders, and the social space in which it operates. Following this, the first set of questions I ask are: Do globalisation discourses appear in organisations? How did each discourse that appeared construct the space, stakeholders and legitimate role of the organisation?

In keeping with Foucault’s views of the historically contingent nature of discourse, examining globalisation involves asking at what point it emerged, what powerful discourses preceded it, and looking for the corresponding shifts in relations of power, and constructions of objects. The second set of questions I therefore ask are: How have these discourses changed? How do these reconstruct the space and legitimate role of the organisation?

Finally, examining a discourse like globalisation in an organised setting involves asking how dominant discourses and power relations are used, negotiated and resisted by actors. Therefore, in order to study a particular discourse it is necessary to look at how these discourses are engaged with, and struggled against, and what alternative discourses may have been mobilised. The third question I therefore ask is: How is the currently dominant discourse resisted by particular groups?

The next chapter will chart out a method for answering these questions and introduce the specific organisational context in which I shall target my investigation.

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IV Methodology Introduction In order to study the organisational aspects of globalisation, researchers have drawn upon well-established social scientific methods. First wave studies have mobilised institutional and statistical analyses to chart the effect of changes in social structures, like the economy, the political system, and culture. Second wave studies have used ethnographic and case study methods to examine how structural processes associated with globalisation have been negotiated in particular locales. Instead of following these approaches I want to investigate the linguistic dynamics of globalisation by asking: 1. Did globalisation discourse appear in an organisations discourse? 2. How did the discourses that did appear construct the space, stakeholders and legitimate role of the organisation? 3. How have these discourses changed? 4. How do they reconstruct the space and legitimate role of the organisation? 5. How have particular groups resisted current dominant discourse? These questions require a method that can address the appearance, function and active use of the language of globalisation. This chapter will argue that discourse analysis provides an appropriate method to accomplish such a task. I begin this chapter by defining the basic components of an analysis of discourse. To understand how these elements function, it is necessary to develop a multi-dimensional analysis of discourse. Next, I turn to the research setting which is an Australian public service broadcaster called the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). This apparently national organisation has mobilised the language associated with globalisation. Drawing on the methodology of discourse analysis, I identify the specific types of data gathered, and the procedures to analyse this data.

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Discourse Analysis The methodological approach taken in this thesis must be attuned to how language works in a social context and understand: the constructive affects of a discourse like globalisation; how this discourse arose; and, how it has been resisted. In the previous chapter, I argued that theories of discourse allow us to understand the linguistic dynamics of globalisation. Discourse analysis allows an investigation of the linguistic aspects of the social construction processes (Phillips and Hardy, 2002). There is now a growing body of methodological texts on the discourse analysis (Foucault, 1972; Potter and Whetherall, 1987; Van Dijk, 1997a; Wood and Kroger, 2000; Whetherall et al, 2002; Phillips and Hardy, 2002). While the definition of what constitutes a discourse varies subtly between each of these methodological prescriptions, all perceive discourses as a set of systematically related texts (Foucault, 1972). These form an ‘interpretive repertoire’ draw upon by actors within particular situations who attempt to render the social world as a knowable and sensible entity (Potter and Wetherell, 1987). These two common factors can be seen in Halliday’s definition of discourse as “the configuration of semantic resources that the members of a culture typically associate with a situation type” (Halliday, 1978:11). In order to provide a more systematic framework for understanding texts, the relationship between them, and the social construction processes involved, Fairclough (1992) and Van Dijk (1997) identified three aspects of a systematic analysis of discourse. As discussed in the previous chapter, the first level of discourse analysis examines specific texts, the second level looks at how these texts are used by actors, and the final level investigates the broader relations of power engendered by texts and the actors who use these texts. Each level of analysis has different aims, different units of analysis, and involves different data collection procedures. I shall briefly summarise these three different levels of discourse analysis and associated methodological (see Figure 4.1). The first level investigates the verbal structure (Van Dijk, 1997) or texts (Fairclough, 1992) that form the basic units of a specific discourse. Typically a text is treated as a unit of speech or writing. However, the definition of what constitutes a text has been 108

broadened recently. Parker (1992), for instance, defines texts in a deliberately broad fashion as “delimited tissues of meaning reproduced in any form that can be given an interpretive gloss” (p.6: emphasis in original). According to this definition, discourse analysis could examine any object or phenomena that may be interpreted (see also: Hodge and Kress, 1988). Texts that may be examined by discourse analysis include all forms of speech (monologue, dialogue), all forms of written texts (literature, newspapers and magazines, manuals and corporate strategy), visual texts (painting, posters and advertising, film and television), spatial texts (architecture, sculpture, cities), and performance (drama, dance). Similarly Phillips and Brown (1993) indicated that these texts could include “documents of various kinds, speeches, stories, ceremonies, architecture, press releases, advertising, and corporate sponsorship activities” (p.1548). Indeed the range of texts that may be considered is so broad that “any activity or object that affects the network of symbols through which a group or individual understand an organisation and its place in the world is of interest” (p.1548). Dimensions of discourse

Text

Discursive practice Socio-cultural

Dimensions of analysis

Object of analysis

Descriptive analysis

Text

Interpretation

Use of texts

Explanation

Construct Relations of power

practice

(adapted from Fairclough, 1995:98) Figure 4.1: Aspects of discourse analysis at the level of organisations

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Discourse analysis looks at how meaning arises from systematic relations between a series of texts. This is because “a discourse exists beyond the texts which compose it” (Chalaby, 1996:689). A discourse is therefore the product of relations between a particular text and what is called a ‘class of texts’. This ‘class of texts’ refers to the “unique, specific and limited object; to classes of texts produced by real agents in concrete and specific socio-historical conditions” (Chalaby, 1996:696). This definition highlights a number of important aspects of discourse. First, to analyse discourse involves looking at how texts are related to one another, and how this relation forms a ‘class of texts’. This involves identifying systematic chains of meaning in a given context. Such an analysis would ask what specific words or other items of meaning appear, how these are systematically related to other items of meanings, and what kinds of constellations, or ‘classes of texts’ these systematic relationships form. The method employed to examine the systematic relations between given texts is what Fairclough (1992, 1995) calls a descriptive analysis. The second level of discourse analysis looks at discourse as a monologue or dialogue involving a number of identifiable speakers. This involves approaching discourses as an action (Fairclough, 1992) or interaction (Van Dijk, 1997). This approach attempts to understand how discourse is a “social action accomplished by users when they communicate with each other in social situations and within society and culture at large” (Van Dijk, 1997: 14 emphasis author’s own). Similarly, Chalaby points out that ‘real agents’ in particular socio-historical contexts actively use constellations of text. Consequently, an analysis of discourse requires the specification of the historical context that a given class of texts appear in and the way this class of texts is actually used by particular actors in a given context. This discourse analysis examines sets of inter-related texts that are used by actors in contextually located processes of social construction. It investigates the ways actual speakers used discourse by analysing identifiable speech acts like monologues, dialogues, or specific types of published matter. This kind of analysis would ask what specific constellation of texts are mobilised, how are they mobilised, and which actors use these texts to communicate. This allows us to describe who is speaking, in what context, and to whom.

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The third level of discourse analysis investigates the role of discourse in reproducing broader social and cultural power relations. Rabinow (1986) argued that discourse is a ‘social fact’, an observable and influential aspect of social life. This suggests discourse analysis not only involves examining which sets of texts are mobilised by which actors, but also the effects of discourse. Central to any analysis is an examination of the construction of the social world and relations of power this engenders. Such an analysis focuses on a particular type of power relations: how a discourse renders a social phenomenon knowable, and consequently marginalising other ways of talking about and understanding this phenomenon. Discourse analysts examine how a given discourse constructs subject positions, organisational processes, space, and legitimate roles for the organisation. They aim to link this discourse to the various social phenomena that are constructed. This enables us to identify the ways of representing phenomena that are and are not able to appear. Finally, from the constructions of a phenomenon that does appear, it is possible to detail the power relations that are engendered. The tripartite analysis of texts, mobilisation and relations of power makes critical discourse analysis an appropriate method for answering the research questions set out at the beginning of this chapter. The focus on texts and socio-cultural power relations allows me to investigate my first four research questions: which discourses arose in a particular organisation and what power relations they engender, and how these discourses and power relations changed. The focus on discursive action allows me to investigate my final research question: how dominant discourses were challenged. Following critical discourse analysis I will investigating three types of data – the specific instance of discourse as manifested in the text, the active use of these texts in a given context, and the relations of power that these discourses construct. In order to analyse these three types of data I will use three parallel interpretive methods – textual analysis, an analysis of discursive action, and an analysis of broader socio-cultural structures. These three analyses are brought together in order to understand the systematic interrelationship between texts, the way they are systematically mobilised in a given contexts, 111

and how they reconstruct power relations. Mobilising the three aspects of discourse to study globalisation in an organisational context would involve looking at the specific texts globalisation discourse appears in, how this discourse is mobilised in a particular context and the broader socio-cultural relations of power this discourse engenders.

Empirical Setting This study focuses on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia’s largest public broadcaster. Other studies have noted the widespread use of the language of globalisation in the public sector organisations (e.g. Larner, 1998a) and public broadcasters in particular (e.g. Tracey, 1998). This makes the ABC an appropriate site for studying the discourse of globalisation. To demonstrate I shall review studies of public broadcasting that have pointed to the impact of globalisation. I will then briefly outline the history of the ABC, culminating in a description of the current state of the organisation. This provides a background for the data I have gathered.

Public Broadcasting In order to analyse the linguistic aspects of globalisation I have chosen an organisation that would not be judged as particularly global under ‘structural’ measures typically mobilised by first and second wave studies of globalisation. According to these measures global organisations target customers across boarders, have international competitors, operate in an internationally regulated environment, and rely on international inputs into production processes. Using such a definition, most public organisations would be considered firmly national in scope. Nonetheless, public sector organisations mobilise the language of globalisation. This provides an opportunity to investigate the particularly discursive aspects of globalisation. The language of globalisation seems to be at least as important, if not more important than, any ‘actual’ forces associated with globalisation. The language of globalisation and the market have become particularly predominant in public broadcasters. Küng-Shankelman’s (2000) ethnographic study of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) shows that this apparently nationally based organisation has used discourses in policy and planning that contextualises it within the global market.

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The explosion of the language of the global market is evident in other studies of the changing nature of public broadcasters around the world. Etzoni-Halvey (1987) charted the rise of neo-liberal thinking and policy making within four public broadcasters. In each of the four public broadcasters she found a move away from an ethos typically associated with a public service bureaucracy towards a market oriented ethos. In a more recent study of public service broadcasting, Tracey (1998) charted the ‘decline and fall’ of the public broadcasting ethos. The assumption that the international market was the central context the broadcaster must operate within was a central part of the massive transformation of public broadcasters. This resulted in a shift in the emphasis of public broadcasting away from the national public sphere towards servicing the international market. Such a shift represents a significant threat to the tradition of public broadcasters as institutions that service the nation. A central aspect of this radical change in public broadcasting identified by Tracey was the mobilisation of the language of globalisation in a way that necessitates the restructuring of public broadcasters. This became particularly potent as the language of globalisation mixed with the language of neo-liberalism and the increasing domination of the market. The rise of globalisation discourse represented a fundamental re-ordering of the very horizons national broadcasters operated within. This happened as the focus of national broadcasting shifted away from national service towards a focus on the ubiquitous global market. These changes are particularly clear in the Australian context. In his history of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Ken Inglis (1983) meticulously charts the decline of the public service ethic and the subsequent rise of a more business focused practices. This involved budgets cuts, restructuring, and continued government pressure for the organisation to become more business focused. The spread of neo-liberal injunctions in the ABC meant the organisation began to talk about its operations in relation to the market, not the public (Williams, 1996). Changes in policy at the ABC during the process of corporatisation represented a change in the structure and strategy of the organisation as well as change in the very language used to understand the organisation and the context in which it operates (Jacka et al, 1997). The language of market at the ABC rapidly replaced the language of public service. This shift in the language has been associated

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with the re-structuring of public broadcasters throughout the world. For these reasons, the ABC appears to be a particularly appropriate site in which to examine the functioning of the discourses of globalisation and the effects these discourses have on an organisation.

The ABC and Context. In order to understand the context globalisation discourse appeared within adequately, we must consider the ABC’s broader features. I provide this background information by briefly sketching the history of the organisation, the legislation it currently operates under, its competitors, and its stakeholders.

History The Australian Broadcasting Corporation was established in 19332 when the Australian government passed legislation that saw the network of radio stations owned by the Broadcasting Company of Australia pass into public hands. This move was inspired by the British model of public broadcasting that aimed to create a liberal public sphere to ‘educate, inform and entertain’ (Reith 1923; ABC, 1933) the national population. Following the British model, the ABC was legislated for and by a parliamentary charter that specified operation at ‘arms length’ from the state. This meant it was legislated under an act of parliament and was to be funded by a public subscription model similar to the BBC. While there have been some changes in the governance of the organisation, the founding intentions associated with the BBC model have continued to shape the ABC throughout its history. Initially the ABC comprised a network of eleven radio stations in the major urban centres of Australia. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, the ABC gradually expanded by opening more stations in regional centres and adding a number of orchestras based in capital city stations. It gained an international arm as the government Department of Information 2

In order to construct this brief historical account of the ABC I have relied on Inglis’ (1983) definitive history of the organisation. This was supplemented with the Australian Broadcasting Chronology (Allen and Spencer, 1983). To develop an account of events after 1983, I have relied on Jacka et al’s (1997) chronology, my own research on annual reports and media releases, and the press clippings sections of the journals Media Information Australia (1981-86) and Media Information Australia incorporating culture and policy (1997, 1998, 1999). I have used these sources to construct a more complete chronology of events at the ABC contained in Appendix One.

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handed over Radio Australia following the end of Second World War. With the introduction of television technology and supporting government legislation in 1956, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation added a national network of television stations to its operations. During the 1970s, the broadcaster opened a range of specialist stations such as 2JJ and 3ZZZ to cater for traditionally marginalised groups like ‘youth’ and ‘ethnic minorities’. The 1980s saw a major government inquiry (Dix, 1981) that pushed the ABC to become more business-like in its operations. This resulted in a series of downsizing programmes and a change of name, as the Australian Broadcasting Commission became the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. During the 1990s the ABC extended its range of services by beginning a news radio network and extending its youth network nationally. The organisation also became involved in a series of new media ventures such as data casting, an international satellite channel, and an extensive Internet site. This meant that by 2000, the ABC’s services comprised four national radio networks, a national television network with associated production facilities, an international radio service, an Internet service, 17 local radio stations broadcasting in 59 localities, and a chain of ABC shops throughout Australia3.

Legislation The ABC is currently legislated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act, 1983. The Act specifies that the government should directly fund the broadcaster through an annual operating grant. It also specifies that, as an organisation the ABC should be an independent broadcaster that operates at arms length from the government. The government retained some degree of control by appointing a large proportion of the governing board. The board also includes one staff appointed member and the organisation’s managing director appointed by the board. The Act sets out the guidance and purposes of the corporation as the following: 1)

The functions of the Corporation are:

3

All these details are as at 30 June, 2000. For most of its history the ABC has also included an extensive musical performance wing with six metropolitan based symphony orchestras and other assorted ensembles such as a choir, a training orchestra, and a big band. The Orchestras had long been a large part of the ABC’s budget. They were established as semi-autonomous entities during a period of cost cutting after the 1997 Mansfield report.

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(a) To provide within Australia innovative and comprehensive broadcasting services of a high standard as part of the Australian broadcasting system consisting of national, commercial and public sectors and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, to provide: (i) broadcasting programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community; and (ii) broadcasting programs of an educational nature; (b) To transmit to countries outside Australia broadcasting programs of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment that will: (i) Encourage awareness of Australia and an international understanding of Australian attitudes on world affairs; and (ii) Enable Australian citizens living or travelling outside Australia to obtain information about Australian affairs and Australian attitudes on world affairs; and (c) To encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in Australia. (2) In the provision by the Corporation of its broadcasting services within Australia: (a)The Corporation shall take account of: (i) The broadcasting services provided by the commercial and public sectors of the Australian broadcasting system; (ii) The standards from time to time determined by the Australian Broadcasting Authority in respect of broadcasting services; (iii) The responsibility of the Corporation as the provider of an independent national broadcasting service to provide a balance between broadcasting programs of wide appeal and specialised broadcasting programs; (iv) The multicultural character of the Australian community; and (v) In connection with the provision of broadcasting programs of an educational naturethe responsibilities of the States in relation to education

This charter places particular emphasis on the traditional public broadcasting role of ‘education, entertainment, and information’. It also specifies activities such as news services, regional broadcasting, and international broadcasting as core parts of the ABC’s operations. The Act also stipulates the funding regime for the broadcaster that required the national government to provide a direct operating grant to the corporation set

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triennially. Traditionally this government grant was intended to cover the entire cost of the ABC’s operations. This has been in decline since the early 1980s. Hence during the 1990s, government funding only covered about 80% of the corporation’s operating costs. Between 1950 and 1970 the numbers of staff continued to expand, with as many as 7214 staff working at the ABC in 1975. After the rise of cost-cutting measures during the late 1970s, the total staffing numbers began to level off and then fall. By 1999-2000, there was 4257 staff employed by the ABC.

Competitors The ABC operates in a broadcasting environment comprising a mixture of commercial and public broadcasters. Unlike the BBC and other public broadcasters, the ABC has never held a monopoly over the airwaves. The mixed model of broadcasting established in 1932 was affirmed by a series of inquiries into television during the 1950s. These enquires emphasised the need for a balance between government funded broadcasting and broadcasting which operated as a business. Such a system was intended to ensure that broadcasting happened in the public interest (hence the need for a public broadcaster), but that it was not totally dominated by the state (hence the need for private competition). Because this policy meant that the media was made up of a mixture of commercial and government broadcasting, the ABC was positioned in a competitive commercial market that included four commercial television stations in each capital city. During the 1970s, high profile calls for a media that reflected the cultural diversity of Australia led to a round of government reviews and the eventual establishment of a second national broadcaster. The broadcaster was to cater for people from diverse cultural backgrounds, particularly those who spoke English as a second language. The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) initially comprised a network of radio stations set in each capital city. Later, the SBS added a network of television stations to the state capital cities and gradually spread into regional centres. Although the SBS network broadened, it still remained the second national broadcaster because of its relatively small share of the national market. During the 1980s, the parliament established a third category of broadcasting licenses for ‘community broadcasters’. These licenses were for locality

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based non-profit radio stations throughout the country that were to target specific communities with ‘special needs’. A community access television channel was also established in each capital city. There was also a special category of radio licenses set up to cater for remote Aboriginal communities. These licenses allowed each of these communities to establish a radio station that would address local needs such as indigenous language broadcasting, news, and culture. These stations were intended to target a very limited part of their markets. The 1992 Broadcasting Services Act made the broadcasting environment more complex by allowing the operation of pay and cable television. Australia’s two largest media conglomerates, Kerry Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Limited and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, immediately established cable television networks. By 1992, the ABC operated in a broadcasting environment populated by large commercial providers of television, radio, and new media services. There was also a more specialised government broadcaster targeting the non-English speaking audience and a range of small community-based broadcasters (see Table 4.1).

Stakeholders The ABC has a number of influential shareholders that makes the operation even more complex. I shall identify some particularly influential stakeholders. The first stakeholder with a major influence over the ABC is the federal parliament. As we have already discussed, this body controls the funding, legislation, and appointments to the board. It also directs frequent reviews into the organisation. There are a number of important shifts that should be noted in this relationship. From the ABC’s founding until the 1973 election of the Whitlam Labour government, there was broad bipartisan support for the ABC as a nation building institution. The Whitlam government significantly increased the resources available to the organisation, resulting in a notable expansion of the ABC. In 1975 the conservative Fraser government introduced a series of funding cuts. Ken Inglis (1983) argued that these were the first steps in neo-liberal inspired reform of the organisation carried forward with vigour during the 1980s. According to journalists’

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accounts (Dempster, 2000), the relationship between the government and the ABC remained tense during the 1990s.

Group Seven Network Network Ten Nine Network Prime Network TWT Holdings (WIN television)

Southern Cross

ABC SBS Foxtel Optus Television Austar

Stations / Reach

Potential audience (% of national population) Commercial Free-to-air broadcasters Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, 72.1 Perth, Adelaide, Regional Queensland Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, 64.9 Perth, Adelaide Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane 51.5 and Darwin/ regional Northern Territory Canberra/regional NSW, one 25.1 regional Canberra/regional NSW, two 25.6 Regional NSW, Hobart/Regional Tasmania, Two regional Victoria, one regional Queensland and one remote Adelaide, Canberra/regional 21.5 New South Wales, Hobart/regional Tasmania, regional Victoria, One remote. National broadcasters Throughout Australia NA Throughout Australian population centres Subscription services Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Gold Coast Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane

NA

Hobart, Regional Australia (excluding WA)

370,000

570,000 220,000

Community Broadcasters BRACS stations Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, NA Perth, Adelaide, Lismore (Source: Productivity Commission, 2000. Communications Law Centre, 2000) Channel 31 stations

Figure 4.2: Broadcasters operating in Australia in 2000. The second stakeholder group of particular importance is the consumer pressure group, the Friends of the ABC (FABC). The forerunner of the FABC was a series of small protest groups formed in opposition to the cuts to funding and staffing levels at the ABC

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during the late 1970s. As these small protest groups consolidated nationally during the early 1980s, they formed a more organised consumer pressure group know as the Friends of the ABC. This non-profit organisation currently operates with the following explicit goals: To support the maintenance and advancement of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. To fulfill to a high standard its role as an independent and comprehensive national public broadcaster. To be adequately funded by government to fulfill its role. To remain independent of government influence, commercial sponsorship and advertising. To promote Australian culture in all its diversity. (www.fabc.org.au, 25/8/02)

These goals involve ensuring an adequately funded public broadcaster that operates within the parameters of traditional ‘public interest’ criteria. In order to achieve these goals, the organisation undertakes lobbying activities, information campaigns (such as publishing members newsletters and writing media releases), protests, and responding to government submissions. The final stakeholders of interest in the current study are employee unions. A high percentage of ABC staff are members of one of the two major unions that represent company employees. These unions are the Media Arts and Entertainment Alliance (MEAA) that largely covers journalists, and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) that covers most other employees at the organisation. Both unions undertake traditional union activity such as workplace organising, lobbying, and running media campaigns. In sum, the ABC’s development was firmly shaped by ideas of public service and the BBC model of public broadcasting. We have also seen that the organisation has responded to a wide range of influential stakeholders. Recently there have been major changes to the organisation as successive national governments with neo-liberal agendas have reduced funding and pushed the ABC to orient itself towards the global market. Hence the organisation became increasingly inculcated with the language of the market

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and globalisation. This made the ABC an opportune setting for studying the appearance and struggles around the language of globalisation and the effects this has on relations of power within the organisation.

Data Collected In order to study the appearance of, and struggles around, dominant discourses such as globalisation at the ABC, I have focused on the period between 1953 and 2000. This time frame begins before the introduction of television and stretches through the early days of television, the expansion of the ABC, the turn towards multiculturalism, and the assent of neo-liberalism, culminating in the rise of a global media market during the 1990s. This allows me to develop a genealogical4 study of the shifts in discourses through a fifty-year period and to examine the breaks and continuities in discourse at the ABC, as well as the historically contextual nature of globalisation discourse. In order to study shifts in discourse at the ABC between 1953 and 2000, I examined the organisation’s annual reports during this period. I focused on the annual reports for reasons of (a) consistency, (b) scope, (c) dissemination, and (d) because they were naturally occurring texts. The ABC produces many texts sporadically including internal documents, media releases, and occasional reports to the government. First, amongst this vast archive of texts, the organisation’s annual reports were the only documents produced regularly containing similar content over an extended period of time. This made them a relatively consistent source of data. Second, while other documents produced by the broadcaster may focus on a single aspect of the organisation’s operations, the annual reports provide an integrative view of many aspects of the organisation within a single document. Because annual reports included most aspects of the dominant discourse in the organisation during any given year, they are representative of a wide range of the dominant discourse. Third, annual reports were also the major public document prepared 4

The method of genealogy is drawn from Foucault’s analysis of the history of discourses in particular fields of the human sciences. The aim, according to Foucault is to ‘unearth’ the ‘pre-conceptual’ “rules that enable (things) to form as objects of a discourse and thus constitute the conditions of their historical appearances” (Foucault, 1972:4). To put it another way, genealogy aims to look at the systems within a discursive field that allow particular things to be said and considered rational, and other things to be considered irrational and not worth positing (Dreyfus and Rabinow, 1984).

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by the organisation every year. They have a large circulation when compared to most documents produced by the organisation. Unlike specialist reports and internal memos, annual reports had a widespread impact on how the organisation was understood by internal and external groups. Finally, these annual reports were produced as part of the day-to-day processes in the organisation and can, therefore, be categorised as naturally occurring texts. The texts contain discourses that would have appeared without the intervention of the researcher. This makes the texts more ‘natural’ to the setting than texts that may have been elicited by the research such as interview transcripts. These four reasons make the ABC’s annual reports a particularly useful set of texts to select as data. The annual reports are texts produced by dominant groups within the ABC (in particular senior management). In order to investigate resistant discourses, I shall also investigate texts produced by groups who have challenged dominant discourses. Two particularly active groups in this respect are a consumer pressure group called the Friends of the ABC (FABC), and a union called the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU). As I want to examine resistance to globalisation discourses, I shall focus on the period when globalisation discourse was prevalent - between 1992 and 2000. During this time each group produced a number of texts of varying scope. I will focus on the media releases, speeches and members’ newsletters (in the case of FABC). These are particularly pertinent texts as they are documents intended for widespread consumption. This means they are officially sanctioned representations and syntheses of each group’s views. It also means that they have widespread circulation when compared to other documents. Finally, these texts are similar to annual reports in that they are naturally occurring.

Analysis The annual reports produced by the ABC and speeches, media releases and newsletters produced by the FABC and CPSU were analysed in three stages. The first stage set out to examine which discourses appeared in the annual reports and what socio-cultural power effects (in terms of space, stakeholders and legitimate roles) were engendered. The second stage looked for shifts within the dominant discourses in the annual reports. The final stage examined how the currently dominant discourse was resisted by two groups

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through the production of alternative discourses in newsletters, speeches and media releases. In what follows I shall detail each of these stages of analysis. The first stage of the analysis set out to address the following questions: ‘Did globalisation discourse appear as a dominant discourse? How did the discourses which did appear construct the space, stakeholders and legitimate role of the organisation?’ Because these questions are about the dominant discourse at the broadcaster, I focused my analysis on the ABC’s annual reports. Taking this body of texts as a whole, I read through each text carefully looking for passages, themes and phrases that were similar. Out of this arose a series of common themes that I identified as discourses. I then worked through the documents and coded passages according to the set of discourses I identified. For instance, as I read through the reports I recognised passages of text that discussed the need to support Australian musicians and artist, air Australian programmes, and promote standards within Australia. I became aware these passages seemed to hold together around a similar theme, which I coded as ‘Australian Culture’. It should be noted that not all passages fitted into these common themes. After coding each passage, I tabulated the number of passages in each annual report that fitted into each theme. I then worked through the passages that fell into each of these discourses and identified what understanding of space appeared, which legitimate roles for the broadcaster appeared, and which stakeholders appeared. In order to contextualise these discourses, I inferred the higher-order discourses they drew on. The results of this analysis are reported in chapter five. In the next stage of the analysis I sought to answer the question ‘How have these discourses changed? How do they reconstruct the space and legitimate role of the organisation?’ Here, I examined the data in a historical sequence. Following a genealogical method (Foucault, 1980), I looked for breaks within the pattern of discourse. A break was indicated by either the emergence of a new theme within the annual reports that had not previously been present, or fundamental shifts in how already existing themes appeared in the annual reports. This led me to identify three major breaks in discourse and four points of relative stability of discourses between the breaks. I then

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sorted the annual reports into the appropriate periods. Examining each period, I looked at which discourses identified in the first stage of my analysis appeared in each period and whether there was any difference between these discourses. Using the previously coded passages, I also identified how space and the legitimate role of the organisation were constructed during each period. Finally, I asked if there were any important commonalities or underlying themes in all of the discourses during a given period. For instance, I went back to all the passages I had coded as ‘Australian culture’ and put these into a historical sequence. I then worked through each of these passages and ask whether there was a continuity of themes across time. This led me to focus on periods in which there was continuity in discourses for the theme. Taking each of these periods of continuity as my unit of analysis, I then asked how did this particular representation of Australian culture construct the broadcasters legitimate role and space. When I put each of the historical analyses of the discourse together, I was able to identify broader patterns during each period. The results of this analysis are reported in chapter six. The final stage of the analysis sought to answer the question ‘How are the currently dominant discourse resisted by particular groups?’ In order to answer this question, I turned to the speeches, media releases and newsletters produced by the FABC and the CPSU. Taking this body of texts as a whole, I carefully read through them and identified a series of themes that were repeated, which I took to comprise a discourse. I then systematically worked through all texts and assigned an appropriate code to all passages that fitted within a particular discourse. I identified how each of these discourses represented the ABC’s legitimate role and the space it is positioned in. I examined whether there were commonalities in the strategies associated with each discourse. For instance, I noticed in the texts that passages about the stupidity and cruelty of management systematically appeared. I took these passages to form a single ‘antimanagement’ discourse. I also noticed that this discourse seemed to draw on broader themes that were not available within the dominant texts at the ABC. This led me to pair it with anti-neo-liberal discourse that drew on themes from outside dominant discourse as well. This then allowed me to draw out strategies underpinning the use of a number of discourses. I report the results of this analysis in chapter seven.

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Conclusion In this methods chapter I have sought to chart out a strategy for empirically examining the discourse of globalisation, how it is used, and its potential socio-cultural effects. I have argued that the method of discourse analysis is particularly appropriate for this task. The recent prevalence of the language of globalisation within public broadcasting makes the Australian Broadcasting Corporation an interesting site to examine the discourse of globalisation in action. In order to investigate the language of globalisation at the ABC, I have used the most public and widespread articulation of dominant ABC discourse – the annual reports. In order to examine articulations of resistant discourse, I have drawn on some of the more public statements of disquiet by two resistance groups such as speeches, media releases and newsletters. To examine the machinations of the discourse of globalisation in these texts, I have pursued three lines of analysis – a static examination of the discourses and their constructive effects in the annual reports (reported in chapter five), an examination of the historical shifts in discourse in the annual reports (reported in chapter six), and an analysis of resistant discourses in the texts produced by the FABC and the CPSU (reported in chapter seven). The results of these three lines of inquiry will help to answer how the discourse of globalisation came into a specific setting, how it interacted with other discourses, the effects it had, and how it was struggled against and resisted.

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V Discourses at the ABC

Introduction Is the discourse of globalisation like a shout in a silent room? Is it one voice among many? Is it audible at all? In this chapter, I will ask whether globalisation discourse appears as a powerful discourse at the ABC. In particular, I will examine which discourses appeared at the ABC and how these discourses constructed the space, stakeholders and legitimate role of the organisation. In order to do this, I have identified which discourses appeared in the broadcaster’s annual reports between 1953 and 2000. I then examined the socio-cultural power relations engendered by each discourse by identifying how they constructed the space in which the organisation operates, the legitimate role of the broadcaster, and the stakeholders the broadcaster should be mindful of. Looking at discourse as a coherent pattern in and across texts shows that globalisation is only a relatively minor part of a far larger field. In fact, globalisation is not even among the major discourses that I identified. The seven major discourses that were evident at the ABC related to civil society, government, community, the media market, Australian culture, diverse groups, and internationalism (for numerical summary see: Appendix Three). These seven discourses formed a complex and tense setting from which globalisation discourses emerged (see: Chapter 6). Looking at each of the seven discourses, I shall argue that they draw upon higher-order discourses that have a broader currency outside the broadcaster. Further, I will show how each discourse engenders three socio-cultural relations of power: the construction of space, the construction of the broadcaster’s legitimate role, and the construction of important stakeholders. In what follows, I will work through these seven discourses, and identify how: each drew on higher order discourse(s); constructed a space in which the broadcaster operates;

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constructed a legitimate role for the broadcaster; and, constructed a set of stakeholders for the broadcaster (see: Figure 5.1). Discourse Civil society

Higher order discourses ◦Liberalism

Community

◦Communitarianism

Media Market

◦Neo-liberal economics

Government

◦Keynesianism

Australia Culture

◦Australian nationalism

Diversity

◦Multiculturalism ◦Aboriginal rights movement ◦Second Wave Feminist

International

◦Internationalism ◦Globalisation

Legitimate role for the ABC ◦Provide value free information ◦Space for debate ◦Civilising mission ◦Include ‘the bush’ in national service ◦Provide communities with unique requirements ◦Support local identity ◦Provide access to media for communities ◦Service needs of consumer ◦Gain market share ◦Execution of government policy ◦Develop national identity ◦Support Australia arts and artists ◦Represent diverse communities ◦Cater to diverse needs ◦Provide facilities for diverse groups to represent themselves ◦Colleague of other national broadcasters ◦Aid agent ◦Broadcaster to international audience

Construction of space ◦Australian nation ◦Some focus on the International, limited to the Asia-Pacific ◦Rural Australia ◦Particular Regions

Construction of key stakeholders ◦The Public

◦Locality based communities ◦Identity based communities ◦Rural Australia

◦Metropolitan centers ◦Some emphasis on international markets ◦Australia ◦International, insofar as it serves federal defence and trade interests ◦Whole of Australia ◦Particular focus on metropolitan regions in practice ◦Particular communities throughout Australia ◦Rural aboriginal communities

◦Audience ◦Programme buyers ◦Competition ◦Parliament ◦Other Government departments

◦International ◦Particular focus on the Asia Pacific

◦Other public broadcasters ◦International audience ◦Department of Foreign affairs and trade

◦Culture industry ◦Individual artists ◦Aboriginal groups ◦Women ◦Ethnic communities

Figure 5.1. Summary of discourse at the ABC

Civil society One of the most widespread discourses that coloured the dominant language at the ABC was civil society. This discourse represented the ABC as an institution that carried out a civilising mission by ensuring the public received information and debated controversial topics of the day. Civil society discourse emphasises the preservation of a space where ‘discussion of major issues effecting Australians’ can be conducted freely amongst all the members of the nation. 5 The public is the major stakeholder appearing within this space. 5

An important caveat often introduce in liberal concepts of the public is that the public should only include those who are ‘capable of rational debate’. Those people who are deemed to be part of the public are people

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Higher Order Discourse The language of the civil society draws on the higher order discourse of classical liberalism that defines civil society as “a self regulating realm, the ultimate repository of individual rights and liberties, and a body that must be protected against the incursion of the state” (Seligman, 1992:11). Societies need a sphere outside the state and the marketplace to ensure ideas and debate can flow in a free, un-biased and above all rational fashion. Being a major part of civil society, the central role of the ABC was to ‘civilise’ the public by instilling in them law and manners. Classic liberalism permutes many of public broadcasting’s foundational documents. The writings of Lord Reith, the first director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), showed a particular concern for the organisation’s civilising mission of “carrying into the greatest possible number of homes everything that is best in every department of human knowledge, endeavour and achievement” (Reith, 1924:34), and ensuring “that broadcasting will enlighten the millions of people about the great achievements in which great interest would be aroused” (Reith, 1924: 152). Reith saw public broadcasting as an institution that would that would civilise the public by educating them. This allowed the development of informed citizens who would feel a deep connection with the English nation and the British Empire. Reith’s civilising mission had a pervasive influence on the ABC. Indeed, the Reithian axiom of ‘educating, informing, and entertaining’ the nation, continues to sit at the heart of the ABC’s charter.

Legitimate Role Civil society discourse constructed the ABC as an important civilising agent that carried out its civilising mission by elevating the tastes and interests of the public, ‘supporting what it believes to be best in our society’: who can rationally access and debate information and issues of the day. This has led to a long history of exclusion of those who were deemed to be irrational including women, working-class people, colonized peoples, children, and the mad.

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The Commission points out that its functions under the act make it certain that some section or other of the community will feel displeased at some time. It has a duty to support what it believes to be best in our society and to endeavour to elevate, according to its own judgment, the taste of that society. On the other hand, it has no prerogative to educate in the sense of indoctrinating or to impose its own or special views of moral, political, economic, or religious judgments, except insofar as this may be covered under the phrase ‘in the interest of the community’ (AR 1963:10).6

This passage is influenced by the Reithian discourse of ‘enlightening the millions’ about the ‘best in every department of human knowledge, endeavour, and achievement’. The passage also insists the ABC should not take its civilising role too far so as not to ‘indoctrinate or impose its own special views’. Broadcasting in the public interest was represented as an act that involved striking a careful balance between the virtues of promoting a civil society and the vices of forcefully imposing a set of values onto viewers. One way the broadcaster pursued this civilising mission was through educating audiences. Three particular targets of this civilising mission were children, immigrants and Aboriginal peoples. Children were civilised through targeted programming like the long-running radio program, ‘the Argonauts club’. This series comprised moralistic adventure stories based on classical Greek myth; in particular, Jason and the Argonauts. It aimed to civilise its young listeners by providing them with “a fuller understanding of the Australian background, in preparation for adult responsibilities” (AR, 1953:22). The second targets of the civilising process were immigrants who arrived from Mediterranean Europe following World War Two. An example of this civilising process was a radio programs called ‘English for New Australians’ that “included answers to questions about Australian customs and habits, which have been sent by listeners, as well as good European music and songs” (AR, 1955:14). The final object of civilising efforts were the indigenous peoples of Australia who were the targeted through various apparatuses including an English teaching program called ‘time to listen’ (AR, 1971:29). In accordance with civil society discourse, newly arrived immigrants and Australia’s indigenous population were to become citizens by learning the language and mores of Australian civilisation. 6

All ABC annual reports will henceforth be references as ‘AR’ following their year of publication.

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The ABC was also required to provide impartial and accurate programming that informed the public. This role concurs with the common avowal that the ABC should broadcast in a ‘factual and unbiased’ manner. In situations involving opinion, the ABC was pushed to avoid bias by ensuring a delicate balance of the different perspectives: The Commission believes that news and information provided by the ABC must at all times be factual and un-biased, that the expression of opinion must be fair and honest, and that a balance of opinion must be maintained. Responsibility and objectivity are therefore the twin aims of the news and current affairs output; but we stress that the faithful pursuit of these aims has not prevented criticism, nor will it prevent criticism in the future (AR, 1968:5).

Factuality, un-biased reporting and, the maintenance of balance were the central means of rational debate that would ensure civility. One of the legitimate roles constructed by civil society discourse was to accurately report information and provide a forum for balanced debate.

