Inaugural KS Inglis address: making Australian media history

Abstract

This address considers the development of media history as a field of research in Australia. It takes the form of a historiographical excursion, beginning with a focus on the press, and then extending to broadcasting, and touching on the work of KS Inglis as a through line. After considering what I identify as a historiographical blossoming since the 1980s, I extend my gaze to the tools and institutions for media history that have emerged, including online resources, a conference series and a research centre. Finally, I use my own 1990s research into the Packer empire to illustrate how some of the techniques for doing media history have changed in the past 20 years. In doing so, I reflect on both the benefits, and the limitations, of digital tools and techniques for Australian media historians.

Outdated or innovative? Examining news practices that have stood the test of time at one of Australia's longest-serving local newspapers

“…These readers have not had to watch their local paper be overhauled by a new ‘outsider’ or radically changed by a new editor – The Buloke Times has had only two editors, father and son Goff and Robin, in over 100 years. This aligns with Kirkpatrick’s (1996) assessment in the 1990s that providing a consistent voice through long-serving staff and proprietors can aid survival.…”

“…It is important to acknowledge that historicising journalism is not a new or narrow pursuit – Australian scholarship has long explored, among other phenomena, the history of the practice (see Anderson and Trembath, 2011), historic figures in the field (see Martin, 2020; van Heekeren, 2010) and general media traditions (see Madsen, 2014). In fact, Griffen-Foley (2019: 13) contends there has been a ‘blossoming’ of research into Australia's media history since the 1980s. Nonetheless, when it comes to local newspapers, Matthews and Hodgson (2021) suggest there are still many lessons for scholars to learn in the digital age from history.…”

“…Much research into the history of the local press in Australia can be attributed to, among others, Rod Kirkpatrick, whose work has documented the rise of local newspapers since the 1800s. Kirkpatrick (1996) describes Australia's emerging newspaper industry as not much more than a scramble littered with failures, with numerous newspapers lasting only several months or a few years. However, Kirkpatrick argues that, of those newspapers that managed to avoid what he describes as the high ‘infant mortality rate’, many went on to serve their communities for long periods of time (Kirkpatrick, 1996: 177).…”

“…Kirkpatrick (1996) describes Australia's emerging newspaper industry as not much more than a scramble littered with failures, with numerous newspapers lasting only several months or a few years. However, Kirkpatrick argues that, of those newspapers that managed to avoid what he describes as the high ‘infant mortality rate’, many went on to serve their communities for long periods of time (Kirkpatrick, 1996: 177). They did this, he contends, through persistence and commitment.…”

“…They did this, he contends, through persistence and commitment. They rose to the challenge of competition from a new masthead in the region by increasing the frequency of their publication, enlarging it or upgrading their printing equipment, and they provided a consistent voice to their communities via long-serving editors or proprietors (Kirkpatrick, 1995, 1996).…”