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2005 Media Releases

What makes a country unique? TV treatments hold clues

It's a great test of a culture’s uniqueness: how does it handle television?

This question will get rare, cross-Asia comparative analysis during a conference and workshops at the La Trobe University Melbourne (Bundoora) Campus, from 11-14 December.

The "Television in Asia" project brings together television practitioners and scholars from India, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan and Australia to compare television landscapes.

The conference particularly focuses on the way TV in different countries deals with sport, HIV/AIDS, popular culture (especially soap operas) and politics.

"India stands at one extreme," says Professor Robin Jeffrey, one of the organisers. "Mass TV there is only a generation old, and relatively unfettered satellite TV began only in 1992. Indian TV has localised very rapidly with multiple channels in half a dozen of its regional languages, plus English and Hindi."

One of the conference guests is Shashi Kumar, a founder of one of India's first successful regional-language TV networks and now chairman of the Media Development Council in Chennai. He is joined by other seasoned practitioners like Lina Tan, executive producer of Malaysia's most popular show for young women, "3R".

"When we began this project in Shanghai in August," Professor Jeffrey says, "one of the Indian guests showed footage of some large election meetings his channel had organised. They were sprawling, disorderly - people shouting at politicians and politicians shouting back. The Chinese at this session tended to be speechless or appalled: if this was democracy, they didn't much like it."

The incident, Professor Jeffrey says, highlighted the way the technology of television is adapted to different cultural settings.

Sponsored by the Australian Research Council's Asia-Pacific Futures Research Network and the International Centre for Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies, "Television in Asia" meets in Room 362 of the Martin Building, La Trobe University Bundoora Campus. Registration is $75 for the Monday-Wednesday sessions or $50 for a single day.

Monday, 21 November 2005What makes a country unique? TV treatments hold clues

For further information:

• The conference is organised by the La Trobe Institute for India and South Asia (LIISA). Further information: Tracy Lee on (03) 9479 2685 or t.lee@latrobe.edu