The ABC, its history and its audiences

In addition to enrolling in the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature (MCCALL), the successful candidate will be invited to join Australia’s only media history research centre.

This scholarship is attached to the ARC Linkage Project ‘The ABC, its Archives and its Audiences’, a partnership between Macquarie University, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Archives of Australia.

Key details

Reference number

20235914

For course

PhD

Key dates

Applications close on 31 October 2024 at 11pm

Student type

Domestic

Area of study

Arts and social sciences, media, communications and creative arts

Stipend value
(Direct payment)

$38,500 p.a. (2025 rate)

The ARC Linkage Project ‘The ABC, its Archives and its Audiences’ (LP220200578) aims to enable deeper understandings of:

  • the role of Australia’s principal public service broadcaster in the lives of audience members across the country
  • the community needs and interests that have shaped it.

The three-year project, headed by Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley, is in partnerships with the ABC and the National Archives of Australia.

The project is designed to help uncover, describe, declassify, make accessible and interpret paper records relating to audiences during the years of the Australian Broadcasting Commission between 1932 and 1982.

It is centred on three main sets of hitherto largely overlooked audience records, held principally at the NAA’s Sydney office in Chester Hill:

  • the records of the ABC’s many Advisory Committees
  • switchboard reports of calls made to ABC radio and television stations
  • listener and viewer correspondence.

About the scholarship

Supervised by Professor Griffen-Foley, the candidate may wish to focus on the area of one of the ABC’s Advisory Committees (eg drama, science, talks or women), or migrant or child audiences.

If you have some relevant industry experience in broadcasting, involvement in the production of a creative work (such as an audio feature) may be considered.

Availability

This scholarship is available to eligible candidates to undertake a direct entry three-year PhD program.

The successful scholarship applicant should hold a Masters by Research or equivalent in history, media or communications.

Components

The scholarship comprises:

  • a tuition fee offset
  • a living allowance stipend.

The value of the stipend scholarship is $38,500 (full-time, indexed) per annum, for three years.