Simon Order

In October 2023, an ABC Australia article by Levy and Heaton discussed the ‘gender gap’ in electric vehicle (EV) ownership, noting Australia’s similarity to the United States. where reportedly 67% of EV buyers were men and 33% were women. In Western Australia (WA), Evenergi’s 2023 survey revealed that 83% of the survey’s EV owning respondents were male. Such data suggest a noticeable gender discrepancy in EV ownership, which may be more prominent in WA. Through ten in-depth interviews with female-identifying WA-based EV owners, we sought to investigate this imbalance further, particularly why it might exist and, how it might be overcome. This paper focusses on the everyday experiences and practices of our Perth metropolitan and regionally based interviewees to shed light on potential barriers or issues associated with EV ownership such as purchase costs, driving range, charging, interactions with others about their cars, the use of technology and media coverage, including myths and misinformation. Overall, our interviewees provided insights into how they adjusted to owning and driving an EV in Western Australia, a state known for its isolation and vast distances.

This special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies is titled ‘Performing Identity in the Era of COVID-19’, and co-mingles our current critical inquiries into the pandemic meaning of ‘performance’’ with our earlier research in global diasporas. While invoking our previous historical context of ‘the era of COVID-19’, we shift focus from migratory liminality to the many ways that we can re-think the notions of performance, performing, and performativity (and the nonperformative) in the context of the global pandemic...

American Movie Classics’ (AMC) popular television series The Walking Dead (2010–present) transports viewers into an apocalyptic zombie dystopia where the lines between safety and precarity, being governed and governing, or being alive and/or dead slip and change. Utilizing Achille Mbembe’s term “necropolitics”, the article explores The Walking Dead’s representation of governance and power in terms of individual and group security. While the zombie has been understood as the liminal figure par excellence, The Walking Dead’s non-zombie characters illustrate diasporic liminality as refugees, hovering on or near the threshold of death. The scale of suffering or prosperity is determined by who leads or governs. Frequently, those deemed “in charge” exercise power and control to discipline, to punish, and to provide security. The series offers a metaphor for the potential uses of power in biological, environmental, or natural disaster situations where survivors grapple with scarce resources and the constant presence of death.

Vision Australia Radio (VAR) is part of the Australian Radio for the Print Handicapped (RPH) community radio network providing a radio reading service to listeners with a vision impairment. Like mainstream media, it faces the challenge of ensuring the service is fit for purpose in the digital age. There is little preexisting research on the behaviour and interests of the vision-impaired as a discrete audience demographic. This paper reports on a survey of listeners to VAR in Perth, Western Australia, which gives an insight into their current listening habits and identifies some of the challenges in meeting their future needs.

The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) asserts that community radio should promote a culturally diverse society by representing those sections of the community much less visible in the mainstream media. This echoes the Australian Federal Government’s vision of social inclusion/cohesion in a society in which all Australians are valued and are able to participate fully. There are those, however, who are marginalised by mainstream culture and can find themselves alienated as a result of, for example, their language, religion, ethincity, sexuality or niche interests. Societal participation for those groups can be challenging and may mean some members feel a sense of isolation and lonliness. The incidence of loneliness in Australia is growing. The personal and social consequences of loneliness are significant for those affected but also for policy-makers. Community broadcasting is uniquely positioned to provide opportunities for volunteering, community participation, and sociability for niche community groups, all of which contribute towards countering the effects of loneliness. In this regard, community radio can be described as rhizomatic. It has the potential to generate social capital for the participants and the listeners via its many community entrance points and social pathways. Community radio is often a two-way street with content producers and consumers occupying the same position, thus blurring the line between the traditional professional broadcaster and the passive listener. The generated niche communities of interest expand away from a station towards the audience, and simultaneously, into the community station from the listeners. Overall, this article argues that community broadcasting in Australia should be valued as a medium that can reduce social isolation and enrich community cohesion.

Testing creativity in tertiary learning activities is a young field of research, and current assessment methods are difficult to apply within the diverse context of media production education, where disciplines range from journalism through to video game production. However, the concept of remix is common across this wide range of media, and offers practitioners ‘endless hybridizations in language, genre, content, technique and the like’ (Knobel & Lankshear, 2008, p. 22). The conceptual commonality of remix indicates that the study conclusions will have useful implications across a range of media production disciplines. This study aims to consider new methods for testing creativity in media production learning activities and to provide better assessments for learning design. This study focused upon a learner cohort of music technology students that were undertaking a work-integrated learning programme with a record label. To make the students more work-ready and inspire greater creativity, they remixed tracks recorded by professional music artists as part of a unit assessment. Subsequent self-report surveys (N = 29) found that the process of creating a ‘remix’ enhanced their creativity and provided suggested improvements to the design of the learning experience. Importantly, we found no relationship between the survey responses and objective assessments, indicating that the self-reported improvements in creativity were not simply a measure of how well the students performed the formally assessed tasks. Although more research is needed to establish effective measures of creativity, these findings demonstrate that self-report survey tools can be a powerful tool for measuring creativity and supporting improved iterative learning design.