Space The space constructed by civil society discourse was the Australian nation. The avowed commitment of the broadcasters to the “traditional values of integrity, quality, independence and commitment to meeting the needs of all Australians” (AR, 1999:18. emphasis mine) positions the broadcaster in a national space. The ABC provided ‘all Australians’ with access to political debate and Australian culture irrespective of where they live. In each of these instances, the ABC was represented as an institution that speaks to the entirety of the nation. The ABC was also seen as the voice of Australia in its geographical entirety because it spoke for all Australians. Underlying this was the assumption that the space the ABC operates within was the entirety of Australia. The national scope of the ABC’s audience was consistently emphasised throughout texts that stated that the broadcaster did not limit itself to metropolitan audiences as many commercial stations did. In contrast the ABC covered nearly the entirety of the Australian land mass. For instance, the broadcaster ensured “a colour television service is available to 98% of the population” (AR, 1977:5). The inclusiveness of the ABC’s broadcasting was proudly displayed in a series of maps that are included in most annual reports. These maps show the Australian continent with various ABC services splayed out across the 130

vast space. This web of stations and transmitters acts as a visual indication of how the ABC formed a single national network that stretched right across the continent, serving people even in the most remote parts of the country. We are led to assume that the ABC’s space was Australia, and the space of Australia would in some way be lacking without a national broadcaster offering its services to even the most remote community.

Stakeholders The major stakeholder constructed by civil society discourse was ‘the public’. This brought diverse people, who may or may not use the ABCs service, together into an apparently singular social body. The strand that unifies the public in ABC discourse was their membership of a civil society. This allowed the ABC to speak of broadcasting in ‘the public interest’. All members of a given society were understood to be part of this unified, and presumably civilised public that required similar information and shared similar concerns. In this context the ABC “regard(s) it as its duty in the proper place and time to present all aspect of problems of the public interest” (AR 1963:5). This singular representation of the public meant many of the diverse groups that comprised the public were written over, and in some cases actively repressed.

Summary In this section, we have seen that civil society discourse constructed the ABC as an institution that covered the entirety of the nation and carried out the role of facilitating free debate and ensuring the flow of factual information unhindered by the state. Civil society discourse at the ABC drew on the higher order discourses of civil society found in liberal thought. This discourse legitimated the ABC’s central role as propagating free and open debate, providing factual information, and acting as a civilising agent. The space within which these activities occurred was the geographic entirety of Australia. The core stakeholder that appeared within this space was a singular and relatively homogenised ‘public’ requiring a balance of opinion and rational information. Civil society discourse, therefore, firmly contextualised the ABC as an important institution that would serve the Australian public.

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Community The second discourse I identified was that of community. In contrast to the lexicon of civil society, community discourse does not directly map onto the nation state. Instead it was situated at a more localised level, targeting people who had ongoing and familiar relations with one another. While civil society discourse relied on a single and ‘universal’ public that was defined by the borders of the country, community discourse posited a multiplicity of localised groups. This meant that community discourse represented the ABC as an active participant in a localised context.

Higher order discourses Like civil society, the discourse of community draws on already existing higher order discourses. The first of these was the discourse of ‘the bush’ that described the unique characteristics of rural and regional Australia. In this discourse ‘the bush’ appeared as a space isolated from the services of the metropolis that possessed a unique identity and was bound together by a degree of camaraderie. The second higher order discourse that coloured representations of the community was communitarianism (see: Bell, 1993; Etzioni, 1995; cf. Rose, 1996). Communitarian discourse represents modern societies as complex and dominated by large impersonal governments and corporations that operate by strictly administering instrumental rationality. This means individuals lose all sense of fellowship and solidarity. According to communitarian discourse, the decline of the natural solidarity associated with community results in various forms of disintegration of the social fabric. In order to restore this tattered cloth, communitarians argue that there is a need to build communities that serve as localised spaces of interaction, identity and exchange. A typical communitarian demand in relationship to broadcasting would be to move away from a national broadcasting system (which is supposedly disconnected from the audience), towards a system of broadcasting that reflects the concerns and demands of specifiable and immediate communities. These two higher order discourses of ‘the bush’ and communitarianism came together in the language of community which was associated with a unique representation of the space in which the ABC exists, its legitimate role, and important stakeholders.

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Legitimate Role The discourse of community constructed three inter-related legitimate roles for the ABC. The first was to ensure far-flung communities collectively known as ‘the bush’ were able to access the services of the ABC. The broadcaster had to incorporate isolated communities into the national service by ensuring its broadcasts reached the most remote communities. By extending the reach of the broadcasting network, the ABC was able to claim it served each and every community, ensuring almost universal access for the population of Australia. For instance, funding was given for the extension of rural radio services because of “the belief that a service of this kind to our scattered rural community should occupy a high priority in the Australian national radio service.” (AR, 1954:7). Underpinning this evaluation of a high priority afforded to rural communities was a requirement that isolated communities would be incorporated into the national broadcasting network. Serving the unique requirements of rural communities was the second role associated with community discourse. Part of this role included broadcasting programming such as the Country Breakfast Session and other “programmes specially designed to meet the needs of the rural community”. These programmes were to focus on issues salient to local communities like “rural development, farmer achievement and new ideas and techniques” (AR, 1967:22). Community discourse legitimated ‘the national broadcaster’ catering to community needs through initiatives like “local programmes originating in regional centres in order to provide as many country listeners as possible with their own news, with rural programmes related specifically to the interests of the district concerned” (AR, 1958:4). The ABC was also pushed to play a broader role in supporting community identity. This involved developing a ‘sense of community’ by “reflect[ing] the interests of diverse communities: Large cities, towns and remote areas. They have a strong local identity based upon local news, talk and entertainment” (AR, 1988:15). Passing some control of broadcasting over to local communities was the third role community discourse legitimated. This involved increasing consultation with various communities and the decentralisation of control through forums like community advisory

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committees. For instance, during the 1970s it was suggested that the ABC’s AM radio broadcasters become ‘part of the community’ they operated within: It is proposed to develop the new AM stations as essentially locally controlled units reflecting community interests, thereby allowing the ABC to develop a significant community involvement in local radio production (AR, 1975:9).

The concern to provide communities with the means to represent themselves was associated with ‘access to the airwaves’ programmes that resulted in community members being given the opportunity to broadcast their own programmes on existing stations. In other cases entirely new stations were established with the explicit aim of serving particular communities. The result was ‘community access broadcasting’ that provided communities with access to broadcasting technologies which allowed them to represent their own interests and identities. This was adopted by the 3ZZ station to “‘open up’ radio, and to involve the community in planning the station’s program output” (AR, 1975:10). While community access broadcasting was influential for short period of time, it was severely challenged in 1977 with the threatened closure of 3ZZ and its subsequent transfer out of ABC control.

Space As well as constructing a legitimate role for the broadcaster, community discourse constructed two spaces in which the ABC operated. The first of these was rural Australia. The ABC was represented as playing a special role in ‘the bush’ because it ensured all Australians would be provided with media access: The ABC must also take into account the needs and interests of those Australians who live beyond the great coastal cities and who are greatly, or in some instances totally, dependent upon the ABC for their mass media requirements (AR, 1988:3).

We notice that the ABC is positioned in a space ‘beyond the great coastal cities’ made up of relatively isolated communities reliant upon the broadcaster for radio and television services. The second space the ABC was positioned in was a series of particular localities, each with a unique identity that could not be reduced to a national level. Locally specific needs could only be catered for by programming designed to serve consumers’ needs.

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Stakeholders The discourse of community constructed three stakeholders as particularly important for the ABC. The first were rural stakeholders including farming interests and those living in rural areas. Rural stakeholders were represented as relatively homogeneous with a definable set of specialist requirements such as weather programming. The second stakeholder group associated with community discourse was regionally defined communities. These groups were seen to be aligned with particular local AM stations which acted as conduits for their unique and localised identities. The final group of stakeholders that appeared in community discourse was what we might call identitybased communities. These communities included ethnic groups, aboriginal communities, and ‘interest groups’. We will see later in this chapter that each of these communities also appeared in diverse group discourses. One important result of community discourse is that it multiplied the number of stakeholders the ABC was committed to. This meant regions and identity-based communities were considered to be distinct stakeholders with their own unique identities and needs. Being emplaced in the community meant that the ABC was required to represent the nation, as well as cater to the needs of each community and provide communities with means of representing themselves.

Summary In this section I have demonstrated that the language of community engenders quite different socio-cultural relations of power than civil society discourse does. It draws on high order discourses of communitarianism. Under community discourse, the organisation’s legitimate role becomes broadcasting to and supporting a series of local audiences. The space the broadcaster operates in is a series of communities (not the entire nation) and its central stakeholders are each of these communities (instead of a single homogeneous public). With community discourse, the ABC is not only inscribed as the national public broadcaster, but also as the broadcaster to a range of smaller communities.

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Media Market The third prominent discourse I identified within the ABC’s annual report was that of the ‘media market’. Under media market discourse, the audience was not encoded as ‘the public’, or ‘the community’, but as individual consumers. These consumers were seen as actors who made more or less rational choices about the various products they were offered. In this discourse, the ABC did not have a special tie to the public or the community, but it was one broadcaster among many vying for a slice of the market. The ABC’s central role in this competitive market involved attracting customers to products. The language of the media market draws on quite different higher order discourses, therefore formulating different legitimate roles for the organisation, constructing different spaces, and revealing different stakeholders for the broadcaster. Here media market discourse pushed competition and efficiency into the foreground, instead of public or community service.

Higher Order Discourses Media market discourse draws on the broader discourse of neo-liberalism. According to this body of thought, consumer sovereignty that is unimpeded by government interventions leads to the most efficient allocation of scare economic resources within a society. Two of the principal advocates of this position were Hayek (1944) and Friedman (1962), who famously argued against incursions of the government into the marketplace because it impedes the most efficient allocation of resources and individual capacities to choose. This brand of neo-liberal economics inspired the introduction of the market mechanisms in the place of government planned and funded services in Australia during the 1980s and 1990s. The discourse was vigorously adopted by various countries (including Australia) and has inspired the wholesale re-structuring of various arms of the nation state. The advent of neo-liberalism saw large government bureaucracies restructured along market-lines. Users of government services were encoded as consumers, and the government became a service provider. The relationship between government departments and its ‘consumers’ became encoded as an economic exchange.

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This process had profound effects on departments throughout the Australian government (Pusey, 1991), including the ABC (Inglis, 1983; Williams, 1996; Jacka, 1996).

Legitimate role The goals bound up with media-market discourse, such as efficiency and customer satisfaction, were associated with significantly different legitimate roles for the ABC. The central legitimate role that appeared in media market discourse involved attracting the largest audience share in the most efficient manner possible. The clearest expression of this injunction occurs in the gradual spread of quantifications of the audience. The first time audience size appeared as an issue was in relation to the number of subscriptions that each ABC orchestra could attract (AR, 1973:26). Radio Australia also gauged program popularity by counting the mail received from listeners during the year. The audiences of particular ABC programs were also quantified in reports on the number of people who watching the television news or other popular shows (e.g. AR, 1960:22). This procedure of counting the audience became thoroughly ingrained during the 1980s with the increasing prevalence of careful quantifications of audience size: For the morning program, AM research shows than an average of 425,000 listened to the program in the five biggest cities each morning but more than 700,000 people in these five cities listened to AM at least once a week. Total audience including the other major cities and rural areas could double these figures (AR, 1985:49).

In this passage we find that measures of audience share became the central criterion that was used to judge the success of a given ABC show. This implied that if the ABC did not attract a large enough viewing audience, they were failing to follow their legitimate role of gaining a sizable and expanding market. The language of the media market was further extended through the mobilisation of sophisticated technologies used to frame the audience as an object of competition. Audience share data introduced competing media outlets into assessments. A program was not necessarily judged to be a success if it attracted a numerically large audience. Instead, success was determined through an assessment of whether a programme attracted a large audience compared with its competitors. Measures of market share first appeared

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for specific programs or stations such as the ABC’s youth orientated 2JJ station (AR, 1976:15), and were then extended to all aspects of the ABC including the radio network and the whole ABC television network. In the following passage we find audience share data was used to assess the overall success of ABC TV as well as specific programs: ABC TV’s weekly reach has been maintained at around 70 per cent since 1991. ABC TV’s overall (6am to midnight) five city audience share increased from 12.7 per cent in 1991 to 14.1 percent in mid 1996. The evening share averaged 14.2 per cent in 1996 to equal the 1991 level (AR, 1996:37).

As the audience share measures spread, so too did the prevalence of commercial comparisons. By using audience share data, the performance of the ABC could no longer be judged solely in terms of the sheer number of those watching. Instead, measurements of the absolute size of the audience must be compared with those who were attracted by other media outlets. This placed the simple rule of commercial legitimation – namely, gaining the largest audience possible – firmly at the centre of the ABC’s language.

Space The effects of media market discourse, and the associated practices of measuring audience share, constructed the space the ABC operates within as a market in which consumers and competitors are spatially distributed. The market that the ABC competes for was divided up into geographical regions. The ABC was required to compete with commercial and non-commercial broadcasters in each of these geographically specified markets to gain the maximum audience share. The uneven distribution of population in the Australia meant a strict split between regional markets on the one hand and metropolitan markets on the other. Metropolitan markets (Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Hobart, Canberra) were the subjects of the most intense competition, representing the largest concentration of the potential audience. The bulk of industry wide audience data was also generated from research on these metropolitan markets. This meant if a broadcaster was judged to be a success in the metropolitan markets, then it was judged as a success throughout the nation. This strict focus on metropolitan markets associated with media market discourse differed from the national space produced by civil society discourse and the localised space generated by community oriented

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discourses. The location of the ABC in metropolitan markets did not totally marginalise other spaces in media market discourse. Rural and regional markets were also construed as important markets for the broadcaster. However, within these markets there were far fewer consumers, but also fewer competitors. This meant the ABC was often the sole provider of media services in many contexts. Media market discourse also rendered the international space as a market. For instance, the international space was rendered as a market in discussions about competition for listeners between the ABC’s international wing (Radio Australia) and other international broadcasters: Competition comes from many other foreign broadcasters beaming programmes to the same countries as Radio Australia does and particularly to Asia, which is Radio Australia’s primary target area. Major broadcasting organisations are installing, and have installed, more powerful transmitters to penetrate Asia, Africa and Latin America, where the most dramatic increases in audience potential are also to be found. There is also increased competition as a result of improvements made in the domestic broadcasting services of many of the developing countries to which much of Radio Australia’s programme output is directed (AR, 1973:8).

Radio Australia was positioned in a competitive space where it struggled with other international broadcasters for a share of the market. This reflected a process that saw the international space becoming a national market writ large.

Stakeholders The central stakeholders constructed by media market discourse were consumers. One form that consumer stakeholders took was an audience comprising all those who could potentially listen to, or watch the ABC at a given time. We have already seen that representations of the audience as a quantifiable entity emerged with the spread of ratings technologies borrowed from private broadcasters. These technologies constructed the ABC’s audience as individual viewers that consumed the ABC’s broadcasts in an isolated fashion. This stood in stark contrast to singular conceptions of ‘the public’, or ‘the community’, each of which had relatively uniform and coherent interests served by the ABC.

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Alongside individual consumers, other broadcasters were considered to be important consumer stakeholders. This second manifestation typically appeared in the text as either a public broadcaster from another country or an international program-buying agency. This stakeholder emerged in early reports of sales of radio programs like ‘Bellbird’ and ‘Delta’ in Britain (AR, 1973:32) followed by extensive reports of further program sales. The increasing prevalence of the program buyers in ABC discourse could be seen in sales initiatives that targeted international buyers: A major initiative this year has been to generate more revenue from the overseas sale of ABC televisions programs. To achieve this objective, an internal re-organisation took place to strengthen sales operations, and an agent was appointed to sell programs in North and South America, and the Pacific and Asian area. We already have an agent for the United Kingdom, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East (AR, 1978:14).

Here, foreign broadcasters are rendered not as colleagues, but as consumers.

Summary In this section we have seen that media market discourse represented the ABC as part of a series of competitive economic exchanges. Drawing on the higher-level discourse of neoliberal economics, media market discourse constructed the broadcaster’s legitimate role as attracting a growing audience share. The space constructed by media market discourse was one populated by a series of consumer-individuals and competing companies who were unevenly distributed across regional, rural, metropolitan, and international spaces. The core stakeholders that emerged were those with whom the ABC conducted economic exchanges - namely the audience and program buyers. The new spaces, stakeholders, and legitimate goals formed a commercial lexicon that stood in stark contrast to civil society or community discourses.

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Government Representations of the ABC as a government-funded institution pursuing governmentprescribed goals featured in ABC discourse. This does not mean the wishes and desires of the government at a given moment were directly transcribed onto the broadcaster. Like other discourses discussed thus far, government discourse constructed a legitimate role, a space, and a set of stakeholders for the broadcaster. Here, the ABC was forced to negotiate a territory comprising broad goals laid down by the government and communicated in legislation, inquiries, and the various texts associated with annual funding rounds. This firmly positioned the ABC as an equivalent of other government institution such as art galleries, museums, and universities. Under this discourse, the broadcaster was also associated with the public sector culture and the ethos of public service.

Higher-order discourses While media market discourse finds its roots in the increasing prevalence of neoliberalism, government discourse had its antecedents in Keynesian economic discourse. This discourse suggested that while markets can produce a reasonable allocation of resources, they frequently fall short of other socially desirable goals. Such market failures might include purely economic outcomes such as cycles of boom and bust, or the failure of the markets to allocate resources to goals considered socially meaningful such as education and culture. The state was seen as the only economic actor large enough to correct these market failures. Keynesian economic discourse justified the existence of institutions designed to correct market failure such as public broadcasters. According to this discourse, commercial broadcasters have the strict aim of making a profit by gaining the maximum audience with the minimum cost. The result is continued broadcasts of relatively cheap programs catering to ‘the lowest common denominator’. A typical outcome of this process was the prevalence of North American situation comedy that could be purchased at low cost but attracted a large audience. According to Keynesian discourse, the prevalence of programming determined solely by economic criteria would result in a neglect of 141

important socially valued activities such as broadcasting locally specific content, broadcasting to rural areas, programming for ‘minority interests’, well resourced news reporting, and investigative journalism. The only way to correct these market failures would involve government intervention. This justified public-broadcasters legislated and funded by the government that would ensure broadcasting ‘in the public interest’. This logic emerged in early debate about the existence of a government-funded broadcaster that positioned the ABC as an arm of the state charged with correcting market failures: Commonwealth legislation has determined in general the pattern of broadcasting organisations in Australia, and in particular the powers and obligations of the Commission. The Australian pattern is broadly a combination of the English and American systems. The Commission, a non-advertising body, maintained by listeners’ license fees, co-exists with a large number of commercial stations, maintained by advertising revenue. The advantages and disadvantages of the Australian system are probably those which theory usually attributes to competition: on the credit side, a stimulus to efficiency and a wider choice of programmes; on the debit side, increased costs due to multiplication of services and competition for broadcasting material, and the setting up of commercial organisations whose vested interests seem to be incompatible with the success of the National Service. This account of debit and credit may not be expressed in money terms alone, and its balance may not easily be struck; but its elements must be remembered in any assessment of the Australian system (AR, 1933:5).

This assertion that the market failures produced by a commercial broadcasting system can be addressed through public broadcasting reflects the higher order discourse of Keynesian economics. Under this discourse, the ABC was seen as a measure that would correct market failures. In order to address these market failures, the ABC would ensure programs were broadcast ‘in line with the public good’. Keynesian discourse also infused the assessment that the ‘account of debit and credit’ of a public and private broadcasting systems ‘may not be expressed in money terms alone’. That is, it was necessary to judge the success of a broadcasting system according to goals such as ‘the public interest’ that could not be accounted for through economic calculation. In these equations, the state is placed on the side of the public interest, and it is through state intervention that the public interest is catered for. More than just legitimating the ABC’s continued funding by the government, Keynesian discourse identified the ABC as a ‘public service’ specifically designed to cater to the common good.

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Legitimate role The high-order discourse of Keynesianism charges the ABC with the task of catering to the public good. The deeper role of executing government policy underpinned this. The importance of government policy in justifying the broadcaster’s activities can be seen in the inclusion of central passages from either the Broadcasting and Television Act (ARs, 1953-1982), or the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act (ARs 1983-1999) at the beginning of each annual report. Each of these passages included parliamentary legislation detailing compulsory activities for the ABC. The Broadcasting and Television Act (1942) specified that the ABC should carry out government-defined goals of providing “adequate and comprehensive programmes,” and ensure “the full development of suitable broadcasting and television programmes.” This is restated in passages emphasising that the ABC should “broadcast or televise from transmitting stations made available by the Postmaster-General, adequate and comprehensive programs and shall take in the interests of the community all such measures as, in the opinion of the Commission, are conceived to the full development of suitable broadcasting and television programs” (AR, 1976:4). From 1982 onwards, the broadcaster operated under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act (1982). This Act strictly specified that the ABC should “broadcast programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community” and “broadcast programs of an educational nature” (see: Appendix five). Like the 1942 act, the 1982 charter appeared regularly in ABC discourse. It usually framed the legitimate role of the ABC as enacting the goals legislated by the government: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is a statutory corporation, independent in program policy from the government of the day and funded by yearly appropriation from the Commonwealth Parliament. (Para) The ABC, founded as the Australian Broadcasting Commission on 1 July 1932, became the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on 1 July 1983. (Para) The Australian Broadcasting Corporation act 1983 requires the ABC to: *Provide within Australian innovative and comprehensive radio and television services of a high standard.

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*Provide programs that contribute to a sense of national identity, inform and entertain, and reflect the diversity of the Australian community. *Provide radio and television programs of an educational nature. *Promote Australia’s musical, dramatic and other performing arts. *Transmit to other countries radio and television programs of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment (AR, 1988:1).

This passage makes clear that each of these goals were important only insofar as they were associated with specific legislation of the government. Each of these ostensibly public services goals was subsumed under the broader goal of carrying out government policy when attached to government discourse. As well as carrying out government legislation, the broadcaster was also required to keep a degree of distance between the government’s preference and the ABC’s chosen means of executing these preferences. The distance set up between direct government control and the carrying out of broad policy outlines was represented as something the government actually preferred because “Parliament hands over the matters in sensitive or complex areas to statutory corporations which it creates” (AR, 1972:6). Although the ABC was legislated by parliament, it was represented as being independent of parliament. There are a number of indications in ABC discourse that the government should seek to actively maintain a degree of distance and independence in order to ensure that the broadcaster could carry out the role assigned to it in policy: Within these statutory limits it is, we believe, the deliberate intention of parliament to give the Commission independence in carrying out its responsibilities. (AR, 1963:5).

Such a celebration of independence was balanced with the awareness that the broadcaster was reliant on “the extent to which the Parliament, the Government of the day and the people of Australia wish it to be so.” (AR, 1973:11). This means the ABC’s legitimate role as an independent entity was to execute broad government policy.

Space Two spaces were constructed by this government discourse. The first was the legislative space comprising the citizens of Australia. The goals described in government policy

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defined the ABC’s role as informing and entertaining, reflecting cultural diversity, promoting Australian music and performing arts, and educational broadcasting. These goals relied on the nation as a geographic entity to appear coherent. It is the nation whose identity is constructed/represented in the annual reports. It is the nation that is educated, informed and entertained. It is the nation’s music and performing arts that are promoted. Carrying out the goals prescribed in legislation, the ABC could further the broader objective of nation building. The second space imputed within government discourse was the international geopolitical space. This space was closely linked with the pursuit of objectives defined by the government and associated with defense and trade. One important geo-political space was the Asia-Pacific. The ABC’s international broadcaster Radio Australia was represented as an instrument for carry out objectives of the Department of External Affairs that ultimately expressed the national interest. For instance there were reports of “discussion with the Department of External Affairs (that) have continued during the year, particularly on the question as to the utility of increasing language broadcasts to South-East Asia, where Australia’s interest is so obviously vital” (AR, 1954:7). The space of South East Asia became central to the ABC’s broadcasting because of its importance in broader geopolitical issues. As the foreign policy of the federal government changed, so did the geo-political focus of Radio Australia. Broadcasting a Mandarin program throughout South East Asia for instance appeared in ABC discourse as targeting “the large and influential Chinese population throughout this area” (AR, 1954:7). Another particular focus was Indonesia, where the linkage between the Radio Australia’s broadcasts and Australian foreign policy became apparent in ABC discourse: In June, Radio Australia submitted a major paper to the federal parliament examining the influence of Radio Australia and the ABC in Indonesia. It contributed towards a wider analysis by the joint parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade of Australia’s relations with Indonesia (AR, 1992:51).

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Vietnam, Japan, and China also appeared in the texts as focal points of Australian foreign policy and Radio Australia. In each of these cases, the space that Radio Australia acted within was written and rewritten in relation to government foreign relations policy.

Stakeholders Three core stakeholders emerged in the interlinked national legislative and international geo-political spaces. The federal parliament appeared as a core stakeholder, insofar as it funded and legislated the ABC. The funding relationship between the ABC and the government had a clear economic basis. Despite this constant economic relationship, there were some interesting variations in the way government funding appeared in ABC discourse. At some points government funding was represented as ensuring ‘adequate and comprehensive’ public broadcasting. This constructed the government as committed to providing the necessary resources for the ABC to carry out its role. In contrast, other texts represented government funding as a ‘public investment’. This implied that the government was a judicious investor that expected an adequate return from their initial investment in terms of quantifiable outputs. The next set of stakeholders that appeared within government discourse was other government departments such as the Department of Immigration, the Department of Internal Affairs, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Office (CSIRO). Each of these organisations was considered an important stakeholder at the ABC because they were the locus of joint projects. For instance, the ABC was involved in developing “lessons in easy English designed for New Australians, with the cooperation of the Commonwealth Office of Education and the Department of Immigration” (AR, 1956:21). The broadcaster also worked with “State departments of education officers (to) help prepare special notes to assist teachers to make the most effective use of the programs; the departments not only prepare these notes but also accept responsibility for their printing and distribution” (AR, 1972:33). It provided “Advice concerning programs areas and content” (AR, 1973:40) and helped prepare “a new syllabus for English lessons” to be broadcast on radio Australia (AR, 1978:55). In

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each of these cases, other branches of the government appeared important to the extent that they worked with the ABC to further goals prescribed by the government. Other government departments appeared as points of comparison. One instance of this practice of comparison involved the ABC being positioned as a “recognised . . . leader of public sector reform” (AR, 1992:9). Another way the ABC compared itself with other public service organisations was by claiming “staff reductions in the ABC are running at significantly higher levels than the proportion within the Public Service.” (AR, 1980:5). The ABC’s funding was also assessed in relation to other public sector organisations in the culture and recreation area: An examination of appropriations to component organisations within the Culture and Recreation areas of the Federal Budget confirms the declining relative position of the National Broadcasting Service. Within the relatively stable total allocation for Culture and Recreation, the ABC’s share is falling while other organisations (such as the National Gallery, Film industry assistance, national archives and assistance to the arts) have all maintained indexation or increased their appropriations relative to inflation (AR, 1979:6).

The government discourse, therefore, constructed the ABC’s core stakeholders as the government that ‘funds’ or ‘invests’ in the organisation, as well as legislates it. The other core stakeholders were other government departments that provided funds for the ABC or operated joint projects with the broadcaster.

Summary To conclude this section, government discourse attached the ABC’s operations to objectives sanctioned by the nation state. Under government discourse, the ABC either worked within a national or an international space. Similarly, the central government appeared as either a funding body, or the various arms of the government as points of comparison. Each of these constructions fixed the ABC as another arm of the nation state that could only understand itself and its actions with reference to the state and various institutions.

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Australian culture A fifth discourse identified in the annual reports is Australian culture. While government discourse constructed a national community bound together by government legislation, Australian culture discourse constructed a national community bound together by a common cultural heritage. The common culture woven through the Australian culture industry comprised individuals and organisations involved in professionally producing music, drama, film, television, video, visual arts, literature, and dance. Australian culture discourse therefore positioned the ABC as an important conduit for reproducing and supporting a shared national identity.

Higher order discourse Australian culture discourse was informed by an extensive higher-level discourse associated with Australian arts. This field of debate included all forms of artistic practice engaged in by Australians including literature, architecture, music in all its variants, dance, visual arts, theatre and other forms of performance, film and television. The common thread running throughout each of these artistic practices was the project of creating a culture that expressed a uniquely ‘Australian identity’. Underlying these various attempts to articulate a positive and unique Australian identity was a strong strand of cultural nationalism that sought to jettison the ‘cultural cringe’ (Phillips, 1957) associated with unique manifestations of Australian culture until after World War Two.7

Legitimate role In order to propagate Australian culture, the central focus of the ABC became one of fostering a unique national identity. The broader ABC was required to drive this cultural nationalism by contributing “to the cultural awareness of the Australian people . . . [beginning] at the kindergarten stage and range(ing) through the whole of human experience” (AR, 1982:5). This task influenced the youth oriented station Triple J and its role of placing “particular emphasis on Australian music and the recording of new artists, and aim to reflect, and to contribute to, a sense of national identity for the emerging 7

The Cultural cringe is the sense that Australian produced culture was inferior to forms of culture imported from Europe. This meant Australian’s would ‘cringe’ when confonted with their own locally produced culture.

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generation” (AR, 1997:35). Television comedy “contributes to a sense of Australian identity, and (helps) discover and develop Australian talent” (AR, 1990:33). The emphasis placed on ABC programming that furthered national cultural goals also had clear links with the Reithian philosophy of informing, educating and entertaining: [The ABC should] provide programs that contribute to a sense of national identity, inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community (AR, 1982:1).

In order to develop Australian national identity, the ABC was constructed as a supporter and central participant in the Australian culture industries. To reflect Australian culture and be “distinctively Australian,” the ABC sought to employ “Australian talent wherever possible, but not to the complete exclusion of programs from overseas” (1980:9). This involved the organisation acting as an “employment source for creative talent, including Australian musicians, writers and actors” (AR, 1982:3). The importance of the ABC as an employment source was reflected in the claim that the ABC has “done more, perhaps, than all other agencies taken together to provide employment for Australian scriptwriters, actors, directors and producers, and has consistently accepted one of its major duties is to increase the Australian content of its programmes.” (AR, 1972:5). Employing Australian talent was such an important part of the ABC’s activities that it warranted consistent measurements of the number of Australian cultural producers employed during a given year. Here is a typical example: ABC Television, like ABC Radio, is a primary course of employment for many actors, actresses, writers, musicians, entertainers and associated talents. In this financial year, ABC-TV drama production in Sydney and Melbourne involved 44 scriptwriting assignments, and the casting of 825 major acting roles and 3,236 other acting engagements. ABC-TV educational programs provided 71 scriptwriting engagements and 598 separate assignments for actors, actresses and musicians. (AR, 1977:9).

By employing Australian artists, the ABC saw its role as paying “special attention to the fostering and development of Australian talent” (AR, 1955:16). By employing Australian talent, the broadcaster aimed to “give rise to fresh talent by allowing artists the freedom to create. It champions the new, the risky, the experimental. Many television genres would not be available without initial ABC development and support” (AR, 1999:49). By

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employing local artists, the ABC attempted to ensure that broadcasts reached “the highest level in Australian programming and content commensurate with production facilities and available talent” (AR, 1967:7). As well as employing local talent, a central role legitimated by Australian culture discourse was broadcasting Australian content. The importance of Australian content can be seen in the extensive quantification of local content that typically appeared in annual reports: Of the years total ABC Television transmissions of 4,29 hours, 2,780 hours or 60.1 per cent was Australian-produced. This compares with 61.5 per cent in the 1974-75 financial year. To maintain Australian content above 60 per cent in this, the first full year of colour television, has been a major achievement involving considerable expenditure of financial, technical and creative resources. Of the 2,780 hours Australian transmission in the 1975-76 year, 2,710 hours were produced by the ABC and 70 hours were produced for the ABC. Of the overseas content in television, 19.1 per cent was produced in the British Commonwealth and 20.9 per cent in the US and other overseas countries (AR, 1976:13).

An attempt to quantify the contribution of Australian cultural producers underpins such calculation of Australian content in ABC broadcasting. This qualitative valuation constructed one of the central roles of the ABC as increasing “the proportion and improv(ing) the standard of the locally produced material in order to ensure that our programme is essentially Australian in character whilst still using the best of the high quality productions from overseas” (AR, 1962:4). This is underpinned by the larger goal of “provid(ing) programs that contribute to a sense of national identity, inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community” (AR, 1990:3). Australian culture discourse constructed the legitimate role of the ABC as developing and reflecting an Australian national identity achieved by providing Australian content and employing Australian cultural producers.

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Space The discourse of Australian culture, oriented around ‘national identity’, influenced the space within which the ABC operated. The nation was conceived as a relatively unified whole bound together by a common identity. This space was flavored by an ‘Australian identity’. It made the ABC a “distinctively Australian institution” (AR, 1992:9) that had become “an important part of Australia’s heritage, fostering the arts and reflecting Australia’s cultural diversity” (AR, 1992:9).

Stakeholders The central stakeholders that appeared within this relatively cohesive national space included the culture industry as a whole, as well as the artists within this industry. Australian culture discourse positioned the ABC as a “central player in the changing media industry” (1999:18). As a central player, the ABC was required to act as a catalyst in varied tasks, including “encouraging performers to shape technical standards” (AR, 1999:48). This role extended to the broader task of the ABC being “a significant part of the critical mass Australia needs in the media and arts production sector” (AR, 1999:48). The responsibility towards the culture industries was further underlined by the representation of the ABC as “the major source of fine music and drama for most Australians, (by) broadcasting through a national network of 39 transmitters” (AR, 1988:45). The ABC was also represented as supporting Australia’s orchestras and a large proportion of classical music in Australia: The six ABC symphony orchestras and the ABC Symphonia continued to be centerpieces of Australia’s instrumental music development. They provided full-time professional employment for 470 musicians through Australia, and in addition to their concert, recording and broadcasting schedule, provided an outlet for Australia’s composers and conductors (AR, 1984:34).

This statement assumed that the ABC was a central institution in the media and culture industries that provided employment, a ‘critical mass’ in the industry, and a central source of less commercially viable programming like classical music and drama. As well as the broader cultural industries, individual artists were also represented as important stakeholders. As noted, a frequent theme throughout ABC discourse was the

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number of artists engaged by the ABC during a year. These detailed measurements showed the ABC’s concern for “provid(ing) opportunities, within the limits of our funds and facilities, for Australian artists, speakers, writers and composers” (AR, 1960:5). Besides indicating a commitment to individual artists, this discourse placed artists and performers at the centre stage of decision making at the broadcaster.

Summary In sum, Australian culture discourse was situated within a broader drive to develop a unique Australian culture during the middle and later part of the twentieth century. When this discourse entered into the ABC, it constructed the central role of the broadcaster as nurturing and supporting Australian culture. One of central ways this occurred was by employing local artists and broadcasting local content. The space this discourse created for the ABC was decidedly national and bound together by a common identity. The central stakeholders in developing this unified culture were individual artists as well as the wider culture industry. Australian culture discourse therefore made the ABC into a major cultural actor responsible for further developing a unique Australian culture by providing opportunities to artists and the culture industry as a whole.

Diversity While the language of Australian culture positioned the ABC as part of a single culture shared amongst most Australians, the discourse of diversity treated the ABC’s cultural environment as a series of diverse cultures. This more plural cultural context was linked to different representations of the legitimate role of the broadcaster, the space the broadcaster operated in, and the stakeholders the broadcaster should be mindful of.

Higher order discourse Diversity was infused with higher order discourses found in debates about the changing nature of Australian national identity. Frow and Morris (1993) argued that these debates increased the importance of multiculturalism and Aboriginal rights, and subsequently multiplied and fragmented the national culture: Australia moved very rapidly in the 1960s and early 1970s from attributing to itself a unitary

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culture and even racial inheritance from Britain, to a recognition at the official level of government policy of the diversity of its ethnic makeup (based on substantial post-war migration from Southern Europe and elsewhere); The new policy of multiculturalism sought to recognise cultural diversity within, and as the basis of, a more differentiated mode of national cohesion. At roughly the same time Australia moved – again, for good and for bad, at the level of official government doctrine – away from its assimilationist and paternalist policies towards aboriginal people. What followed was in many ways of little practical difference, as both the state and federal governments failed to legislate land rights and self-government for Aborigines. The symbolic step nevertheless had force. It defined Aboriginal people rather than government institutions as the ones to decide their own future, and it thereby created its own demands for political empowerment (p. ix).

As multiculturalist discourse became an important feature of debates around national identity, discourse within the ABC changed. One way this change occurred was through a report commissioned by the federal government suggesting the ABC needed to reflect the increasingly diverse nature of the society it served (ACPEA, 1982). The broader discourses about the right of Aboriginal peoples to represent their own cultures also had a distinctive influence over discourse at the ABC. The final higher order discourse that proved influential in reshaping ABC discourse was second wave feminism. This discourse was based on advancing a claim for gender equity in the cash economy, sexual and family relations, and civil society. Second wave feminism claimed that the voices heard in civil society were almost exclusively male, and when women did appear, they were almost always in subordinate positions. This discourse was brought into the broadcaster by political action and organisation by women during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Of particular importance was a group called the Australian Women’s Broadcasting Co-operative (AWBC) comprising women drawn from a cross section of the ABC ranks.

Legitimate role Under diversity discourse the legitimate role of the ABC became representing diverse cultures. The ABC was required to provide a “service to meet the needs of a population which have varying standards of education, and a wide diversity of interests, hopes and aspirations” (AR, 1972:5). Here “the ABC (moved) steadily towards providing a program on television and radio that (would) better articulate the multicultural character of

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Australian society” (AR, 1985:6). An important part of the ABC’s role of representing these diverse groups was “work(ing) with relevant regional, ethnic, and indigenous groups to foster an appreciation of Australia’s unique and diverse community” (AR, 1984:5). The over-arching role constructed for the ABC was to “better articulate the multi-cultural character of Australian society” (AR, 1985:6). In order to achieve this over-aching goal of representing the diverse nature of Australian society, three particular activities were legitimated for the ABC. The first of these was representing diverse groups. This was achieved through programming targeted at particular parts of the population such as immigrant communities, women, and the indigenous population. The second activity that became legitimate for the ABC involved catering to the diverse needs of each community. One of the various attempts to reflect women’s concerns was the ‘Coming-Out Show’. This was “launch(ed) by women staff members of a project unique in Australian broadcasting history - a series of workshops and lectures designed to give any ABC female staff member the chance to participate in program-making. Typists, clerks, secretaries, computer specialists, record librarians and many other categories of staff attended weekly meetings of the Australian Women’s Broadcasting Co-operative (AWBC), which was formed to organise the venture” (AR, 1975:17). The AWBC broadened its scope by providing training in broadcasting skills as well as looking at the broader opportunities for the women at the ABC: In 1976 the Co-operative has researched the role and status of women within the organisation. As a result of this study, the Commission is to appoint a task force to fully examine employment opportunities for women in the ABC (AR, 1976:15).

The ‘Coming-Out Show’ represented an important forum where the “Feminist perspective (was) aired” (AR, 1984:21) through “examining such issues as women and the law, history, the economy and public institutions, using a variety of program forms: interviews and reports, drama, music and comedy. The programs were produced by the Australian Women’s Broadcasting co-operative in which ABC women are encouraged to develop radio production skills” (AR, 1983:18). The ABC role was infused with diverse groups discourse and the associated language of feminism.

