2005 Media Releases
Thursday, 8 December 2005
Conference examines Television in Asia
It's a great test of a culture’s uniqueness: how does it handle television?
The "Television in Asia" project will bring together television practitioners and scholars from India, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan and Australia for a three-day conference and series of workshops at the La Trobe University Melbourne (Bundoora) Campus starting on Monday, 12 December.
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 Sashi 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".
The conference has been organised by the La Trobe University Institute for India and South Asia (LIISA) and sponsored by the Australian Research Council's Asia-Pacific Futures Research Network and the International Centre for Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies.
Most sessions will be held in Room 362, Martin Building, La Trobe University, Bundoora.
For further information:
Program details and some abstracts are attached. Full details are available from Tracy Lee on Tel: (03) 9479 2685 or Email: t.lee@latrobe.edu.