Writer
Patricia Edgar
Patricia Edgar is an educator. She was the architect of the Australian Children’s Television Standards, the founder of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and the World Summit on Media for Children Foundation.
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Queen Elizabeth II: The palace is winning the propaganda war
Queen Elizabeth II is dead and ‘the Palace’ is working assiduously to shore up her legacy and the institution of Monarchy. Polls show they are winning the hearts and minds in a propaganda war, with the mass media complicit in its hyperbolic, adulatory, blanket coverage. Debates about the Monarchy are cancelled, demonstrators in the UK Continue reading »
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The medium is the message: Marshall McLuhan saw the catastrophe coming
It is more than 50 years since the astute cultural critic Marshall McLuhan burst into the academic world with his perplexing insights into the meaning of communications and how they would affect mankind. He declaimed, ‘The medium is the message’. I had just turned 30 and was enrolled for an MA in the Stanford University Continue reading »
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Thinking outside the age care trap
Too much of our thinking about aged care is based on outmoded assumptions. It is argued that ageing Baby Boomers will cost the economy dearly, when in fact it is the policy taken that has caused a crisis. Change is essential, for today’s Millennials, facing a century-long life, will be an even larger aged cohort. Continue reading »
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A radical future for ABC children’s television programs
Now that the new Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland is considering a review of the whole broadcasting sector, the lid might be lifted on failures in the system for children. Among all the resets needed for the digital age, the ABC should be charged with the mission for children it should have been on for the Continue reading »
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In our identity culture wars is the ABC promoting cohesion or pulling us further apart?
The Western world is undergoing a war between cultures and ideologies with the future uncertain. David Anderson the Managing Director claims, ‘the ABC nurtures social cohesion and national unity’. But, in their attempt to be inclusive, is the organisation having the opposite effect and contributing to the spread of contagion and a tyranny of the Continue reading »
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Happy Birthday ABC. Where are you going now?
The ABC celebrates its 90th birthday June 30th this year. There are few Australians alive today who were here at the birth. So, it is timely to ask what the future of our public broadcaster is, particularly given the BBC, its model and guiding star, is in trouble. Continue reading »
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The age-old debate on generational conflict is deeply flawed
Every generation deserves the best chance in life, but achieving this has been undermined by government policy failure and misplaced claims of advantage. Continue reading »
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Housing policy is a failure for young and old
Blaming Baby Boomers for the housing crisis is a diversion. What we need is a complete rethink of our housing supply. Continue reading »
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Ageism and the secret to living a long life.
The Archibald is 100 and Peter Wegner has won the 2021 prize for his portrait of 100-year-old artist Guy Warren who commented, “One hundred years is a hell of a lot of experience. I’ve survived the Great Depression, a war, I’ve survived serious medical difficulties and I’ve survived COVID – touch wood. The secret to Continue reading »
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Are we more depressed or more diagnosed?
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5), which finds widespread use in Australia and across the world, by physicians, researchers, courts, and schools, lists more than 300 criteria for depression, which makes the meaning of a diagnosis so vague it can potentially cover every one of us. So, are we more depressed Continue reading »
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Anything goes, in Canberra
‘Share your truth. It is your power’ Grace Tame, Australian of the Year 2021. Continue reading »
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The Power of Attorney and abuse of the elderly
Australia has a long way to go and COVID is lifting the scab revealing how neglect and absolute indifference have exposed these communities of older people to an end of life nightmare. Continue reading »
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Humanities Fightback: CASSH Skills VS STEM.
