Roger Pulvers on Hisashi Inoue's time in Canberra in 1970s
SBS Japanese
19/05/2025 15:35 Hisashi Inoue was from Tohoku region in Japan, born in Yamagata Prefecture and moved to Iwate Prefecture when he was in the third year of junior high school. He passed away in 2010, the year before the Great East Japan Earthquake. Mr Palvers first spoke with Mr Inoue in 1974 at an interview. Mr Pulvers says they hit it off over a conversation about the Japanese poet and author Kenji Miyazawa, and continued to get to know each other like relatives. Mr Inoue taught as a visiting professor in Japanese studies in the School of Asian Studies at the ANU from March to July 1976. He also wrote two pieces during his stay in Canberra.
Mr Palvers is US-born Australian writer, translator, playwright, director and filmmaker, who had lectured in Japanese language and literature at the ANU since 1972. He is also a recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon in 2018 and the Order of Australia in 2019.
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News.com.au
21-05-2025
- News.com.au
‘Very, very questionable ethically': Dodgy movie marketing hits social media sites
It's a recent but common phenomenon, you're scrolling through Instagram or TikTok when you get a reel for a recently released movie or TV show, it's crudely edited, maybe even an AI mashup of readily available material like trailer and teaser videos. Yet it draws you in and gives you the push you needed to watch on streaming or go and see it in cinemas. Such reels posted on 'ghost' accounts, arrive out of nowhere with no official branding, are mass produced, and may not even appear like an advertisement. But some believe they are. Are 'ghost-edits' the newest form of dodgy advertising? And are they even legal? Australian National University marketing expert Dr Andrew Hughes says the phenomenon represents the core difficulty that lays at the heart of marketing – as soon as audiences know they are being marketed to it becomes significantly more difficult to market to them successfully. Social media and its 'wild west' regulations are proving the new frontier for marketers to get around this and it's a technique that Dr Hughes says 'is ethically very, very questionable.' 'If I see Warner Brothers Studios on like an official account and it's got the blue tick and everything, I'm like, it's just an ad and I'll skip it,' Dr Hughes told 'But if I see it's from say username156, I might go, oh okay, this is interesting. Maybe they've got their own take on it. 'So it seems to be more authentic and more honest and probably a lot more trustworthy than an ad. Because I probably won't trust the ad to tell me whether it's a good movie or not, and that's why they're doing it. 'It's better than an ad because if that was an ad and you knew it was an ad, you'd be going, 'oh, this is just a trailer for an upcoming movie or an upcoming show' and you get out of it. But this is a lot more powerful and has a lot more impact and an influence on your behaviour.' In Australia content that is sponsored in any form must contain an indication that the content is an advertisement. However its an area Dr Hughes says our advertising regulator, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) is incredibly weak in. 'The ACCC are so weak in this area. There's been very few cases I can think of where they've actually taken action against people, and all they usually do anyway is they take it down. They don't fine you. You're not going to face a court somewhere or a judge. 
You don't have to explain why you've done it.' A spokesperson from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said they were unable to comment on the specific phenomenon but that 'under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), a party that is carrying on a business, should not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct'. They added the creation of social media content by burner and ghost accounts is – in its current form – unlikely to contravene the ACL, leaving the social media giants to essentially self regulate. It's a gap between legislation and ethically marketing Dr Hughes said is becoming extremely problematic. 'Legally, they're fine to do it … in terms of the ethics, it's highly questionable because they know what they're doing. This is someone with marketing knowledge, someone who knows this theory, someone who knows the effect of it. 'They've designed this communication. 
These are burner accounts, in other words, you can set them up very quickly and then kill them very quickly as well and there's virtually no evidence they existed. 'It's ethically very, very questionable.
They shouldn't do it. But then again, they won't be the first or last organisation or brand to have done it.' Dr Hughes said ironically the best way to tell if content is studio approved is to check how long it's been up for. 'Nine times out of 10, the bigger brands in entertainment and content production will take down content if they don't approve it personally. So that's the giveaway, that's how we spot it. Most of the bigger brands will go, 'yeah, no, you can't post that it's copyright. That's our movie or our entertainment product' and they'll get it taken down very quickly.' 'Now when I see content, the first thing I ask myself is: 'okay, so why is the big content owner of this letting this stay up?' And usually the reason why is because it comes from that organisation.' Because the content is coming from burner accounts it's almost impossible to link to official marketing campaigns and studios however Dr Hughes says to the consumer there is 'no practical difference' between if the content is studio produced or merely allowed to stay up by the studio. 'It's the same thing.
The outcome's the same for the consumer, it's to obtain a change in the consumer behaviour, where they buy the product or adapt the behaviour being specified or influence their preference towards the brand. 'So if it's an [agency, brand or unaffiliated content producer] doing it, it doesn't really matter in terms of the person behind it, they still need to be identified as marketing to the consumer.' 
