The Power of Talkback

Professor Turner faces the music at the ABC Radio studio in Toowong, Brisbane

For such an all-pervasive medium, the world of talkback radio has surprisingly been overlooked by researchers into popular culture.

Professor Graeme Turner, the Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at The University of Queensland, is studying the history, the hosts, the politics and the listeners that make talkback radio so popular.

"For many years it was assumed that radio was declining in importance," Professor Turner said. "Now, nobody thinks that.

"Everyone recognises the tremendous influence talkback has and as such it has become the format of choice for politicians around the country."

Professor Turner, a long-time researcher of the media, has a special fondness for radio, having once been a presenter himself on community radio in Perth.

"I moved away from radio and focused on television in my studies, but over the past few years I've been coming back to radio and the impact it can have,'' he said.

As part of a three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) grant Professor Turner has spent the past 12 months researching the history of talkback radio up to the present day and its tremendous reach and power.

"It was interesting to find out that talkback didn't really hit its straps until about the 80s," he said.

"Although it has been around since the 20s, broadcasting telephone calls was illegal until the 60s. But talkback didn't really take off until about 15 years after that.

"And with the rise of music-format FM stations in the 80s, talkback really became the only viable form of programming for AM."

Professor Turner said after compiling his history, which he hopes to publish in a series of articles, the next stage of the research would be to tape sample material and then compare the treatment of issues by talkback radio hosts with other media outlets.

"Talkback gives stories another twist and can often keep an issue going for a while," he said.

"And the power of these shows is that they can set the agenda and create news as well."

"And politicians love going on them as they are given a pretty easy run."

"Talkback hosts are not always journalists and the politicians are usually forewarned about questions so it's more relaxed and the real virtue is they can talk directly to people."

Professor Turner is hoping to interview both the presenters and producers of the shows to get their impressions, as well as talk to the listeners.

"They spend a lot of time listening to these programs so I want to know what the appeal is," he said.

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