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The third role legitimated by diversity discourse was providing groups with facilities to represent themselves. For example, the ABC provided support and broadcasting facilities to Aboriginal communities to produce their own programs. These initiatives allowed the ABC to “act as a facilitator, not an instigator; reaching to, not creating, a demand” (AR, 1985:6). In order to achieve this, the ABC was involved in “training Aboriginal broadcasters and providing them with the opportunity to produce and transmit programs” (AR, 1985:6). Reports of the ABC facilitating self broadcasting by Aboriginal communities include Waringarri Media (AR, 1988:47), the Wagkiyuparnanpurru studio in Fitzroy Crossing (1990:27), “The Katherine HF service (that) carried 10 hours of Aboriginal programming each week, produced by ABC in Darwin.” (AR, 1987:35), and Aboriginal broadcasters in Northern Queensland (AR, 1983:4). In each of these cases, diversity discourse informed how the ABC saw its role in relation to these communities. In particular, the discourse of ‘facilitating’ and ‘providing opportunities’ underpinned activities.

Space As well as transforming the legitimate roles for broadcasters, diversity discourse also transformed the space in which the ABC operated. Instead of constructing an ultimate unified space, the space diversity discourse created comprised a series of particular communities throughout Australia. This diverse vision of space is illustrated in the Melbourne station 3ZZ that “has developed its role as an access station, broadcasting in English and 35 other languages. It has achieved substantial gains in redeveloping radio as a means of communication in an urban society” (AR, 1976:14). Instead of broadcasting a single culture to a single audience, stations like 3ZZ were seen as broadcasting to a range of different audiences. This community broadcasting strategy was framed as an “important contribution to national ‘unity in diversity’. For instance, the Spanish program called the Melbourne cup in Spanish” (AR, 1976:14). Similarly, regarding Aboriginal broadcasting, the ABC was no longer seen as broadcasting in a unified national space. Rather, the ABC’s space of operation was represented as a series of unique largely rural Aboriginal communities who broadcast to their own communities using the ABC's media outlets.

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Stakeholders Under diversity discourse, traditionally ‘under-represented’ groups became important stakeholders for the ABC. We have already seen that three groups (Aboriginal communities, immigrant communities, and women’s groups) identified with diversity discourse at the ABC were considered important stakeholders. Aboriginal groups were recognised as important stakeholders insofar as they were indigenous inhabitants of the land. Women's groups appeared as important stakeholders due to the claim that that male voices, male issues, and male styles of debate had dominated the media. Finally, 'ethnic' communities were important stakeholders insofar as they represented parts of the increasingly diverse Australian society. According to diversity discourse, each of these communities should be recognised as having unique needs that must be catered for specifically.

Summary In concluding this section, this diverse groups discourse presents a quite different vision of the cultural context the ABC operated within. Instead of a relatively integrated culture, diverse groups discourse constructed the ABC’s environment as comprising a range of different groups and cultures. In sum, diversity discourse was informed by the higher order discourse of multiculturalism, second wave feminism and aboriginal rights. It constructed the central role for the broadcaster as representing diverse communities catering to their needs and providing facilities for groups to represent themselves. The space represented by diverse groups was a series of communities throughout Australia. The stakeholders who populated this space were Aboriginal groups, women and ‘ethnic minorities’.

Internationalism The discourses investigated up to this point have either been at the same geographic level as the nation state, or below the nation state. Australian culture, media market, and civil society discourses all constructed the entity of the Australian nation as the space in which

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the broadcaster should act. We might expect this, given that the identity of the ABC as ‘the National broadcaster’ relied on the boundaries of the nation state to give it any meaning. In contrast, the emergence of an international discourse extended beyond the level of the nation state. This discourse positioned the ABC in a broadcasting environment that stretched beyond the nation state to include other nationally important broadcasters.

Higher-order discourse International discourse draws on the higher order discourses of internationalism and globalisation. The discourse of internationalism comprised a series of concepts that emerged in international relations following World War Two, and was influential in restructuring international geopolitical arrangements. I use the term internationalism because this discourse is based on international co-operation between nation states that aims to strengthen their sovereignty. To achieve this, internationalist discourse promoted bilateral and multilateral programmes. This discourse was often central to the post-war industrialisation and modernisation programmes. Internationalist discourse at the ABC significantly influenced the ‘broadcasting modernisation’ and ‘aid’ projects that were important parts of ABC discourse. These efforts constructed the ABC as an organisation that could use its own experience as a national broadcaster to build ‘less developed’ nation’s broadcasting systems. These new broadcasting systems would then contribute to the broader task of nation building. This international project can be seen in the ABC’s attempts “to assist in the international development of agriculture”. In order to do so “the ABC in co-operation with the Commonwealth government invited Asian countries to send radio officers to Australia to study rural broadcasts” (AR, 1956:25). A second higher order discourse associated with international discourse at the ABC was globalisation. In contrast to internationalism, the discourse of globalisation did not focus on the co-operation between nation states. Rather it suggested that the ABC existed within a global media market where national borders meant little. The discourse of globalisation was made up of a mixture of technologies, open economies, global consumer culture, and a new political arrangement that restructured social life. This

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discourse appeared in the ABC after about 1992, and was particularly evident in suggestions that the ABC existed in an international media market where national boundaries were treated as being increasingly irrelevant (for further discussion see chapter six and seven).

Legitimate role International discourse created a series of legitimate roles that were quite unusual for the ABC. One involved the ABC acting as a colleague of national broadcasters in other countries. This can be seen in the extensive details of the various international exchange schemes involving the ABC. In one description, ABC programming was delivered via a transcription service with “About 10,000 programmes . . . dispatched on tape by Radio Australia’s transcription service during the year. They covered the entire spectrum of Radio Australia programming, and included language lessons, public affairs programmes and music. The programmes were air-mailed to 55 radio stations” (AR, 1973:34). There was also international exchange of film and other programming through multi-national agencies such as the British Commonwealth Newsfilm Agency that allowed “ABC news film (to) now (be seen) by millions of viewers in 23 countries” (AR, 1961:14). Also there was “the exchange of broadcasting material becoming increasingly frequent with radio organisations in Europe and America. Also recordings from Asian sources have made a significant addition in recent times” (AR, 1956:12). These exchange agreements were treated as valuable because they “continued to bring ABC film productions to an international audience” (AR, 1965: 13). These passages were underpinned by the suggestion that the ABC’s legitimate role involved being a participant in a broader network of international exchange and co-operative relations. The second role legitimated by international discourse was assisting in nation building efforts abroad. This saw broadcasters in ‘developed’ countries (like Australia) working with broadcasters in ‘developing’ countries to build modern infrastructure such as a national broadcasting system. The ABC’s role in the broader project was to provide expertise and training. For example, “to assist in the international development of

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agriculture, the ABC in co-operation with the Commonwealth government invited Asian countries to send radio officers to Australia to study rural broadcasts.” (AR, 1956:25). Similarly the ABC ran “a rural broadcasting training course, which students from India, Ceylon, Thailand, Borneo and the Philippines attended. Radio Malaya also requested, under the Colombo plan, help from an ABC officer to instruct its staff in the writing and production of radio programme matter” (AR, 1961:5). In the 1990s, international development work was targeted at specific countries. For example, “three members of the Technical Services Division (who) left Australia in March to carry out an aid project in the Khmer Republic” (AR, 1972:10). Another instance involved “ABC radio (being) contracted by the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau to deliver a range of training and consultancy services to the National Broadcasting Commission of Papua New Guinea. The ABC will contribute expertise and some of its own resources to the two-year project.” (AR, 1991:13). In each of these instances, that undertaking aid projects was represented as a legitimate role for the ABC. The final role that international discourse legitimated was broadcasting to international audiences. As we have seen in the discussions of government discourse, the shape of the international audience was clearly related to current government foreign policy objectives. In particular, between the 1950s and late 1980s there was an increasing contextualisation of Radio Australia in South East Asia: Begun as a wartime information outlet, the ABC’s overseas service has expanded into a medium of news, entertainment and instruction for millions of listeners. It began on a nine-hour schedule using only European languages. Today, Radio Australia is in the air round-the-clock, broadcasting direct in most of the major mother tongues in South-East Asia” (AR, 1965:20).

Here we notice an acknowledgement of the ABC’s “wider obligation in the outside world- Radio Australia has continued to function effectively and recent figures show its overwhelming popularity in the areas covered.” (AR, 1962:6). Radio Australia was seen to reflect the “importance of cultivating good relations with Australia’s Asian neighbours, we are constantly concerned to increase the effectiveness of our transmissions to Asia in English and foreign languages.” (AR, 1953:20). Radio Australia showed the clear importance of both “broadcast(ing) Australian news, opinion and entertainment all over

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the world, but its programmes are planned with Australia’s present place in the AsianPacific area strongly in mind” (AR, 1961:19). In order to do this “Radio Australia now broadcasts in English, Pidgin, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin) and Vietnamese.” (AR, 1974:10). Broadcasting to an international audience involved the specific goal of “encourag(ing) awareness and understanding of Australian. . . inform(ing) Australians living or travelling abroad about Australian affairs” (AR, 1988:1) The ABC’s role of contributing to foreign policy shifted during the 1990s. This happened as international discourse was transformed with the rise of globalisation discourse. The influence of this new discourse can be seen with Australian television represented as a central plank in “retain(ing) a strategic presence in the international broadcasting arena” (AR, 1997:12). Alongside this market-influenced discourse, we find Australia Television positioned as part of the ABC’s attempts to “to fulfil its charter responsibilities to ‘transmit to countries outside Australia, television programmes of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment’. The service is a significant commitment to, and acknowledgement of Australia’s relationship with other countries in the Asia Pacific region. It provides an authoritative and comprehensive window on Australia for our neighbors in the fastest growing region in the world” (AR, 1993:18).

Space Issues like international collaborations, international broadcasting, and international aid placed particular emphasis on the international space. This international space was initially framed in co-operative terms, with aid schemes being of particular importance. Recently the international space has been recoded as a market that the ABC must compete in. The emergence of the market as the major language used at the ABC will be discussed in chapter six.

Stakeholders International discourse constructed a set of quite different stakeholders for the organisation. The first group of stakeholders that appeared in international discourses were public broadcasters in other countries. This can be seen in discussions about the 160

ABC engaging with other national broadcasters as colleagues, partners in the development of programming, and providers of aid. Government departments were the second stakeholder that was central in international discourse. These organisations were important because the international goals of the ABC were strongly related to national goals, particularly those of foreign relations and the ABC’s requirement to project an appropriate image of Australia internationally. For instance, the international distribution of television programming aimed “to make more real to Australian viewers the life and conditions for our neighbours in Indonesia and the South and Far East of the Continent” (AR, 1958:12). The efforts made by Radio Australia also resulted in it being “regarded as a friendly and impartial picture of Australian life and of the Australian desire to aid the development of democratic government and higher living standards in these areas” (AR, 1958:6). The goal was to “project (an) appropriate awareness of Australia in the Asia Pacific” (AR, 1992:3). Broadcasting to international audiences to pursue governmentdefined goals clearly placed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as a central stakeholder for the ABC (see also: Hodge, 1995).

Summary We can see how international discourse legitimated a number of unique roles for the ABC including collegial relations with other broadcasters, broadcasting to an international audience, and providing aid. The space that the ABC exists within was understood as being international in scope, with particular reference to the Asia-Pacific. This international space was largely understood in terms of co-operation and aid as opposed to market transactions. The stakeholders that became central were other national broadcasters and the government, in particular the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Conclusion I have identified seven major discourses that appeared within the ABC’s annual reports between 1953 and 2000 (for summary see table 5.2): civil society, community, the media market, government, Australian culture, diversity, and internationalism. These discourses drew on already existing higher-order discourses. Civil society discourse drew on the 161

broader philosophical and political discourse of liberalism, and community discourses were embedded within discourses of communitarianism. Media market discourse drew extensively on neo-liberal economics and particular technologies like market surveys. Government discourse drew upon broad discourses of the Keynesianism. Australian culture discourse relied heavily on the discourse of Australian nationalism, diversity discourse drew on higher order discourses such as multiculturalism, feminism and aboriginal rights discourses, and the discourse of internationalism drew on internationalism and globalisation discourses. Each discourse was also associated with socio-cultural power effects, the first of which was the construction of different legitimate roles. Civil society discourse constructed the ABC’s role as advancing a civilising mission through providing value free information and a space for debate. The legitimate role constructed by government discourse was the execution of government policy. Community discourse legitimated the dual roles of providing communities with access to national networks and allowing local communities the opportunity to express their own identity. Media market discourse made the servicing of consumers and gaining market share the broadcaster’s main legitimate role. The discourse of Australian culture made the organisations main legitimate role developing a national identity through supporting the arts. The role of representing diverse communities was constructed as legitimate under diversity discourse. Finally, international discourse positioned the major roles of broadcaster as acting in relation to other international broadcasters, whether it is as a colleague, an agent of aid, or a competitor. This indicates that there were multiple discourses at work, each of which seemed to construct quite different understandings of the legitimate role of the broadcaster. As well as legitimating a wide range of roles for the broadcaster, the discourses also constructed particular spaces the ABC was to operate within. Civil society discourse constructed the Australian nation as the central space in which the ABC was to operate. Similarly, we find that Government discourse constructed the Australian nation as well as the international arena as the major spaces in which the broadcaster was positioned.

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Community discourse constructed rural Australia as the central space in which the ABC operated, while media market discourse constructed the metropolitan markets and, later, the international market place as spaces in which the ABC was positioned. Australian culture discourse positioned the broadcaster within the Australian nation, but had a subtle focus on metropolitan centres in practice. Diversity discourse constructed the ABC’s space as a series of communities scattered throughout the nation, with a particular emphasis on remote Aboriginal communities. Finally, international discourse positioned the ABC in an international space, with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific. The construction of the organisation’s key stakeholder was the final socio-cultural power effect associated with discourse. The public appeared as the major stakeholder in civil society while, in government discourses, federal parliament and other government departments appeared as important stakeholders. The discourse of community constructed the ABC’s central stakeholders as locality and identity based communities, placing a particular emphasis on rural Australia. Media market discourse emphasised commercial stakeholders such as the Audience, programme buyers and competitors. In contrast, Australian culture discourse constructed the central stakeholders as the culture industry and the individual artists. Diverse groups such as Aboriginal peoples, women’s groups, and ethnic minority groups appeared as the central stakeholder that appeared in diversity discourse. Finally, the major stakeholders constructed by international discourse were other public broadcasters, the international audience, and the department of foreign affairs and trade. While the discourses and the socio-cultural power relations they engendered differed greatly, there were certain points of commonality. One interesting point of agreement was amongst the spaces constructed for the ABC. In particular, the many discourses that were at work coalesced around three geographical levels – the local, the national, and the international. The local was the focus of community and diversity discourse. Often these discourses were strongly linked with smaller scale broadcasting ventures such as AM radio stations and, more recently, community access stations. Australian culture, government, civil society, and media market discourses coalesced around the national.

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These national level discourses were linked with the ABC’s national radio and television network. The third geographic locus of discourses at the ABC was the international level largely associated with international discourse, and partially, media market discourse. This geographic level was largely linked to Radio Australia but during the 1990s came to be associated with new media ventures such as a satellite television station. The fact that there are multiple discourses at work in the ABC meant that potential points of tensions emerged between different discourses and the different spaces, stakeholders and legitimate roles they constructed. The first point of tension was between the civil society and government discourse. This was largely due to the demand imputed within the civil society discourse that the broadcaster should be a separate entity from the government. The second core tension was between the civil society and the media market discourses. This tension largely revolved around the requirements of the actors in the civil society to pursue non-commercial goals such as providing value free information and balanced debate. The goals associated with the media market were explicitly commercial in that they focused on gaining a large audience through appealing programming. In a similar vein, there was a tension between the media market on the one hand and Australian culture, diverse groups, and communities on the other. This tension largely revolved around the media market discourse emphasising a market driven criterion that required programming to attract a relatively large audience. Australian culture, community and diverse groups in contrast emphasised developing a coherent and distinct identity. What was particularly interesting was that these points of tension were around ABC’s legitimate role. I have detailed a largely static or synchronic analysis. At particular points I have noted some of these discourses shifted and changed. For instance, community discourse shifted from being represented as far-flung parts of the nation towards communities having their own unique identities. Similarly, there was a shift in media market discourse during the early 1990s with the rise of ‘new media environment’ discourse. While each of these shifts may be important in and of themselves, a new discourse may also effect how other

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discourses are configured. In the following chapter I will seek to chart these changes, and ask how they reconfigured relations of power throughout the period studied.

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VI Shifting Discourses at the ABC

Introduction In the previous chapter I argued that there was no single dominant discourse at the ABC. Instead, I identified a number of discourses that constructed the broadcaster’s space, legitimate role, and stakeholders. This chapter will add a historical dimension by asking how each of these seven discourses identified in the previous chapter changed between 1953 and 2000. I have drawn on the same data used for the previous chapter (ABC annual reports, 1953-2000). Instead of examining these data as being stable over time, this chapter looks at the annual reports in historical sequence and teases out the significant discursive changes during the period studied. My historical analysis illustrates changes in each of the seven discourses discussed in the last chapter. Changes in discourse involved the appearance of a new discourse at the ABC or significant changes to existing discourses. Each of these changes in discourse formed an overarching pattern of three broader shifts between 1953 and 2000. The first of these shifts involved a change in nationalism. Nationalism had been particularly important throughout the history of the ABC. However, representations of the nation as a singular, cohesive entity were only influential for a limited period. During the middle of the 1970s, nationalism was disrupted with the appearance of a more plural or multicultural understanding of the nation. The second major shift that occurred during the early 1980s was the expanded influence of the market. As the language of the market became commonplace, the language deployed by dominant groups adopted an increasingly economic tint. The third major shift occurred during the early 1990s when the new media environment became increasingly dominant. While media market positioned the ABC within a national market, new media environment positioned the ABC within a global media market dominated by large multinational media corporations.

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I shall show how each of these shifts involved the emergence of new discourses and changes in existing discourses. Further, I will argue this involved the reconstruction of the broadcaster’s space and legitimate role (for summary see: figure 6.1). 1953- mid 1970 Nationalism Discourses Civil society

Single public with similar debates

mid 1970-early 1980 Multi-culturalism

1980-1992

1992-2000

Media market

New media environment (NME)

Plural public with different issues and styles of debate Funder of ABC

Partially seen as cash exchange

Threatened by NME Investor in digital future

Government

Funder of ABC

Australian Culture

Singular national culture to be developed and spread Require incorporation into the nation Something to be avoided

Diverse national culture

Investor requiring ‘profit’ Diverse national culture

Unique identities of each community

Unique identities of each community

Localism

Something to be avoided

Global media market in many technologies

Minorities who require incorporation Outside, requiring good image of the nation

Represent diversity

Competitive national media market in Radio & TV Represent diversity

Outside, requiring good image of the nation

International colleagues as potential markets

Possible target market

Sociocultural power relations Space

Nation state

Legitimate Role

Pursuit of project of nationalism

Nation state Localities Represent diversity

Nation state based market Gain national market share efficiently

Global market Local communities Establish global presence

Community Media Market Diversity International

Threatened by NME

Widened definition

Figure 6.1: Discursive shifts at the ABC, 1953-2000.

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From Nationalism to Multiculturalism Nationalism is a consistent theme throughout dominant ABC discourse. The ABC’s identity is ‘the national broadcaster’. Such nationalist discourse constructs the broadcaster’s audience as a relatively singular and cohesive nation. In this section, I trace the shift from the early nationalism at the ABC towards multiculturalism during the 1970s. I show how this shift was related to changes in some discourses, and how it reconstructed the broadcasters legitimate role and the space it was positioned within. From 1953 until the middle of the 1970s, the nation assumed a relatively stable, total and defined state. The ABC was to act within and upon a nation in which there was a relatively aligned and singular understanding of Australian culture, civil society, the international dimension, and the community. During the middle of the 1970s, nationalism was replaced by multiculturalism. While the word ‘nation’ remained firmly in place, its meaning was reconstructed as the increasingly ‘pluralist’ nature of society appeared in ABC discourse. This occurred during “a period when Australian society (was) undergoing rapid change and there (was) considerable public discussion about the further development of radio and television programmes” (AR, 1973:6). The specific nature of these changes included “a wider range of opinions and attitudes within Australian society than existed a few years ago and belief that there are few, if any, subjects which can be regarded as unsuitable for serious discussion in ABC programs” (AR, 1976:9). A consistent theme that ran through each of the discourses identified in the last chapter was the development of the nation state. With the shift to multiculturalism, issues such as locality, diversity, and community emerged. This in turn involved changes in discourses at the ABC. The first of these was the entirely new discourse of diversity that appeared during the middle of the 1970s. The second change I identified was the reconfiguration of existing discourses such as civil society, Australian culture, and community. Further, the rise of diversity discourse led to the reconstruction of the broadcaster’s legitimate role and the space it operated within. It should be noted that during this period, international and government discourses remained stable, and media market discourse was not an

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important feature of ABC discourse. Therefore, I shall not discuss these discourses in this section.

Diversity The most noticeable change associated with the shift from nationalism to multiculturalism was the appearance of the discourse of diversity. Under earlier forms of nationalism, groups who did not share the dominant Anglo-Irish based Australian culture reproduced by the ABC were not recognised by the broadcaster. People outside this dominant culture such as the indigenous population or immigrants, were represented as ideal targets for assimilation into the national culture. This assimilationist mission was carried out with Aboriginal people through English language teaching programs like ‘Time to Listen’. Similarly, radio programmes that instructed the listener on typically Australian mores were used to make immigrants feel ‘at home’. With the advent of diversity discourse, it was assumed that the various groups within Australian society did not solely identify with an all-embracing Australian nation, and should not be made to. Under nationalism, ‘minority’ groups were incorporated through a variety of civilising tactics discussed in the previous chapter. Under multiculturalism, the figure of the ‘minority’ audience was rapidly replaced with the ‘diverse’ audience. It became particularly important for the ABC to employ staff that reflected the diverse cultures that made up Australian culture. The Broadcaster consciously increased the presence of women, indigenous people and people from non-English speaking backgrounds. For instance it was reported that “ABC Television has taken a number of steps to ensure that its programs and staff more accurately reflect the ethic and racial diversity of the Australian community” (AR, 1990:34), as well as placing “emphasis on achieving a higher proportion of women in senior management and other areas where women are under represented together with higher proportions of Aboriginal people and people of non-English speaking backgrounds” (AR, 1992:16). This expressed a concern that the broadcaster develops a diverse workforce. The following is just one such example: There has been a successful infusion of female staff in the traditionally ‘male oriented’ area of staging and a pleasing diversity in the multicultural nature of the workforce across the board.

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Several special initiatives were taken in Aboriginal employment in both production and administrative areas (AR, 1988:27).

One of the major initiatives to ensure an adequate reflection of the audience’s diversity was “equal employment opportunity (EEO) (being considered as) the fundamental basis for all the Corporation’s human resource policies. The broadcaster views EEO principals as assisting the ABC to draw the best staff from the community, but also enhancing its ability to respond to the different elements in the community” (AR, 1984:10). A series of training initiatives targeted at Aboriginal people also appeared in the text. These were represented as aiming to further “the development of Aboriginal broadcasting” (AR, 1984:10). The ABC was said to be continuing “to develop innovative policies and strategies to promote employment equity with particular emphasis on the target groups of women, people of non-English speaking backgrounds, Aboriginals, Torres Strait Islanders and people with disabilities” (AR, 1988:58). The theme of employing a diverse workforce also pervaded quantitative reports of the number of Aboriginal staff employed: Co-ordination by the department of Employment, Education and Training, the ABC has now employed 65 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people in the following areas: One producer, eleven journalists, two broadcast officers, one radio operator, and one project officer around Australia in Radio; four people in administrative positions on corporate areas; and the journalists, six program makers, four program support staff, the production co-ordinators, one co-ordinator of aboriginal training, two staging assistant, one management trainee and two personnel staff in Television (AR, 1990:47).

Counting the number of indigenous people employed as well as describing the policies that aimed to ensure the diversity of the ABC’s workforce were taken as expressions of the ABC’s commitment to being a faithful conduit for the diverse cultures of Australia. The appearance of diversity discourse at the ABC meant that groups such as women, indigenous groups, and recent immigrants were no longer represented as minorities to be civilised into the nation. Instead, they were unique groups whose identity was not reducible to the nation. The ABC’s role became providing the means for each diverse group to represent their own unique identities.

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Civil society The shift from nationalism to multiculturalism involved the transformation of already existing discourses including civil society. Under nationalism, the civil society was understood as a space where all citizens could contribute to debates on issues of national importance. The ABC was represented as a central space where debate over issues of public importance could occur. The ABC broadcast ‘in the interests of the community’, and propagated what it believed to “be best in our society,” endeavouring “to elevate, according to its own judgement, the tastes of that society” (AR 1963:10). The possibility that the ABC could use its power recklessly would ultimately be overcome by “the balance which [the ABC] preserves” and “the honesty with which problems are treated” (AR, 1963:10). The decline of nationalism as a dominant framework led to significant changes in civil society discourse. The public was no longer understood as a singular body made up of relatively similar people who share similar styles of debate and engagement. Instead, the public was reconstructed as a shared space containing people with different backgrounds and radically different needs. This pluralisation of the public involved a change in how the ABC’s audience appeared in the annual reports. Instead of the audience being represented as a relatively holistic ‘public’, it appeared as a body made up of a diverse series of tastes and interests. To adequately serve this diverse audience, the ABC must provide a “service to meet the needs of a population which have varying standards of education, and a wide diversity of interests, hopes and aspirations” (AR, 1972:5). One such attempt to meet these diverse needs was the Melbourne community access station 3ZZ that “has developed its role as an access station, broadcasting in English and 35 other languages. It has achieved substantial gains in redeveloping radio as a means of communication in an urban society”. (AR, 1976:14) This community broadcasting strategy was framed as an important contribution to national ‘unity in diversity’. The discourse of diverse audiences was carried right through into the 1990s. This can be seen in the declaration that “the challenge for the ABC is to hear and reflect the voices of a diverse Australia. The ABC strives to satisfy the needs of the nation, each state, and territory and local communities, as well as communities of interest such as arts, sports, science, religion and rural” (AR,

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1999:18-19). The shift from nationalism to multiculturalism was associated with a change in the discourse of civil society. In particular, civil society was no longer represented as a cohesive and singular public sphere, but became relatively distinct communities with different needs.

Community Community discourse also changed with the rise of multiculturalism. When nationalism was dominant, communities were thought to have no intrinsic worth. Instead they were only worth considering in relation to the nation as a whole. So, for example, communities in rural Australia benefited from incorporation into the national civil society. By becoming part of the nation, each community could access the national civil society and national culture. The offerings of the ABC’s channels would allow remote communities to experience themselves as part of the nation. The ABC therefore had to fill the need for “local programmes of district interest” that “compensated those of our people who are very conscious that the coming of television has given further emphasis to their sense of isolation from urban advantages” (AR, 1959:4). With the rise of multiculturalism, there was a distinct shift in how communities were represented in ABC discourse. Instead of a community being an entity that needed to be brought into the fold of the nation, they were represented as unique entities with defined identities of their own. This shift meant communities were no longer considered to be rural outposts to be incorporated into the broader national space. Instead, they were represented as having their own identities and needs that were quite separate from the nation. The control of radio from metropolitan centres was no longer seen as a viable strategy. In order to reflect the unique identity of each community, local stations handed some control over to the communities they broadcasted to: It is proposed to develop the new AM stations as essentially locally controlled units reflecting community interests, thereby allowing the ABC to develop a significant community involvement in local radio production (AR, 1975:9).

When radio stations were positioned within a community, they were to play “a pivotal role in developing mutual understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity in this

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region” (AR, 1992:30). The role of news shifted from being a service that informed a rational public towards being a service that would “strengthen and promote its commitment to Australia’s cultural communities” (AR, 1992:24). Overall, the ABC professed the explicit aim of producing “Work with relevant regional, ethnic, and indigenous groups to foster appreciation of Australia’s unique and diverse community” (AR, 1984:5). Communities were no longer encoded as ‘minorities’ that needed to be incorporated into the broader nation, nor were the broadcasters charged with the task of representing ‘minority interests’. Instead, communities were represented as having unique identities, and the ABC’s role became “cater(ing) for all community interests” (AR, 1977:15). This involved a move from conceiving the community as a singular and easily definable entity, towards the broadcaster being required to “respond to the needs of diverse state, regional and rural audiences” (AR, 1997:18).

Australian Culture The shift from nationalism to multiculturalism corresponded with a change in the discourse of Australian culture. When nationalism was prominent, the ABC’s central role was to support and propagate a relatively homogenous Australian culture. There was some recognition that the ABC’s legitimate role was to support Australian culture by broadcasting ‘serious’ music, drama, and educational programming. However, the ABC also saw itself as ‘obligated’ to promote and propagate popular culture: The provision of programmes designed to increase and develop our general knowledge and appreciation of the intellectual, ethical and artistic, is without doubt a first priority in the objects of our constitution. Equally, however, there remains the obligation to invest these services with a popular appeal, wide enough to ensure that the service is designed for whole community and not a minority (AR, 1955: 5).

The ABC’s conception of culture held together through the need to ensure ‘the whole community’ was served. The ABC needed to represent both high culture and popular culture (although the former objective was prioritised). By supporting Australian high culture, the ABC aimed to develop the listener’s tastes and propagate a shared

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‘intellectual, ethical and artistic’ canon. Here, the ABC would play a role in developing a civilised citizenry. The relationship between nation building and the discourse of Australian culture assumed that the ABC broadcast to a single national culture with a shared cultural heritage. The promotion of this shared culture thus became the ABC’s legitimate role. This was carried out through broadcasting Australian voices and opinions on particular issues of the day: By bringing a large number of new voices to the air, we were able to encourage Australian speakers and writers on general subjects, and, most importantly, to present news on national and international affairs in accordance with the belief that the best understanding of the great events of the day will arise out of listeners having placed before them a wide variety of opinions (AR 1955:16).

The notion of ‘Australian voices’ suggested that it was necessary for the ABC to broadcast Australian writers and Australian perspectives. The theme of promoting an ‘Australian voice’ also appeared in representations of the changing character of people actually doing broadcasts for the ABC. Up until the late 1940s, broadcasters were represented as characters that spoke in an upper-middle class southeastern English accent and wore a dinner suit whilst broadcasting. During the 1950s, broadcasters no longer appeared in a formal dinner suit, and began speaking in recognisably Australian accents. This transition in representations of broadcasters embodied a move away from the ABC reproducing an essentially colonial culture toward reproducing a ‘uniquely Australian’ national culture. In order to incorporate the whole of the Australian citizenry into an ‘Australian Culture’, it was necessary to further develop and specify the Australian culture. One way this was achieved was through promoting a national cultural canon made of Australian Artists and writers. For instance, competitions run by the broadcaster were used as an opportunity to promote Australian culture as a whole: The ABC’s entries will provide Australian authors and composers with opportunities not only of competing in the most important international competition in the field of broadcasting but of making their work – and Australia – better know in many countries overseas (AR, 1958:6).

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Australian culture was represented as a relatively singular entity that required further development. The ABC saw itself performing this development function in areas like television where it was “anxious to assist and encourage writers to acquire the techniques of television and . . . hope that they will find in this new field an exciting and interesting means of expression” (AR, 1958:10). Strategies for providing this development function included training, offering ‘constructive criticism’, and staffing: In particular, it will be our endeavour to develop the work of our own artists, writers and composers in the television service to a similar degree as has been the case in sound broadcasting. It is necessary to stress, however, that for some years to come a considerable proportion of overseas material will be not only necessary to the service, but very desirable for informational and cultural reasons (AR, 1957:6).

Developing Australian culture necessitated producing an appropriate audience as well as suitable and skilled cultural producers. Because “high standards of performance must go along with high standards in appreciation, the ABC encourages the development of a discriminating audience” (AR, 1953:11). Here, the ABC used strategies such as a subscriber series, youth concerts and an organised visit of “eminent composers to Australia” which would “increase appreciation of the music of the composer” (AR, 1964:11). Each of these strategies aimed to develop a national artistic culture: It has been the ABC’s aim to foster the performance and appreciations of all types of fine music and to help to develop a strong musical tradition. Programmes have been comprehensive in their scope, ranging from light classics to symphony concerts and catering for a variety of listeners from the average music-lover to the connoisseur (AR, 1955:11, my emphasis).

The broadcasters central role in developing Australian culture as a whole underpinned these attempts to develop cultural producers and the audience. For instance, the ABC was represented as playing a major part in the development of Australian (classical) music: Australia’s remarkable musical development in recent years, acclaimed by a succession of leading musicians from overseas, reflects the ever-increasing responsibility resting on the ABC as the administering authority for the nation’s symphony orchestras and the principal employers of musical talent (AR, 1954:13).

The assumption that the national culture remained in a state of infancy was a foundation for claims that the ABC played a pivotal part in developing Australian culture. This was attributed to the lack of an appropriate institutional basis that would allow a unique 175

culture to develop. The ABC therefore assumed a kind of Keynesian role, attempting to build up Australian culture through appropriate interventions targeted at failures in the cultural market. When nationalism was prevalent, Australian culture was perceived as something shared amongst the whole population of Australia. The rise of multiculturalism ensured a partial acceptance that the ABC broadcast to an audience from diverse cultural backgrounds. The ABC’s Radio National, for instance, was represented as the “prime national voice for the affairs of the whole nation in all its diversity.” (AR 1985:28) That is, the station sought to represent both the nation as a whole as well as its specific cultures. In developing educational material, the ABC aimed to look “at people with interesting backgrounds and reflect the diversity of Australian society” (AR, 1980:51). The task of reflecting diversity was added to the already established roles of educating, informing and entertaining. The broadcasters’ goals became to “provide programs that contribute to a sense of national identity, inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community” (AR, 1982:1). Diversity was included as a central goal in ABC Television as the “ABC-TV seeks to be more Australian, reflecting our cultural diversity, more responsive to its audience and more innovative” (AR, 1985:1). Right into the 1990s the ABC was understood as a central institution involved in “reflecting Australia’s cultural diversity” (AR, 1992:9). The rise of multiculturalism involved a transformation in Australian culture discourse. This was part of a broader change from perceiving Australian culture as a relatively singular entity that could be inculcated into the population, towards representing Australian culture as a single nation composed of a series of diverse groups who needed an opportunity to express their own unique culture.

From Nation-Building to Reflecting Diversity To sum up, the movement from nationalism to multiculturalism entailed the appearance of the new discourse of diversity and shifts in three discourses that were already present

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(civil society, Australian culture, and community). A central characteristic of this change was the appearance of a new strand that ran throughout each of the discourses. Under classical nationalism, a singular conception of the nation characterised each of the discourses. The central role of the ABC was to contribute to the project of nation building. This made the organisation’s legitimate role one of contributing to the project of nation building by providing a conduit for civil society, supporting the further development of Australian culture, incorporating minority groups and communities into the nation, and propagating a positive image of the nation. During the 1970s multiculturalism took the place of nationalism. Diversity became the new theme that ran through each discourse. The space the ABC operated within comprised a series of diverse cultures and communities. The ABC’s role within this space involved reflecting the various diverse cultures and groups that formed the nation. The ABC carried out this task by allowing diverse voices access to the airwaves. Here, different cultures that make up Australia could be reflected, diverse groups could be represented in terms of programming and staffing, and the voices of different communities throughout Australia could be celebrated.

The Rise of the Market In the last section we saw that the shift from nationalism to multiculturalism was associated with the appearance of a new discourse (diversity) and the re-ordering of other discourses (Civil society, community and Australian culture). Multiculturalism continued to be an influential strand that ran throughout many of discourses until 2000 (when the study finishes). However, the early 1980s saw the rise of the market. This involved the appearance of a new discourse (the media market) and the major transformations in a number of discourses (civil society, government, and international). Australian culture and diversity discourses were only partially changed. In what follows I shall trace out each of these changes.

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Media Market Prior to 1958, discourses associated with the market did not appear in the ABC’s annual reports. Instances of media market discourse that appeared between 1958 and the early 1980s were largely critical of the influence that a market-based model may have on public broadcasting. Talk about the audience as a market and the widespread use of ratings technologies were seen to contradict dearly held goals such as quality, diversity, and producing imaginative programming. Ratings were said to “reveal nothing about the quality of programming nor about the attention or interest engendered by programs” (1979:10). The ABC’s concern was not ratings, but ensuring that “programmes reach the maximum audience for which each of them was specifically designed; and that the quality of all programmes is such that contemporary life and thought are brought to the Australian community in ways which strike the imagination and make observations and understanding richer” (AR, 1970:5). Although ratings as a brute measure of success were seen to be inappropriate, the size of the audience was of some concern: It is not the Commission’s policy to seek to maximise its share of the potential audience at all times. If audience ratings were the basis of the Commission’s programme policy, the new and the unusual would rarely be heard or seen. The Commission nevertheless does attach importance to the size of the audience listening to, or watching its programmes. It is also concerned with the composition of the audience and its reaction to our programmes. No broadcasting organisation can forget that it exists primarily for its audience and that there is a continued need to take account of the views of the non-professional – the listener and the viewer (AR, 1974:7).

While this excerpt shows at least some concern with audience popularity, nowhere do we find mention of attempts to quantify audience reaction. Ratings were seen to be something that may jeopardise the ABC’s attempts to “provide the community with broadcasting fare which would not otherwise be available with a private system” (1955:4), or bring “contemporary life and thought to the Australian community in ways which strike the imagination and make observations and understanding richer” (AR, 1970:5).

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During the early 1980s, media market discourse was rapidly embraced. With the rise of media market discourse we find that the goals of efficiency became more widespread. According to this discourse, the ABC needed to become more enterprising and operate more like a business and less like a public service. For instance the ABC acknowledged it “recognis[ed] the necessity to be entrepreneurial and energetic in pursuing revenueraising opportunities” (AR, 1984:6). Activities like selling engineering innovations were subsumed under the market discourse: A little known aspect of the ABC’s entrepreneurial activities is the licensing to commercial manufacturers of designs developed by the Corporation’s engineering laboratories. During the past years three innovations were marketed successfully: an audio system which stores large quantities of digitally recorded sound; a teletext reprocesser which reconstructs signals degraded in transmission, and a test tone generator (AR, 1988:7).

This drive to become more entrepreneurial meant that the ABC’s employment practices were represented as part of a competitive market instead of the dowdy public sector: While private enterprise is not automatically more efficient than public enterprise, the latter frequently operates under severe disabilities. It is often difficult to apply that somewhat inflexible public sector recruitment and employment policy in a concentrated and highly competitive industry (AR, 1987:3).

