Introduction: Television and the national

Free-to-air television, programmed for local and national audiences, continues to be an

important part of the media landscape despite the multiple modes of delivery and

consumption which define the post-broadcast era. While television has long been

characterized by the transnational flow of programs and formats, there is an argument to be

made that ‘the national’ remains vital not only to television studies but to networks,

producers, regulators and consumers. In addition, the national specificity of broadcast

television—as ‘a forum for working through social pressures as well as sharing social

pleasures’ (Ellis 2000, 176)—is evident to any viewer trying to stay in touch with the

minutiae behind the ‘news from home’ while travelling or working abroad. A recent case

in point might be the ousting of Australian Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull by Tony

Abbott at the end of 2009: while the ‘budgie’ in the pair of Speedos was circulated by the

media as a national joke at Abbott’s expense, the pleasurable sharing of the joke depended

upon familiarity with Australian popular culture as well as Australian politics. It is

precisely such incongruities—between ephemeral and consequential instances of the

national in the same media story—that informs much of the writing in this issue on

Television and the National.