CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
A government employee who’s entire livelihood depends on delivering media content to a vast range of Australians, both geographically and demographically, has today chortled to herself while declaring she doesn’t have the faintest idea about how to reach 92% of the population.
It is a growing attitude held by well-looked after Generation X employees both within the public broadcaster and commercial media companies across the country stubbornly refuse to up-skill, while simultaneously complaining about job security during each organisational restructure.
One of these 40-something TV and radio lifer is a woman named Bronte Rozelle, a mother of two adorable little pre-teens from Sydney’s peninsular suburb of Drummoyne – she’s just one of many distressed middle-aged government servants who can’t see why every single Australian isn’t tuning in to analog television at 8:30 each night to watch The Catering Show.
“There’s a lot of storms in a lot of teacups – It’s like, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s what I always say [laughter]”
Bronte says her career at the ABC has been great, but she’s not so sure about the new management and their push for people to learn more about the contemporary media landscape.
“Oh that Twitter stuff… I don’t know anything about that” she says, before signalling to an 18-year-old colleague to find a way to get her 35-minute long form video interview published across all social media platforms.
“My kids know all about Facebook and Minecraft… I’m just a bit of a luddite” she laughs, seemingly oblivious that half of the ABC’s current news and comedy is just rehashed content pulled from Twitter, including the sixteen hours of content they dedicate to President Trump each day.
As an inner-city homeowner with a completely paid-out terrace house that was purchased fifteen years ago on two ABC incomes, Bronte can’t believe how much time is spent talking about ‘new media’ – as she believes the tried and true nightly viewing format will never change, mainly because she doesn’t want it to.
“The radio and TV numbers are still going quite strong” she says.
“I don’t think we really have to worry for now. Although we do sometimes put our stuff on online”
“I usually have to get one of these young helpers [unpaid interns] to send a Twitter out to social media”