This move away from the language necessarily associated with public sector employment saw external competitive dynamics projected within the ABC. The ABC itself became a site of competitive dynamics with the introduction of a contestable funding model: The ABC believes that the outsourcing contestability model which allows for internal producers to compete, provides the most effective way of ensuring that programs are produced efficiently and are of value to ABC audiences (1997:12).

The application of a market-based model and competitive pressure for funding individual programme makers was assumed to make the organisation more efficient. The rise of the media market as a viable category saw many aspects of the organisation subsumed under the aegis of the market. This meant the media market replaced multiculturalism. Consequently, the ABC’s activities were represented as a business instead of being part of the public sector. With this shift, the ABC’s legitimate role

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moved from reflecting the nation to catering to the demands of the market in an efficient and effective manner.

Civil Society The appearance of Media Market discourse was accompanied by changes in existing discourses. This happened as discourses were increasingly infused with the language of the market. We have seen that under both nationalism and multiculturalism, the civil society was represented as a space for free debate and discussion. This was challenged by the rise of the media market. Civil society did not simply disappear from the language used by the broadcaster. Instead, civil society goals were justified using the language of the market. The clearest instance of this symbiosis was the ‘four cents a day’ campaign. This campaign attempted to place a cash value against the role the ABC played in the nation’s civil society by detailing the important services the organisation provided the Australian public for the four-cent contribution each person made to keep the organisation running: The cost of the ABC averages less than four cents a day per Australian . . . The principal services provided by this sum are: *An AM radio service, on three networks through 92 stations. *A domestic short-wave service. *A colour television service through 174 outlets available to 98% of the population with 58.8% Australian content. *A round the clock FM stereo radio service in five major cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Newcastle (extending to Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Launceston from 31 August, 1980). *Six symphony orchestras. *A national training orchestra. *A show band. *A nation wide independent news service which produces and broadcasts 117963 radio bulletins and 9029 television bulletins in the past year. *An overseas service, Radio Australia, broadcasting around the clock in nine languages. *A concert management structure which recorded nearly one million concert seat attendances. *Broadcasts – whenever parliament is in session – of the proceedings of federal parliament. *Round-the-clock radio from 2JJ Sydney . . . which relays from midnight until dawn to 2CN Canberra and 2NC Newcastle. *A total of 64 national radio series, 397 program episodes for television and 24 new books and booklets (including nine program notes with charts) to be used in conjunction with educational broadcasts. *A merchandising division which produced 14 new book titles also 13 cassettes and now has a total of 140 books, cassettes and recordings on its publications list, *A monthly FM magazine, 24 hours. * A weekly radio 2 magazine, ABC radio guide. *An employment source for Australian creative talent including musicians, writers, and actors (AR, 1980:4).

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A cash relationship underpins this extensive list of services: the tax-payer provides the paltry sum of four or six cents per day, “much less than the quarter of the cost of a daily newspaper” (AR, 1982:3), and in return, they are able to access the ABC’s various media outlets. Ultimately the four cents a day campaign aimed to prove just how efficient the ABC could be in producing a range of services that were essential to the maintenance of the civil society. This campaign extended the basic premise of media market discourse (that every relation was to be encoded as an cash based exchange relationship) to another discourse. This meant the public was no longer represented as a gathering of citizens engaged in rational debate about issues of the day. Instead, the public was represented as a group of taxpayers, who entered into a kind of subscription relationship with the ABC.

Government The introduction of a neo-liberal vocabulary in the government’s dealings with the ABC largely prefigured the rise of media market discourse. This involved an injunction for the ABC to become more efficient and enterprising by casting off the shackles of public sector practice. The liberal government led by Malcolm Fraser called for the ABC to become more market driven and efficient. These calls eventually culminated in the 1979 Green report. We have already seen that under nationalism, government funding for the ABC was not considered to be an issue that was in fundamental doubt. In fact, during the 1950s and 1960s, parliament rarely appeared in ABC discourse as a funding body. When it did, there were only minor quibbles over marginal issues such as additional capital funding and the restructuring of the licensing fee. In the following example, we find that the government only appeared as a provider of major capital funding. The need for increased capital expenditure was legitimated by the need to build a strong national broadcaster that could contribute to the task of nation building: If the effectiveness of National Broadcasting is to be maintained, the Commission is convinced that it will be necessary to request the Government in the near future to authorise capital expenditure on a greater scale. In comparison with comparable organisations in the British Commonwealth and in other countries, the capital facilities available to the Australian service have become inadequate having regard to modern development (AR, 1953:8).

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The rise of neo-liberalism within the federal government from the late 1970s involved a threat to the broadcaster’s funding sources. Government funding became an issue that consistently appeared in the annual reports. Earlier discourses about government funding were critical of funding cuts. For instance, one annual report declared that government funding “continued to decline . . . conversely, the profitability of Australian commercial radio and television stations – a profitability that largely depends upon public expenditure through advertising – has been at a high level” (1977:6). As we saw earlier, the ABC made efforts to point out the efficiency of its operations by arguing that “the total cost of all services provided by the ABC throughout the year – both radio and television – averaged out at four cents a day per head of population” (AR, 1977:6). The lack of government funding, the economising, and the serious effects on the broadcaster appeared in increasingly bitter tones. The decreasing government funding was represented as severely compromising the broadcaster’s ability to fulfil its charter obligations, particularly of providing ‘adequate and comprehensive’ broadcasts in the public interest: During the course of the year, the commission expressed to the government its serious concern at the impact of Government decisions relating to the ABC funding and staff ceilings. As a result, the Chairman, accompanied by the Vice-Chairman, delivered to the Minister of Post and Telecommunications a letter (20 September, 1978) pointing out that funding, staffing and administrative constraints place upon the ABC by the government were ‘seriously prejudicing the Commission’s ability to carry out its basic statutory responsibilities which is set out in section 59 of the Broadcasting and Television act. This requires the Commission to take account of the public interest in developing and presenting ‘adequate and comprehensive’ radio and television programmes for the Australian community. (AR, 1979:5).

The central point we notice here is that the government’s push towards a neo-liberal regime and the wholesale adoption of media market discourse was questioned in dominant ABC discourse. As well as questioning funding arrangements, the state began to be replaced in organisational discourse by other funding bodies. To fund its orchestras “the ABC continued to seek maximum possible support for its orchestras from state and municipal

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authorities in order to offset the escalating costs” (AR, 1983:61). With questions around federal funding, the various states appeared in discourse as important funding bodies: The Queensland State Government significantly increased (by about 45%) its grant for the Queensland Symphony orchestra. Part of the grant included a special-purpose prevision to enable the employment of six extra string players for the QSO (AR, 1979:12).

By 1990 state funding was taken for granted as “orchestras now actively seek(ing) alternative sources of funding to supplement the ABC appropriation. In addition to box office revenue, funds are obtained through hire out of orchestras and other co-venture agreements, State and local government subsidies and from sponsorship” (AR, 1990:44). What we notice here is a subtle severing of the presumed link between the government and the ABC. Instead of the government having a close and necessary attachment to the ABC, the government was increasingly represented as a ‘funding body’ that may or may not choose to fund services, including the ABC. This far more tenuous link between the ABC and the government forced the broadcaster to become more entrepreneurial and seek alternative funding sources. In addition, the ABC had to ensure the “Australian public receives the best return on investment in national broadcasting” (AR, 1992:2). This signals the government being represented as a kind of investment bank that expects maximum return on its investments in the broadcaster: (The) ABC consistently seeks to provide maximum value for the public investment in national broadcasting. Within a restricted funding base, the ABC will also face considerable additional expenditure in the coming digital era. And it needs to retain its highly skilled employees in a competitive market (AR, 1999:50).

The way the government appeared in ABC discourse radically changed with the rise of media market discourse. There was a move from minor quibbles with government funding formulas during the early 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s to questioning funding cuts during the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, the government was represented as a shareholder, and the ABC became a dutiful enterprise that would ‘provide maximum value for the public investment in national broadcasting’. In discourse before the 1990s, ‘adequate’ government funding was simply expected as a matter of course. After 1990, government funding appeared as an investment that the government expected a degree of return of investment upon.

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Diversity While the market had wide reaching effects on discourses of the government and civil society, it only had a minor effect on the discourse of diversity. When media market discourse was in its infancy, the ABC noted that in spite of pursuing funding cuts and government pushes to ‘economise’, the task of representing diversity continued to be one of its core goals: In common with other statutory bodies and departments of Government, the ABC has been required to economise throughout the year and, by effecting savings elsewhere, to absorb increases in the costs of goods and services. This has been done to conform with the Government’s antiinflation policies. The economies effected have bought some measures of discomfort to the organisation but this, we believe, has not been apparent to our audience. The Commission’s objective throughout the year has been to maintain the quality and diversity of its program output (AR, 1978:5).

Here, requirements to economise constrained diversity discourse. In the 1990s, representing diversity (as well as ‘Australian identity’) remained a goal of the ABC. However, the ‘statutory duty’ to perform ‘efficiently and with the maximum benefit to the people of Australia’ sat alongside a series of other essentially economic goals such as ‘innovation’, ‘maintain(ing) quality, and ‘efficiency’: As part of its statutory duty to ensure that the functions of the Corporation are performed efficiently and with the maximum benefit to the people of Australia, the ABC board has worked to maintain quality, Australian Identity, diversity, innovation and efficiency as the goals of ABC services (AR, 1990:5).

The language of diversity was incorporated into the wider shift in discourses bought about through the introduction of media market discourse. Consequently, the goals associated with diversity were considered alongside goals associated with the media market.

International Another discourse only partially affected by the rise of media market discourse was international discourse. The ABC was still required to pursue largely national goals such

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as presenting a favourable image of Australia. However, the media market shaped how the ABC’s international colleagues (usually public broadcasters in other countries) appeared in discourse. No longer were other broadcasters constructed as organisations that the ABC may provide aid to, or potential colleagues that the ABC could co-operate with. Instead, they began to be represented as potential customers. This sudden shift was not due to the rapid appearance of international trading relations. Rather, international trading had been relatively consistent throughout the history of the broadcaster. For instance, we find a discussion of the internationalised trade in content as early as 1956: The exchange of broadcasting material has become increasingly frequent with radio organisations in Europe and America. Also recordings from Asian sources have made a significant addition in recent times (AR, 1956:12).

In early examples, trade in broadcasting materials was framed in terms of ‘exchange’. With the introduction of media market discourse and the push for the ABC to become ‘enterprising’ and market its programming and technology, other national broadcasters became considered as potential target markets: A major initiative this year has been to generate more revenue from the overseas sale of ABC televisions programs. To achieve this objective, an internal re-organisation took place to strengthen sales operations, and an agent was appointed to sell programs in North and South America, and the Pacific and Asian area. We already have an agent for the United Kingdom, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East (AR, 1978:14).

While the essentially nationalist goals associated with the international media market remained intact, peripheral aspect of the international discourse such as the ABC’s relationship with overseas colleagues were increasingly couched in the language of the market.

Australian Culture The rise of media market discourse was seen to introduce a process of ‘profound’ change that affected the organisation’s ability to produce Australian culture. For instance the ‘new ABC’ was driven by the media market to achieve both the economic goals of being ‘more program-oriented’ and ‘more productive’, and cultural goals of being ‘more Australian’:

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The ABC is moving through a process of profound change, touching each part of the organisation. It is sometimes a turbulent process. But, amid the ferment, the shape of the new ABC is becoming discernible: an ABC which is more program-oriented, more productive and more Australian. The ABC continued to be central to the life of the nation and one of the world’s greatest broadcasters (AR, 1985:3).

Like the language of diversity, Australian cultural discourse was thoroughly incorporated into media market discourse. We can see this in the assertion that if the organisation became more market oriented, then it could play a more effective role in building Australian culture. This meant the goals of the market and Australian culture appeared in discourse as being consistent with one another.

From Representing Diversity to Efficient Service Provision In conclusion, the appearance of the media market not only signalled the addition of a new language at the ABC. The language of the market infused many of the broadcaster’s existing discourses such as civil society and government. There were minor changes in international, diversity and Australian culture discourses. Market discourse became increasingly influential, replacing multiculturalism. This firmly positioned the broadcaster in a space of exchange relationships and competitors. The ABC’s central legitimate role within this marketised space became the efficient provision of the services required by the audiences. This allowed the ABC to fulfil the more important role of returning the taxpayer’s investment, taking advantage of potential marketing opportunities presented by international colleagues, and providing an important component of civil society at a comparatively low price. Each of these discourses changed as they adopted many of the themes found in media market discourse. Although media market discourses redefined other discourses at the ABC, nationalism and multiculturalism continued to have some influence. We have seen that nationalism was still present in the discourses of civil society, international, diversity and Australian culture. Also in some cases the goals associated with the media market appeared alongside goals associated with nationalism. The discourses of diversity and community remained infused with multiculturalism. Both nationalism and multiculturalism did not simply disappear with the increasing dominance of the market. Instead, they continued to

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colour some of the discourses at the ABC. However, they ceased to be the dominant strand that ran through each of the discourses.

New Media Environment During the 1980s, the media market pervaded the ABC. This language differed from earlier nationalist discourse by positioning the ABC in an economic market. However, it continued to place the ABC within a national context. Even when an international dimension was considered important, it was strictly defined in terms of advancing the national interest. During the early 1990s, representations of the ABC as existing within a ‘new media environment’ appeared. New communications technologies, changing government legislation and increasingly global markets blurred the boundaries between the national and international markets. With the rise of the ‘new media environment’ discourse, the ABC was positioned in a global market without clear national boundaries. Unlike multiculturalism and the market, the rise of new media environment did not involve the appearance of a completely new discourse. The language of the market continued to hold sway, but the market itself was represented as international in scope. This shift in the way the market was presented heralded changes in the media market, international and community discourses. There were also more moderate changes in government, civil society, and diversity discourses. In what follows, I shall trace these changes.

Media Market As the market became increasingly dominant during the late 1970s, the broadcaster was represented as part of the national media market. The rise of the new media environment introduced an important shift in media market discourse. The media market was now represented as international rather than national in scale. This shift in the new media environment most commonly appeared in terms of new communications technology that facilitated the onset of an international market. The ‘new media market’ was thought to be driven by ‘changes in technology which are revolutionising the delivery and nature of broadcasting services’, and necessitated the reorganisation of the ABC:

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There are many challenges the board and its management must confront. Changes in technology are revolutionising the delivery and nature of broadcasting services. With the deregulation of the communications industry and the potential introduction of new services such as Pay TV the Board must ensure that the ABC remains relevant and at the forefront of innovative change (AR, 1991:13).

Changes in technology also led to “a media environment characterised by new media forms and converging technologies” (AR, 1997:11). Technological changes were framed as ‘momentous’ and similar to “1956 with (the introduction of) television, the ABC is today presented with the opportunity to participate in a new medium. The rapid growth of the Internet as a communications system and the emerging popularity of other multimedia products such as CD ROM will have an impact on all media organisations” (AR, 1996:48). The media market discourse indicates that these shifts were far reaching and would cause ‘revolutionary changes’: Revolutionary changes are now taking place in the audio-visual environment. Media organisations everywhere are confronting a proliferation of channels and convergence of technologies, if the ABC is to fulfil its charter role to provide innovative and comprehensive services, the board believes that the ABC is strongly represented in new media outlets. Our planning is focused on translating the ideal of the charter into the new channels and outlets so that audiences can always have access to quality Australian programs and ideas (AR, 1993:13).

Such technological transformations necessitate organisational restructuring. In order to “reposition itself to take into account . . . a media environment characterised by new media forms and converging technologies” the ABC saw “sound creative reasons for embarking on restructurings” (AR, 1997:11). The ‘momentous’ shift in the broadcasting environment appeared as an opportunity to put forward a ‘bold agenda confirming the ABC’s role as a comprehensive and creative publicly funded national broadcaster with a vital part to play in the future media scape’ (AR, 1997:10): This has been a year of momentous change for the ABC – change which will reverberate into the next century. Key to the changes is an organisational structure that responds to creative and budgetary needs and to the realities of the changing media environment. Through all of this, the corporation has succeeded in laying out a clear and bold agenda confirming the ABC’s role as a comprehensive and creative publicly funded national broadcaster with a vital part to play in the future media scape (AR, 1997:10).

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Shifts in strategy emphasised a seamless line connecting different ‘content producers’ within the ABC: The ABC is no longer a broadcaster of discrete services – radio, television or online. By breaking down these divisions, the ‘One ABC’ strategy has responded to the creative challenges of a converging media environment. It has also delivered productivity through rationalisation and collaboration . . . In a competitive environment marked by inroads of pay TV and accelerated investment in commercial online services, the ABC this year maintained its audience base across radio and television, and saw the continued strong growth of ABC online (AR, 1999:17).

The changes associated with new media environment discourse were also linked with changing work practices. The new media environment was represented as ‘demand(ing) greater flexibility’ and changes to ‘existing industrial agreements and work practices’ which ‘hinder change and flexibility’: Through the collocation, the traditional ABC media-based skills in radio and television will progressively merge and the nature of work in the digital environment is likely to change. This raises issues and opportunities. It will demand greater flexibility in the ways the ABC uses its workforce and will lead to a more challenging and rewarding workplace for staff, existing industrial agreements and work practices can sometimes hinder change and flexibility (AR, 1999:56).

The rise of new media environment involved the suggestion that new global markets were rapidly appearing. For instance, Radio Australia sought to take advantage of ‘target markets in Asia’: Radio Australia is discussing initiatives with the tertiary education programming for target markets in Asia. It is hoped this involvement will provide access to programming not otherwise available as well as funding for additional transmission time (AR, 1997:38).

Other markets could emerge from new ‘delivery mechanisms’ for ABC programming such as Pay TV, and narrow-casting. The new media environment represented a significant shift in how the media market was represented. In particular, the changing nature of technology was seen as central to representations of the global market. Such changes demanded new strategies, new work practices, and new markets.

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International The rise of the new media environment saw the international dimension reconfigured as a possible ‘target market’. In place of an international discourse drawing on nationally defined goals, international discourse was infused with the language of the market. Strategies like Television Australia (an international television station run by the ABC targeting Asian markets) appeared as part of the ABC’s attempts to “retain a strategic presence in the international broadcasting arena” (AR, 1997:12). Television Australia gave the ABC access to important regional markets like Asia and the global media market. Australia Television was also linked to the ABC’s commitment “to fulfil its charter responsibilities to ‘transmit to countries outside Australia, television programmes of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment’. The service is a significant commitment to, and acknowledgement of Australia’s relationship with other countries in the Asia Pacific region. It provides an authoritative and comprehensive window on Australia for our neighbours in the fastest growing region in the world” (AR, 1993:18). With the appearance of media market discourse, the government mandated tapping into the international market as part of the broadcasters role. The ABC also deployed corporate goals infused with the language of the global market when it defined its target audience as ‘within and outside Australia’. Within the global market, the ABC aimed to be both a ‘leader in the broadcasting and marketing’ of programming and “a leader in the broadcasting and marketing of authoritative, quality, educational programs, including English language teaching program, within and outside Australia” (AR, 1993: frontispiece). This suggests a radical re-conceptualisation of the international space as a potentially untapped market. Furthermore, the boundaries between the ABC’s domestic and international broadcasting markets were increasingly blurred.

Civil Society Unlike the media market and international discourses, the new media environment was not completely incorporated into the discourse of civil society. Instead of a grudging acceptance or celebration of the new media environment, there was some trepidation

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about the ABC’s place in the new media environment; ‘the ABC’s place within the rapidly evolving broadcasting and audio visual environment’ was identified as a ‘cause of great concern’: Major developments in broadcasting policy and legislation threatened to dilute the ABC’s traditional programming independence. The ABCs place within the rapidly evolving broadcasting and audio visual environment did not go without challenge in some official circles, and opposition proposals for a cut in funding were also a cause of great concern (AR, 1992:9).

These concerns about the new media environment focused on issues such as changing ownership laws, multi-channelling and the subsequent global competition they may engender. When civil society discourse was mobilised, we do not find a whole-hearted embrace of the new media environment. Rather, it was suggested that shifts associated with the new media environment threatened the civil society and the ABC’s role in representing Australian culture. The ABC’s role in giving ‘the whole community an outlet to share its concerns and to think ahead’ were seen to be threatened by ‘revolutionary changes’ in the media environment: There remains a continuing need for a national organisation which gives the whole community an outlet to share its concerns and to think ahead. In this period of social, economic and technological change the Australian community is looking for new ways of talking to each other, building links and creating a common future. The ABC is our most accessible, universal forum to meet these needs. It is vitally important that the ABC retain its central positioning in Australian cultural life – continuing its tradition of pioneering new communications services and introducing challenging, stimulating, innovative programs and performances. Revolutionary changes are now taking place in the audio-visual environment. Media organisations everywhere are confronting a proliferation of channels and convergence of technologies (AR, 1993:12).

The discourse of the media market was used to carve out a space for the ABC as a propagator of civil society in the context of the new media environment. While there was some uncertainty surrounding new media environment discourse, there was also a degree of resignation. The ABC drew on the tools provided by the new media environment to actively take up a place within it, ensuring ‘audiences can always have access to quality Australian programming and ideas’.

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Government The advent of neo-liberalism meant that federal funding was no longer represented as a government obligation. Instead, it became an investment made by the taxpayer. This exhibited important continuations with changes introduced by the rise of the new media environment. This version of the government discourse characterised the rise of new media environment discourse. For instance in 1996, one of the goals of the ABC was the “Effective and efficient use of human, capital and financial resources so that the Australian public receives maximum value for its investment in Australian Broadcasting” (AR, 1996:1). Paradoxically, new media environment discourse was used to question decreasing government commitment to the ABC. Suggestions appeared that government legislation covering the ABC, allowing it to operate within the new media environment. This meant new legislation would permit the ABC to access the rapidly changing market through broadcasting on pay television channels. The ABC pointed out that in the creation of laws, it must be able to access this ‘new multi-channelled environment’ so that the ‘agendas from other nations and purely commercial imperatives’ do not dominate: Prior to the passage of the Broadcasting services act 1992, the ABC argued strongly for a role in subscription television so that it could offer high quality Australian programming as part of the new multi-channelled environment. It is vitally important for the ABC to have a prominent role in the multiplicity of new media. If it does not, then the content of the new media environment will be dominated by the agendas from other nations and purely commercial imperatives (AR, 1993:18).

Here we find the assertion that the ABC could remain the bearer and supporter of the Australian civil society and the non-commercial imperatives, even within an increasingly commercial new media environment. The new media environment was also used to make a case for extra funding for the ABC. This was done by claiming additional funding was required to participate in the media market. The 1999 report asserted that the ‘public’s investment’ in the ABC should be increased because of ‘the coming digital era’:

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(The) ABC consistently seeks to provide maximum value for the public investment in national broadcasting. Within a restricted funding base, the ABC will also face considerable additional expenditure in the coming digital era. And it needs to retain its highly skilled employees in a competitive market (AR, 1999:50).

Here, government discourse was influenced by the neo-liberal representations of government funding as an investment. This representation was also tempered by the demands of the new media environment for further government investment that would allow the ABC to continue competing in the global market. This was used to lobby for further government support such as funding and favourable legislation that would support involvement with the ‘new media environment’. In sum, the rise of the new media environment further entrenched the representation of the government as an investor that arose during the 1990s. The slight twist was that the government became represented as an investor that may support forays into the new media environment.

Community The new media environment had more contradictory effects on the discourse of community. The discourse of community was seen to be both supported and challenged by the new media environment. This suggested that taking hold of the new media environment could strengthen the broadcaster’s commitment to the community. Central to this was the claim that an explosive growth of global media networks could be channelled through satellite and cable technologies. We have seen that there was ambivalence about the role large media corporations played in setting the ‘agendas of other nations’ and the effects of a commercial imperative. However, within community discourse we find this tendency towards globalism involved a complementary move towards localism: After extensive staff consultation, ABC Radio refocused priorities to meet the challenges of the changing media environment. Four priorities were identified: 1. Refocusing localism and engaging quality and distinctiveness. 2. Strengthening news and current affairs programming. 3. Enhancing specialist and cultural programming including reflecting creative endeavours across Australia. 4. Connecting with all parts of the ABC and news service through the development of a creative and technological infrastructure (AR, 1996:18, my emphasis).

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The ABC’s commitment to ‘localism’ was a subtle reformulation of community discourse in a way that challenged the new media environment. By following strategies in the context of the new media environment such as ‘refocusing localism’ it was suggested that the ABC could act as an antidote to the competitive pressures dominating the new media environment. According to this discourse of localism, the ABC would become part of communities “not just by providing services to these communities but also being part of community life” (AR, 1997:18). The broadcaster’s local and regional stations embodied “the ABC’s commitment to localism and to providing services which respond to the needs of the diverse state, regional and rural audiences throughout Australia” (AR, 1997:18). Emphasis was put on representing specific communities through the newly available ‘opportunities’ of the new media environment: While financial savings had to be identified, there were sound creative reasons for embarking on the restructuring. The ABC had to reposition itself to take account of a media environment characterised by new media forms and converging technologies. It needed a structure that would ensure it could take advantage of these opportunities, while maintaining its commitment to quality programming and strong identification with community (AR, 1997:11).

The emphasis on the opportunities associated with the new media environment linked the new media environment with the global market. Here, the possibility of representing particular local communities as well as tapping into the global media market were seen as two possibilities emerging from the changes introduced by the new media environment.

Diversity Only minor changes occurred in diversity discourse with the rise of the new media environment. It continued to appear in largely the same fashion as we saw under multiculturalism. Diversity discourse was used to represent other aspects of the broadcasters operation that extended beyond staff and the audience. This happened as the ABC was represented as an institution that preserved ‘media diversity’ in the face of a ‘fast changing media environment’ that was in danger of becoming dominated by large multinational media companies:

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The national public broadcaster operates in a fast-changing media environment, characterised by rapid expansion in the number of available channels, an increasing volume of foreign programming and a trend to the concentration of media ownership. In the emerging environment, the ABC remains vital to media diversity in Australia (AR, 1997:10, my emphasis).

The use of the term diversity here is not associated with multiculturalism. However, it does draw on the positive tone built up around the term. Diversity is used to speak about the wide variety of content provided by a public broadcaster as well as the diversity of institutional forms in the media market that the ABC ensures. Because the ABC was not totally beholden to the market, it could ensure that multinational broadcasters did not completely dominate the media. This representation of diversity allowed the broadcaster to anchor its continued existence and government funding in the claim that it helped to maintain diversity on Australian screens.

From National Player to International Competitor In summary, the rise of the new media environment did not lead to the complete domination of one single discourse within the broadcaster. Instead, it involved the reordering of many discourses. This occurred as the new media market infused each discourse in differing ways. Here the media market was represented as international in scope, and international discourse appeared as an ideal target market. There were more contradictory changes in three other discourses. In government discourse, the rise of the new media environment was associated with the extension of neo-liberal measures as well as the possibility of increasing government funding to allow the broadcaster to compete in an increasingly international market. Diversity discourse was extended to discuss institutional forms and programming in the new media environment. Within civil society discourse, the new media environment was represented as a threat. This threw the ABC into a new space where its legitimate role became developing technologies and programming that would allow it to compete for viewers in a globalised media market. The rise of the new media environment reconstructed the space the ABC operated within. Instead of being a national market, it became a global media market that consisted of commercial competitors within Australia and abroad. This global market was seen to be swarming with emerging technologies and large media conglomerates. In order to 195

compete and survive in this world, the ABC’s legitimate role became embracing new technologies as well as adopting an increasingly commercial approach. In order to tap into the borderless market, the scope of the ABC’s activities were no longer limited to Radio and Television, but extended to new technologies such as the internet, satellite broadcasting, pay television, and other ventures that used new technologies.

Conclusion This chapter shows that there were important changes in each of the major discourses we encountered in chapter five. These changes did not occur in a haphazard fashion. Instead, transformations in a number of discourses happened simultaneously. During the period studied, I identified three such simultaneous shifts – from nationalism to multiculturalism, from multiculturalism to the market, and from the market to the new media environment. At the beginning of the period studied, each of the discourses at the ABC was infused with nationalism. In the mid 1970s, multiculturalism displaced nationalism as the dominant strand that ran through each of the discourses. With the rise of the multicultural discourse, words such as ‘difference’, ‘diversity’, and ‘community’ infused the discourses. An important part of this was the appearance of the new discourse of diversity. Central to this discourse was the broadcaster’s role of catering for the needs of diverse groups. The new discourse of diversity was also associated with changes in a number of existing discourses. Community discourse no longer needed to be incorporated into the nation. Instead, it was an entity with its own unique identities to be expressed by a broadcaster like the ABC. Australian culture also changed from being represented as something singular that must be spread throughout the nation, to something comprising diverse national cultures. Similarly civil society discourse changed as representations of the ABC as part of a singular nation public were replaced with representations of the ABC as operating in a plural public with differing styles of debate. Multiculturalism did not change all discourses. The international and government discourses retained many of the aspects associated with nationalism.

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The appearance of multiculturalism and the associated changes in discourses created a more or less coherent vision of the world the ABC operated within. Under nationalism, the ABC existed largely as one public service among others that attempted to further the project of nation building by providing a civil society and representing national culture. With the movement to multiculturalism, the ABC remained a public service, but the culture it sought to represent was plural instead of singular. This change led to radically different legitimate roles being considered for the broadcaster. The analysis above shows a shift from the ABC seeking to represent a single nation towards it seeking to represent diverse groups and communities. A second shift occurred during the early 1980s with the rise of the media market. This led to concerns such as the market and efficiency coming to the forefront. An important part of this shift was the rise of the media market, which involved the language associated with neo-liberal economics and new public management becoming more widespread. It should be noted that representations of the media market did not appear until the late 1950s. When they did appear, the market was represented as something that should be avoided. There was a notable change in media market discourse during the 1980s when the market appeared as a commercial reality that the broadcaster must engage with. The market had a widespread effect on a number of the existing discourses. Civil society discourse became subtly encoded with the logic of cash exchange, the government was represented as an ‘investor’ expecting an adequate return on investment, the international space was seen as a marketplace, and other public broadcasters were represented as potential target markets. A number of discourses were not profoundly infused with market discourse. In particular, the discourses of the community, diversity, and Australian culture remained relatively unchanged. The rise of the media market discourse involved a similar reorganisation of the ABC’s space. Under this discourse, the ABC was seen as a business that operated within a marketised national space. This was accompanied by a new legitimate role for the ABC of serving its market in a business like way.

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A third major shift in language at the ABC was heralded by the appearance of the new media environment and the global marketplace during the early 1990s. This was associated with the increasing prominence of the language of ‘technological revolution, ‘borderless markets’, and ‘globalisation’. Unlike the two other shifts discussed, the new media environment did not involve the rise of a new discourse. Instead, there was a transformation of a number of discourses. This included a subtle but important shift in representations of the media market discourse as it began to appear as global (not national) in scope. The international space became represented as a possible target market. The government was represented as both an unwilling investor and a funder of the digital future. The community discourse became infused with the notion of localism. The discourse of diversity was widened to include institutional forms and types of programming that were threatened by new media environment discourse. Finally, Australian culture and the civil society were threatened by the rise of the new media environment. This shift in the new media environment reconstructed the space the broadcaster operated within and its legitimate role. Instead of being seen to operate in a national marketplace, the discourse of the new media environment positioned the broadcaster in an international market. This meant the parameters of the market that the ABC sought to compete within shifted outwards from the nation state to the international economy. This made the ABC’s new legitimate role establishing itself within the global marketplace. In this chapter I have detailed the shifts within the discourses at the ABC between 1953 and 2000. I have demonstrated that the new media environment came into prominence during the 1990s. What I have not analysed thus far is exactly how these discourses were used, modified and resisted by actors in and around the organisation. This raises the question of whether each discourse was simply accepted by the organisations major stakeholders like unions and consumer groups, or whether it has been negotiated or resisted. If it was resisted, how did it this occur? Did it draw on the already existing

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frameworks offered by the ABC? I will explore these questions in relationship to new media environment discourse in the next chapter.

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VII Resisting the New Media Environment Introduction In the previous chapter we saw that between 1953 and 2000 there was a succession of discursive transitions that changed the space the ABC operated in, the organisation’s legitimate role, and the stakeholders it should be mindful of. Since the early 1990s, the new media environment has become the dominant discourse. This resulted in an enterprise ethos replacing the public service ethos, the closure of many broadcasting services, diminishing resources and large-scale job losses. Some journalistic accounts have suggested that the new media environment represented a wholesale change for the broadcaster that was detrimental to many groups and the organisation as a whole (Williams, 1996). The effects included the closure of many departments or units, the spread of a commercial imperative in programme -making, and a limit on journalistic freedom. But was this change the result of an effortless transformation of senior management rhetoric? Or did the actors who were profoundly affected by these changes try to resist the new media environment? Evidence shows that changes at the ABC were publicly questioned. Two organised groups in particular vocalised these misgivings. The first was the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), the largest employee union at the ABC. The CPSU engaged in typical union activities such as workplace organising, presenting staff grievances to the company, and collective bargaining. It also set out to influence policy-making and broader public opinion by challenging the current discourses and articulating alternative discourses. This was achieved by public announcements such as press releases and public speeches. A second group that actively contested managerial discourse was a large public action group representing viewers and listeners called the Friends of the ABC (FABC). The

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fore-runner of the FABC was the Nephews and Nieces of Aunty. 8 This organisation was formed in 1976 by “cells of troubled listeners” (Inglis, 1983: 391) in response to budget cuts made by the Fraser government and an associated government inquiry (Green, 1979). Similar organisations sprang up in other states under the more staid title ‘Friends of the ABC’. These organisations subsequently merged into a single national organisation with state branches. The FABC broadly aimed to preserve the public broadcasting ethos by opposing commercialisation and government funding cuts. They pursued this objective by contributing to policy and broader public debate through community organising, holding meetings, communicating with members through news letters, issuing press releases, public speeches, making submissions to government policy reviews and organising protests. In this chapter, I will investigate how these two groups struggled against what was presented as the ‘inevitable’ new media environment discourse. I will identify the strategies they used to resist dominant discourse. In particular, I will examine which actors at which point in time mobilised which discourse, and what affect this had. In order to analyse these four aspects of the strategic use of discourse, I will concentrate on resistance to the currently dominant discourse of the new media environment. To examine these processes, I will draw on press releases and newsletters. I focus on these texts because they were the public versions of resistant discourses produced by each of the organisations. They also had the largest circulation of all texts produced by resistant groups and were purposely produced to alter the reader’s opinion. In order to understand the strategies of resistance, I identified the various discourses that appeared in each text. I then asked who mobilised these discourse, in which situation, how this was done, and to what effect. After identifying each of these points, I asked if there were commonalities in how each discourse was used. This analysis led me to identify four broad strategies – resurrecting old discourses, using shared discourses, appropriating new discourses, and importing outside discourses. The first strategy involved resurrecting discourses that had been dominant but have since 8

Aunty is a popular and affectionate name for the ABC.

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faded from ABC discourse. The second strategy involved using shared discourses. The third strategy involved appropriating discourses that had only recently appeared within the dominant discourse, and the final strategy involved importing discourses from political debates that did not concern the ABC directly. In what follows, I shall examine each of the four discursive strategies mobilised by the CPSU and the FABC. For each strategy, I will detail (a) which groups mobilized it, (b) the situation in which it was mobilized, (c) how it was mobilized, (d) and the effects it was intended to realize (for summary see: figure 7.1). Discursive Strategy Revive Old discourse

Discourse used

Used by

When / What

How

Effects

◦Anti-commercial

◦FABC

◦General Use ◦Proposed Deal with Telstra ◦Bales report on children’s programming

◦Equate marketisation with compromise of public service ethos

Affirm shared discourse

◦Independent

◦CPSU & FABC

◦Construct commercial influence as violation of independence

◦Public Service

◦FABC

◦Telstra Online deal ◦Challenge commercial criteria ◦Question government control ◦General positioning in dayday life ◦Support specific programmes

◦Public criticism of commercialising children’s programming ◦Federal inquiry into ABC OnlineTelstra deal ◦Supported public view that Telstra deal contributed to commercialisation ◦Kept ‘public service’ ethos on agenda ◦Contribute to ongoing debate around commercialisation

◦Australian Culture

◦FABC & CPSU

◦General use ◦Used to defend particular shows

◦Accountability

◦CPSU

◦Used to question prevailing commercial arrangements

◦Affirm broadcasters role in reflecting local culture ◦Construct cuts to local music programming as neglecting culture ◦Re-invoke accountability relations between ◦ABC and government

◦Emphasis value of ABC in day to day life ◦Assert value of specific stations

◦Affirm validity of civil society discourse ◦Contribute to debate about civil society ◦Broad questioning of cuts ◦Affirm role of supporting culture

◦Re-introduced accountability into public debate ◦Subsequently coloured inquiry

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Appropriate new discourse

Import outside discourse

◦New media environment

◦FABC

◦Commercialisation of ABC online ◦Respond to cutbacks at Radio Australia ◦Support further government spending on digital initiatives

◦Media Market

◦FABC

◦Production costs ◦Popularity

◦Locality

◦FABC

◦Question funding of community broadcasting arms of the ABC

◦Anti-managerial

◦FABC

◦Shier’s appointment & continued management

◦Anti-neoliberal

◦FABC

◦Government funding

◦Radio Australia represented as spearhead of globalisation ◦Represent government under funding as stopping ABC from participating in globalisation process ◦Mobilise comparisons with commercial and public broadcasters ◦Substitute measures of reach for measures of breadth ◦Contrast commitment to localism with ongoing concentration of facilities ◦Shier represented as having inappropriate background, being not tuned to the public broadcasting ethos, and being stupid ◦Represent funding as totally inadequate ◦Link to possible results of declining quality of the broadcaster

◦Included public broadcasting ethos as part of NME

◦Presents ABC as efficient and popular organisation

◦Destabilise continued concentration of funding Affirm localism as criteria ◦Shier constructed as inappropriate management ◦Eventually fed into his dismissal by the ABC board

◦New media environment constructed as underpinned by government under funding

Figure 7.1: Resistant Discourses at the ABC

Resurrecting Old Discourses The first discursive strategy that resistant groups used was resurrecting old discourses. This involved drawing on discourses that had once been dominant, but had since fallen out of favour with powerful groups. The most prominent example of this was when resistant groups mobilised explicitly non-commercial discourses. We have already seen that, when media market discourse initially appeared, it was cast in largely negative terms (see: chapter five). Early attempts to embrace the market were represented as wrongheaded and ultimately destructive. The market was a negative force that blocked the broadcaster’s mission of serving the public good. However, an active embrace of the

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media market gradually replaced this stark rejection. This process was complete by the end of the 1990s when any hint of resistance to the media market disappeared from the dominant discourse. While anti-market calls disappeared from dominant ABC discourse, they continued to be passionately repeated by Friends of the ABC. It was resurrected during the ongoing debate about the creeping influence of ‘marketing culture’ at the ABC. Non-commercial discourse was also resurrected in order to question a proposed deal between ABC Online and Telstra, 9 and in response to revelations that a former senior executive at Disney had been given an assignment to advise the ABC on commercialising children’s programming. The first way that the FABC resurrected non-commercial discourse was through a generalised critique of the dominant language of the market. They did this by drawing on anti-commercial discourse that had been an important theme in ABC discourse prior to the early 1980s. According to anti-commercial discourse, the influence of the market sullied the broadcaster’s public service role. This discourse was used to diagnose the increasing prevalence of the ‘marketing culture’ that came to pervade all levels of the organisation: The public broadcasting culture of the ABC is being supplanted by a marketing culture from the board down to program making level. Inside the ABC, staff have expressed concern . . . that our Aunty is quietly repositioning herself on the commercial broadcasting-marketing slippery slide (BB, 1/4:5).10

This text involves the standard anti-commercial theme of the public broadcasting ethos being threatened by the rise of insidious market logic. The negative results of ‘marketing culture’ were represented as typically insidious, infecting the whole organisation ‘from board down to program making level’. Most strikingly, this text represented creeping commercialism as a ‘slippery slide’ into the dangerous abyss of market-oriented culture. 9

During 2000, a proposed cross-licensing agreement between the ABC and Telstra (Australia’s largest telecommunications company) was leaked to the press just before it was signed. This proposed that in return for a licensing fee paid by Telstra, the ABC would provide content such as news. There was also a series of joint production ventures proposed. 10 From here on I will refer to the FABC’s quarterly members news letter Background Briefing as BB.

