Web histories - the transformation of public service broadcasting online

A seminar with Associate Professor Niels Brugger, Head of the Centre for
Internet Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark; Dr Maureen Burns, Cultural and
Media Studies, University of Queensland; and Associate Professor Anne Dunn
and Dr Fiona Martin, Dept. Media and Communications, University of Sydney.

Abstract: When the BBC cut its web operations by 25% last year, reducing
competition with commercial media, it triggered new global debates about the
role of public service broadcasting online. What is the purpose of services
like ABC Online in an expanding digital mediascape? What does it mean when
they gravitate to third-party commercial services like Facebook, Twitter and
Youtube? What can we learn from analysing their rapid growth?

The University of Sydney invites you to consider how the past recasts the
future of public service media at a seminar on Friday May 20th [new venue
title] with visiting web historian Associate Professor Niels Brugger, Head
of the Centre for Internet Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Niels, who is writing the history of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation's
website dr.dk, is the co-editor of a new groundbreaking international
history collection Public Service Broadcasters on the Web (pub. Peter Lang,
2011). He will present key findings from that project, along with his
co-editor Dr Maureen Burns, lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies at the
University of Queensland, and contributors Associate Professor Anne Dunn and
Dr Fiona Martin, from the Dept. Media and Communications, University of
Sydney.

The seminar will cover issues such as:
- how broadcast strategies have shaped web development
- managing online news as a commodity
- cross media training and publishing
- the risks and challenges of managing public conversation

Seminar followed by light refreshments

Location:
New Law School F10, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus
map: http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?ref=h15l22

This Media@Sydney event is presented by the Department of Media and
Communications, University of Sydney:
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/media_communications/home/.
For further information, contact Dr Fiona Martin fiona.martin@sydney.edu.au

About the speakers:

Associate Professor Niels Brügger <http://imv.au.dk/~nb/> is Head of The
Centre for Internet Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark. He has published
numerous articles, monographs and edited books, including Archiving Websites
(2005), Media History (ed. with S. Kolstrup, 2002), and Web History (ed.,
2010). He is the editor of Public Service Broadcasters on the Web: A
Comprehensive History (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2011)

Dr Maureen Burns lectures in Cultural and Media Studies in
the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at
the University of Queensland. She is the author of ABC Online: Becoming the
ABC (2008) and co-editor of Public Service Broadcasters on the Web: A
Comprehensive History (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2011)

Associate Professor Anne Dunn is Pro Dean Academic for the Faculty of Arts
and Social Sciences, University of Sydney. She has worked across the print,
television and radio, spending 13 years with ABC Radio and Television, in
management, policy and broadcasting, as well as time with the BBC and SBS
Television. Anne’s ARC Linkage Grant with the ABC investigates the impact of
cross media work on broadcast news. She has written about the ABC’s regional
development of online media for Public Service Broadcasters on the Web: A
Comprehensive History (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2011).

Dr Fiona Martin lectures in Online and Convergent Media at the University of
Sydney. She is a former producer and broadcaster with ABC Radio, and has
produced print and cross media journalism. Fiona is researching convergence
and media diversity in Australian news production. She has analysed how ABC
web workers perceive the risks and benefits of user interaction for Public
Service Broadcasters on the Web: A Comprehensive History (Peter Lang,
forthcoming 2011).

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