Personalising cultural policy: The influence of Tom O’Regan

Lee, T.ORCID: 0000-0003-3333-0076 (2021) Personalising cultural policy: The influence of Tom O’Regan. Media International Australia, 180 (1). pp. 47-53.

Abstract

This article offers a personal commentary on the influence of Tom O’Regan, my Honours supervisor in the 1990s. Among many other things, he was a major contributor to the ‘cultural policy debate’ in Australia. More than offering an explanation about the subject, O’Regan had warned of the need to strike a balance when debating culture and critiquing cultural policy, and not fall into polemical traps. Making a case for policy independence, he urged academics to participate collaboratively and cooperatively in cultural policy-making processes, instead of primarily engaging in cultural criticisms. I write as well of my firsthand experience of how his cultural policy writings transcended scholarly rationale into the actual policy domain during my time as a media policy professional in Singapore. His ability to apply policy thinking beyond academia underscores why he was – and will remain – a giant of media and cultural studies in Australia and beyond.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	College of Arts, Business, Law and Social Sciences
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Copyright:	© 2021 by Media International Australia Editorial Board
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/61684

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