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In another passage, anti-commercial themes were used to diagnose the broader position of the broadcaster. The embrace of a market orientation was once again seen as profoundly dangerous because it would lead to losing the public purpose, leaving the ABC to wander into the ‘entrepreneurial quicksand’ of commercial imperatives and the associated evils of product sponsorship and on-air advertising. According to the FABC, the ABC would compromise its role as an independent broadcaster driven by a public broadcasting ethos: In the struggle to find funds for program-making, the 'non-commercial' ABC has been lured on to entrepreneurial quicksands that may prove as dangerous as the murky waters of sponsorship and advertising (BB, 1/4:5).

The consequences of such a rash adoption of the commercial broadcasting ethos would mean “the public broadcaster [could] not distinguish itself from the commercial alternatives, [therefore] it weakens the argument for its very existence” (BB, 1/4:5). In each of these passages the basic theme of anti-commercial discourse was used and an equation established between the rise of market orientation and loss of the public service ethos. Moreover, the rise of market orientation was represented as profoundly dangerous and insidious (‘a slippery slope’, ‘quicksand’). By mobilising anti-commercial discourse, the FABC could construct the move towards the new media environment as another manifestation of the original curse of public broadcasting – namely the danger of the market. Anti-commercial discourse had been used to challenge the commercial ethos that coloured the proposed Internet content deal with Telstra. This deal was construed as part of the privatisation processes common throughout the public sector: This thin-end-of-the-wedge approach to commercialising the ABC is only one aspect of what has become common practice in government and political circles, and in many public and mutual organisations (BB, 2/1:2).

Anti-commercial discourse was used to represent the proposed deal with Telstra as a fateful step toward commercial logic dominating the website, and ultimately hastening

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the decline of the ABC as a publicly owned organisation. Market oriented changes to the website were linked with the continued assent of neo-liberalism in the public sector. Anti-commercial discourse was also used to link changes to the website with the possible death of civil society as a meaningful discourse at the ABC. Here, the content of the ABC’s website exemplified a shift from upholding editorial standards to the logic of attracting audiences. The dominant commercial logic would mean content that attracted a larger audience would be favoured. For instance, one passage points to the drive towards commercialism resulting in program choice dictated by popularity: How long before an ABC content provider would be told: "Mate, that science stuff is going down well on-line. Why don't we drop poetry and books and do more about dinosaurs?" That's how you destroy independent broadcasting. That's how the marketing imperative takes over. It's terrifyingly simple (BB, 2/3:3).

Lurking under this was a menacing equation between the rise of market-oriented discourse and the decline of the ethos of public broadcasting. Resistance groups also used anti-commercial discourses in response to the appointment of a former Disney executive to identify revenue-raising opportunities in the ABC’s children’s programming. The FABC drew on anti-commercial discourses to represent the report as a harbinger of commercial imperative into children’s broadcasting: The report horrified ABC employees, and staff board member Mr Ian Henschke said the national broadcaster "should not take advantage of children or their parents". He denied the board had seen proposals for Disney-style merchandising or the sweeping commercialisation of the ABC recommended in the Bales report (BB, 2/4:3).

Here, anti-commercial discourse set up a stark contrast between commercialism and the public

broadcasting

ethos.

While

public

broadcasting

was

in

sad

decline,

commercialisation appeared as an insidious process that could not be avoided. The effects of commercialisation were seen to stretch into ever widening aspects of citizens’ lives. Such attempts to commercialise children’s programming were presented as part of the broader spread of a commercial impetus in the media and broader culture.

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By resurrecting non-commercial discourses, the FABC could represent the extension of the new media environment as an instance of the insidious spread of marketing culture throughout the broadcaster. The group could also represent two events (the proposed internet deal with Telstra and the hiring of the Disney consultant) as part of the rise of commercialisation and decline of the ethos of public broadcasting. In these instances, non-commercial discourse were used to call into question the dominance of the new media environment discourse, as well as associated strategies associated with it such as the proposed joint venture with Telstra online and the use of a consultant to advise on ventures targeted at children. Non-commercial discourse formed part of resistance strategy because the FABC used it to oppose the rise of market-oriented reasoning. At least two outcomes were associated with the revival of non-commercial discourse. The FABC could promulgate negative representations of initiatives undertaken by the ABC. This involved the propagation of a critical view of hiring an ex-Disney consultant to advise on children’s programming. This significantly contributed to the broader public questioning the report as well as a broader critique of the continuing commercialisation of children’s programming. By drawing on non-commercial discourse, the FABC could also spread a critical view of the proposed deal between Telstra and the ABC. This was linked to the broader public debate about the commercialisation of the ABC’s Internet site. One important result of this broader public debate was a federal government investigation of the proposed ABC-Telstra deal (for detailed analysis of the inquiry see: Spicer, 2003). As well as affecting debates about specific ventures, non-commercial discourse supported the broader critique of the marketisation process at the ABC. Non-commercial discourse was important in questioning the language of the market because it allowed the FABC to equate marketisation processes with abandoning public service values. Drawing on noncommercial discourse, the FABC could ensure the viability of a critical position on the rise of neo-liberalism and globalisation imperatives at the ABC. This allowed the FABC to put forward the importance of a continued commitment to the public broadcasting ethos. That is, the FABC articulated the view that the public service ethos remained

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absolutely central to the broadcaster and that any attempt to abandon it would be disastrous. While it is hard to judge its broader effects, the articulation of anticommercial discourse ensured that the public service ethos continued as a viable position in debate. To summarise, the FABC resurrected the discourse of non-commercial broadcasting in response to two specific instances (the Telstra deal, and commercialisation of children’s programming) as well as the broader commercialisation of the broadcaster. By reviving non-commercial discourse, the FABC positioned strategies associated with the new media environment as part of the broadcaster’s ongoing commercialisation. This commercialisation process was represented as a serious danger to the enduring ethos of public broadcasting. Articulations of non-commercial discourse had some direct effects on the ABC Online and children’s programming. It also had a more diffuse influence on broader public debate by giving credence to a critique of commercialisation as well as supporting the ethos of public broadcasting. This strategy enabled resistance groups to tap into a discourse with pre-existing cultural cachet. It risked being a strategy plagued by nostalgia. That is, instead of building something anew, the broadcaster simply revived and reconstructed discourses that had been already questioned.

Using Shared Discourses I have argued that resistance may work through reviving discourses that had appeared in dominant discourse, but had since disappeared. A second strategy employed by resistant groups involved drawing on “shared” discourses. That is, resistance groups used discourses that were relatively well accepted by dominant and resistant groups to challenge new media environment discourse. I identified four shared discourses that were mobilised – independence, public service, Australian culture and accountability discourses. In what follows I shall identify which actors in which instances mobilised which discourses and the results of this process.

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Independence We have already seen that one of the central tenets of civil society discourse was that the ABC should remain a broadcaster independent of both the market and the state (see: chapter five). Unlike non-commercial discourses, the theme of independence continued to appear at the ABC (see: chapter six). The importance that independence discourse placed on autonomy from the state and the market was a useful resource for both resistance groups. Independence discourse was mobilized by the CPSU in response to the ABC Online-Telstra deal. It was also used by the FABC to question the broadening influence of commercial criteria and party political processes on the broadcaster. According to civil society discourse, the ABC’s central role was to provide value free information and foster free debate within the nation state (see: chapter five). Similarly, in independence discourse the ABC was represented as an institution autonomous from the state and government that provides value free information. Independence discourse provided an excellent resource for the CPSU to affirm the broadcaster’s non-alignment with state or business. Freedom from commercial or government intrusion was important because “given the concentration of media ownership in this country, a properly funded and independent ABC is essential” (CPSU, 24/01/97)11. Senior management’s wholehearted adoption of media market discourse would lead to “the ABC’s independence and editorial independence . . . being weakened” (CPSU, 20/4/01). This led to the assumption that the ABC must cease commercialisation to remain independent. Independence discourse was also mobilized to counter commercialisation initiatives such as the proposed web-based joint venture between the ABC and Australia’s largest telecommunications company, Telstra. Using the discourse of independence, the CPSU represented the proposed joint venture as a serious threat: The Australian community expects total independence of their national broadcaster. This independence is threatened by the ABC Board’s decision to proceed with plans for the ABC to become a major content provider for the Telsta’s on-line services (CPSU, 7/02/00).

11

From here on, press releases produced by the Community and Public Sector Union will be refered to as CPSU

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This project was represented as a part of the increasing pressure for the generation of commercial revenue. For instance, it was suggested that under the joint venture “the ABC will be required to specially produce and tailor stories for Telstra. This is a potentially corrupting influence as the ABC places itself on a drip feed for commercial revenue” (CPSU, 7/02/00). Such a prospect was used to indicate the possible danger and corrupting influence of a swift drive towards commercialism. Commercial imperatives introduced by the ABC-Telstra joint venture were equated with the withering away of the broadcaster’s independence. For instance, the adoption of media market discourse was linked to the decline of some of the unique characteristics of the ABC such as creativity. Other equally unappealing outcomes appeared in FABC discourse such as ‘the loss of creative talent’ and the prospect that “the ABC would become an organisation of accountants and contract administrators” (CPSU, 24/01/97). The representation of the ABC as an independent entity was used by the FABC to challenge the broader marketisation of the ABC. This was partially achieved by insinuating recent scandals in other parts of the Australian media resulted from a lack of independence from market influences. The FABC used the ‘cash for comments’ scandal involving prominent Sydney radio talk back hosts John Laws and Alan Jones,12 to highlight the susceptibility of commercial media organisations to inappropriate influences. By including ostensibly paid promotions in editorial slots, Jones and Laws flaunted the norms of journalistic independence. The FABC represented this as emblematic of the unabashed commercial influence in broadcasting. The ABC’s fragile independence from the market was offered as an increasingly important counterpoint to such commercialisation: The need for an independent and fearless ABC has never been stronger. It is most obvious in the wake of the talkback/kickback revelations, but there are other trends in the public life of Australia that point to the ABC as our best hope for a healthy democracy (BB, 1/3:3).

12

John Laws and Alan Jones were host of talk back radio shows in the ‘shock-jock’ model. Investigation by the ABC’s program Mediawatch and a subsequent inquiry by Australian Broadcasting Authority shows that both presenters received substantial sums of money for including favorable editorial comments on organisations like major banks.

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We notice that the ‘independent and fearless’ journalistic ethos underpinning the ABC was represented as an essential support for Australian democracy. The FABC reinforced this by stressing the importance of the ABC as an institution independent of market-based influences associated with the new media environment. The FABC also mobilised independence discourse in relation to perceived government interference. For instance, the imposition of a ‘budget-centric mentality’ was construed as a breach of the broadcaster’s independence: Editorial independence at all levels in the ABC is constantly subject to funding threats, and news and current affairs have regularly fought battles to block back-door deals. Government apparatchiks tend to have a budget-centric mentality, which becomes especially dominant when they are reaching the limit of their terms, but are not yet ready to retire (BB, 2/1:5).

The FABC represented the government as making petty attempts to control the broadcaster by manipulating the organisation’s funding. These interferences subsequently perverted the ABC’s independence. The government was also represented as harbouring a generalised dislike for the ABC because it was ‘too independent’: We all know that governments hate independent public broadcasters because one of the main responsibilities of the latter is to examine in depth the pronouncements, intentions and actions of the former. All governments, therefore, have a lesser or stronger desire to curb, cripple, control or abolish the national broadcaster (BB, 1/4: 11).

The two major political parties ‘strong desire to curb, cripple, control or abolish the national broadcaster’ was linked to continuing budget cuts. Here, cuts were not rational economic decisions but political manoeuvres that attempted to beat the organisation into submission and ensure the government of the day received favourable coverage: Now there had to be a new way to tame the ABC. Away went the carrot and out came the stick. Threats about the budget became public and overt. Chief executives were vilified rather than honoured. No longer the placid and contented Sacred Cow, the ABC became Aunt Sally (BB, 1/1:9).

There was an explicit attempt to link cuts to the ABCs budget with the political motives of the actors involved. By making this link, resistant groups were able to add a political dimension to budgeting and funding decisions.

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The theme of political interference also appeared regarding the appointment of key ABC staff. The government was seen to be ‘interfering’ to ensure ‘conservative allies’ were appointed to the ABC’s board (BB, 1/3:1). The FABC also emphasised the politically motivated appointment of a new managing director, Jonathan Shier:13 Closely following interviews with Mr Shier about his background and ideas on the ABC were reports which indicated that he was not entirely a ‘cleanskin’, and that he had had stronger associations with the Liberal Party than his use of this term suggests. Political independence is crucial to the integrity of the ABC and we look to Mr Shier to demonstrate his clear support of this principle (BB, 1/4:3).

Here we see how independence discourse was used to cast doubt on whether an appointment was made on purely neutral grounds. The language of political interference discourse was also used to question the motives for programming choice. For instance, the sudden withdrawal of a lecture to be broadcast by a former Liberal prime minister that criticised the current (Liberal) government policies was represented as a ‘politically generated’ decision influenced by senior management: The organisation is agog at the story that one of the new management team tried to prevent ABC TV screening Malcolm Fraser's Darwin lecture - insisting that it should be archived rather than transmitted (BB, 2/3:4).

Aside from such attempts to directly interfere with programming decisions there was also recognition of internal ‘self-censorship’ exercised by broadcasters to avoid “bring[ing] down the wrath of the gods” upon themselves by “broadcasting material which would not be of favour to the government of the time” (BB, 2/3:4) Appointments based on political favour were represented as circumventing the principals of merit: “the Coalition gave us Liberal political lackeys to replace the Labour ones, and merit didn't get a look in.” (BB, 3/2:2). Appointments and programming driven by

13

Jonathan Shire was appointed as managing director of the ABC in late 1999. He had previously held positions in commercial satellite television in Europe, the commercial media in Australia, and as a policy advisor to the Liberal Party in Australia. Following protracted and well-publicised questions over his leadership, the ABC board forced him to resign in mid 2002.

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political influence were seen as significant threats to the long-standing and cherished independence of the ABC. In order to avoid this, the FABC highlighted the need for broadcasters to answer to the parliament as a representative of ‘the community’ rather than the government of the day: The whole history of the ABC, the official documents and surveys of opinion, have established that the ABC does not answer to the government, and that it must not. The ABC answers to the Parliament, representing the whole Australian community. If it answered to the government it would lose credibility, audiences, and even its right to exist. The ABC Act sets up various mechanisms to prevent the government dictating to the ABC, formally or informally (BB, 2/1:2).

When critics of the ABC mobilised the discourse of political interference they drew on government discourse to re-assert the ‘proper’ arms length relationship between the ABC and the public. These groups affirmed the simultaneous independence of the ABC from government decision-making and the implied commitment of the government to funding this independent institution. Ultimately this allowed resistant groups to mobilise a stronger position against the dominant discourses touted by government and senior management. The mobilisation of independence discourse had at least three broad effects. Independence discourse was used to construct the proposed Telstra-ABC joint venture as increasing the broadcaster’s commercial influence and eroding its independence. Concerns about the loss of the broadcaster’s independence subsequently became a major part of the federal inquiry into the ABC Online. Indeed, one of the major lines of questioning during this inquiry was whether involvement with a large corporation like Telstra would lead to declining independence of the ABC’s reporting (Spicer, 2003). Independence discourse was used to raise the issue of the influence of market-based models of organizing on broadcasters autonomy. The criterion of independence remained a legitimate basis for critics of the rise of the new media environment. In sum, independence discourse was mobilised by the CPSU in response to the proposed joint venture with Telstra through highlighting the possible loss of the broadcasters ability to produce independent and value free programming. This led to issues of

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independence being placed on the agenda of a federal inquiry. The FABC used independence discourse more generally to question the ongoing commercialisation of the broadcaster as well as the government’s ‘budget centric mentality’ and politically motivated interference. This ensured commercialisation was the subject of ongoing questioning, and that the discourse of independence remained a legitimate basis against which the broadcaster’s activities could be assessed.

Public Service The second shared discourse resistance groups used was that of public service. This discourse emphasised the broadcaster’s role in enriching and enlightening the public. Public service discourse drew on civil society discourse and its emphasis on developing a civilised citizenry through the propagation of arts, culture, and sciences (see: chapter five). This discourse remained influential at the ABC following the rise of new media environment discourse (see: chapter six). The FABC also used public service discourse to assign the broadcaster a central role in the day-to-day life of members of the public. This occurred in relation to specific divisions of the broadcaster such as the ABC’s classical music radio station or Radio National. The FABC has drawn on civil society discourse in a range of ways. It has been used to emphasise the broadcaster’s public service role as a propagator of civility in individual listeners’ day-to-day lives. For instance, in the following quote an FABC spokesperson drew extensively on public service discourse to support the role of the broadcaster in fulfilling public service goals. The ABC was firmly positioned as a civilising agent. Further, a picture emerged of the ABC’s mission of advancing ‘the moral and intellectual life’ of the nation, as well as contributing to understanding of what it means to be human. These tasks are all achieved through excellence in programming aimed at the whole public and mediated through the importance of the ABC as a broadcaster that has invested heavily in developing a civil society: I am passionate about the ABC's contribution to the moral and intellectual life of Australia. The ABC programs I enjoy are replete with values and ideas. The best of ABC programming is brilliant; it goes below the surface, challenging, informing and entertaining me. It enriches my understanding of what it is to be human, what it is to be humane.

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On the ABC I can still hear speak of old-fashioned notions like compassion, equity and the public good, and even the word 'value' itself used to refer to things other than a dollar price. I can watch or listen without being importuned to buy happiness or advance myself at the expense of someone else. The ABC tells me intelligent stories about the wide world and my own community. And it is available to everyone, regardless of their income. What is it that makes the ABC so different? I believe there is something irreplaceable about the concept of the 'public' in 'public broadcasting'. It is becoming increasingly clear that the idea of public broadcasting is anathema to those who believe everything should be owned and milked for profit by private interests, but the best ABC program-makers are dedicated to their craft and still serve no God but the love of broadcasting for its own sake. And so, I feel I must do what I can do to defend this institution against those who would dismantle it or tear out the guts of its independence. What a dull, soul-less, tawdry world it would be without our ABC (BB, 1:6).

In this lengthy passage, public service discourses was celebrated in the face of a drive to have the ABC ‘owned and milked for profit’. A highly personal, even spiritual, note appeared in this defence of the ABC. Indeed, the ABC emerged as an organisation that touched the lives of all members of the public in an intimate manner. The possible decline in broadcasting standards is said to lead to a ‘dull, soul-less, tawdry world’. This spiritual note continued throughout FABC discourse as classical music broadcasts were represented as “a precious journey, enriching the spirit and reminding us every day of eternal things that remain through all the crises, big and small, of life” (BB, 3/1:9). The ABC even appeared to play a pivotal role in the day-to-day lives of its listeners and viewers. This highly personal role that the ABC played in its viewers’ lives was illustrated by personal vignettes describing how ABC programming helped save a woman’s life, and helped a man to learn English: At a FABC meeting in Canberra in February '97 Robyn Williams of the Science Show spoke of a man who approached him to express his gratitude for the program - he believed that information about breast cancer on the Science Show years before had saved his wife's life. There must be many such stories of information gained from the ABC that has deeply affected people's lives. Another was from a Friend who came to Australia 40 years ago with little English and learnt it by listening to the ABC (BB, 1/1:1).

As well as pursuing its public service mission through more prosaic strategies, the broadcaster was seen to be a defender of the broader public interest. By remaining 215

independent and wedded only to the interests of the public, the ABC offered an alternative to the ubiquitous commercial programming: The public broadcaster, in its analytical and investigative role, has perhaps never been so vital. If the ABC does not carry commission to operate in the public interest who else will? The ABC is our only hope (BB, 1/3:3).

Underlying this comment was the assumption that in order to preserve its reputation, the ABC must continue to put the service of the public interest at the forefront of its operations. The FABC recognised that pursuing the public interest was a dangerous strategy that trapped the ABC in a double bind: “if it is as bold, as investigative, as analytical as it should be, it will fall down on its head more intimidation and budget cuts. If it bows down to intimidation, it will not be operating in the public interest” (BB, 1/3:3). The protection of the ABC and its public broadcasting ethos of “produc(ing) programs which stimulate ideas rather than sell products” (BB, 1/4:11) was defended vigorously by the FABC. Here, the ABC was represented as a “unique cultural and information institution [that] belongs to the people of Australia who will not allow the ABC to be moved away from the ethos of public broadcasting. It is our ABC and our taxes which fund it” (BB, 2/3:9). Passion and ownership were mobilised in expressions such as the ABC is the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Australian public service, and a ‘birthright’ (BB, 3/1:10) of the Australian people. Indeed some FABC commentators radicalised independence discourse, proposing, “there are not many Australian causes for which I would go to the barricades. The retention of Radio National is one of them” (2/4:7). By mobilising public role discourse, the FABC could position the broadcaster as an important part of civil society. Placing the broadcaster’s civic and public roles at the centre of debate, the FABC could challenge the increasing importance of the new media environment as well as the creeping emphasis on commercially oriented measures. Coopting civil society discourse and its emphasis on public service, as well as adding a personal dimension to the value of the broadcaster achieved this. This allowed the FABC to challenge increasing commercialisation. It also enabled the consumer pressure group to

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affirm the importance of civil society discourse as a basis upon which decisions might be made. This was achieved by showing how the ABC touched aspects of citizens’ everyday lives. The mobilisation of public role discourse reinforced the tight link between the ABC and civil society discourse. In doing so, the FABC could present the rise of the new media environment as leading to a potential break down in the vital bond between the broadcaster and civil society.

Australian Culture A third shared discourse that resistant groups drew on was Australian culture. Australian culture discourse remained an important and influential part of the way dominant groups represented the ABC (see: chapters five and six). In Australian culture discourse, the ABC supported the growth and development of Australian culture. Even with the rise of the new media environment, Australian culture discourse continued to appear in the dominant texts. The discourse of Australian culture was mobilised by the FABC to relegitimate the broadcaster’s role in preserving and developing Australian culture in the face of trans-national culture produced by large multinational media conglomerates. Australian culture discourse was also used by the CPSU to defend budgets for radio programming that played Australian music. The FABC mobilised Australian culture discourse largely to affirm the broadcaster’s role of developing an understanding of national and community identity. They did this by drawing on the ABC’s role of reflecting and nurturing local culture. For instance, the ABC was represented as “hold(ing) up a mirror to the whole country. It is a unifying agent, the most important cultural institution in the country” (BB, 3/1:1). The ABC’s radio stations were considered “a very valuable medium, essential to community fabric of Australia” (BB, 1/3:5). The ABC’s role in building a community and unifying the nation involved affirming the “immense cultural value, built up over 67 years, which is the envy of many nations, and which should be given every encouragement to pursue its charter and do what it does best” (BB, 1/4:11). Each assertion of the broadcaster’s worth was used to re-affirm the broadcaster’s role as a conduit for local culture. It was also used to

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resist the wholesale orientation of the broadcaster’s goals around serving the new media environment. Australian culture discourse was also mobilised to critique cuts in specialist music staffing produced by an economising drive. The CPSU used Australian culture discourse to emphasise the broadcaster’s role of reproducing local music, representing budget cuts as “limit[ing] the ability of up and coming Australian Musicians to be heard” (CPSU, 19/12/97). Budget cuts were equated with the ABC vacating its legitimate role of supporting and encouraging Australian artists. Indeed, the CPSU pushed forward the broadcaster’s legitimate role of supporting Australian cultural producers Dale Barlow, Australia’s pre-eminent jazz saxophonist and composer supported the call to stop the cuts. He said ‘Jazz Tracks’ contribution to the Australian jazz community is invaluable. It has given young artists a chance to record original music and have it broadcast nationally. If the ABC doesn’t do it no one will’ he said. ‘Australia’s jazz and cultural community will be poorer for the cuts (CPSU, 24/9/97).

In this instance Australian culture discourse was mobilised to challenge the broadcasters neglect of ‘cultural communities’. By tying these cuts to neglect of cultural community, the FABC suggested that the ABC fell short of its legitimate role inscribed within Australian culture discourse. A related shift in Australian Culture discourse occurs in suggestions that the rise of new media discourse would lead to a decline of Australian content. By reaffirming the ABC’s role in supporting and encouraging Australian culture, resistant groups could question the dominant position of the new media environment. Because Australian culture discourse continued to be a legitimate way of speaking about the ABC, it created a space where other legitimate roles not associated with the new media environment discourse could appear. This made the fostering, building, and broadcasting of Australian culture a viable activity for the ABC. It was also a viable basis upon which resistance groups could critique the ABC’s activities. The FABC and the CPSU affirmed the broadcaster’s legitimate role of supporting Australian programming by mobilizing Australian culture

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discourse. This allowed them to affirm the broadcasters responsibility for fostering Australian culture in the face of the new media environment.

Accountability The fourth shared discourse that resistance groups mobilized was accountability. In chapter five, I argued that the notion of accountability was absolutely central to government discourse. Moreover, accountability remained a consistent theme right until the end of the sample. The reconstruction of the government as a shareholder has further entrenched the importance of accountability in formal government discourse. The CPSU mobilized this dominant discourse to challenge the increasingly market driven nature of the broadcaster. When the CPSU mobilized the discourse of accountability, it sought to re-invoke a particular relationship between public organisations like the ABC and the government. By making this link, it was possible to locate the broadcaster in a democratic context where the activities undertaken by the organisation needed to be publicly accounted for by the broadcaster’s management. The union mobilized this discourse when they represented the ABC’s activities as contravening the standards of accountability that are supposed to characterize a public sector organisation. Large executive salaries and ‘noncore’ activities were represented as clear contraventions of the public accountability standards at the ABC: Money is being divested away from program-making to pay for the new executive structure. The ABC is becoming increasingly commercialised. More and more program-making is being outsourced and quality is being sacrificed (CPSU, 20/04/01).

Not accounting for aberrant spending patterns, the broadcaster was seen to jeopardise the quality of its programming. This discourse of public accountability was also mobilized extensively during the dispute around the proposed Telstra deal. By entering into commercial agreements without the necessary public debate, the ABC was seen to contravene standard processes of public sector accountability. In response, the CPSU called for increased accountability through expanding public debate and fully sharing information about the merits of proposed commercial arrangements:

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There must be a full public debate and parliamentary inquiry before the ABC is allowed to proceed with plans to sell its on-line Internet content to Telstra. The Parliament and the Australian public have a right to know the precise details of the secret arrangements with Telstra and judge whether the risks associated with this kind of deal should be taken (CPSU, 07/02/00).

The discourse of accountability was used to challenge commercially driven decisions associated with new media environment discourse. The union could legitimately question the increasing importance of new media environment discourses, and the associated strategies of commercialisation by drawing on what were well-established notions of government accountability. By mobilising the shared discourse of accountability, the CPSU could affirm the relation of accountability between the government and the ABC in a way that would compromise further commercialisation.

Summary In sum, the FABC and the CPSU drew on four discourses that were well embedded at the ABC. These were independence, Australian culture, public service, and accountability discourses. These discourses were used in particular situations such as the proposed joint venture between the ABC and Telstra. They had some direct effects such as fuelling the federal inquiry into the ABC Online- Telstra joint venture. They also had the broader effect of questioning the continued dominance of the new media environment, and positing the continued relevance of discourses of independence, public service, Australian culture, and accountability for the ABC.

Appropriating New Discourses As well as drawing on discourses familiar to the ABC, resistance groups also drew upon relatively new discourses. That is, the FABC and the CPSU appropriated discourses that had only recently appeared within dominant texts and were typically associated with commercialisation and globalisation processes. These included new media environment, productivity, efficiency, and locality discourses. I will argue that both resistance groups used these discourses during specific instances in ways at odds with the intended outcomes inscribed in dominant discourse. In what follows I shall look at who mobilised these three new discourses (the new media environment, media market, and locality), in what instances they mobilised them, how they did so, and to what effect.

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The New Media Environment Each of the discourse that we have encountered so far were mobilised against the new media environment. However, there are also moments when the FABC actually appropriated new media environment discourses in order to resist dominant articulation of the very same discourse. This was undertaken by the FABC in response to changes at Radio Australia (the ABC’s international broadcaster). This occurred with aim of mustering support for further funding of international initiatives (such as satellite broadcasting) and increased government spending on new initiatives associated with digital technology. The FABC appropriated globalisation discourses to question proposed cuts to Radio Australia’s budget. Resistance groups did this by linking globalisation discourse with the need for a stable or growing government funding base for Radio Australia. They used globalisation discourse to point out that ‘inevitable’ environmental changes would necessitate the organisation becoming more global. This discourse was used to represent cuts as contrary to the broader globalisation processes: Globalisation has come to broadcasting in a big way, but word of this does not seem to have filtered down to the present federal government. Or perhaps it has, and for reasons that seemed good a couple of years ago, the government chose to ignore it (BB, 1/3:6).

Here, the FABC used the discourse of globalisation to represent the ABC as a spearhead of the globalisation process. The FABC represented the organisation as actively choosing to ignore the process so that it might continue its program of funding cuts. This allowed the FABC to represent cuts to Radio Australia as antithetical to the current reality of the ‘age of globalisation in broadcasting’ because they stopped the broadcaster ‘taking advantage of new means of delivery’ such as satellite transmission. Here, the ABC would be barred from participating in the global media market (BB, 1/3:6). A second way the FABC used new media environment discourse was to criticise government under-funding of the ABC’s endeavours in television and satellite broadcasting. These endeavours were identified as central to the new media environment. For instance, the government’s unwillingness to fund appropriate technology was 221

contrasted with its apparently whole-hearted support for the rhetoric of the new media environment: Why did the Minister for Communications head his media release BUDGET PROVIDES SECURE DIGITAL FUTURE FOR ABC AND SBS when he gave the ABC only one third of the money needed to convert to digital, when he initially prohibited it from multi-channelling, and when he ignored ABC requests for funding for content for digital channels? (BB, 2/3:6 emphasis in original)

New media environment discourse was used to construct the government’s funding as inadequate for the broadcaster’s participation in the ‘digital era’. Further, new media environment discourse was used to represent the government’s unwillingness to fund extensions of the organisations as an abdication of responsibility on the part of the government: To truly fulfil their Charter obligations in the digital era, the national broadcasters will also need to engage in datacasting and multi-channelling, yet there is funding for none of this in the Government's Budget (BB, 2/3:6).

We notice that the FABC used new media environment discourse to support the extension of the broadcaster’s charter obligations into forms of new media such as data casting and multi-channelling. If the government was unwilling to fund these extensions, it would risk ignoring important changes connected with the new media environment as well as abandoning its commitment to the public. According to the FABC, this resulted “in stopping [the ABC] from actually providing richer and more interesting services, against [the] charter ... it’s really a question of the viewers missing out” (BB, 2/2:3). In each of these instances, the FABC embraced new media environment for purposes not associated with the use of the dominant discourses. These included questioning the commercialisation of ABC Online and cutbacks at Radio Australia and supporting further government spending. Instead of linking new media environment discourse to market driven privatisation initiatives, the FABC linked it with the ethos of public broadcasting (as it is embodied in the broadcaster’s charter). This provided an argument for the extension of public funding. By attaching the new media environment to the public broadcasting ethos, the FABC made the case that services associated with the new media

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environment should be publicly funded. This reconfiguration meant that during public debates, new digital technologies were not immediately assumed to lead to increasing commercialisation. Instead, it was plausible to mobilise the link between the public broadcasting ethos and the new media environment. This can be seen in broader public debate as well as during the public inquiry into the ABC Online.

Media Market As well as drawing on the new media environment, the FABC appropriated discourses more closely associated with the media market. The FABC embraced aspects of economic and commercial discourse by detailing production costs and the number of viewers the ABC was able to attract. By using media market discourse, the FABC was able to construct the broadcaster as an efficient and popular operation. The FABC appropriated media market discourse by using the concept of efficiency. The FABC positively mobilised criteria associated with the market to dispel the neo-liberal charge that the ABC was an extremely inefficient public service. The FABC achieved this by using the category of productivity to compare the ABC’s production costs with the production costs of other public broadcasters and domestic commercial broadcasters. For instance, the FABC set up comparisons between the cost of broadcasting at the ABC with the BBC. The ABC emerged from this comparison as an extremely prudent operation because “while the cost of the BBC per day per person is the equivalent of 33 cents a day, we pay 7.7 cents.” (BB, 2/1:1). Similarly the production costs of the ABC’s commercial counterparts were significantly higher because “despite the fact that ABC produces TV and radio with more staff than the commercial networks, relative costs per hour of broadcasting show that the ABC product is twice as efficient. For radio services per broadcast hour, the ABC's costs are 40% of those of the commercial sector; the cost of television provision per broadcast hour by the ABC is 36% of the commercial sector’s” (BB, 2/3:8). By mobilising these statistical comparisons, the stock in trade of commercial discourses, a picture emerged of the ABC as a particularly prudent organisation that offered (despite comparatively low funding) a particularly good service.

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Resistance groups also appropriated media market discourse by appropriating measurement of audience size. By embracing traditional metrics of audience popularity, the ABC could dispel myths that “the ABC’s enemies, most recently Senator Alston, continue to peddle . . . that only a minority use the ABC, when the fact is that 86% of Australians use an ABC service each week” (BB, 2/3:7). Alongside attempts to expel the ‘myth that only a minority use the ABC’ there was a focus on contesting the commercial audience measures of ‘share’. Here, the FABC cited measures of the ‘reach’ of it’s programming instead of the sheer amount of hours of television consumed by the audience: Commercial stations tend to have a relatively high share but a comparatively low reach, while the reverse tends to be the case for the ABC. Thus if 'reach' is our measure the ABC scores well (86% watch and/or listen each week) while if 'share' is the measure then ABC Radio gets just over 20% in the cities and just under 30% in the country. TV share is lower. Thus the ABC's enemies usually choose to quote the 'share' ratings and ignore the 'reach' ratings (BB, 2/4:10).

The FABC asserted the broadcaster’s wide appeal in comparison with other organisations by counterpoising the breadth of the ABC’s audience against the measure of audience share commonly used by commercial stations. This formed an important part of questioning “the myth that ABC staff are opposed to change. The myth that it is inefficient and that there is still fat to cut from the ABC. The myth that it is biased and irrelevant. The myth that it is mistrusted and widely criticised. The myth that it is out of touch with the Australian people” (BB, 3/1:1). The FABC was able to rearticulate the existing discourses of audience share in its favour. By discrediting these myths, the FABC positively represented the broadcaster’s current efforts. This was done by presenting the ABC as a particularly efficient broadcaster. Moreover, the criteria against which these current efforts could be valued were already part of the dominant ABC discourse.

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Locality In the previous chapter I argued that the rise of the new media environment also involved the appearance of the discourse of localism that positioned the ABC within a series of localities. Localism provided a potent resource that the CPSU drew on to challenge the funding arrangements for the local and community broadcasting arms of the ABC. In order to question the funding of the ABC’s local ventures, the FABC have contrasted the discourse of localism with new media environment discourse. They did this by showing how an overwhelming emphasis on capturing the global market made it difficult for the ABC to serve local needs. The new media environment and associated strategies were represented as antithetical to a commitment to localism because such an exclusive focus on the global market could lead to the decline of local and regional specific information like news: Local and regional radio funding has been cut by between three and five per cent. On top of this, regional news reporting will be wound back because of an eight per cent cut to News and Current affairs . . . what we will get is less local news and more metropolitan news piped in from the city (CPSU, 20/12/00).

The discourse of localism was also used to challenge the under-funding of digital television extensions into ‘the bush’. The CPSU argued the lack of funding meant rural areas would miss out on digital ABC service: The ABC has asked for $44 million over 5 years to help convert their production facilities to digital, but the Government has decided to give only $20 million. That will only enable the ABC to ‘go digital’ in the major capital cities – leaving the rest of Australia out in the cold . . . Just look at the figures – the ABC has Television and Radio operations in every major capital plus 39 regional radio stations. SBS is basically a Sydney operation. Yet they have been funded at the same level. The Government knows that this will mean that the ABC will have to drastically wind back its commitment to local coverage (CPSU, 13/05/98).

The drive towards the global horizon was represented as part of the concentration of broadcasting within major capital cities. Practices associated with the new media environment were questioned by contrasting them with the broadcasters avowed ‘commitment to local coverage’. The discourse of localism provided a potent resource for the FABC to challenge such a globalisation drive. This affirmed the espoused discourse 225

of localism and the apparent commitment to local operations that was supposed to accompany the rise of the new media environment. By affirming the discourse of localism, the CPSU ensured issues associated with locality could appear in public debate about the broadcaster’s future. Resistance groups revised dominant discourses like globalisation, the new media environment, the media market, and localism. In doing so, each discourse was used in ways that were foreign to the original group of speakers. This allowed discourses to take on a life of their own, becoming re-animated in ways that were not expected by the original speakers.

Importing Discourses The discourses I have dealt with thus far have one common feature. Although each was drawn from different periods, they have all been, or are currently accepted by dominant groups at the broadcaster. This may lead to the assumption that a dominant discourse encompasses all possible ways of representing the ABC. However, there was a fourth strategy used by resistance groups that involved importing discourses from outside the ABC. These discourses were then used to question the dominant concerns associated with the new media environment. Two major discourses I found were anti-managerialist and anti-neoliberalist discourse at the broadcaster.

