Abstract
-
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.