Social scientists have long been fascinated about why people volunteer. Volunteers give their time to certain organisations without expectation of reward or compensation for their labour (Snyder & Omoto, 2008). The 2011 ‘National Survey of Volunteering Issues’ suggests that the primary motivations for volunteers are a ‘sense of purpose’ and the ‘difference they make to the community’ (Volunteering Australia, 2011, p. 4). While these two primary motivations may span volunteering generally, older adult volunteer motivation in the community radio sector anecdotally reveals a more complex picture. There are strong resonances between existing theoretical literature on motivations in volunteering (Clary et al., 1998) and community radio (Order, 2014b). Clary et al.’s (1998) work focuses on the initial motivation to volunteer and what drives continued participation. Order’s (2014b) study found that the main value for participation in community radio was personal development and empowerment at a personal or group level. The purpose of this article is to explore these broad themes in more detail. Interview data from volunteers at an exemplar community radio station is considered in conjunction with Clary et al.’s (1998) six motivational functions of volunteering. Clary et al.’s six functions provide the language and a framework to unpack personal development and empowerment at a personal and group level in the community radio sector using interview data about the participation of primarily older volunteers at Perth community radio station 6RPH (Radio Print-Handicapped). The analysis reveals a more nuanced picture of volunteer motivation for individuals. This article argues that the development of a purposeful identity through volunteering in a community radio context is a primary motivation and consequence for older adult volunteers.

The largest pressure faced by community radio stations is financial. Stations constantly face the reality of how to ensure an adequate operating income in an increasingly competitive mediascape. Van Vuuren (2006c) argues that the extent of the contribution of community media to media democracy in Australia depends largely on how the sector manages commercial pressures. There is a need to ensure more financial stability to allow stations to focus on their primary community-orientated and participatory goals. The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC 2007: 51) argues that if financial contributors are available, whether public or private, the sponsors will want to know they are receiving value for any investment they make in the sector. This emphasis on " value for money " is a good reason to evaluate and demonstrate the efficacy and effectiveness of Australian community radio stations. The value of Australian community radio, like citizens media (Rodríguez 2001: 163), centres on what are sometimes quite subtle objectives. These can be difficult to evaluate. For example, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA and CBAA 2008a: 1), the first guiding principle of community broadcasting states: 'We will work to promote harmony and diversity and contribute to an inclusive, cohesive and culturally-diverse Australian community.' What type of evaluative benchmark can easily distinguish whether harmony and diversity in the community, for example, has been promoted or not? This paper discusses the main funding challenges and dilemmas faced by Australian community broadcasters in light of demonstrating the value of the sector. Introduction The supporters of community radio see the sector as a vital part of the fabric of Australian media. Community radio supporters argue that it should receive regular funding for the valuable social and cultural contributions it makes to society. However, the detractors suggest that the sector already receives special privileges over commercial broadcasters who pay substantial sums for their frequency allocation and licences. From this standpoint, it would be easy to question why the community sector should exist at all. Snape and Simson (2000: 275) state:

The dramatic anthropological shifts in music production practices in the post-analogue world have been primarily driven by the ever-increasing functionality of digital audio technologies. Technologies are pertinent actors in the music production process, more than ever before. A new trend in music production is a move towards the mobile tablet computer as a production tool. This article emerged from my own practice-led research into music production on a tablet computer whilst travelling, and at international destinations. Using evocative autoethnography, I diarised my mobile music production, concluding that mobility positively impacted creativity. Reflection led me to ask: What factors are at play and could a theorisation of mobile production practice be articulated? Mobility is more than transplanting music production to another place. Rather, mobility asks us to reconsider fundamental notions central to musical practice. Space and environment become cognitive stimuli, echoing the seminal work by Mel Rhodes on creativity. Rhodes popularised the term ‘press’ to describe the multi-factorial impact of experience on human creativity. This study theorises a multi-sensorial approach where human mobility and connection with place enhance musical creativity. Second, music data mobility amplifies production options. The connected mobile musician can absorb the perceptual richness of physical travel and also the stimuli of the electronic ether. Where is creativity? This article proposes that creativity for the mobile musician is experienced in a liminal space between the geographical and the virtual.

In the world of music technology where, “music practice is challenged, mediated and redefined through performers’ and composers’ uses of ICT” (Savage, 2005, p. 168), curriculum change is necessary if the world of the classroom is to keep pace with the world outside (Cain, 2004, p. 219). For newcomers to music technology, the glittering array of increasingly sophisticated flashing, emulated, and modulated interfaces can invoke virtual interface dyslexia before giving way to options anxiety. Change is the only constant in the ever-evolving techno-scape of sound and music applications. This paper proposes that the development of an introductory tertiary music technology unit curriculum using loop-based music iPad apps may effectively engage non-traditional music (NTM) students in both music and technology. The course design was underpinned by two intentions. Firstly, the aim was to stimulate student creativity and secondly, to encourage immersion (focused attention) in sonic composition (Witmer & Singer, 1998). This paper reports on the preliminary usability testing of five loop-based music iPad applications. It is administered to a sample of one, namely the author, using the System Usability Scale (SUS) (Brooke, 1996) and is guided by the following questions: Would this testing methodology be appropriate? What factors specific to loop-based music app design might be pertinent for educators? Would this testing method indicate the potential for student immersion and creativity? While the pilot study, described here, is conducted solely by the researcher to determine the effectiveness of the method, future research intends the study to be administered to a small classroom group if determined appropriate.