Anti-Managerialism The first discourse imported by the FABC drew on the significant language built up in popular culture that we might call anti-managerialism (Parker, 2002). This broader discourse represented managers as wilfully destructive, egotistic, and ill tuned to the subtleties of a given work situation. This discourse was used on a number of occasions to vilify the newly appointed managing director, Jonathan Shier. The FABC represented Shier as a character that championed and almost embodied commercial and market discourse at the ABC. Aside from a short period of trepidation

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about Shier’s intentions and commitment to public broadcasting, the FABC quickly represented Shier as intent on ensuring that the ABC became a commercial enterprise by “changing the culture of the ABC, root and branch. Shier's ABC will be commercial, ratings driven, contemptuous of 'quality' and totally acceptable to the Coalition Government.” (BB. 2/4:2). Shier was represented as a figure intent on destroying the ABC by contravening many of the values associated with public broadcasting. For instance, anti-managerial discourse cast Shier as a character who contravened the virtues of creativity and independence that the ABC had previously thrived upon: The effect of all the sniping- most of it ill-informed - is to create a management culture that shies from controversy and offers little reward for taking risks on air. The program makers must continue to put the audience first, because it is the programs that the public treasures (BB, 1:3).

Anti-managerial discourse was also used to present Sheir’s commercial background as making him ill attuned to the subtleties of public broadcasting. Moreover, Shire was seen to represent the broader wave of commercialism that drove of the continued ‘destruction’ of the public broadcasting ethos. His background made him not just a serious and concerning enemy, but an ideal target of ridicule: The truth is that Jonathan Shier doesn't deserve ridicule. The poor bloke knows zero about public broadcasting and in all probability should never have been appointed (BB, 2/4:5).

The rise of the culture of commercialism, the changing culture within management, the effect it had on employment practices and ultimately the output of the ABC were seen to have far reaching effects. There were concerns that the re-organisation of the senior management within the ABC would lead to the loss of creative talent and a rapid shift in ABC culture. The FABC represented the internal restructuring of the ABC that was implemented by Shier as “certain to result in a major drain of talent from the network. Some, like Sue Masters, 14 will go voluntarily. Some will be pushed. Others sensing that the culture is about to be changed forever, are putting their fingers in the wind for new

14

Sue Masters held the position of Head of Television Drama at the ABC were she commissioned a number of widely celebrated serials and mini series. Following frustration with the ABC management, she left the ABC to take up a similar position with the commercial station Ten.

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opportunities. On some estimates, it is likely 40% of incumbents will go” (BB, 2/3:9). A likely effect of the rising culture of managerialism and the associated job losses was redundancy bills: Shier’s reorganisation comes at significant financial cost. Because many of those being eased out have been at the ABC for many years, the redundancy bill is expected to be as high as $5 million. The cost of searching for replacements and interviewing internally is also likely to run into the millions (BB, 2/3:9).

Added to the loss of talent and high costs of replacement was an inappropriate autocratic style. Shier was said to show clear signs of following the ‘goose-step school of leadership’. This was deemed to be particularly problematic because “autocracy doesn't work in creative organisations. That’s why the best firms look more like orchestras than like armies.” (BB, 2/3:10). As well as having an inappropriate leadership style, Shier was represented as insensitive and heavy handed in his handling of a situation where commercially sensitive information was leaked to the press: The witch-hunt has irrevocably damaged Mr Shier and his cohort, and contributed to further erosion of staff relations and morale. The leak called for a cool-headed, sophisticated response. Instead, Mr Shier's sledge-hammer approach in allowing police to be summoned has raised serious doubts about his ability to control and lead such a multi-faceted organisation (BB, 3/1:3).

The FABC represented these heavy-handed activities and the drive to commercialise as developing a climate of fear and anger that might ultimately lead to the destruction of the ABC. Alongside such melancholic expressions of the plummeting morale at the ABC, there was a note of sharp humour in descriptions of Shier: Inspired by the relationship between Kerry Packer and helicopter pilot Nicholas Ross,15 a joke memo is doing the rounds of the ABC. Addressed to Auntie's chopper pilot, it is a request for ‘a brain donation’ for managing director Jonathan Shier (BB, 3/1:11).

15

Kerry Packer is an Australian media mogul. When he discovered he had chronic kidney disease and was in need of a kidney transplant, his helicopter pilot Nicholas Ross offered him one of his kidneys.

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Anti-managerial humour was also targeted at the ‘careless’ introduction of managers and organisational models that were seen to have little or no regard for the specificities of public broadcasting: It is also wise to avoid the ‘Mr Bean Theory of Management’ where the new boss lands from the sky on a moonbeam and uses the organisation as an adventure playground. I've seen this happen several times in my 30 years in the ABC. We cannot survive another episode (BB, 2/3:10).

There was also distinctive use of humour in relation to the ongoing scaling back of programme making. This humour worked by radicalising the logic of haphazard and destructive cut backs and pushing the underpinning ideology of economic rationalism to its logical, ridiculous and tragic conclusion: There must be something in the air-conditioning down at Jonathan Shier's new streamlined and economically rational ABC. Word is the beloved Bananas in Pyjamas are to split, with one joining Delia's How To Cook for a lovely fruit salad, while the other is starring in a new adult drama - without the pyjamas. In other efforts to attract more adult viewers, the youth series Race around the World, which has already been downsized to Race around Oz, will now be hosted by Sigrid Thornton and retitled Race around Pearl Bay. Meanwhile, in more serious programming, Compass seems to have lost direction and is gone, while in an effort to cut down on repetition and waste, Dateline, Stateline, Landline and Lateline will all be combined into one show simply titled Line. In accordance with the ABC's charter to replace all original Australian programming with British sitcoms, episodes of Order in the House will be simply replaced by old episodes of Man about the House. Also floated is the radical idea to sell the 'C' from ABC to Wheel of Fortune, and change the name of the organisation to something that is more suitable to this economically rational environment (BB, 2/3:11).

In this section of text, the discourse of managerialism was usurped and re-used by the FABC to show how efficiencies are achieved with little regard for what was held sacred within the organisation. This can be seen in the careless combinations of distinct programming based on arbitrary characteristics (The program ‘Line’ instead of Stateline, Dateline etc), and selling off aspects absolutely central to the ABC’s identity (The ‘C’ in ABC being sold to a commercial game show). In each of these cases, humour was used to 229

hijack the dominant discourse of managerialism. This humour worked by pushing managerial logic to its ridiculous extreme. The FABC challenged dominant discourses by linking them with management’s haphazard destruction of the public broadcasting ethos. A central part of the rearticulation was the humorous use of these discourses to point out the ‘stupidity’ of the managing director, and the inappropriate extension of managerial culture, as well as the increasingly vicious cuts to programming. One of the broader outcomes of the use of anti-managerial discourse was Shier being represented as a figure that was from an inappropriate background, with little knowledge of public broadcasting, who was wilfully destructive and perhaps stupid. These representations of Shier fed directly into the exploding public debate around his appointment and continued management of the ABC. This eventually resulted in his dismissal by the ABC board in 2001.

Anti-Neoliberalism The FABC also drew on the broader discourse of anti-neoliberalism. This discourse had already been mobilised in many other public sector settings to question the ongoing effects of neo-liberalism on public services. The FABC picked it up to question the ABC’s ability to operate as an effective and creditable public broadcaster due to continued under-funding and a broader decline of breadth and quality at the broadcaster. The first use of neo-liberal discourses involved casting government funding levels as inadequate. This happened through the broadcaster’s frank statement that the “the ABC has no money. We all know that; it is not even worth dwelling on. There has never been much money in my 10 years with the corporation, and there are but a few examples of waste” (BB, 1/1:3). The result of this ‘totally inadequate’ funding was seen to be a compromise of the ABC’s ability to meet the obligations laid out in its charter. The FABC represented the government funding as either continued government ‘underfunding’ or ‘cuts’. In doing so, the FABC pointed out how under-funding resulted in a range of disastrous consequences: “the newly-elected government first bad-mouthed the

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ABC and then cut its budget by 12%: $66 million gone, a thousand staff lost, programs and services grievously depleted” (BB, 1:4). A second way anti-neoliberal discourse worked was by linking government underfunding with the decline in the breadth and quality of ABC’s offerings. For instance “program budgets can be cut by reducing output (the number of programs) or dropping quality (the research time, filming time, editing time, scripting time)” (BB, 2/4:8). Another theme that appeared in FABC discourse was that insufficient resources were made available for the ABC to develop into the ‘digital future’. By not completely funding the ABC’s requests associated with digital technology, the FABC represented the government as holding the ABC back from participating in the new media environment: By starving the ABC of funds, and through legislation denying the ABC access to important emerging technology, the present Government is attempting to freeze the ABC out of the future (BB, 2/2:1).

These cuts were linked with declining staffing and dropping programme quality, and the wholesale destruction of ‘one of Australia’s great cultural and democratic assets: Researchers and infrastructure have been removed and it is said program makers are now despairing about declining quality. There has been a 10% staff cut in television in NSW, the major production centre. Almost half of the producers working outside news and current affairs have been sacked. TV has moved out of documentary and feature making, with the exception of the Natural History Unit which survives for now, and Australian Story. The energy is gone and morale is at rock bottom (BB, 3/2:6).

By frankly pointing out the cuts to funding and linking them to the possibility that the ABC may not be able to continue its usual function, the FABC reconstructed the new media environment and associated strategies as under funding instead of as a strategic attempt to make the ABC more competitive and appropriate to the new media environment. This effectively threw into question new media environment discourse, showing it as a thinly veiled extension of ongoing drives for cost cutting.

Resistance and Public Discourse In this chapter I have argued that both the FABC and CPSU challenged the inevitability of the ‘new media environment’ by mobilising a range of counter discourses. We have 231

seen that the resistance groups used four strategies to challenge the continued dominance of the new media environment. These strategies were reviving old discourses, drawing on shared discourses, appropriating new discourses and imported discourses. Many of the discourses mobilised in the newsletters and media releases were already acknowledged and indeed used by dominant groups at the ABC. This meant that resisting new media environment discourse did not proceed by creating new discourse, but through drawing on alternatives that were already available in the language that actors found ‘at hand’. By using these discourses, resistance groups were able to draw out possible links between discourses and ways of understanding the space in which the ABC exists. This points us to how, through the active reuse of discourses, very different worlds may appear that were thoroughly unexpected by dominant groups. Further, when discourses were imported from outside the discursive field of the ABC, they tended to be trafficked from discursive fields that were very similar to the ABC, such as health and other areas where there had been continued cuts to government services. By mobilising each of these discursive strategies, both the FABC and the CPSU were able to have some effect on the continued dominance of new media environment discourse. This often took the form of affirming a given discourse in relation to the broadcaster. Consequently, many ways of talking about the broadcaster associated with the public broadcasting ethos continue to be available in public debates. It also meant that the media market was not the sole criterion in attempts to reshape the broadcaster. As well as ensuring other discourses remained viable for debate and decision-making at the ABC, the two resistance groups challenged particular initiatives. These included a proposed joint venture between the ABC Online and Telstra, the activities of the managing director Jonathan Shier, and government funding of the broadcaster. In each of these cases, challenging the new media environment discourse had palpable effects. This suggests that new media environment discourse can indeed be challenged through the use of a variety of discourses.

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VIII Discussion and Conclusion: From Dominant Discourse to Shattered Social Space “The world – not only ours – is fragmented. Yet it does not fall to pieces” Castoradis (1997:vii)

Introduction This chapter concludes the thesis by bringing my empirical findings together with discursive theories of globalisation. In particular the chapter investigates the pivotal nature of social space in my findings. This is done by returning to Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) concept of spatial scale discussed in chapter three. I argue that globalisation is not just an overwhelming force that must be responded to, or a system that is enacted locally. Rather it is a politically charged discourse that actors produce in their attempts to promote one spatial scale (‘the global economy’) over others. To explore the political production of globalisation discourse, I begin by reviewing my empirical findings. Fixing on the issue of space, I draw on recent work in social geography that explores how globalisation discourse is involved in the production of spatial scale. This allows me to make three points. The first is that globalisation should not only be understood as an all-pervasive language that only furthers the interests of capitalist accumulation. Instead, the articulation of globalisation discourse is part of a broader process involving a variety of actors who attempted to position the ABC on advantageous spatial scales. Moreover, the global scale was only one among a number of spatial scales the broadcaster was positioned on. The second point I will make is that dominant spatial scales such as the global media market were not simply accepted. Instead, they were objects of struggle. In order to engage in this struggle, organised groups drew on strategies that are usually associated with micro-resistances. Moreover, these groups took on the form of new social movements. The final point I make is that the production and struggle around scales was not limited to ‘representations of space’ such 233

as policy documents, strategy plans and public pronouncements. Following Lefebvre’s (1991) tripartite model of social space I argue that spatial practices and spatial imaginaries are central to the production of spatial scales. I bring these three arguments together with the broader ambitions of the thesis in the conclusion. This allows me to draw out the contributions the thesis makes to the debate about discourse and globalisation.

Review of Findings Globalisation is often presented as a cataclysmic falling apart of the ‘old world’ of nation states and a coming together of a new, inescapable, global market. Journalists and social theorists alike assure us that a ‘new leviathan’ has slowly absorbed ever-larger parts of social life (e.g. Ross and Trache, 1990; Hertz, 2001). Such claims have been called into question by ‘second wave’ treatments of globalisation research that show how social life continues to be embedded within the nation state (e.g. Hirst and Thompson, 1996). Although these accounts provide a detailed analysis of local embeddedness, they have been unable to account for how the very idea of globalisation continues to permeate processes of organising. In order to account for the ghostly presence of the idea of globalisation, I argue we should focus on the language of globalisation itself instead of the social structures it purports to describe. Sociologists like Larner (1998a, 1998b), Applbaum (1999), du Gay (2000), Hay and Marsh (2000) and Amoore (2002) echo this by calling for a linguistic approach to globalisation. Following this would mean examining how influential textual fields like policy debates or organisational strategy are shaped by discourses of globalisation. Further, it would be necessary to ask how these discourses construct the social world as a borderless space dominated by a loose alliance of national and trans-national governmental and capitalist organisations, and how representation establish and bolsters relations of power by setting up the global market as the fundamental terrain upon which social life rests. I used a case study of the ABC in order to explore these complex processes. This organisation served as an exemplary site where the rhetoric of globalisation has driven

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restructuring and reform of an ostensibly national organisation. I began the empirical work by asking which discourses appeared in the ABC’s annual reports. This allowed me to explore how globalisation discourse might construct ‘the global’ as the fundamental ground upon which organisations operate. My analysis showed that the annual reports were not dominated by a single discourse, but contained a range of discourses such as civil society, government, media market, international, community, Australian culture, and diversity. These dominant discourses constructed a series of pertinent stakeholders, many of which were concentrated at the level of the nation. These national stakeholders included ‘the public’, parliament and government departments, the Australian arts and culture industry, and the national viewing audience. It should also be noted that there were some stakeholders that were not national in scope. These included other national broadcasters, women’s groups, aboriginal groups, and rural communities. As well as a range of stakeholders, the various discourses constructed the ABC as having manifold legitimate roles. These included providing a public space for debate, advancing the national civilising mission, executing government policy, incorporating far-flung communities into the nation and developing a sense of national identity. All these seemed to be directly positioned within the project of nation building and the space of the nation. To be sure, there were a number of legitimate roles that mapped directly onto locality (such as acting as a voice for a community and catering to diverse needs), and onto the international space (such as providing international aid, or capturing an international market). However, in many cases these sub- and supra-national roles were linked back to the broader project of nation building. The range of spaces the broadcaster was positioned within stretched from the relatively localised space of community through national spaces such as the government, Australian culture, the media market, and the civil society public to international space. The concentration of these spaces around the national level was quite in line with what we would expect in a ‘national broadcaster’. If we look at ABC discourse as a static entity,

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the dominant discourse positioned the broadcaster within the nation. This implies that globalisation discourse did not feature extensively in the dominant language used by the broadcaster. Perhaps then, globalisation was not as prevalent in the public broadcaster’s discourse as commentators like Tracey (1998) have suggested. In order to further investigate the question of whether the nation has always been the dominant discourse at the ABC, the second empirical chapter looked at the dominant discourses in a historical sequence. This revealed that between 1953 and the middle of the 1970s, dominant discourses at the ABC were largely concentrated around the national level. Discourse like the ‘community’ and ‘international’ were strongly entwined with the space of the nation. ‘Communities’ were important to the extent that they were incorporated into the national broadcasting network. ‘International’ discourse was only important to the extent that it could help advance the interests of the nation. The overwhelming importance of the nation points to the conclusion that it coloured many of the smaller-scale discourses at the broadcaster. There was a break introduced by the rise of ‘multiculturalism’ during the middle of the 1970s. This involved the appearance of ‘diversity’ as an important discourse at the ABC. There were also changes in community discourse that involved decoupling the community from the nation and refashioning it as a localised, unique space. This represented a shift away from the nation towards multiculturalism. It also involved reconstructing the broadcaster’s legitimate role as an apparatus for reproducing and representing diversity. Further, the space the ABC was positioned within shifted from being a singular nation state towards the dual spaces of the nation and the community. A second break appeared in ABC discourse with the rise of neo-liberal concerns in the broader Australian political context and public service (Pusey, 1991). This shift involved the appearance of the ‘media market’ as an important discourse at the ABC. Central to this process was a shift from economic conceptions such as the ‘market’ towards discourse such as the ‘public’ and ‘Australian culture’. This transformed the ABC’s space from being a nation state and a series of localities to a national market. The legitimate

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role of the broadcaster also shifted from representing diversity towards the role of efficiently gaining a share of the national market. This effectively transformed the ABC from being a relatively autonomous part of the government to being part of a competitive media market. The final shift in dominant discourse involved media market discourse becoming increasingly international in scope. This was due to the rise of a ‘new media environment’ that denoted an apparently borderless logic dominated by large multinational media conglomerates. Under new media environment discourse, the ABC was positioned within the space of the global market, not the nation state. The legitimate role of the broadcaster changed from competing in a national market to establishing a presence in a global market. While the new media environment was positively valued, it was also called into question at a number of points. Within dominant discourse during this time, the new media environment was seen to threaten national issues such as Australian culture and public debate. At the same time the dominant discourses placed greater emphasis on more localised cultures and communities. This indicates that the discourses used around the ABC were not particularly static, but had in fact been fundamentally re-ordered. This re-ordering occurred when new discourses such as diversity and the media market appeared. It also prompted already existing discourses such as the media market to be fundamentally re-oriented. Each of these re-orderings gave rise to the re-organisation of the legitimate role of the broadcaster, and perhaps more fundamentally the re-organisation of the space the broadcaster was located in.

Producing Space In this thesis I have investigated how changes in language were related to changing constructions of space, stakeholders, and legitimate roles. Although these three categories certainly denote different phenomena, they do map onto each other. When nationalist discourse was dominant, the major space the broadcaster operated within was the nation state, the stakeholders it was required to be mindful of were actors typically associated with the nation state (the government, national culture, and the Australian public), and the organisation’s legitimate role was firmly defined in relationship to the national space.

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Similarly, with the shift to multiculturalism, the broadcaster’s space came to be defined in relation to the communities as well as a more porous understanding of the nation state. The discourses were also situated around more intimate spaces such as diversity and community. The legitimate role of the broadcaster became serving these communities. With the rise of market discourse, we notice that the space was constructed as a market, the broadcaster’s role were situated in this market, and so too were the most important stakeholders. Finally, with the appearance of the new media environment discourse, the broadcaster was situated in a global space, its legitimate role became competing in this global market, and the dominant discourses were associated with the space of the global market. Throughout each of these instances, the space the ABC was situated in seemed to infuse the organisation’s legitimate role and the stakeholders the broadcaster should be mindful of. Due to the important role space played, it is appropriate to ask how we can understand the processes of spatial construction that lay at the heart of each of the discourses I have looked at in this thesis (including globalisation). To do this I shall return to Henri Lefebrve’s (1991) theory of space and spatial scales, used by geographers to think through globalisation discourse (see: chapter three). In his seminal work, The Production of Space, we find a sustained and powerful exposition of how space was produced and how this process of production established power relations. According to Lefebvre if we are to understand space, we should not approach it as an inert thing or object, but as a social product: Space is not a thing among other things, nor a product among products . . . it is the outcome of a sequence and set of operations and thus cannot be reduced to the rank of a simple object . . . itself the outcome of past actions, social space is what permits fresh action to occur, while suggesting another and prohibiting yet another (Lefebvre, 1991:73).

To understand the specifically social nature of space, we should abandon Euclidian conceptions that render space as an empty container that is filled with the objective debris of human life. Lefebvre argues that space should be theorized as the product of human labour. Our focus would therefore shift from ‘things in space to the actual production of

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space’ (p. 37, emphasis in original). If space is continually reproduced under different modes of accumulation, it must be understood as historically specific product. The fact the space is produced implies that social actors are actively engaged in its coming into being. A central strand of the debate we encountered at the end of chapter three suggests that globalisation discourse is produced by elite groups such as senior managers (Applbaum, 1999), government ministers (Fairclough, 1999), think-tanks (Ó Tuathail, 1996), public bureaucrats (Larner, 1998) and high profile academics (Hay and Watson, 1999). This discourse articulated by elite groups produces a single global space that facilitated the expansion of capitalist accumulation. According to such an approach, all localities are dissolved into an all-encompassing global space. This approach to globalisation is in marked contrast to Henri Lefebvre’s argument that there are in fact multiple constructions of space: Social space . . . emerged in all its diversity – and with a structure far more reminiscent of flaky mille-feuille pastry than of the homogeneous and isotropic space of classic (Ecludian/Cartesian) mathematics. Social spaces interpenetrate one another and/or superimpose themselves upon one another. They are not things, which have mutually limiting boundaries and which collide because of contours or the result of inertia (Lefebrve, 1991: 86-7).

By rejecting the assumed model of nested Euclidian space, and adopting Lefebvre’s model of social space, we are able to understand how various spaces like the community, the national civil society or the international market are produced at the same time. The concept of spatial scales provides us with a useful way to understand the various spatial ‘levels’ or scales within which the ABC is positioned. Lefebvre points out the importance of these spatial scales by showing how a contemporary space like the global economy is constituted through dynamics of dividing and parcelling space: The advent of a world market, impl(ies) a degree of unity at the level of the planet, giv(ing) rise to a fractioning of space – to proliferating nation states, to regional differentiation, and selfdetermination, as well as multinational states and transnational corporations which, although they stem from this strange tendency towards fission, also exploit it and order their own autonomy (Lefebvre, 1991:351).

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For Lefebvre, the creation of various spatial scales is the central dynamic in the production of space, particularly the global space of the world market. The social geographer Neil Smith (1993) has drawn on Lefebrve’s concept of spatial scale to develop a “language of spatial difference and differentiation” (1993: 96) that does not assume divisions between localities, regions, nations, and the global are natural. The concept of spatial scales provides an ideal way to talk about space because it enables an exploration of the construction and struggle around geographic difference: First, the construction of geographic scale is the primary means through which spatial differentiation takes place. Second, that an investigation of geographic scale might therefore provide us with a more plausible language of spatial difference. Third, that the production of scale is a social process, i.e. scale is produced in and through societal activity which, in turn, produces and is produced by geographic structures of social interaction. Fourth, and finally, the production of geographic scale is the site of potentially intense geographic struggle (Smith, 1993:97).

This concept of spatial scales allows us to understand “the geographical contest to establish boundaries between different places, locations and sites of experience” (Smith, 1993:99). This also helps us to understand how the variety of interpenetrating spaces in social situations like the ABC are produced and contested. These spatial scales stretch from the body through home, community, urban, region, nation, to the global. Each of these spatial scales are not simply given, but socially accomplished. The concept of spatial scales has been extensively drawn on in recent years to make sense of the restructuring of space associated with globalisation processes (Jonas, 1994; Kelly, 1997, 1999; Crump and Merrett, 1998; Castree, 2000; Zeller, 2000). A key argument in this literature is that the rise of a global scale does not mean the complete dominance of the national scale or a complete evacuation or ‘deterritorialisation’ of space (Brenner, 1997, 1998a, 1998b, 1999, 2001; cf. Scholte, 2000). Rather globalisation processes are “intrinsically dependent upon, intertwined with and expressed through major transformations of territorial organisation on multiple geographical scales” (Brenner, 1999:432).

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Capitalist Structure vs. Political Action The conception of spatial scales helps us to understand how the appearance of globalisation discourse in an organisation like the ABC does not lead a complete ‘deterritorialisation’ and death of space. Instead globalisation discourse re-positions the organisation on multiple social scales. The question that must be asked now is how does this re-scaling process occur? There are two processes identified in the scale literature. The first conceives of spatial scales as a rigid mosaic assembled in the interests of the capital accumulation. The second approach conceives spatial scales as fragmented layers that various actors attempt to position organisational processes upon. According to many neo-Marxist geographers, changing patterns of capitalist accumulation largely drive rescaling processes. For instance, Smith (1984) demonstrated how capitalist relations produce particular scales that are amenable to processes of capitalist accumulation such as nation states and ‘the developing world’. Collinge (1999) provides a more extensive theory of scale by tracing out how states reproduce and regulate particular scales as part of the ‘primary accumulation’ required for regular capitalist expansion. That is, for the accumulation process to begin at a national level, a nation state and its associated regulatory mechanisms must be produced. More recent accounts influence by Marxist social geography have drawn out the multiplicity of scales produced by process of capitalist accumulation. Picking up on Lefebrve’s assertion of the multiple levels of social space, Brenner argues that processes of global capitalist accumulation do not involve the levelling of all social processes to the global economy and destruction of the nation state as the major space of accumulation. Rather, multinational capitalism produces a number of new scales, as well as changing the patterns of relations between these scales: The current round of neoliberal globalisation is re-scaling state territoriality rather than eroding it: the denationalisation of the national economy and urban hierarchy is not undermining the state’s role as a form of territorialisation of capital, but ‘denationalising’ its scalar structure to privilege supra- and sub-national capital valorisations (Brenner, 1999:440-1).

Consequently, globalisation can be approached as a ‘scalar shift’ from the predominant scale of capitalist accumulation being the nation-state towards the dual spatial scales of

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the local and the global (e.g. Brenner, 1998a). This does not mean institutions associated with the nation state disappear. Rather, the state remains absolutely central to many processes of rescaling. Accounts of the importance of spatial scales agree with Harvey’s (2000) conception of globalisation as the most recent moment in the ongoing process of organising and scaling social space: Capitalism cannot do without its ‘spatial fixes’. . . Capitalism thereby builds and rebuilds a geography in its own image. It constructs a distinctive geographical landscape, a produced space of transport and communications, of infrastructures and territorial organizations, that facilitates capital accumulation during one phase of its history only to have to be torn down and reconfigured to make way for further accumulation at a later stage. If, therefore, the word ‘globalization’ signifies anything about our recent historical geography, it is most likely to be a new phase of exactly this same underlying process of capitalist production of space (Harvey, 2000:54)

For Harvey “to seize the nettle of capitalism’s geography” is “to see the production of space as a constitutive moment within (as opposed to derivatively constructed by) the dynamics of capital accumulation and class struggle” (Harvey, 2000:54). For Marxist social geographers, spatial scales are first and foremost driven by the need to ‘fix’ a spatial scale that is amenable to capitalist accumulation. In order to further capitalist accumulation, business interests and supporting institution like the state constructing spaces such as ‘city’, ‘region’, and ‘nation’, or ‘the global economy’. Following this approach, each of scales we saw at the ABC would be a spatial fix that supports the process of capitalist accumulation. The shift from the domination of national scales like ‘Australian culture’, ‘Parliament’, and ‘Civil society’ towards local scales such as ‘community’ and global scales such as a global media market would be explained with reference to a shift in patterns of capitalist accumulation. While a ‘Fordist-Keynsian’ accumulation process tended to position organisations like the ABC on a national scale, a global capitalist accumulation processes would position the organisation on global and local scales (Brenner, 1999). Ultimately, the rigid mosaic of scales we observe around an organisation would be explained with reference to the underlying, singular, structure of capitalism. Marxist geographers certainly provided significant advances to a theory of scale by pointing towards the undoubted importance of powerful groups that facilitate capitalist 242

accumulation. However, they tend to assume the process of ‘re-scaling’ is something that simply happens. They do not provide an adequate consideration of the actors involved in constructing and remaking scales. A second group of geographers have accounted for rescaling processes by not only referring to various actors who articulate discourses of spatial scale. For instance, Swyngedouw (1996, 2000) shows how the scaling of economic activity is achieved and regulated through a series of institutions and actors engaging in political contestation in order to ‘fix’ economic processes on an advantageous spatial scale. This political process often involves a range of actors with differing interests attempting to position a social process in radically different spatial scales. In his study of the closure of the Belgian coal mining region, Swyngedouw examines how rescaling occurred through ongoing, contested and often incomplete process involving a range of actors such as representatives of the Belgian nation state, regional politicians, management consultants, labour activist, venture capitalists, and community pressure groups (Swyngedouw, 1996, 2000). Echoing research on globalization discourse (e.g. Hay and Rosamond 2001; Schmidt 2002), Kelly (1997) has argued that the production of a scale is a political achievement. In order to engage in rescaling, groups mobilised abstract ‘representations of space’ (Lefebvre, 1991) in the form of discourses like globalisation. These representations of space developed an abstract ‘overview’ of how an economic space works and how it should be administered. The representations also served an important political function as mobilising myths that shape the economic horizons in which the organization was positioned. By accounting for the mobilisation of representations of space, it is possible to move away from understanding scale as produced by a disembodied social structure like multinational capitalism. Instead, spatial scale may be approached as the product of various parties advancing their interests. This draws our attention to how scale is produced by actors who attempt to position social processes (such as the operations of the ABC) into a specific scale that would advance their interests. Such an approach does not completely write off the importance of multinational capitalism. It does seek to account for scalar production by dominant actors such as large business interests and neo-liberal governments whose interests are aligned with multinational capitalism. But it also

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recognises that these groups are not the only actors involved. In process of struggle around spatial scales there may be a range of other interested actors including unions, activists, community groups, regional governments, and professionals. These groups will seek to advance their interests by positioning social activities on an advantageous scale. The space produced by these interactions is not a rigidly structured mosaic with a pattern designed by multinational capital. Instead, it is more like Lefebvre’s mille feullie space, and is made up of many spatial scales. Undoubtedly, some scales may become particularly dominant by virtue of their promotion by dominant social actors like large business concerns and the state. However, there still remain a number of other possible spatial scales that are promoted by other groups. Following this approach, spatial scales should be treated as momentary construct of discourses mobilized by a range of interested social actors. Looking at each of the discourses at the ABC as a spatial scale allows us to see how they were socially produced. This production of spatial scales was not solely underpinned by a single space established by elite groups to serve the requirements of multinational capitalist accumulation. Instead, it involved a range of actors including the government representatives, senior ABC management, workers, unions, and community activists who attempted to position the organisation in an advantageous spatial scale. The successive discursive shifts from the nation to multiculturalism to the market to the new media environment can therefore be analysed as a process involving powerful actors emphasising different spatial scales the broadcaster was positioned within. For instance, by advancing discourses of globalisation and the associated discourse of the new media environment, representatives of the neo-liberal government and senior managers at the broadcaster attempted to emphasise global and the local scales instead of the national scale. This is not to say that other scales were thoroughly dissolved. We have seen that discourses such as Australian culture, government, and civil society continue to be promoted by a range of groups including government representatives, workers, unions, community groups as well as ABC senior management.

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By advancing particular spatial scale such as the global media market, powerful groups sought to create apparently true and rational representation of the social space in which the ABC exists. These subsequently shaped what were seen as rational and irrational courses of action for the organisation. Establishing a scale was a central political act insofar as it defined the co-ordinates of the space the ABC was seen to operate within. When powerful groups positioned the broadcaster within a scale like Australian culture, for instance, the ABC was required to fulfil the legitimate role of nation building and catering to stakeholders at a national level. In contrast, if powerful groups sought to position the broadcaster within a global scale, it was required to pursue the role of competing within the global market and catering to global stakeholders. In each of these cases changes in the ‘representations of space’ mobilised by dominant actors emphasise some scales over others. Ultimately, this shaped the horizons of possible action for the broadcaster.

Multiple Spatial Scales There were certainly dominant discourses and associated spatial scales at different times at the ABC. This did not mean there was only one dominant spatial scale at work. Instead, the broadcaster was simultaneously positioned within a number of spatial scales. During the period of nationalism, the ABC was positioned in five spatial scales: international, Australian culture, government, civil society, and community. The dominant scales during this period were Australian culture, government, and civil society. Powerful groups government ministers and senior management at the ABC articulated these discourses. Unions also supported these discourses to the extent that if they wanted to make an argument for changes within the organisation, they would appeal to their role in Australian culture, as servants of the government, or as important contributors to civil society. Various groups also articulated community and international scales during this period. These scales tend to be relatively peripheral, and were only attended to the extent that they bolstered the scales of Australian culture, government and civil society.

During the 1970s, changes in the representations of space articulated by ABC senior management and government representatives added another spatial scale in which the

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ABC was positioned. This was the scale of diversity. The spatial scales of Australian culture, the government, and civil society continued to be important scales for the broadcaster. The international scale also continued by a minor scale that was largely linked with the government scale. The major change involved the community becoming a more important scale relative others. Also the mid 1970s witnessed the appearance of diversity as a viable scale in its own right. A further change occurred during the early 1980s when ABC senior management and government representatives began articulating discourse associated the market. This positioned the national media market as a particularly important scale. Other scales continued to have some importance such as Australian culture, the government, and civil society. Scales such as the international, the community and diversity scales continued to have limited resonance. Finally, during the early 1990s the new media environment became a particularly important scale. This resulted in a significant reshuffling of various scales at the broadcaster. The most notable aspect of this was the extension of the media market from the national into the international market. A second notable change was the international scale becoming more closely attached to the media market. This meant many of the international activities of the broadcaster were justified in terms of commercial benefits instead of the pursuit of government goals. The extended influence of the international market did not result in the irrelevance of national spatial scales. I found that three scales of Australian culture, the government, and civil society continued to be of some import. Finally, the scales of community (and to some extent diversity) were promoted as an important panacea to the new emphasis on the international media market. This indicates that during the ‘new media environment’ era, the ABC was simultaneously positioned in a number of scales including the internationalised media market, the national culture and civil society, and a series of localised communities. In each of the four periods described above, we notice that there were multiple spatial scales instead of a single dominating discourse. The existence of these multiple spatial

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scales at the ABC reflects Lefebvre’s claim that social space is made up of manifold scales. The existence of many spatial scales at any one point in time gave rise to significant tensions and struggles. The ongoing struggle amongst interested actors around how various spatial scales were ‘sorted’ and organised led to changes in how the ABC understood and acted upon its space. In particular we saw there was a significant shift away from scales such as Australian culture, civil society and the government towards the global media market and localised communities. These results agree with recent social geographic research that argues a central dynamic of globalisation is the rescaling of space away from the nation state towards the twin poles of the global and the local (e.g. Brenner, 1998; Swegendouw, 1996). While these researchers have largely focused on the how rescaling proceeds at the national policy level, here I have attempted to show how a similar process of rescaling happens at the organisational level. In doing so, we begin to see that the rescaling of space is also absolutely central to defining the grounds that organisational politics may refer to and proceed from. By establishing particular scales, groups around the broadcaster attempt to shape and define the basic grounds they should constantly refer back to during negotiation and strategy making. My research also extends Lefebvre’s argument that scales are not naturally distributed in a nested hierarchical that runs vertically from the body, to household, neighbourhood, city, region, nation, and global levels (see also: Smith, 1993). Instead of there being a rigid hierarchy of spaces running from the body to the global economy, there appeared to be a series of overlapping and fragmented spaces. This is because “scalar structuration do not produce a single nested scalar hierarchy, an absolute pyramid of neatly interlocking scales, but are better understood as a mosaic of unevenly superimposed and densely interlayered scalar geometries” (Brenner, 2000:606). The relative importance of these multiple scales is sorted and resorted. This occurs as various actors articulate representations of space that emphasise some scales while downplaying others. In this thesis I have detailed how various actors attempted to position the ABC in multiple, non-nested, spatial scales. Further, I have endeavoured to show how actors attempted to mobilise various discourses, or representations of space, resulting in

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multiple scales being sorted and re-sorted. This happened through the establishment and re-shuffling of scales within which the broadcaster understood and positioned itself. This agrees with much of the research that looks at the production of spatial scales such as the boundary between the neighbourhood, the urban, the nation, and the global economies (e.g. Smith, 1993; Brenner, 1999). Ultimately this meant that actors attempting to pursue their interests by positioned the ABC in a multiplicity of scales. As we have seen above, these different spatial scales were distributed and re-distributed in different ways at different points in the organisation’s history. What I have therefore documented in the empirical chapters of this thesis is the ongoing process through which the ABC’s spatial scales were constructed and contested. By doing so, I have shown how one particular version of scaling – the new media environment - has gained some ascendancy. Under this, the ABC was not positioned in a singular space of the global media market. Rather, it was positioned in a range of spaces, each of which was continually negotiated and reconstructed at different points in time. Moreover, this process of construction was not something carried out by those in senior positions at the broadcaster. Rather, the space the ABC was positioned in was an object of struggle. It is to this struggle that I shall now turn.

Appropriating Spatial Scales Chapters five and six detailed the dominant discourses mobilised at the ABC. They show how each dominant discourse constructed the stakeholders, space, and legitimate role of the broadcaster. They also trace through the changing configuration of these discourses. While chapters five and six certainly tell us about how dominant groups mobilised their representations of space, they ignore how resistant groups were intimately involved in contesting these definitions. To fill this gap, the final empirical chapter examined how two resistance groups contested the dominant discourses and their associated spatial scales. I showed how actors used four strategies to resist dominant discourses at the ABC. The first strategy involved reviving old discourses that were once within the ABC’s lexicon but had since largely disappeared. The major example of this was the use of noncommercial discourses that were largely recovered from the public service ethos of the

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ABC. The second strategy involved picking up discourses that had been accepted by managerial and resistant groups for some time. This included using civil society discourses that emphasised the independence and the public role of the ABC, Australian culture discourse that emphasised the ABC as a conduit of a unique Australian culture, and discourses associated with the government like political accountability. The third strategy involved resistant groups drawing on ostensibly managerial discourses such as globalisation, the new media environment, productivity and efficiency. By doing so, resistance groups used dominant discourses in ways that moved in the opposite direction to their intended outcome. The final strategy used by resistant groups at the ABC involved importing discourses from outside the discursive field of the ABC. This happened as anti neo-liberalist discourses were imported from other sectors such as health care where there were ongoing struggles against the rise of neo-liberalism in public services.

Scale as Object of Struggle The first point this struggle around spatial scales brings to our attention is that dominant discourses and associated spatial scales are not thoroughly determining, but are objects of struggle. At the ABC, struggle around dominant spatial scales proceeded through groups appropriating dominant discourses of the time. This can be seen in the re-use of globalisation, new media environment, and neo-liberal discourses. In each of these cases, a relatively dominant construction of space was picked up and used by resistant groups at the ABC. By doing so they changed how these discourses might be used and how they were linked with particular social structures, strategies for change, and technologies. For instance, globalisation and new media environment discourse was actively linked with strategies of increased government funding, and neo-liberal discourses were used to present the ABC as already complying with standards of efficiency. By actively making use of and altering discourses, resistance groups also altered the broadcaster’s legitimate role and spatial scales. By doing this, they were able to re-craft dominant discourse and develop spatial scales that were not completely defined by the senior management’s versions of the new media environment.

