International Broadcasting and Its Contested Role in Australian Statecraft

Middle Power, Smart Power

By (author) Geoff Heriot

Publication date:

14 March 2023

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

229x153mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781839985041

This book offers an insightful reappraisal of international broadcasting as discursive rather than ‘soft’ power in service of democratic statecraft. This at a time when issues of transnational media, the credibility of news and the perils of disinformation and information warfare, figure worryingly in public discourse. Reflecting the perspective of middle power Australia, author Geoff Heriot locates the strategic utility of multiplatform international broadcasting with reference to contemporary theories of soft/hard/smart power projection and intercultural communication. He applies a fresh model of strategic analysis to the political history of Radio Australia, examining the various external and internal variables that resulted in its flawed success in political communication during the late Cold War period.

List of Figures; Foreword by Geoffrey Wiseman; Acknowledgements; One Introduction; Two Media and the Contest of Ideas; Three International Broadcasting and Its Discursive Properties; Four Mobilising ‘Softer’ Power in a Hard World; Five Australia’s ABC: State Interests, National Evolution; Six Purpose, Performance and Evaluation; Seven Modernising the ABC; Eight Policy, Priorities and Qualified Independence; Nine Engaging with Intercultural Audiences; Ten Indonesia, the Crucible; Eleven Strategic Contingency and War; Twelve Looking to the New Disorder; Index

His is a timely and important intervention, for in bringing light to this aspect of the nation's media history, Heriot also speaks deftly to the pressing security concerns facing Australia today.[…] Heriot’s work speaks to both historical matters and present-day concerns. In doing so, it has a lot of insight to offer to Australian historians as well as those interested in Australia’s contemporary security and diplomatic challenges —Australian Outlook