RT Article
T1 Ice towns: television representations of crystal methamphetamine use in rural Australia
JF Crime, media, culture
VO 16
IS 2
SP 185
OP 199
A1 Waller, Lisa
A2 Clifford, Katrina
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1858777194
AB The Australian news media regularly presents crystal methamphetamine use as a non-metropolitan ‘epidemic’ sweeping through country towns with devastating consequences for affected communities. Considerations of place and the notion of rurality are therefore crucial to understanding how these media representations are constructed and their power to influence national understandings of rural people, places and policy debates. In order to explore these complexities, we apply Simon Cottle’s ‘communicative architecture of television’ methodology to an analysis of three long-form reportage television programmes on the theme of ice use in small Australian towns. Theories of ‘social imaginaries’ inform the argument that a distinctive Australian ‘agrarian imaginary’ can be discerned through the reporting’s strong associations with the connections and contradictions attached to ideas and emotions about ‘the bush’. The television programmes draw on what Cottle terms ‘mythic’ and ‘collective’ frames that reach into the cultural reservoirs of communities to reinforce national perceptions, values and narratives about how rural communities ought to be, and by extension, how they ought to deal with complex social problems, such as illicit drug distribution and use.
NO Literaturverzeichnis
K1 Agrarian imaginary
K1 Australian news media
K1 crystal methamphetamine
K1 rural drug crime
K1 rural ice use
K1 television crime news
DO 10.1177/1741659019845025