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The first three strategies (reviving old discourses, using already existing discourses, appropriating new discourses) involved resistant groups putting into use discourses they found ‘at hand’. This allowed resistant groups to turn espoused discourses against their current uses and put them into the service of different political goals. It also enabled them to re-configure the legitimate roles, key stakeholders and spaces the broadcaster was positioned in. A fourth strategy used by resistant groups involved drawing on language from outside the discursive field of the ABC. Doing so involved these groups actively transporting discourses between organisational fields. Modern management discourses, for instance, was ambivalently appropriated from the field of management culture. Resistant groups also drew upon the anti neo-liberal discourses that were common currency in the campaigns against government cutbacks in other public services. These two discourses were developed as repertoires that resistance groups could use to question the prevalence of new media environment discourse. The broader point this suggests is that globalisation and associated discourses did not completely dominate a given field of discourse as a number of early analyses of globalisation discourse suggest (e.g. Du Gay, 1999). Nor was the ABC unproblematically positioned within a global scale of operations as much of the literature of re-scaling might suggest (e.g. Brenner, 1999). Instead, the discourse and associated scales of globalisation were objects of struggle that were challenged and resisted by actors around the ABC. Such challenges to official discourse happened as actors picked from a range of discourses already available at the ABC. This stock provided resistant groups with resources they could use to re-craft dominant discourses like globalisation. By mobilising discourse in unusual ways, resistance groups were able to appropriate the dominant construction of space, legitimate roles and stakeholders. In doing so, they re-emphasised particular discourses while downplaying others.

Formal Struggle, Informal Strategies The four strategies of discursive struggle evident at the ABC did not spontaneously well up. Instead, they were forcefully articulated and organised by formal resistance organisations such as the FABC and the CPSU. During the struggle around the dominant

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scale within the ABC, these two formally organised resistance groups employed many of the strategies reported in studies in ‘micro-resistance’ in organisations (e.g. Knights and MacCabe, 2000a; Prasad and Prasad, 1999; Fleming and Sewell, 2002). Resistance groups at the ABC used micro-strategies including humour, ‘serious’ appropriation of managerial discourses, and reviving historical discourses. Much of the research documenting these processes of micro resistance follows from de Certeau’s (1984) seminal work on resistance to disciplinary power through everyday acts and tactical re-appropriation of various materials of power. A common theme that emerged in such research is that ‘weapons of the weak’ (Scott, 1985; 1990) like jokes, irony and subcultural languages were often mobilised in relatively unorganised contexts (such as the daily practice of workers on the shop floor) to resist dominating power relations. This focus on ‘micro-practices’ allows us to see how resistance does not need to be mediated by a union, nor culminate in a strike or a total overthrow of the means of production (Fleming and Sewell, 2002). Rather, resistance and struggle against dominant power relations may actually proceed through more subtle linguistic means. Following studies of micro-resistances, there are reports of how individuals informally appropriate dominant discourse through strategies such as humour in order to resist dominant power relations (e.g. Collinson, 1993). In the present study we find these strategies are not just the preserve of informal groups. Instead we see two organised groups, the unions and the FABC, actively mimicked discourses like globalisation and the new media environment in a range of forums. It was this process of appropriation that enabled resistance groups to reconfigure the meanings and power relations inscribed within dominant discourses. The case of the ABC, therefore, shows how forms of organised resistance including unions and ‘new social movements’ continued to play an important role in challenging dominant power relations in and around organisations. What is particularly evident in the current case is that many of the processes of resistance mobilised by organised groups at the ABC appeared to use strategies we would typically associate with ‘informal’

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resistance. For instance, resistance worked through humorous re-appropriating and recrafting of the dominant language. By doing so, resistance groups sought to contest ‘hegemonic’ power relations based around meanings fixed by dominant discourses (for a similar argument see: Laclau and Mouffe, 1985). Similarly, a number of studies reveal how a central struggle in inter-organisational relations is over the discourse used to represent and construct the central objects or subjects of interaction. Hardy, Phillips and colleagues show how an important dynamic of inter-organisational struggle was the discourse that collaborating organisations used to construct refugees (Hardy, 1994; Hardy and Phillips, 1998; Hardy and Phillips, 1999), people living with HIV/AIDS (Maguire, Phillips and Hardy, 2001), and whales (Lawrence, Hardy and Phillips, 1999). Similarly, Rodrigues and Collinson (1996) show how unions mobilised discourses through cartoons in a union newspaper in order to contest management ideology. Tsoukas’s (1999) study of the conflict between Greenpeace and the Shell oil company in the North Sea also demonstrated a central aspect of this conflict was the struggle around discursive space. Finally, Spicer and colleagues (2002; Selsky et al, 2003) show how during the 1997-8 the Melbourne waterfront dispute, the Maritime Union of Australia mobilised a range of discourses in the public media to resist and contest dominant managerial discourses. The resonance between each of these studies and the present research is that struggle around discourse is not just found in more unorganised micro-practices of resistance such as shop-floor banter. Rather, discourses are also vigorously mobilised by more organised modes of resistance such as unions and new social movements. Social movement organisations like the FABC played an important role in bring together dispersed positions and discourses into a ‘counter hegemony’ by forming ‘chains of equivalence’ (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985). These counter hegemonies were created by new social movement deploying new languages and identities to develop cogent and politically viable alternatives to dominant discourses (Touriane, 1981, 2001; Melucci, 1985). Of particular importance is how social movements like the FABC achieve recognition of a given cause through the use of discourse, as well as distribution of

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resources in a way that is favourable for its cause (Fraser, 1995). By creating such counter hegemonies and the recognition this affords, social movements like the FABC are able to challenge and sometimes change dominant institutional order (Rao, 1998; Hensman, 2003; Rao et al, 2003). By focusing on the processes through which resistance and alternatives are mobilised, it becomes possible to provide an account not only of discourses that are used to contest dominant language like globalisation, but also of various organisational and political processes that must occur for this contestation to take place. Further, this may provide a counter-weight to research on resistance which tends to only focus on either highly formalised instances of resistance, such as unions and strikes (e.g. Hyman, 1974), or highly informal types of resistance, such as organisational misbehaviour (e.g. Ackroyd and Thompson, 1999). Perhaps the study of social movements would provide a middle ground for developing understandings of forms of resistance that are no longer disorganised, nor highly organised, but in the process of becoming-organised. Recognising the importance of language in ‘organised’ forms of resistance, it became clear how resistant groups use discourses to re-construct the social space in which they operate, the legitimate role they must play in it, and the stakeholders they should be mindful of. Through actively using and re-using globalisation and representations of space, resistant groups were able to unsettle and even open up the apparently singular imperative that the ABC must become part of the global space.

Widening the Production of Scale This thesis has paid particular attention to how spatial scales were produced. It has emphasised the role the mobilisation and counter-mobilisation of discourses plays in the process. One question that has not been directly addressed in this thesis is whether a scale is only the product of discourse. If we return to the Lefebvre’s (1991) theory of the production of space, we recognise that space is not simply a mental operation that is thought or spoken into being. Instead, there are at least three processes of spatial production: Spatial Practices, Representations of Space and, Representational Space.

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The first mode of spatial production that Lefebvre discusses involves what he calls ‘spatial practices’. Under ‘neo-capitalism’, this involves “a close association, within perceived space, between daily reality (daily routine), and urban reality (the routes and networks which link up the places set aside for work, ‘private’ life and leisure)” (p. 38). Spatial practices are comprised of the most routine and everyday uses of space. Moreover, space is reconstructed through these very spatial practices. For instance the everyday life of the city is made up of a ‘chorus of idle footsteps’ (de Certeau 1984) of pedestrians going about their daily activities. If we stay close to Lefebvre’s definition of spatial practices, we might focus on how scales are produced through activities such as dwelling, moving about, acts of speaking, and the modification of spaces through clandestine escapades such as graffiti. If we broaden the definition of spatial practices to include the routine interactions through which we make and remake the spaces in which we dwell, then these practices are not only those of the anonymous ‘person in the street’. The built realities of the broadcasting studio or the office building are also made and sustained through a panoply of spatial practices such as building, investing, negotiating, and lobbying. A spatial practice therefore involves the everyday making of space. Because the explicit focus of this thesis has been the analysis of public declarations it is difficult, if not impossible for me to provide a detailed account of how space was practiced through clandestine use of organisation space. I have however provided an account of how globalisation and new media environment discourses at the ABC were linked with attempts to materially build new spaces. These spatial practices included investing in infrastructure such as the satellite station called ‘Australia TV’ that was represented as helping to position the broadcaster in the New Media Environment. Another spatial practice I touched on was the various business arrangements such as the proposed content provision deal between ABC Online and Telstra that aimed to position the broadcaster in the new media environment. Ultimately these spatial practices were the material manifestation of the ABC’s attempts to construction and position itself within a global space.

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The second aspect of the production of space Lefebvre outlined is the production of ‘representations of space’. This spatial labour process involves ‘conceptualized space, the space of scientists, planners, urbanists, technocratic subdividers and social engineers, as of a certain type of artist with a scientific bent – all of whom identify what is lived and perceived with what is conceived’ (p. 38). The production of representational spaces involves attempts at stratifying space ‘at a distance’. This entails mobilizing technologies of planning space ranging from government policy and corporate strategy to the actual planning of subdivisions and buildings. The result of such ‘representational space’ is the development of a series of formal regulation and rules that stratify and carve up a given space. The labour of producing representational space involves attempts to regulate and organize spaces through various bodies of expertise. The aim of spatial planning was to render a given space governable and ultimately governing it. Spatial planning was a central feature of globalisation discourse at the ABC. The bulk of this thesis has been taken up with an exploration of how senior management at the ABC articulated a range of formal representations of space that the ABC exists within. As we saw in chapter five, there were seven different representations of space. Further, we saw that there were subsequent processes of shuffling and reshuffling as the relationships between these spaces changed in the movement from nationalism to multiculturalism to the media market to the new media environment. Each of these representations of space was an attempt to stratify and delineate the space the ABC operated and subsequently recrafted how the ABC should understand its own tasks and the stakeholders. By doing this, each of the discourses attempted to give a degree of order to the space in which the ABC operates. The third mode of producing space involves making ‘representational spaces’. This is ‘space as directly lived through its associated images and symbols, and hence the space of ‘inhabitants’ and ‘users’, but also of some artists and perhaps of those, such as a few writers and philosophers, who describe and aspire to do no more than describe’ (p. 38). Representational space ‘overlays the physical space, making symbolic use of its objects’ (p. 39). The mode of producing space involves representing and imagining a given space.

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The examples Lefebvre gives largely involve charting out how our understanding of a given space is imagined by people who use it and how this imagination is conditioned by ‘descriptions of space’ found in literature and paintings. Like the dimension of spatial practices, this thesis has not thoroughly investigated spatial imaginaries. However, if we dig underneath many of the representations of space identified in the annual reports such as the nation, the market, or community we discover that they seem to be charged with potent force. Many of these discourses are almost treated as if they are sacred. For instance, in chapter seven we came across representative of FABC labelling the public service ethos of the ABC as ‘our only hope’. In chapters five and six we also found senior management of the ABC also indulged in representational space by appealing to the un-named ‘community good’, and the dynamic yet ultimately mystical forces of ‘entrepreneurialism’ and ‘the market’ (see also: Jones and Spicer, 2004). What is common in each of these cases is that discourses seem to be charged with emotion that cannot be fully articulated by even the most eloquent speaker. We might locate the imaginary dimension of spatial discourses at the ABC at points where discourses make appeal to grand, suggestive, yet ultimately empty signifiers like ‘the nation’, ‘the market’, or ‘the community’. By bringing together these three modes of producing space, we recognise that globalisation discourse does not only construct the social world through the language we used to represent it (cf. Hay and Watson, 2000). If we follow Lefebvre’s theory of space, globalisation discourse primarily involves the construction of space. Moreover, this process of constructing space occurs through spatial practices and spatial imaginaries as well as representations of space. The primary focus of the empirical part of this thesis has been to tracing out the changes in representations of space through the broadcasters annual reports, and how resistant groups challenged these representations. In this section I have argued that alongside this representations of space lies equally potent spatial practices such as deal-making and new venture creation as well as emotionally changed representational space such as ‘the nation’, ‘the community’, and ‘the market’. To develop a more complete account of globalisation discourse that does not fall into a kind

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of discursive idealism whereby everything is an effect of language (Reed, 2000), it is necessary to take into account this tri-partite process of producing space detailed above.

Conclusion In this thesis, I have set out to respond to a call that is common to social commentary, orthodox management theorists, and managers of all stripes – that organisations have no choice but to adapt to the forces of globalisation. This has led to globalisation being framed as a value-free and technical assessment of the social world that actors in various organisations must simply respond to in the most technically efficient and effective way. What this means is that a deeply interested assessment of the space in which organisations exist, their stakeholders, and their legitimate role are rendered as simply self-evident. Moreover, the managerial decisions made in relation to these apparently self- evident assessments are rendered as technical procedures without political content and consequence. My analysis of globalisation discourse at the ABC shows that one single discourse did not dominate how actors talked about the context within which the ABC was embedded. Rather, in the period studied there were a number of dominant discourses at work, each of which constructed different understandings of the organisation’s legitimate role, the most important stakeholders, and the space in which the broadcaster exists. This meant there was a degree of plurality and antagonism between different languages already built into dominant ABC discourse. This allowed important fault lines to appear in dominant ABC discourse, making it something that was already not whole. Therefore, discourse like globalisation did not totally dominate and utterly colonise how the social world could be talked about. Instead this discursive field appeared to be indeterminate and fractured. Although there were a number of fissures that ran through dominant discourse at the ABC, this did not mean that the ABC was embedded in an environment made up of a chaotic collage of minor narratives. Throughout this thesis, I have endeavoured to point out that there was a limited group of very specific discourses at work within the ABC. Moreover, I have attempted to show how this set of specific discourses shifted as new

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discourses appeared at the ABC. With the rise of diverse groups and media-market discourses there was not just an additional term that actors could use to talk about the social world in which the ABC was positioned. Instead, it introduced a broader transformation in many of the discourses that were used to talk about the space in which the ABC was embedded. As a new discourse arose, and other discourses changed, the roles that were seen as legitimate, the way in which space was understood, and the important stakeholders all shifted. This meant the rise of a new discourse involving a wholesale shift in the context within which the ABC operated. The particular shifts we saw during the period studied was from the ABC being positioned in a relatively singular nation, towards it operating in a multi-cultural nation. During the early 1980s there were a series of fundamental transformation that heralded the rise of media market discourse. This saw the context the ABC operated within being re-scripted as a market. Following these specific changes, the rise of new media environment discourse pushed the boundaries of the market outwards to encompass the global market. Each of these shifts was accompanied by a fundamental rearrangement of the organisation’s legitimate role and the groups that should count as important stakeholders. This process of construction and reconstruction alerts us to the fact that globalisation was not simply a pressing and self-evident change in the social environment that management might astutely observe and act upon. Rather, it is a representation of space advanced by interested groups that proscribe a course of actions. Further, by treating globalisation as the most recent advent of an ongoing process of representing space, then it becomes apparent that it is not an utterly singular process. Rather, it is only one among a number of successive spatial scales that groups have attempted to position the ABC within. This would mean that looking at globalisation is similar to examining other large-scale discourses like the nation or the market that shape the horizons within which organisational actors understand and position themselves. Despite the fact that globalisation and new media environment discourse involved the construction of new spatial scales at the ABC, these discourses did not completely colonise how actors could talk about the space in which the broadcaster operated. Instead,

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we have seen how groups around the ABC challenged new media environment discourse, and in doing so called into question the global market as the central space within which the organisation operates. This occurred through resistance groups picking up already existing fissures within the dominant ABC discourse and importing new discourses into the organisation. By doing so, resistance groups were able to unsettle the dominant language that was used to produce spatial scales. Ultimately this allowed resistance groups to intervene in the apparently all-encompassing hegemony of the global media environment. By mobilising already existing discourse in different ways, resistance groups were able to craft a present and a possible future for the organisation in ways that were not necessarily dominated by the logic of the market. Treating globalisation solely as a discourse risks conceals aspects of globalisation that cannot be reduced to language. In order to begin to address this difficult issue, I have drawn on the work of Henri Lefebrve (1991) and social geographers who have attempted to apply these insights into the study of globalisation (e.g. Smith, 1993; Swengendouw, 1996; Brenner, 1999). I have used this work to argue that instead of treating globalisation (or other social topologies like the nation) as just a discourse, it might be treated as a particular configuration of space. This configuration of space involves the ongoing production of what social geographers call spatial scales. Because globalisation is a fractured discourse, it produces a range of spatial scales. It is these spatial scales that constitute the horizon within which the ABC operates. The substantive focus has been how spatial scales are produced through representations found in policy and strategy documents and public pronouncements by senior managers. Following Lefebvre, these representations of space sit alongside and are re-enforced by spatial practices such as investing, building and deal-making as well as the emotionally charged representational spaces such as the ‘nation’ or ‘community’.

Contributions The question that this thesis tried to address is this; is it possible to study globalisation as a discourse, and if so, what do we see? In what follows, I shall argue that the approach I have taken affords three unique insights. First, it allows us to avoid viewing globalization 259

as a reified entity that comes into an organisation like a ‘tidal wave’ and physically forces change. Second, it allows us to extend the analysis of organizational discourse to a new phenomenon (globalization), and a new level of analysis (the ‘environmental’ level). Finally, by examining how a discourse like globalization constructs social space, it may allow us to take some tentative steps towards materializing discourse analysis. In what follows I shall look at each of these contributions. Opening Up Globalisation In the third chapter, I documented the growing range of research in the social sciences that suggests globalisation is not a singular global process (as ‘first wave’ studies do), nor a manifestation of specific embedded changes (as ‘second wave’ studies do), but a language that is used to talk about the social world and the power relations which mark it out. While the debate about globalisation discourse largely consists of tentative gesturing, a few empirical studies have appeared that examine the machinations of globalisation discourse in the social sciences (Kayatekin and Ruccio, 1998; Cameron and Palan, 1999; Hay and Watson, 1999; Weldes, 2001), government policy (Rosamond, 1999; Pardo, 2001; Kang, 2000; Amoore, 2002), and organisational strategy (Larner, 1998a. 1998b; Applbaum, 1999). In each of these studies, globalisation discourse is treated as a relatively coherent language issued by a dominant elite (senior manager, international and national government, and various intellectuals) that has become widespread in many spheres of social life. The prevalence of globalisation discourse made other ways of talking and thinking about the social world increasingly marginal. What appears throughout this thesis is quite a different story. Dominant groups like the senior management of the ABC did not issue a singular dominant discourse of globalisation. Instead, both senior management and the union and FABC played a role in constructing and contesting a number of dominant discourses at the ABC. The discourse of globalisation also did not spread virus-like throughout the entire language used by actors in and around the organisation. Rather, there were a number of discourses at play, many of which were not associated with globalisation. Nonetheless, globalisation did represent a change in the spatial scales the broadcaster was embedded within. As these

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spatial scales were reconstructed, the very horizons of possible future developments were also reconstructed. Resistance to globalisation discourses should therefore not be seen as something that chimes in from outside, but as a strategy that picks up on already existing multiplicities within a given discursive field. Globalisation is not, therefore, underpinned by a relatively coherent image of the world imputed within government or senior management’s discourse that maps over a relatively incoherent social world. A central insight from the present study is that globalisation discourse is nearly as inconsistent as the social world it purports to explain. The space the ABC is located in is more like a flaky pastry (Lefebvre, 1991), crumbling and ‘shattered’ into a number of different scales. In the ABC’s case at least, it appears Lefebvre is correct to claim: The world market creates configurations and inscribes changing spaces on the surface of the earth, spaces governed by contradiction and conflict (Lefebvre, 1991: 404, my emphasis).

The spatial scales that inscribed and reinscribed the ABC’s social world are legion. Further, these spatial scales are reproduced in ways that were far from what was intended by the author of a given scale. Instead we saw that the process of conflict and cooperation around the scale in which the ABC exists constituted one of the central political processes in this organisation. To speak of globalisation as a singular discourse then is inappropriate, in this case at least. It is, rather, one among a series of shattered spaces within which the ABC exists.

Extending Discourse Analysis Alongside some contributions to the study of globalisation, the present study also extends studies of discourse in organisational contexts. Researching globalisation as a discourse involves placing it with other discourses like Total Quality Management (Sewell and Wilkinson, 1992), Human Resource Management (Townley, 1994), personnel management (Hollway, 1991), equity (Garnsey and Rees, 1996), the consumer (du Gay and Salaman, 1992), the client (Andersen-Gough et al, 2000), corporate culture (Kondo, 1990), and professionalism (Llewellyn, 2001) which buzz in the hallways of contemporary organisations. Like these other discourses, globalisation is frequently

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mobilised to construct a particular state of affairs within organisations shaping how people understand and act upon this world, moulding how actors see the world and what they understand to be a rational course of action is a potent form of control (Willmott, 1993). From this perspective, globalisation discourse is not simply a more or less accurate description of how the world is. Instead, it is an exercise of power. With the rise of globalisation and new media environment discourse, the ABC is positioned in a rapidly globalising media market. This makes it necessary for the ABC to pursue various strategies aimed at positioning the broadcaster at the forefront of the ‘new media environment’. By looking at globalisation as a discourse, I have extended discourse analysis to another ‘level’ of organisational life. In the review of the literature on discourse (see: chapter three) we saw that there have been extensive studies of discourse at the level of the subject (e.g. Knights and Willmott, 1989), interpersonal interactions (e.g. du Gay and Salaman, 1993), the organisation (e.g. Carroll, 1995), and inter-organisational relations (e.g. Hardy, 1994). Here, I have demonstrated that discourse also plays a role in constructing what organisation theorists would call the ‘external environment’ (see also: Smirchich and Stubbard, 1982). I have shown how a succession of discourses shaped actors understanding of the space in which the ABC was positioned. I documented the shifts in spatial scales from the nation to a more fragmented multicultural society, then to the market, and finally to an international market. I have attempted to show how each of these reconstructions of the spatial scale at the ABC refashioned what was seen as the broadcasters legitimate role.

From Discourse to Social Space The central question that has motivated this thesis is whether an apparently material process like globalisation can be treated as a discourse. This leads me to offer what I see as the third contribution of this thesis; namely a concept to negotiate the dangerous straits between the ‘discursive construction of everything’ proposed by post-modernists like Chia (1996, 2000), and the return to a classical concepts of social structure proposed by critical realists like Reed (1998, 2000). In seeking to understand how globalisation works

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as a discourse, it was necessary to confront the material aspects associated with the language of globalisation such as changing government regulatory regimes and the shifting structure of the international media market. To account for these important material aspects, it was necessary to ask how discourse and materiality intertwine. To understand this, I have borrowed the concept ‘spatial scales’ from Henri Lefebvre (1991). Looking at the ABC using this concept has allowed me to see the range of scales the ABC existed within, and how each of these scales are produced through the ongoing struggle of groups to advance their interests. It is possible to take this approach further by drawing more directly on Lefebvre’s (1991) argument that social space is produced through three processes – spatial practices, spatial planning, and imaginaries of space (see also: Soja, 1995). If we are faithful to Lefebvre’s theory of social space and his ongoing insistence that space is not merely spoken into being, an account of a spatial scale like globalisation would allow us to see how discourses of globalisation are part of a broader process that involves the construction of space through everyday practices, planning and spatial imaginaries. In this thesis, I have largely focused on how spatial scales were produced through spatial planning in the form of corporate strategies. It would be possible to further materialise discourse analysis by also accounting for spatial practices and spatial imaginaries articulated around the ABC. Developing a broader concept of spatial scales allows us to materialise discourse as well as make material aspects of social life associated with globalisation like markets and governments more discursive. Examining the construction, destruction and contestation of spatial scales allows us to advance an analysis of the spatial dimensions of globalisation and organisation in a way that avoids the pitfalls of treating globalisation as omnipotent or just a language. The concept of spatial scales also sensitises us to the fact that globalisation is only one among a number of re-configurations of space. With the rise of globalisation, we do not get a disappearance of space. Rather, as we have seen at the ABC, there is a restructuring and re-inscription of space. By paying attention to this process, we are able to avoid seeing globalising organisations simply as overcoming space (as ‘first wave’ studies do), or as

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the product of the spaces the ABC is already embedded in (as ‘second wave’ studies do). Instead, it is possible to see it as re-structuring and re-sorting the space the organisation is positioned within.

Closing By examining the production of space at the ABC, I have sought to question attempts to develop rational responses to the necessities of globalisation. I have done this by developed a critical account of globalisation. This account is critical on two counts. First, it understands a social process like globalisation as characterised by fundamental antagonism because it involves irreconcilable interests. Second, it understands representations of the social world such as globalisation being just that – a representation. In addition, this representation is approached as being fundamentally bound up with power relations. In order to pursue such an account, I have shown that globalisation is a central part of the powerful discourse of the new media environment that appeared at the ABC during the early 1990s. This discourse did not simply describe pre-existing structures, but was absolutely central in constructing and reconstructing relations of power. In particular, we saw that new media environment discourse was vital in constructing spatial scales, the organisation’s legitimate role and its major stakeholders. The global scale constructed by new media environment discourse stood alongside more national and local scales. Moreover, each of these scales were also objects of struggle. That is, globalisation discourse constructed one among a number of spatial scales, each of which was subject to contestation. My findings move in a different direction to accounts that portray globalisation discourse forming an all-enveloping social totality. Indeed, I would support Tagg’s (1991) suspicions that the merchants of globalisation discourse have attempted to assert one of the more persuasive meta-narratives of recent times. For him, the global system that is supposed to be simply a representation of ‘how things are’ is instead “an Imaginary wholeness that represses the multiplicity and heterogeneous positioning effects of language” (Tagg, 1991: 157). Indeed, it is worthwhile reflecting on just how foolhardy it is to suppose that one word may take in the entirety of human experiences and the chaotic social processes that throng the surface of the planet. At the same time, it is indeed 264

astounding that this very word has such widespread currency, and has been used in such a broad way to paper over the complexities that it is supposed to represent. Perhaps to understand this we need to follow Tagg once again, and incite Laclau and Mouffe’s famous declaration of the incomplete nature of the social and the ideological suturing which must take place for us to even begin talking of something like ‘globalisation’: The incomplete character of every totality necessarily leads us to abandon, as a terrain of analysis, the premise of ‘society’ as a sutured and self-defined totality. ‘Society’ is not a valid object of discourse. There is no single underlying principal fixing – and hence constituting – the whole field of differences (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985: 111).

Like society, globality only comes into being “as an effort to construct that impossible object” (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985: 112). It is only in the saying that the ground of globality appears to be solid.

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Appendix One: Chronology of Ventures, Policy, and Structural Changes at the ABC, 1950 – 1999. Adapted from: Allen and Spencer (1983), Jacka et al (1997), the journals Media Information Australia (1981-86) and Media Information Australia incorporating culture and policy (1997, 1998, 1999) 1950 •

RA returned to ABC control

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Newspapers push for abolition of the ABC’s independent news service

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ABC has to compile a voluminous report to satisfy the colation government that its’ News service is value for money.

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The AFCBS attempts to have section 88(2) of the Australian Broadcasting act overturned to decrease the 2.5% of Australian music it is required to broadcast.

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Boyer, Chairman of the ABC outlines the issues of dual tier broadcasting system (commercial and public). The commercial stations appeal to popular tastes to gain a mass audience. This forces the ABC to broadcast similar programmes. This mean the ABC and commercial stations broadcast similar programs on, resulting in a decline in quality.

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ABC annual report discusses the small demand for parliamentary broadcasts, as well as increase in discs from USA and England and expanded concert schedule.

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ABC radio network now includes more than 50 stations

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ABC Western Australian orchestra formed

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Following country party pressure, Prof Ball’s regular programme ‘Australia in the pacific’ was broadcast on alternate Sunday’s so that the other perspective on Australia’s involvement in Korea could be appear.

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(May) Cabinet subcommittee optimistic about RA’s future

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ACBA board states that the ABC has to bear cost of establishing landlines

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Boyer investigates overseas TV transmission in UK and USA, and concludes that TV has greater influence over the public mind that Radio. This necessitates stricter control.

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(Sept) ABC committee appointments expire and Menize’s government does not renew them.

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Australian Broadcasting Act, 1951 (no41) increased license fee for radio. The ABC remains dependent on parliament for grants of funding.

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•

ABC annual report suggests need for third channel due to limitations of parliamentary broadcasting. Also extension of Radio Australia to Japan and South East Asia suggested.

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ABC presents re-enactment of Sturt’s expedition along the Murrey and Murrumbidgee

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ABC sportsman of the year established

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End of ABC military band

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ABC agrees to appoint more regional journalists to bolster regional news base.

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ABC appeals against refusal of director general of health to allow broadcasts on particular health matters.

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ABC annual report states that 73% of all schools were listening to the ABC’s educational service.

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42 commercial stations buying ABC news

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ABC still pressing for 3rd network

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ABC collaborates with dept of external affairs on its overseas short-wave service

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ABC introduced regional rural sessions and opened another Queensland station

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ABC boosted power of transmissions to capital cities due to boosts by Asian countries.

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Conference of ABC advisors suggested that the ABC be bolder in broadcasting contentious issues

1953 •

ABC appointed the national TV authority on the recommendation of a Royal commission and under the authority of the 1953 act. Commercial services were to be provided by stations operating under licenses granted by the PMG

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ABC national radio cover the royal tour

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ABC opens two stations in NSW, one in Vic, and one in Tasmania

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ABC establishes TV training school and appoints co-ordinator to begin planning for television service.

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ABC opens three radio stations in NSW, SA, and WA

1956 •

Broadcasting and TV act 1956, extends all powers of the ABC in Radio to the field of TV, and gives control of TV technical facilities to the ABC

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ABC appoints 4th SEA representative to operate in Singapore

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Boyer claims that film for national TV should go directly to the ABC for its own censorship, because good taste was better than the censors regulations

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•

Boyer wanted one hour interlude between children’s programming and adult programming on TV

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ABC objects to illustration in TV news because it would prove distracting and emotion arousing

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(Nov 2) ABC TV goes to air in Sydney

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(Nov 19) ABC TV goes to air in Melbourne

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ABC covers Olympic games in Melbourne. ABC hosting organisation for world media.

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Dr Evatt criticises ABC reports on the Suez crisis. An ABC commentator was asked to modify their script

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ABC staff association public service arbitrator to extend overtime grants to all staff.

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(Dec) Commission decided to resist moves by the staff association

1956-8 • ABC suffers considerably in the area of staff relations 1956-66 • ABC film department increases significantly from 15 to 300, with budget from 36,000 to 130,000 1957 •

ABC begins experiment with FM radio broadcasts

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ABC help establish British Commonwealth newsfilm agency

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ABC internal ruling specifies that wording and length of news on radio and TV should be similar

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RA begins regular program of news commentary. A panel of speakers chosen by the ABC subject to external affairs dept approval

1958 •

ABC submits first entry into Prix Italia radio prize.

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ABC approved increase in capacity for news filming and based a talks department officer in New York

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Boyer issues a statement that commentators should edit their own script, with final responsibility being theirs and not the ABCs

1959 •

ABC weekly publication discontinued

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ABC personnel sent to Asia to help local broadcasters. ABC officer stationed in Jakarta

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Series of lectures based on the Reith lectures begin

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ABC decides that the use of music in news reels and bulletins must cease

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Boyer establishes a joint consultative committee where staff views could be aired

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Czech philharmonic orchestra tour Australia

1960 •

ABC opens new Perth premises.

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ABC production ‘death of a wombat’ won the Prix Italia

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ABC TV opened in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart. Four radio stations opened in north territory and one in Queensland. RA service opened in Victoria.

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ABC staff conditions bought closer to those of the commonwealth public service, with matters to be determined by the commission with approval of the public service board

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Boyer begins advocating for a ‘university of the air’

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(March) ABC ordered trial period of two minutes of Film to be included in 15 minute news bulletin.

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(May) use of film affirmed, but not extended to interview or speech

1961 •

ABC appointed Vietnam correspondent and began officer in Jarkarta

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ABC joins Intertel, and international TV documentary co-operative

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‘Four corners’ the first ABC current affairs show begins

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ABC inaugurates university of the air

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ABC staff regulation come into effect and supersede staff regulations

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Action taken to improve the range of ABC metro and regional radio transmitters

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Moses, GM of the ABC, knighted for his services to broadcasting

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Boyer dies. This lead to loss of some hyper-sensitivity about TV news and more concerned with current affairs.

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Darling takes up position of chair in Boyer’s place

1962 • •

ABC arranged coverage of Perth commonwealth games ABC3 opened in Canberra. Radio stations opened in New Guinea, Armdale

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•

Commission tells ABC management that ratings must improve to justify further budget increases for TV

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Admin structure changes so that federal director of Radio and TV answered to the Controller of programs

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ABC allowed to continue membership of Intertel, the possibility of government and ABC consultation on type of programming suggested.

1963 •

(Jan) Special ABC program celebrates 175 anniversary of arrival of first fleet in Sydney cove.

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Sydney-Melbourne coaxial cable leased by PMG to the ABC. Arrangements were made so that other TV stations could participate in events of national importance.

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ABC opens shortwave service in New Guinea, new radio station in WA and eight TV stations in Vic, NSW, Tas, and QLD.

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ABC introduces the New Radio Network system

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ABC begins its first voice reporting program ‘this week in Asia’, and opens office in Kuala Lumpur.

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ABC bought full AAP-Reuter service for Australia.

1964 •

Talbot Duckmanton to succeed Moses as GM

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RA celebrates its 25th anniversary

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Dean Dixon, director of SSO introduces concerts for pre-school Children’s to further appreciation of music

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ABC finds Australia prize for rural radio

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ABC introduced TV teaching in mathematics and Science for secondary schools

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‘In patient’ produced by the ABC was the first Australian TV series on modern medicine

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ABC co-operates in program production with UK, USA and Japan

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Tokyo Olympics covered by combined ABC and commercial radio and TV team

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(Sept) ABC began to take over radio studio technical services from PMG’s department

1965 • •

ABC adopts wave form as its motif MSO tour New Zealand for pan pacific arts festival. This was the first ABC tour outside Australia 270

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SSO take part in commonwealth arts festival and perform in UK and Asia

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ABC holds first country conference of NSW region in orange

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ABC establish staff training school in Sydney

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ABC undertakes physical and administrative re-organisation in Sydney. Radio technical control transferred from PMG

1966 •

10th year of TV

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ABC achieves 51.59% Australian concetnet in TV programming

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Largest ABC TV hook-up to telecast retirement of Menzies. WA not part of the link

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ABC staff training school in Sydney becomes fully operational. ABC office opened in New Delhi and Tokyo

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First join ABC / BBC play – production of Australian play Kain

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ABC launch first drama series ‘nice n juicy’ and Australian playhouse series

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Use of film in ABC news bulletins finally sanctioned by the commission.

1967 •

20th anniversary of ABC News service and youth concert series

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ABC formed national training orchestra in Sydney and opened office in Washington

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‘This day tonight’ an ABC week night public affairs program, begins in three states

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4000th episode of ABC radio serial ‘blue hills’ broadcast

1968 •

(April) Joint parliamentary committee of public accounts began an inquiry into the financial administration of the ABC

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ABC celebrates its 25th anniversary of radio program ‘guest of honour’, and the technical division reorganised

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ABC reports new quarterly news publication distributed to MPS, government departments, advisory committees and others. The reports provided background information not normally available through regularly published services

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OTC satellite begins with exchange between ABC and NHK

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1969 •

Joint parliamentary committee on public accounts tables report on financial administration of the ABC. It contained recommendations and comments on finance, personnel, premises and use of computer facilities.

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ABC organises talks department into current affairs and spoken word

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ABC provides basic TV program for all stations for coverage of man’s first landing on the moon

1970 •

‘Make it Australian’ TV campaign began. The ABC uses a satellite for the first time to carry a local program across six states

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ABC introduced ‘learn Indonesian’

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ABC create directorate of planning and development and produced its fifth TV studio opera

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ABC ‘voice reports’ on major overseas news developments becomes more frequent. News costing 3 million p/a

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PMG recommends that ABC’s estimated expenditure for 1969-70 be reduced in the area of current affairs. Following wide spread discussion of ABC’s autonomy PMG withdrew recommendation

1971 •

ABC presented submission in favour of introducing FM

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(March) ABC replaces its longest running radio shows – the village glee club

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First subscription series concert since 1954 opens in Sydney and sells out in 36 hours

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ABC broadcast international TV satellite program ‘children of the world’

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RA booster at Darwin switched to full power

•

Right-wing group ‘Australian’s for Cultural Freedom’ attack today tonight for left-wing bias

•

Single statutory authority decided for PNG. A committee established to decide how to finance and administer it.

1972 •

Government approved establishment of film and TV school the ABC should cooperate with.

272

•

ABC commissions two internal surveys to examine the use of resources and staff management relations

•

ABC established offices in Bangkok

•

ABC reports a marked increase in the number of school able to receive programs

•

Chris Winter’s program ‘room to move’ is established. It is the forerunner of the youth station 2JJ

•

Widespread press debate about independence of the ABC and its commissioners

•

Chair rejects PMG’s criticism of the ABC and claim of need for closer supervision of ABC current affairs programs.

1973 •

Broadcasting and Television act changes rates of remuneration for ABC board members so that they would be equivalent to those set out in the remuneration and allowances act

•

Amendment of the lands acquisition act, but the ABC still remains within the operation of the Act. This restricts buying and selling of ABC property interests.

•

ABC makes major contribution to the opening of the Sydney opera house

•

Government grants the ABC $300,000 to promote and produce Australian radio and television shows

•

ABC opens offices in Peking and Port Moresby. Control of broadcasting in PNG handed over to the PNG broadcasting authority

•

Downing appointed chair of the ABC

•

ABC acquires its first full colour outside broadcast van, and studio 24 in Sydney converted to colour

•

Rugby league match in Sydney the first program recorded in colour

•

ABC staff association goes out on first strike

•

The action planning section of the ABC organizational development project, a venture in worker participation begins in Sydney, and moves to other states.

•

Following the McKinsey report, the ABC appoints two assistant GM’s, one responsible for TV, the other for radio.

•

TSO gains permanent concert studio and concert hall, making it the first ABC orchestra to have its own home

•

Talbot Duckmanton elected president of the Asian Broadcasting union

•

2NC Newcastle becomes the first domestic radio station to broadcast from 5am

•

ABC adopts 10% music quota of its own minimum standards.

273

1974 •

ABC TV producers seek to increase their salary scale due to increasing levels of responsibility following the introduction of colour. The case was eventually rejected in the arbitration court

•

(Aug) The ABC makes its first broadcast of parliamentary debate

•

(Oct) ABC TV’s major colour TV production studio completed, and first colour test transmissions begin

•

(Sept) PMG approves establishment of ABC access station, 3ZZ

•

(Dec) Cyclone Tracey destroys Darwin RA relay.

