PARTNERS
ABC RADIO NATIONAL
ABC Radio National is a major player in the development and collection of writer profiles, interviews and essays. The ABC has a huge archive to which this project will be a contribution, and the web site and the program material will add to that overall output. The project will take an established audience further into Australian writing and continue to keep the issue of Australian literature on the public agenda. It should be noted that The Bookshow is in itself an innovative experiment for Radio National. Going to air six times a week, it’s the first Australian radio or TV network national daily book program. Even in Europe the idea of a daily book program is unheard of. Ramona Koval reported from the 2006 Edinburgh Writers’ Festival that to the eyes of the world literary community a national daily book program is extraordinary. She was asked repeatedly “how do you do it?” Audience surveys have shown that Radio National’s listeners are largely tertiary educated. In recognition of this, the pitch of the project is to students and the educated, interested lay person. This approach fits perfectly with the Radio National demographic.
As this is the first year of this broadcasting adventure, The Bookshow welcomes the opportunity to work with a partner such as UTS and the support and encouragement from an organization like CAL to continue it’s commitment to writers, writing and reading in 2007.
As a project partner, The Bookshow will record, develop material as ipod or mp3, circulate and publicise it and make it accessible through ABC and UTS websites as well as the e-journal and website established for the project. As the national broadcaster, the ABC reaches millions of listeners in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. As such, the broadcaster has an established audience and program makers who need the material. As well as a national audience they also bring years of experience and a high level of expertise both on the literary and media fronts.
RMIT University, Melbourne
and
University of Technology, Sydney
These universities are two of Australia’s longest established and leading educational institutions in the teaching of creative writing. As well as their undergraduate and post graduate writing programs, both universities engage with extensive local and international communities of publishers, writers’ festivals, schools and community organisations, tertiary institutions, broadcasters and media organisations.
The universities currently conduct research in new media and writing, semiotics, multi-modality, film and e-based writing and both will bring a major research focus to the project through the exchange of ideas, writer/scholars, refereed articles which will be edited for wider circulation in the media and events through community education centres. Both universities are particularly interested in furthering the questions about Australian writers and writing raised in but rarely fully explored in the Australian media. For example, some research areas considered by the project, published in the project’s refereed journal or explored on the web and ABC Radio National include:
- Australian identity, nation and globalised publishing
- The role of the university in the publication of Australian non-fiction
- The crisis in literature and society
- Multi-modality – with fiction as the last bastion of the printed page
- Redefining nation and national identity through writing
- Rethinking ‘the canon’ of Australian writing and examining new ways in which to teach these texts.
All the materials developed in the project will be used in academic curriculum and community teaching. Through centres such as these the materials also will further the university’s engagement with the wider community through public lectures, panels of experts, research and special projects.
COPYRIGHT AGENCY LIMITED (CAL)
CAL is an Australian copyright management company whose role is to provide a bridge between creators and users of copyright material. CAL represents over 10,000 authors, journalists, visual artists, photographers and publishers as their non-exclusive agent to license the copying of their works to the general community.
CAL funded the Australian Literary Compendium through the CAL Cultural Fund in an effort to encourage the study of Australian writers and writing. The CAL Cultural Fund supports a wide variety of projects that enhance the economic and creative climate in which CAL 's members operate.
