A study of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s soft power in Indonesia and China 2007 – 2010

Abstract

In 2009, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Managing Director Mark Scott put forward a contentious proposal to develop ‘a global ABC’, establishing the ABC as a leading international broadcasting presence. This thesis seeks to reflect on the plausibility of Scott’s vision, which was inspired by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s foreign policy strategy. It analyses to what extent the ABC’s international services, Radio Australia and Australia Network television, have been able to function as effective tools of Australian public diplomacy and soft power in Asia during the term of the Rudd government, from 2007 – 2010. This thesis argues that the ABC faces significant challenges to realising its policy aims in two key international territories, Indonesia and China. It provides innovative interpretive framing analysis of interviews with six senior ABC managers and four Asian media studies academics, together with government and corporate document research, to determine how Radio Australia and Australia Network’s achievements and problems have been perceived by key strategic communications actors and analysts. Four dominant frames were identified, through which the effectiveness of the ABC’s international services is investigated: political independence, resource dependence, colonialism and engagement. This analysis suggests that while there are a number of existing and emerging opportunities for the ABC to act as a vehicle of Australian soft power in Asia, Radio Australia and Australia Network have to date been largely unable to function as effective tools of public diplomacy due to a number of financial, political, cultural and regulatory constraints.