The issue currently falls between the cracks of Government agencies, federal law and the social media giants self-regulations. But Professor of Media Studies at Monash University Mark Andrejevic, says a legislation change needs to be eyed up in order to put the onus back on the social media giants to not allow unethical marketing to take place on its platforms. 'I think to the extent that [social media] platforms are behaving as publishers, which means the extent that they're making active decisions about what content to pump into our feeds, that they, in a regulatory sense, should be held responsible for that. 
 'They're not going to … they won't self-regulate. I don't think we can rely on them to do that. 
So where we do see real social harms obtained from the specific ways in which they push information at us, I think the only response is to regulate them.'
SBS Australia
19-05-2025
- SBS Australia
Roger Pulvers on Hisashi Inoue's time in Canberra in 1970s
SBS Japanese 19/05/2025 15:35 Hisashi Inoue was from Tohoku region in Japan, born in Yamagata Prefecture and moved to Iwate Prefecture when he was in the third year of junior high school. He passed away in 2010, the year before the Great East Japan Earthquake. Mr Palvers first spoke with Mr Inoue in 1974 at an interview. Mr Pulvers says they hit it off over a conversation about the Japanese poet and author Kenji Miyazawa, and continued to get to know each other like relatives. Mr Inoue taught as a visiting professor in Japanese studies in the School of Asian Studies at the ANU from March to July 1976. He also wrote two pieces during his stay in Canberra. Mr Palvers is US-born Australian writer, translator, playwright, director and filmmaker, who had lectured in Japanese language and literature at the ANU since 1972. He is also a recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon in 2018 and the Order of Australia in 2019. Listen to SBS Japanese Audio on Tue, Thu and Fri from 1pm on SBS 3. Replays from 10pm on Tue, Thu and Sat on SBS1. Listen to past stories from our Download the free and don't forget to visit SBS Japanese and page!
News.com.au
03-05-2025
- News.com.au
‘Fabulous fun': Anthony Green signs off from the ABC after calling election one last time
Antony Green has called his final election for the ABC. Late on Saturday evening, with the result know far earlier in the evening than some of Green's election nights, the election analysts almost choked up as he bid his now iconic role adieu after 36 years. 'If I'm going out in an election this is an extraordinary one to go it on,' he said. Green, who received the Order of Australia in 2017 for his services to 'interpreting Australian Democracy' said his time crunching vote numbers had been 'fabulous fun' but he suspected he only got the job because he was willing to work 'stupid hours'. After he made his final analysis on the ABC, host Annabel Crabb brought over a huge bunch of flowers and paid tribute to Green. 'The only thing you hate more, apart from when the bloody computer goes wrong, is being the centre of attention,' said Crabb. 'I'm as nervous as a duck in a log,' Green retorted. 'Millions of Australians that have loved watching and learning from you over the years,' Crabb continued. 'Your brain doesn't need anything to call an election. You could do it on papyrus, and we've all benefited from your abilities and skills'. In an earlier social media post, Crabb has said Green was a 'wee maths nerd' who had become a 'legendary figure' and 'generous colleague'. 'I don't own a vase' 'I'm a bit overwhelmed by all this,' Green replied to Crabb. 'That's the biggest bunch of flowers I've ever had in my life. I don't own a vase.' Green thanked people including Kerry O'Brien, Andrew Ollie, Quentin Dempster and particularly Ian Carroll who hired him at the ABC on a six month contract in 1989 as an election researcher ahead of the 1990 poll. 'There were 150 applicants but there was only one with serious computer skills and he said 'you can talk to the engineers' 'And somehow I ended up on camera'. With those engineers, Green designed a computer system for the ABC to analyse the results far ahead of the official results. 'Been fabulous fun' At the 1993 election, which John Hewson was widely predicted to win, it was Green who first noticed the strength of Paul Keating and the potential return of his government. That cemented his reputation among viewers. 'People listen to Antony and they wait for him on election night to declare the winner,' said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a prerecorded video. 'It's been fabulous fun,' said Green. 'I enjoyed developing websites. I've enjoyed educating people on how the systems work. 'We'll see how we go from here'. Green announced in February that he would be retiring from his on screen role after covering 90 elections both in Australia and abroad. 'By the time of the next election, I'll be 68 and I know I'm not as sharp and quick as I was five years ago,' Green said at the time 'It gets harder and harder. It's like a footballer, sometimes they play on a season too long, and I'm making sure I don't do that.' 'Essentially I'm deciding to retire and work less,' he added. Casey Briggs will step in as ABC's chief election and data analyst following the federal election. 'For more than three decades Antony Green has set the bar for election analysis. He is sharp, fast and, even under the immense pressure of the night, manages to keep his sense of humour,' Briggs said. 'For me, it has been such a privilege to have had a front-row seat to watch and learn from the master at work. 'We will all miss him from our screens'.
