1oo Years of Broadcast TV Symposium: The impact and future of broadcast TV in Australia

RMIT University's Streaming Industries and Genres Network (SIGN) proudly present the '100 Years of Broadcast TV Symposium', which reflects on the impact of the broadcast signal across media and communication industries in Australia.

Australia was a latecomer to broadcast television in 1956, 30 years after John Logie Baird's first public demonstration of a true television broadcast signal in 1926. Broadcast TV went on to disrupt existing news, media and entertainment to form a billion-dollar industry engaging and assembling audiences and reaching into every part of Australia, from cities to remote communities. But the disruptor has become the disrupted. Streaming, social media and countless media convergences have irrevocably changed the broadcast TV industry. The future of television broadcasting in Australia is highly uncertain.

This symposium brings together industry and academic experts in television production, news, advertising, and policy to discuss the question: What would Australian culture look like without broadcast television?  

Over this one-day event, we will explore this provocative question through a keynote address by Professor Jock Given (Swinburne University of Technology), and expert panels drawn from television production, news, advertising, and policy. 

One of the panels will reflect on Australian TV history, and features Amanda Higgs (Matchbox Pictures), Mitch McTaggart (The Last Year of Television; The Backside of Television), and Jessica Balanzategui (Associate Professor in Media and Cinema at RMIT), and will be chaired by RMIT's Dr. Damien O'Meara.

A further panel will explore the future of Australian news and current affairs on broadcast television, with news veterans Hugh Nailon (Nine National News Director) and Justin Stevens (ABC News Director) in conversation with Alexandra Wake, Professor of Journalism in RMIT's School of Media and Communication.

The symposium is organised by RMIT's Dr. Damien O'Meara, Dr. Alexa Scarlata, Dr. Josie Vine, Associate Professor John Tebbutt, and Professor Lisa Waller.

The event concludes at 5pm, with the serving of refreshments and networking opportunities to follow.

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1oo Years of Broadcast TV Symposium: The impact and future of broadcast TV in Australia

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RMIT University's Streaming Industries and Genres Network (SIGN) proudly present the '100 Years of Broadcast TV Symposium', which reflects on the impact of the broadcast signal across media and communication industries in Australia.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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