1975 •

(Jan) ABC’s first 24-hour radio station opens, 2JJ.

•

(Feb) To mark the International women’s year celebration, the ABC establishes the Australian Women’s Broadcasting Co-operative workshops on Radio production and TV production

•

3ZZ accused of Left-wing bias by liberal politicians

•

ABC begins three-month trial of direct satellite broadcasts of daily TV news from London. ‘Newsvoice’, the first daily radio newsreel was launched on ABC radio 2.

•

ABC’s permanent Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne television microwave broadband bearer went into service

•

(Oct) Marius Webb and Prof Harding appointed ABC commissioners

•

Margaret Throsby reads ABC radio news 7-10pm. She is the first women to read the main news bulletins on the ABC since the immediate post war years

•

(Dec) Chair of ABC, Downer, dies. Earle Hackett appointed as acting chair failing the government’s inability to find a successor to Downer.

1976 •

ABC’s four FM stations operate radio stations from Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney in Collinswood, SA.

•

Murdoch press urges inquiry into ABC claiming it to be a ‘costly luxury’

•

Australian Association of National Advertisers urges the government to amend Broadcasting and TV act to enable to the ABC to accept and transmit advertising

274

•

(April) ABCB publish survey which shows that 2/3 of viewers are opposed to adverts being broadcast on the ABC

•

(April) FARB director objects to criticism of commercial radio services by acting general manager of the ABC

•

(June) First all women day time radio show begins on 2JJ

•

(July) Sir Henry Bland appointed as director of ABC

•

Bland gives instructions of 2JJ and other stations not to broadcast details of demonstrations against Governor general Kerr. Police try to stop ABC and 10 from filming anti-Governor General protests at Newport, NSW

•

Bland instructs Talbot Duckmanton to cease shooting ‘Alvin purple’ TV series

•

ABC granted supplementary funds

•

ABC drew attention for Minister of Post and Telecommunication to problem of Kerry Packer TNC9’s negotiation practices for the exclusive rights to televise the Australia / England cricket match. They also focused on the ABC’s capacity to acquire television rights for major sporting events.

•

(sept) ABC carry out an experimental teletext transmission

•

3ZZ shut down, a broader sign of access radio causing controversy

•

Terry Lane, ABC’s Melbourne talkback host removed for airing a controversial view

•

(sep) Green inquiry presents its recommendations, which include (a) retention of dual strands of public broadcasting, (b) legitimisation of public broadcasting, (c) establishment of Australian broadcasting tribunal responsible for licensing of the commercial sector, (d) establishment of broadcasting council to regulate program standards

•

(Oct) Government decides to provide full funding for ethnic broadcasting, which was to be provided by the ABC. The ABC was reluctant to accept the plan, which was consequentially postponed.

1976-1977 • Only ABC in NSW committed to electronic news-gathering for TV 1977 • 1978 •

John Norgard appointed chair of ABC following resignation of Bland

ABC operated six shortwave service for residents of sparsely populated areas. 12 remote mining towns provided ABC TV on tape. RA provided broadcasts in English, Thai, French, Japanese, Standard Chinese, Cantonese, Vietnamese and neo-Melanesian 275

•

ABC sells light music tapes to commercial radio stations 2CH, 3AK and 5AA

•

ABC survey shows increase in Radio One’s audience

•

ABC FM’s first broadcast in binaural sound

•

ABC radio and TV cover world cup soccer final off the satellite from Argentina

•

ABC carries out successful trials of sending TV programs to remote areas via Intelsat IV

•

Margaret Throsby becomes the first woman to read the 7pm ABC-TV news

1979 •

(Jan) Government announces intentions to use Interlsat IV satellite instead of repeater stations for distribution of ABC programs to remote areas

•

(March) ABC Sydney television license renewal hearings led to introduction of legal counsel and the rejection of many public submissions and the questioning of the strength of public accountability

•

(April) SBS commenced and eight week pilot TV service on ABC in Sydney and Melbourne

•

Federal government appointed part-time committee to report to government on the services, policy and performance of the ABC under its present statutory charter and recommend appropriate future objectives, functions, statutory powers and policies to the Commission

•

ABC makes submission to the senate standing committee on constitution and legal affairs on the Freedom of information bill

•

ABC told the senate standing committee it could not finance public access to the transcripts of all its programs, and asked that the freedom of information bill be amended to relieve the ABC of this burden

•

(Aug) The senate estimates decided that the ABC’s budget would include allowances for inflation and cost of living allowances for a three yeat trial period. ABC earnings and entrepreneurial activities would not effect this

•

Broadcasting information office proposed in the ABC’s self-regulation report still not implemented, and the commercial stations continue to oppose the idea.

•

A study to examine Australian music content on commercial stations was set up by the ABC, members included groups from FARB, the Australian Recording industry association and music makers Australia

•

ABC sues ATN7 alleging breach of copyright and payment of $10,000 following ATN 7’s broadcast of the rugby league grand final

•

ABC challenge Packer’s right to telecast cricket test. Proceeds through trade practices commission. Submission rejected, and agreement between Packer and Australian cricket made

276

•

1980 •

Post and telecommunications allow 2JJ to transfer to FM

(Jan) Survey of public opinion of the ABC found that 64% of the adult education believed that the ABC had an educative role, and 50% thought the ABC was subjected to too much government control

•

Three part documentary on employment was deemed un-balanced by ABC management

•

(Feb) ABC refused to allow opposition leader equal airtime as Fraser addressed the nation

•

Study of ABC by an academic reveals that the ABC spends more on concerts and symphony orchestras than is spent on the news, that it serves a small sector of the audience, that it fails to broadcast much Australian music, and that it fails to serve ethnic interests

•

ABC presented with 116-page report from Dix. Recommendations include reduction in size of commission for 11 to 9, the ability to accept paid sponsorship, second national TV and radio network in country areas, removal of control of transmitters from telecom

•

Federal government finance submission reveals that the ABC budget has grown 5% p/a compared to 30% growth by commercial networks

•

ABC tells senate standing estimates committee that they would like to set up a national, specialist channel for minority groups

•

ABC sells its right to public TV times to Australian consolidated press.

1981 •

ABC decides to carry out pilot radio service for Aboriginal communities in central Australia. Programming will be made in conjunction with Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association, and will also be supported by dept of Aboriginal affairs

•

Preparations of ABC for construction of $10 m broadcasting centre to house media for the commonwealth games in Brisbane

•

Defection of staff from ABC to commercial stations

•

ABC Sydney news gains helicopter

•

Negotiations underway with unions over the introduction of Electronic news gathering (ENG) in ABC radio

•

Radio Australia’s transmitting facility in Darwin recommissioned

•

ABC trials teletext system in Australia 277

•

Report on extending EEO for women and migrants

•

Aboriginal News session appears in Mackay Radio

•

Dilemma over broadcasting of NZ rugby union match with Springboks

•

ABC running budget deficit of $7 million, and possibility of further cuts by Fraser government

•

Dix report handed down. The main reports include (1) ABC top structure divided into two with national broadcasting organisation and watchdog national consultative council (2) $141 million capital expenditure over normal budget over five years to rationalise accommodation and financial management (3) Additional $15.5m injected to make best use of broadcasting satellite (4) corporate underwriting on TV, (5) increased entrepreneurial activities such as marketing educational material, (6) high priority for second radio network for regions, (7) Orchestras and concerts moved to independent unit – music Australia. The need for more diverse content was pointed out

•

Release of Clement Semmler’s book The ABC – Aunt Sally and Sacred Cow

•

Seminar’s held at the ABC in order to get more disabled people involved.

•

ABC makes submission to cable TV inquiry stating that it isn’t opposed to subscription TV, but that it does not intend to participate in cable TV at the present point in time

•

Change in ABC programming away from popularist philosophy of chasing ratings towards more documentaries and drama.

•

Stop-work meeting by 40 Victorian staff leads to reflection on equipment, staffing and slim budgets.

•

Survey of ABC viewers and listeners released. Showed that large numbers watched, and showed that many did not consider it elitist.

•

Some objections in the press to corporate underwriting in the ABC

•

Dix recommendation that the ABC became free to take news coverage from within Australia from any group may possibly lead to an industrial dispute

•

News paper report makes it clear that Dix planned to amalgamate the SBS and ABC, but that the Fraser government resisted this

•

Possible axing list of 60 projects cancelled due to a 16.5% increase in the commonwealth’s basic funds.

•

Criticism of Dix report by ABC chair John Norgard, saying that the proposed administration and consultative committee was unwieldy, and expressed doubts about the independent management of the ABC’s orchestras.

•

Motion to bring multicultural broadcasting under the auspices of the ABC narrowly defeated in parliament

•

Strike by TV engineers over pay claim leads to blackout of cricket test 278

•

ABC making two pronged bid to gain access to pay TV

•

ABC releases Gilmore report on educational broadcasting

•

Alex Dix tells conference that the ABC could expect to raise about $5 million a year, and that they already have $1.5 million waiting in the wings

•

Establishment of Intelsat transmitter on Thursday is in the Torries strait

•

ABC releases critique of Dix report, particular on changing administrative structure, RA, orchestras, and corporate underwriting

•

Leonie Kramer appointed chair of the ABC, with objections to appointment by staff association

•

Working party on Aboriginal broadcasting relaunched

•

FARB opposes proposal that the ABC carries advertising

1982 •

Memo circulated by Duckmanton claiming that budget cuts were leading to short term economies. The reductions were largely in training, cutbacks in RA, program purchases, publicity, output of TV drama, film archives, and overtime

•

Talbot Duckmanton announces retirement

•

Accusations by Indonesia that RA is showing bias

•

As part of drive to widen audience there is a re-organisation of programs and program making heads are asked to prepare a report on their given area.

•

ABC’s fiftieth birthday celebrations

•

Conflict with government over nature of ABC’s appointment of GM. Contract advertised as seven years renewable, while government think argue it should be 5 years non renewable and made by the government

•

Changes of ABC to a corporation with corporate management and accounting practices.

•

Government main decisions from Dix report (1) establishment of corporation with 9 member board, (2)Directors to appoint managing director, (3) board appoint advisory committee as link with community (4) formal character pointing out need to balance mass appeal programs with specialised programs, (5)Retain administration of orchestras, (6) ABC able to supplement domestic news with agency news, (7) major inquiry every seven years (NB no corporate sponsorship)

•

ABC receives increase of $9.1 M in budget, with addition funding for broadcasting the Brisbane commonwealth games. Also funding provision for 13 new FM stations in the network

•

Keith Jennings appointed as GM

279

•

Proposal to establish an ABC commissioner for complaints. Some suggestions that this may result in decreased freedom at the ABC. Later amended to take away jailing power of commissioner

•

Unease expressed by MD over mooted SBS TV channel

•

Growth in national TV service channels carrying ABC bring it up to 266, with 123 radio stations across Australia.

1983 •

Malcom Naylor appointed chief GM in Victoria

•

Independent review of the ABC’s legal activities launched

•

ABC accepts in principal the recommendations of the EEO office

•

Australian Broadcasting Corporations bill passes all levels of parliament, with two amendments – first employing a community affairs officer in each state, the second allowing the ABC to use outside news services

•

Release of Inglis’ This is the ABC, which was late due to resistance from Kramer

•

Keith Jennings leaves ABC as GM

•

ABC appoints first woman to overseas role to Peking office

•

New ABC board appointed. Kramer sacked as a member, and Ken Myer replaces her. Myer claims the ABC should focus on Asia Pacific instead of Anglo-Saxon programming, raise revenue via aggressively marketing its products, and more marketing skills for the MD, as well as corporate underwriting.

•

ABC to establish six member review body on policy matters

•

More than 150 applications for MD of ABC received

•

Bid by ABC for financial independence from the government includes rights to borrow money

•

ABC advisory committee appointed

•

Strike called in support of financial backing for ABC reporters in defamation case against NSW premier

•

Plans unveiled for new regional radio network

•

ABC awarded exclusive rights to cover Edinburgh commonwealth games

•

Geoffrey Whitehead appointed director general of ABC

•

Survey of ABC staff claiming 24.5% and 4.5% of men have experienced sexual harassment

•

Tom Molomby elected as staff representative on ABC board

•

After dispute, agreement reached to install ENG in ABC

280

•

ABC has access to news and public affairs of CBS

•

Claim of need for greater distancing between ABC processes and politics

1984 •

The plan to separate news and radio services at the ABC was facing major problems because 100 extra staff are required if it is to be effective

•

Announcement of ABC freeze on staff numbers and financial cuts

•

Plans floated for the ABC to launch a quality broadcasting magazine

•

ABC decides to throw open top jobs to outside competition

•

Issue of sponsorship declared to be a ‘dead issue’ by Whitehead

•

Stuart Revill employed as assistant MD of the ABC

•

ABC announces Ogilvy and Mather as central agent for ABC

•

ABC releases editorial guidelines on non-sexist language

•

Four corners interview with Nyaro (independence leader Irian Jaya) interview pulled by management and then overturned by the board. Causes some diplomatic problems. Some calls for Myers resignation result due to accusations of censorship.

•

ABC restructuring underway, but questioned by the senate estimates committee

•

Myer asks remuneration tribunal to give up their powers to set salary for MD

•

Decision by the ABC to begin attempting to compete with commercial TV stations, leading to re-organisation of primetime viewing

•

Whitehead tells a conference that the ABC is going ahead with plans for a second TV channel and satellite pay TV channel

•

ABC announces that it would boost its Australian content, particularly in primetimes. This is a part of a broader quest for ratings. Radio and TV appointments would be split with 50 of the 120 executive jobs abolished and 54 new ones created.

•

Head of ABC TV retires for health reasons

•

Industrial dispute over appointment of chief news reader puts ABC TV and Radio off air in Victoria

•

Scandal over use of ABC Helicopter used to fly letter for Myer’s signature to Thredbo

•

Whitehead claims he favours dropping parliamentary broadcasts, and recommends the establishment of a separate parliamentary broadcasting service

281

•

New editorial policies launched characterised by the Public’s right to know and placing editorial decisions in hands of staffers

•

Considerable discussion of number of senior appointments given to nonAustralian staff.

•

12.5% increase in funding to the ABC budget to $340m

•

Radio policy changes by the ABC board, such as a new current affairs show, changes to radio two (less serious music, more talk), retention of classic FM and triple J.

•

Decision to aim for increase of Australian content from 53% to 65% by 1987/88

•

Investigation of Whitehead’s appointment by the commonwealth onbudsman

•

ABC launches extensive advertising campaign

•

Senates estimates claims that the ABC must improve its attitude to parliamentary scrutiny or have its funds blocked

1985 •

ABC announces that it plans to run down its staff by 5% by 1988, with staff looses compensated by technology

•

Government allows the ABC to set up committees and subsidiary companies to earn revenue. This could include satellite services and hiring out studio space.

•

Cabinet slashes $40m (about 9%) from the ABC’s proposal, but it draws back from including sponsorship on the television. Later the cabinet states it may allow some form of corporate sponsorship.

•

ABC board unanimously reject both direct sponsorship and advertising to fund the ABC

•

ABC plans to cut 450 jobs in response to planned cuts by the government to the ABC budget

•

ABC management uncover ‘phantom army’ of 1000 casuals and part timers, and plan cuts to 200 of them

•

Cuts to ABC programming estimated to be about 70 hours per week of local production. Salary expenditure will increase 4.5%, capital outlays will also increase. It is revealed that 10% of expenditure goes on the satillite. Additional program cuts of 200 hours of overseas purchases and 140 hours of local drama

•

Cuts to education department of 27% of expenses and 4.5% for staff

•

Planned cuts to frontline news program ‘the national’

•

Budget saw ABC getting $395 M, an increase of $48m, but most of the increase will go on AUSSAT.

282

•

Union work bans on all activities involving AUSSAT due to federal government failure to allocate extra expenditure, some claiming this will endanger rural and remote coverage. These bans were later lifted following the imposition of a joint union – management working party.

•

Cuts to radio programming largely focused on secondary school programming and radio 2 morning show

•

Protests by ABC staff over threatened cuts to government funding

•

Reports on ABC seeking 750 redundancies

•

Plans to split ‘the national’ into clear ‘news’ and ‘analysis’ sections

•

Reports that Ken Myer and Wendy McCarthy would resign if the government pushed for sponsorship

•

Partnership between the Australian council and ABC to produce arts policy

•

Possible action by ABC staff union over issue of guest presenters who work for other media organisations

•

ABC magazine ‘look and listen’ would cease publication in September

•

Major documents released at a planning conference, all of which focused on the opposition to corporate sponsorship

•

An upcoming vote of confidence will occur into Whitehead at the ABC board meeting

•

Molomby (staff elected member on board) launches case to retrieve documents, Whitehead launches legal case to censure, which is won.

•

(Nov 13) Molomby granted access to document and it is judged that Whitehead made an error in judgement

•

Molomby re-elected as staff representative

•

Report by Glenn Withers concludes that attempts to boost audience through replicating commercial programs does not succeed.

•

Ombudsman tables paper pointing out how the ABC baulked at normal investigative procedures

•

ABC staff in NSW go on 24 hour strike

•

ABC threatens to call strike if management does not agree to involvement in decision making at staff level, 24 hour strike called in most states

•

ABC agree to buy all documentaries made under the Australian Film Commission’s fellowship

•

Announcement that flagship current affairs program ‘the National’ will cease broadcasting

•

Audience research suggests changes to audience have driven away some listeners

283

•

Communication minister releases a paper on second radio network

•

ABC training project where 21 ethnic youths will gain training at the ABC

•

(Nov) Govt announced that it accepts recommendations of Connor report of not amalgamating ABC and SBS

1985-86 • Legislation allows Corporation to establish its own wholly owned subsidiaries and trading companies 1986 •

(Jan) Homestead and Community Broadcasting Satellite Service (HACBSS) introduced, with upgrading of technical facilities.

•

(June) Lidbetter drafts report that heavily criticise the ABC’s accounting and management practices. Shortcomings particularly in accounting practices, asset registers, property titles and valuation, store controls and accounting

•

(Sept) ABC taskforce addresses weakness in financial reporting

•

(August) Treasurer announces amalgamation of ABC and SBS. Senior ABC and SBS and communications dept form legislative steering committee.

•

(Nov) David Hill appointed Managing Director of the ABC

•

Positions of state and overseas general manager abolished

•

Eight cents a day campaign run. This included a broader campaign by the ABC, unions and the advisory council, public meetings and extensive lobbying.

1986-1987 • ABC – SBS management committee established to achieve closer co-operation between the broadcasters, such as resource sharing, co-ordinating capital purchases and programming. •

Aboriginal programming unit established as part of the documentary unit

•

Board limits use of Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Peth facilities for news, current affairs and sport production

•

Parliamentary broadcasting switches from metropolitan radio to Radio National

•

Second regional radio network begins service

•

Beginning of 24 hour broadcasting on Radio National and Metropolitian / Regional Radio

1987

284

•

(April) PM announces amalgamation of SBS and ABC will not proceed due to opposition from ethic communities.

•

(June) Standing committee on arts and education recommends a single national broadcaster be created in early 1990s

1988 •

(Feb) Parliamentary broadcasting transfers to Radio National

•

(Feb) Options paper by Gareth Evans (Minister for communication)

•

(Mar) Federal government guarantees to maintain real level of government funding over the next three years.

•

(May) Board resolves that the charter provides adequate guidance for the board in setting priorities. This means that distinction between charter and non charter activities is rejected.

•

(Nov) A major review of Radio Australia is announced. The terms of reference focus on (1) the role and functions of Radio Australia, (2) appropriate mechanisms for accountability and funding of radio Australia including possible non ABC management (3)assessment of value and impact of Radio Australia (4) Programming policy including language mix, regional coverage, program mix, (5) Target areas and priorities including competition in short wave environment, (6) Ability to take advantage of new broadcasting technologies like satellite, (7) response to Dix and other review of RA, (8) relationship to DFAT and other government departments.

•

(Dec) New legislation gives ABC power to (1) borrow and invest funds with ministerial approval, (2) ability to determine staff terms and conditions, (3) Provide facilities to holders of limited broadcasting licenses.

1988-89 • Radio National stations increased to 105, and the national network is decentralised. The network acquires new, dedicated studios and a new transmission unit. •

Regional production units established in NSW and SA

•

New Parliamentary broadcasting network begins service

1989 • •

(sept) Review of RN published State advisory abolished due to budgetary reasons.

1989– 1990 • All networks extend to 24 hour services

285

•

Triple J extends to all capital cities and Newcastle

•

Results of National Population Study released

•

Marketing operations re-organised so revenue raising from program sales, facilities hire and communications become the direct responsibility of the Television and Radio Division. ABC Enterprises retained as a separate organisational unit.

•

Report of Review of Radio Australia – concludes that Radio Australia should continue, remaining part of the ABC. Upgrades of facilities are recommended and funding for transmitters approves.

1990 •

Cabinet approves expenditure of 11.6 Million over three years for the upgrading of Radio Australia’s transmission facilities.

•

(May) Senate agree to live telecasts of Question Time, and rebroadcast of excerpts of Senate proceedings. Initial trial period during 1990 budget sittings.

•

(May) Minister for Transport and Communications expresses governments desire for greater co-operation between the ABC and SBS. As a result chairs of both organisations write to the minister outlining a framework for ongoing consultation. Issues being considered include SBS accommodation, access to ABC television production facilities and management, information systems, and the use of SBS sub-titling service.

1990– 1991 • Triple J national youth network completed •

New triennial funding arrangement negotiated.

•

ABC international officially launched at MIPTV.

•

‘Make it with us’ campaign to hire out spare capacity in facilities.

•

Due to a budget shortfall, staff and some programs are reduced.

1991 •

(22 June) Ultimo centre in Sydney opens.

•

Internal efficiency review cuts 161 jobs

•

(Feb) House of representatives authorises live telecast and rebroadcast of its proceedings, excluding ajournment debates

•

(May) ABC Board sets up independent complaints panel of accusations of bias in reporting the Gulf War.

286

•

(June 6) Government agree to triennial Funding, and to maintain funding in real terms. Also recommends that the ban on advertising and sponsorship should continue.

•

(June) Board begins a review of productivity improvements since 1988 when a ‘resources review’ was undertaken.

•

(Aug) Beazley states that the ABC should be allowed a 25% interest in pay TV. ABC source say that David Hill has responded with enthusiasm to Canberra’s proposal.

•

(Oct) Legislation drafted to institute the Australian Broadcasting Authority

1992 •

Broadcasting services act (1992) gives ABA the power to act as an ombudsman to investigate unresolvesd complaints about the ABC and the SBS. Under the new act both national broadcasters are required to develop new codes of conduct.

•

(June) ABC promises two Pay TV channels on satellite. The ABC is awarded a one-off $5.4 million Federal Government grant to pat for start-up costs of Australian Information Media (AIM). Government encourages the ABC to find sponsors for AIM.

•

(Aug) Indonesian government announces that, if Satellite TV service is to go ahead, it may need to be encoded to meet requirements of Indonesia’s ministry of information. ABC will have to sell decoders that will be expensive and limit the audience.

•

(Nov) Coalitions election campaign proposes $56 million (10%) cut to the ABC budget.

•

(Nov) ABC is allocated 2 of the initial 10 satellite subscription television services to be licensed.

1992 – 1993 • Australia 2000, a major study commissioned by the ABC board which analyses trends and issues likely to affect the external environment in which the ABC operates, is completed. •

ABC notifies ABA of its Code of Practice, which sets out editorial policies and complaints procedures.

1993. • Radio national introduces open learning on radio. •

Cabinet approval for ABC entry to Pay TV.

•

Federal government gives a commitment to extend Tripe J to regional Australia.

•

Full undergraduate degrees available through Open Learning on ABC TV 287

•

(17 Feb) ATVI (Australian Television International) begins broadcasting via Palapa satellite system (Palapa b2). News service to come from Darwin, with ATVI broadcasting to 15 countries in SE Asia.

•

(Mar) ATVI begins broadcasting 24 hours a day seven days a week.

•

(Mar) Announcement that Triple J network is to be extended into 42 areas with population exceeding 20,000.

•

(13 Mar) Labour government returns to power, forestalling funding cuts for the ABC and SBS.

•

(Apr) ABC and CBC amalgamate international newsrooms. The agreement allows for each to air the other’s output for its respective international and domestic radio and television news and current affairs service.

•

(Apr) ABC signs with AWA to manufacture D-Cart, a multi-ser digital recording, editing and playback system.

•

(May) ABC stand down some editorial staff, including the staff representative on the board, Quentin Dempster.

•

(May) Revised editorial policies issued to ABC staff, members of parliament, and made available to the general public.

•

(Aug) Telstra, Quantas, and Digital Equipment Corporation contribute $1 million sponsorship for ATVI.

•

(Oct) ABC board approves ‘towards 2000’, a major funding submission. The Government agrees to maintain funding at current levels, but does not support an increasing in funding.

•

ABC completes major sale of D-Cart to Europe, America and Asia, and develops D-radio, the first fully digital audio system.

•

Plans develop for News-Radio, a continuous news service.

•

Drama development fund established which allows Radio National, Classic FM, and Triple J to commission new work.

1993 – 1994 • Radio Australia Newsroom conversed to fully digital multi-user recording, editing and playback using D-Cart system. •

Radio national, classic FM and Regional Radio extend to 35 new locations.

•

ATVI goes direct to homes, doubles programming from 8 to 16 hours per day.

1994 •

(Jan) Broadcast News Australia (BNA) launched; to market new copy and audio services to commercial media, private enterprises, government departments and tertiary institutions.

288

•

(16 June) Department of communication review of ATVI.

•

(Aug) Second national Regional Conference to plan the most effective delivery of ABC radio to regional Australia.

•

(Sept 18) Channel 9’s Sunday reveals allegations by former ABC reporter John Millard, that ABC infotainment programs have been improperly influence by investors’ program contributions.

•

(Sept) Following the Palmer report, the ABC board rules that co-production programs ‘of the kind investigated’ should be abandoned; as they have ‘demonstrated unacceptable risks to program independence’.

•

(Sept) ABC news and current affairs staff present board with a series of proposals to address the impact of fundamental changes in the broadcasting environment. Two key issues identified are the need to change the news and current affairs to meet changes in the television market over the next five to ten years, and the declining loyalty to state based 7.30 reports.

•

(Oct) NewsRadio establishes on Australia’s first continuous news network, parliamentary News Network (PNN). NewsRadio operates when Parliament is not sitting.

•

(Oct) ABC moved from the Broadcasting Division of the department of Communication to the Arts and Heritage Division.

•

(Nov) David Hill resigns as managing director.

•

(Dec) Australia Information Media, which is 51% owned by the ABC and the remainder by Fairfax and Cox communication, established. AIM to provide 24 hour news channel and a second channel of children’s programs, light entertainment, the arts and drama.

1994 – 1995 • ABC enters into alliance with BBC and CBC to co-operate in news-gathering services. •

1995 •

A secure connection to the internet established in preparation for ABC Online service.

(Jan) Board asks management for options for the future operations of Australia TV, to prevent further losses. ABC reduces operational costs of the service. As an interim measure, the board agrees to provide up to $2.45 million to continue the service for 1995-6, provided that $2 million reduction in ABC transmission costs is achieved.

•

(Jan) Triple J broadcasts to 18 new regional locations.

•

(Mar) Our ABC: Senate Select Committee on Management and Operations published. 289

•

(Mar) Brian Johns appointed as MD

•

(April) Broadcast Australia News discontinued.

•

(4 June) ABC board agrees to use $2.4 million from core funds to allow Australia Television to continue to operate.

•

(Aug) ABC signs agreement with Cox Communication and Fairfax to create Australian Information Media (AIM). Under terms of agreement, ABC must give access to ABC television and radio programming, including promotional material. At this stage there is no guaranteed outlet.

•

(Aug) ABC launches online service of the WWW.

•

(27, Sept) Brian Johns announces that the state based 7.30 report will be replaced with a national program.

•

(Oct) Government guarantees $6.2 million p/a for three years to ensure the viability of ATVI

1996 •

(27, Sept) Board meetings at Fairfax and ABC decide to disband AIM. After hearing that Nine and BskyB are developing rival news services, available to pay TV operators.

•

(Mar) ATVI transferred from Palapa b2 satellite to Palapa c2, allowing an enlarged footprint and clearer delivery.

•

(Apr) Government announces budget cuts of 2 per cent of 11 million collars, as of July 1 1997.

•

(31 May) Brian Johns announces that the ABC may be forces to shed 300 jobs to meet anticipated funding shortfall of 13.5 million. Admits that the broadcaster has overspent its budget for the past five years.

•

(12 June) ABC enterprise agreement for 1996-8 provides wage increases of 8 per cent over three years; confirms that staff losses will occur as a result of funding shortfall, and provides for forces redundancies in the event that not enough staff members take voluntary redundancies.

•

(21 June) Nation Commission of Audit recommends that public sector organisations make savings of 10-20 % and criticises the ABC board for the failed AIM venture. Suggests that funding to the ABC should be on a ‘contestable basis’.

•

(9 July) Donald McDonald appointed as chair of the ABC

•

(16 July) Senator Richard Alston announces a $65 million cut to the budget of the ABC over 2 years, and a full review of ABC functions, to be headed by Bob Mansfeild.

•

(17 July) Members of the Media Entertainment and arts alliance and the Community and Public Sector Unions stage a 24 hour strike over proposed government funding cuts. 290

•

(19 July) Coleman report into allegations of victimisation of John Millard (whistleblower who revealed inappropriate co-production arrangements on infotainment shows) due to be released, but is withheld.

•

(25 Jul) Board told that funding cuts are $87 million instead of $65 million.

•

(27 July) Submissions invited for the Mansfeild review.

•

(1 Aug) Staff given until 16 August to seek voluntary redundancy.

•

(4 Aug) “Save our ABC’ rallies attract 50,000 – 60,000 people.

•

(2 Aug) Donald McDonald called on Federal Government to hold public hearings for Mansfeild Review.

•

(6 Aug) Brian Johns announces $9.8 million in cuts, with $3.5 million to current affairs.

•

(Oct) The ABC’s places a submission to the Mansfeild inquiry that argues it can no longer sustain budget cuts. It argues that a focused broadcaster would fly in the face of providing a comprehensive service. Proposal includes greater role for independent producers, a review of radio programming, integration of radio and TV news and current affairs management and leaner management.

•

(Oct) ABC releases study that rejects it is bias, self-indulgent and selective in news coverage.

•

(Nov) ATVI launches into India, and is rebroadcast on Business India Groups TV1 channel.

•

(9 Dec) Brian Johns releases ‘One ABC’ statement to media. Proposed savings of $27 million, and replacement of current internal ABC divisions with four program oriented functions. Regional services, national networks, news and current affairs, and program creation; and three support functions: Finance and business services, Human Resources, and Technology Strategy and Development.

•

(Dec) Restructuring leading to shedding of 20% of executive staff, 60 people.

•

(12 Dec) Donald McDonald announces ‘a process of gradual establishment of orchestras as separate subsidiaries of the ABC, with a separate national office being retained, but set up as a company.’

1997 •

(Jan) Mansfeild review released. Recommends cutting Radio Australia and contracting out at least $50 million worth of programming. Public broadcasting ethos supported, advertising and sponsorship rejected. Further emphasis should be placed on media diversity and regional Australia.

•

(31, Jan) 1500 ABC workers hold stop-work meetings to protest over threatened job losses.

•

(Feb) ABC board defers closure of Radio Australia.

291

•

(Feb) MD announces that contestability scheme will be put in place where ABC departments will be able to contest some of the outsourced funds.

•

(Mar) After broadcasting an ACTU sponsored lecture by Gough Whitlam, the ABC came in for trenchant criticism from the government, with calls for the MD to resign

•

(Apr) Triennial funding submitted to government. Contains suggests the ABC will scrap ANZAC day, state-based sports, and children’s television programming if it doesn’t meet government imposed savings of $55 million.

•

(Apr) Radio Australia budget cut from $23 to $7 million, resulting closure of Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Khmer services.

•

(Apr) Reports of distress of closure of RA services in Indonesia and China, with some listeners threatening to kill themselves if transmission ceases.

•

(Apr) Board seeking various efficiency savings within the ABC, with $9 million cut to the programme making budget.

•

(May) Government funding of the ABC cut from 525$ million to $500 million

•

(May) 700 job cuts announced. Cuts to foreign correspondents, purchases of Australian documentaries, new comedy, televised golf, and some RN programmes. 75 jobs to immediately go at RA.

•

(May) $7 million to be spent on consultants to cut 20% of the ABC workforce, and cuts of $27 million in non-broadcasting costs. The ABC will borrow $35-40 million to fund redundancies.

•

(Jul) Seven Network buys ATVI for less than $10 million

•

(Aug) RA’s programs become available streamed via the Internet

•

(Sep) ABC and Monash sign deal to deliver tertiary education to Asia, possibly via RA.

•

(Nov) ABC considers allowing news and current affairs to operate co-productions with commercial stations

•

(Nov) ABC signs $1 million deal involving Jana Wednt producing 10 ½ hour interviews with private production house.

•

(Dec) ABC enters film distribution by buying Her Majesty Mrs Brown.

1998 •

(Jan) Penny Chapman, head of general networks resigns from the ABC for private enterprise.

•

(Feb) Redundancies of 350 people begin being processed.

•

(Feb) Four corners show on Victorian police force pulled after state legal injunction.

292

•

(Feb) Liberal party power broker, Michael Kroger is appointed to the ABC board.

•

(Feb) ABC poaches Andrea Sretton from SBS for over $200,000 p/a.

•

(Feb) discussion of film ‘my cunt’ on RN and short film ‘shooting the breeze’ are pulled at last minute, leading to accusations of censorship.

•

(Feb) Stuart Littlemore refuses to return to Media Watch because of inappropriate support

•

(Mar) A budget shortfall of $5 m announced, it could blow out to $20 m.

•

(Mar) ABC announces plans to divest its of Gore Hill TV production facilities.

•

(Apr) Federal government criticise the ABC over alleged bias in the MUA dispute

•

(May) Merger of Melbourne Rippon-lea television production site with Southbank radio production site

•

(May) Several arts programs are cut on ABC TV

•

(Sept) New national networks head announces he hopes to increase funding for local production.

•

(Nov) Coalition announced it will provide $44 million for ABC to upgrade for digital broadcasting. Money raised from property sales must be put towards this.

•

(Nov) Key staff losses as Washington correspondent leaves ABC for 60 minutes, and Lateline presenter leaves ABC to write for the Bulletin.

•

(Dec) Cuts announced yo ABC drama, particularly in long running Australian shows, and eventually leading to less than 100 hours of Australian drama

1999 •

(Jan) Kroger calls for sale of ABC online

•

(Apr) IPA releases report claiming the ABC’s reporting of the waterfront dispute was bias.

•

(Apr) RA continues to survive by developing network relationships with other broadcasters around the world.

•

(Jul) Brian Jones announces retirement and the ABC launches an international search for new CEO.

293

Appendix Two: Core Government Legislation Relating to the ABC Extract from the Australian Broadcasting and Television act, 1942. Section 59 59. (1) Subject to this Act, the Commission shall provide, and shall broadcast or televise from transmitting stations made available by the Postmaster-General, adequate and comprehensive programmes and shall take in the interests of the community all such measures as, in the opinion of the Commission, are conducive to the full development of suitable broadcasting and television programmes. (2) Where the Commission considers it necessary for the proper carrying out of its objects or for any purpose incidental thereto, the Commission may make arrangements for the holding of, or may organise or subsidise, any public concert or other public entertainment provided(a) the whole or part of the concert or entertainment is broadcast or televised; or (b) the concert or entertainment is held in co-operation with an educational, religious or other non-commercial institution and no charge for admission is made by the Commission.

Extract from Australian Broadcasting Corporation act, 1983. The ABC Charter. 1)

The functions of the Corporation are:

(a)to provide within Australia innovative and comprehensive broadcasting services of a high standard as part of the Australian broadcasting system consisting of national, commercial and public sectors and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, to provide: (i) broadcasting programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community; and (ii) broadcasting programs of an educational nature; 294

(b) to transmit to countries outside Australia broadcasting programs of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment that will: (i)encourage awareness of Australia and an international understanding of Australian attitudes on world affairs; and (ii)enable Australian citizens living or travelling outside Australia to obtain information about Australian affairs and Australian attitudes on world affairs; and (c)to encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in Australia. (2)In the provision by the Corporation of its broadcasting services within Australia: (a)

the Corporation shall take account of:

(i) the broadcasting services provided by the commercial and public sectors of the Australian broadcasting system; (ii) the standards from time to time determined by the Australian Broadcasting Authority in respect of broadcasting services; (iii) the responsibility of the Corporation as the provider of an independent national broadcasting service to provide a balance between broadcasting programs of wide appeal and specialised broadcasting programs; (iv) the multicultural character of the Australian community; and (v) in connection with the provision of broadcasting programs of an educational naturethe responsibilities of the States in relation to education

295

Appendix Three: Numerical summary of discourses in ABC annual reports, 1953-2000 Media Civil society Community market

Year

Government Diversity

International Sum

1953

4

4

13

4

1954

10

4

14

6

1955

5

4

11

9

1956

5

4

10

9

1958

3

9

1

12

1959

3

6

2

7

6

1

12

37

1960

7

10

5

13

4

2

15

56

1961

7

6

4

14

6

1

17

55

1962

6

5

4

10

5

1

9

40

1963

5

2

2

14

8

2

7

40

1964

6

5

3

10

5

2

7

38

1965

2

6

2

13

2

1

13

39

1966

8

1

1

11

2

11

34

1967

7

1

5

15

5

11

44

6

31

1

6

41

1

6

36

1

7

36

2

27

1968

8

2

1

8

5

5

29

1969

13

3

7

13

2

14

52

1970

8

2

8

13

6

1

10

48

1971

8

2

2

18

3

1

14

48

1972

8

2

8

20

16

10

64

1973

14

2

22

20

11

1

8

78

1974

12

4

23

16

7

2

1975

11

12

15

16

10

1

1976

23

13

12

26

9

4

87

1977

17

7

19

20

16

4

83

1978

12

8

21

22

16

1979

12

4

19

18

10

3

8

74

1980

16

10

21

22

15

3

8

95

1982

12

10

20

19

8

7

1983

10

11

21

16

5

8

1984

23

13

27

17

11

11

1985

8

23

26

22

7

14

2

1987

22

9

20

23

12

7

1

1988

19

21

29

35

14

16

134

1989

23

15

36

24

12

15

125

1991

17

13

27

31

17

14

3

122

1992

8

4

32

30

12

12

11

109

1993

11

4

25

20

13

13

15

101

1996

13

7

16

10

10

7

12

75

1997

3

14

17

8

11

5

8

66 54

1999 Total

Australian Culture

64 8

73

79

76 3

74 102

8

6

6

19

5

4

6

417

288

509

673

334

168

273

102 94

296

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