AMBER VERNETTI WRITES: China’s influence over outside media outlets is increasing in countries like Australia, analysts report. This ‘soft power’ approach is China’s way of keeping in touch with one million Chinese Australians while censoring what is included in the Chinese language news sources and favoring state-generated content. John Fitzgerald,…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…or perhaps it’s in a box. Bellabox, an Australian beauty subscription service, received over $3 million in backing from Allure Media, digital publisher of PopSugar and Shopstyle. With the help of Allure Media’s funding, bellabox will expand its…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – To thwart digital pirates, the Australian government has put forward a plan to keep websites from hosting copyrighted material. Aussie creative types and the media say ‘Bravo’. The Media, Entertainment, and Arts Alliance (MEAA), a union representing artists, film makers, journalists and other creators, say they…
TOM PLATE WRITES – Among the easiest things on the face of the earth on which one can become quickly aware of is an Australian after-party. That’s because it tends to carry on for so long that with each additional (happy) hour, it gets very audibly happier. But, as a…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – ABC’s Australian Network has landed a deal with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG), allowing various Aussie shows and other media content to be broadcasted in China. As the third Western media group to have broadcasting rights in China, following Britain’s BBC World Service and America’s CNN…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – The Big Bang Theory, dubbed Australia’s favorite comedy by The Sydney Morning Herald, has been approved for three more seasons after a deal was signed between Warner Bros and Chuck Lorre, the show’s creator. This is especially good news for Australian broadcaster Nine Network, which has used the…
AUSTIN SZABO WRITES: When you want to know the economics of a country, you usually look at its gross domestic product — the amount of wealth it produced over the course of a year. But GDP tells only part of the story; it leaves out how the wealth is distributed.…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES: The Abbott government spent $4.3 million in social media research to measure public opinion concerning its immigration strategies, according to Fairfax Media. Further, the government has doled out over $65,000 to monitor the public’s thoughts regarding the “no boat, no visa” movement that aims at keeping asylum seekers at…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – The government of Prime Minister Tony Abbot hopes to sever the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ties to its international broadcasting service, the Australian Network. As reported in The Guardian, Julie Bishop, the foreign affairs minister, has questioned the overall quality of the Australian Network’s service and contends it may…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – The U.K.’s Daily Mail — surprisingly, the world’s most-read online English-language newspaper — will soon open an Australian edition. The move follows a similar down-under launch by rival The Guardian earlier this year. Mail Online, Daily Mail’s international online publication and the world’s most popular English-language newspaper,…
The following PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES column was recently syndicated to newspaper editors in the U.S. and Asia. By Tom Plate – A spat between Indonesia and Australia is not receiving proper attention in our media. This is predictable given American parochialism but, even so, it is causing serious heartburn in some…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – Ready for a comeback faster than Sylvester Stallone in Rocky III? Nine Entertainment certainly is. Barely a year after its near bankruptcy, Nine Entertainment Co., one of Australia’s leading media groups, plans to release an initial public offering (IPO), as announced early last week. With this…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – An Australian film corporation revealed that it will finance the production of more sophisticated TV drama for the enjoyment of audiences worldwide last week. In an attempt to satisfy viewers’ increasing demands for “high-end” television shows that are “taking creative risks and developing complex narratives,” SCREEN…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES — It wasn’t too much skin, but too little smile that led Australian advertising authorities to can a provocative billboard last week. The ad, promoting Ella Bache skincare products, featured three nude women with straight poker faces beneath the catchphrase, “Skin Solutions As Individual As You Are.” An…
ASIA MEDIA seeks to spotlight outstanding talent from the Asia-Pacific region that speaks to the cutting edge of our contemporary political concerns and emotional needs as human inhabiting a troubled planet. This issue’s featured art comes from Australia. It is perhaps hard to believe, but this fabulous 46 x 61…
Australia has every right to question Malaysia’s actions. Nick Xenophon, an independent senator from Australia, was recently deported from Malaysia after traveling to Kuala Lumpur on an unofficial parliamentary “fact-finding” journey to analyze the ‘free and fair elections’ in Malaysia. Malaysia says otherwise. According to the Malaysian government, Xenophon was…