Just how do Universities respond to Minister Tehan’s diabolical plan to neuter the brainpower of the next generation through engineering their debt burden by more than doubling fees for Humanities Degrees? Continue reading »
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Proposed University Funding is Policy Ideological Vandalism
Minister Tehan’s targeted university funding proposal is part of an ongoing government plan to destroy the ‘hotbeds of left-wing ideological fervour’ seen as centred in arts and social science faculties. Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Education and Entertainment after COVID-19
COVID-19 has let the genie out of the bottle. Education and entertainment will not return to their traditional forms. Continue reading »
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PATRICIA and DON EDGAR. Who is expendable? Ethics in an age of a pandemic
In 1651, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, writing about the social contract, warned that without a strong central government man reverts to his natural state of self-interest and life is ‘solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short’. The West has rejected Hobbes’ philosophy and we have seen the erosion of strong central government across decades. And Continue reading »
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PATRICIA and DON EDGAR Family Views the Election Results
Last Saturday evening we sat as a family to view the election results. There were four grandchildren present, aged 18 to 24 who had voted that day and taken their decisions seriously. They were waiting to see how the evening would unfold. They are rightly concerned about their future, particularly climate change, and as Continue reading »
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DON AND PATRICIA EDGAR. Universities as Failed Critics
Back in 1997, Mark Davis complained that the Baby Boomers were monopolising public comment and should make way for the next generation – meaning him – to lead us out of ‘Gangland’ to ‘a new generationalism’. We’ve heard little since and the key public intellectuals are still (as in Pearls & Irritations) those ‘cultural elites’ Continue reading »
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PATRICIA & DON EDGAR. The Farce Called ‘Community consultation’.
Yarra City Council touts community consultation as part of its resident-friendly credentials. But our recent experience suggests the process is a farce. It demonstrates why public disillusionment with government and a bureaucratic process is at an all time high for transparency is completely lacking. Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: The Case for Regulation of Australian Children’s content (Part 3).
In the dynamic media environment we have in Australia, broadcasting regulation has become an exceptionally tricky exercise. If regulations are to work, they require creative application and on-going monitoring as commercial players will always seek to outmanoeuvre them, especially when they affect programming decisions. Bureaucracies move slowly. It takes time to define, then to pass Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: The programs and projects children want to see (Part 2).
Children are now on the move. Their phone is their companion for reaching out to friends, texting, referencing, looking up what they want and need to know, viewing YouTube, playing games, taking photos and videos. They can click through what’s on offer: a cornucopia from which they are learning and having fun. They have led Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: Technology is not the enemy. The Need for Positive Media Literacy (Part 1).
The Information-technology Revolution is challenging the assumptions on which the education of children and the provision of their entertainment are based. The doomsayers argue the big companies – Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, et al. – despite their rhetoric of preventing evil and promoting global togetherness – are in fact exacerbating inequality, poverty, unemployment, invasion of Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: Radical revamp needed for Children’s TV content quotas.
Today’s kids are way ahead of our broadcasting regulators and television producers in the way they use both television and digital media. It’s time for a radical rethink of content regulations, quotas, and subsidy for children’s media education and entertainment in their best interest. Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. The Nine Entertainment Co’s takeover of Fairfax
The proposed Nine Entertainment Co’s takeover of Fairfax would be a disaster for journalism and for Australia. Malcolm Turnbull’s changes to the 30 year-old cross- media rule means one owner can control print, radio and television in one market. Of course this will result in serious loss of diversity in information. That it is Nine Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. The ABC, Facebook and the Meaning of Trust
Trust is an interesting concept. It takes time to develop trust which results from a broad experience of something (or someone) which demonstrates consistent, reliable behavior with integrity, ability, and surety; it involves confident expectation. But trust can be lost irretrievably, quite quickly. Trust allows for mistakes if they are dealt with openly and honestly. Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Going Round the Twist with Telstra and the NBN Co
NBN Co claims their ‘focus remains strongly on improving customer experience on the network including a smooth connection to the network.’ In fact the experience is a fiasco. Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. The Circus that has been Government Policy on the ABC for Forty Years
The ABC has been an extraordinarily resilient organisation. It has withstood management and Board upheavals, survived remorseless budget cuts and harassment. But the current attacks on staff and on its role are as overt and vicious as they have ever been. Many of those who were imbued with ABC values have died or moved on. Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. The Death of Australian Children’s Broadcast Television Programming.
How many times must it be said that if we do not take action Australian children’s programming will disappear from our screens? Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR AND DON EDGAR. Aged care will be a different ballgame -the risks of commercialisation.
There is an obvious conflict of interests in any care industry where profits have to be made and returned to shareholders, rather than ploughed back into better care. Profit is never a good incentive for the common good. It’s easier to cut back on staff, food quality, proper supervision and social activity for those in Continue reading »
