News

Packed lecture audience hears Jon Faine defend talkback radio

[ UniNews Vol. 12, No. 5  7 - 21 April 2003 ]

Popular and respected 774 ABC Melbourne presenter Jon Faine set the University of Melbourne’s 2003 public lecture series off to a flying start with his delivery of the annual A N Smith Lecture in Journalism last week.

Mr Faine spoke ‘in defence of talkback radio’ to a packed house in the main lecture theatre in the Law Building in University Square.

Mr Faine estimates as many as 10,000 talkback calls a year get to air on his program. “If the internet wants to boast about being interactive, it has a long way to go before it gets within cooee of the interactivity of talkback,” he noted.

“Talkback is big. According to the latest ratings figures, more than a third of the Melbourne listening audience choose talk radio of one kind or another. At times of crisis, war, elections and disasters, listening patterns show substantial swings towards talk radio, and away from music, light entertainment and comedy.”

Prime ministers and premiers also love talkback radio, according to Mr Faine. “One of the principal weapons in a successful politician’s personal armory is to conquer radio, to sound personable but authoritative, to do battle with the host and to create a relationship with the listeners.”

Mr Faine also had some things to say about the Sydney talkback scene, reflecting that as a distant observer he is amazed at how “so much power is cultivated and brazenly exploited by people who talk on the radio”.

But Mr Faine doesn’t believe that all the blame lies with the presenters. “If the shock-jock is not given the influence, if he is kept at arm’s length by government and business, and not indulged, then the equation is not subverted. The fault lies with the giver as well as the taker of such liberties with the community’s trust.”

However he is wary of another layer of bureaucratic safeguards against abuse of power in the media. “We have them already,” he said. “They need to be better enforced, and need to be seen to be better enforced – as with all law enforcement – so as to have the proper deterrent effect.”

The full text of Jon Faine's lecture is available on the web at: http://www.unimelb.edu.au/ExtRels/majorations/