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Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research

Media Convergence
and Deconvergence
Edited by Sergio Sparviero,
Corinna Peil, Gabriele Balbi

A Palgrave/IAMCR Series

IAMCR
AIECS
AIERI
 Global Transformations in Media
and Communication Research – A Palgrave
and IAMCR Series

Series Editors
Marjan de Bruin
HARP, Mona Campus
The University of the West Indies
Mona, Jamaica

Claudia Padovani
SPGI
University of Padova
Padova, Italy
The International Association for Media and Communications Research
(IAMCR) has been, for over 50 years, a focal point and unique plat-
form for academic debate and discussion on a variety of topics and
issues generated by its many thematic Sections and Working groups (see
http://iamcr.org/) This new series specifically links to the intellectual
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opportunities for the publication of key research and debates. It will pro-
vide a forum for collective knowledge production and exchange through
trans-disciplinary contributions. In the current phase of globalizing
processes and increasing interactions, the series will provide a space to
rethink those very categories of space and place, time and geography
through which communication studies has evolved, thus contributing to
identifying and refining concepts, theories and methods with which to
explore the diverse realities of communication in a changing world. Its
central aim is to provide a platform for knowledge exchange from dif-
ferent geo-cultural contexts. Books in the series will contribute diverse
and plural perspectives on communication developments including from
outside the Anglo-speaking world which is much needed in today’s glo-
balized world in order to make sense of the complexities and intercul-
tural challenges communication studies are facing.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/15018
 Sergio Sparviero · Corinna Peil
Gabriele Balbi
Editors

Media Convergence
and Deconvergence
Editors
Sergio Sparviero Gabriele Balbi
Department of Communication Institute of Media and Journalism
Studies USI Università della Svizzera italiana
University of Salzburg Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland
Salzburg, Austria

Corinna Peil
Department of Communication
Studies
University of Salzburg
Salzburg, Austria

Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research – A Palgrave

and IAMCR Series
ISBN 978-3-319-51288-4 ISBN 978-3-319-51289-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51289-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939100

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

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 Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all the people that contribute to make the
International Association of Media and Communication Research
(IAMCR) an international, vibrant environment for the exchange of
ideas, many of which are contained in the pages of this book. In par-
ticular, we would like to thank Claudia Padovani and Marjan de Bruin,
co-chairs of the publication committee and editors of the Global
Transformations in Media and Communication Research series, for their
advice and support. Moreover, as this book is also the main outcome of
the “Deconstructing Media Convergence” conference held in Salzburg
in November 2013, we would like to thank the people that made it pos-
sible, from Josef Trappel, head of the Department of Communication
Studies of the University of Salzburg, who sponsored the event, to Eva
Gaderer, Alexandra Leitner, and Sanneke Tiesema who gave us the
opportunity to focus on the content of the event by efficiently organ-
izing everything else. We are also very grateful to Jim Rogers and
Gianluigi Negro, well-informed academics on various topics covered in
the book, and friends, who helped us when we needed them. We owe a
debt of gratitude to Jana Büchner for the tedious work of subediting so
many pages, to the editorial team at Palgrave, Felicity Plester, Heloise
Harding and Sophie Auld for their patient support, and to the authors
of the chapters of this book, who humbly accepted our suggestions and
invested time in writing and revising their excellent contributions.
Finally, our special thanks go to our families and friends.

v
 Contents

Part I Introduction

1 Media Convergence Meets Deconvergence 3

Corinna Peil and Sergio Sparviero

2 Deconstructing “Media Convergence”: A Cultural

History of the Buzzword, 1980s–2010s 31
Gabriele Balbi

Part II Media Audiences and Usage

3 Convergence in Domestic Media Use? The Interplay of

Old and New Media at Home 55
Kathrin Friederike Müller and Jutta Röser

4 Blurred Lines, Distinct Forces: The Evolving Practices of

Italian TV Audiences in a Convergent Scenario 75
Luca Barra and Massimo Scaglioni

vii
viii Contents

5 Media Convergence and the Network Society: Media

Logic(s), Polymedia and the Transition of the Public
Sphere 93
Caja Thimm

6 Deconstructing Audiences in Converging Media

Environments 113
Uwe Hasebrink and Sascha Hölig

Part III Production and Distribution of Media Content

7 Convergent Media Quality? Comparing the Content of

Online and Offline Media in Switzerland 137
Mark Eisenegger, Mario Schranz and Angelo Gisler

8 Transmedia Storytelling and Mega-Narration:

Audiovisual Production in Converged Media
Environments 159
Lothar Mikos

9 Web 2.0: An Argument Against Convergence 177

Matthew Allen

Part IV Regulation and Media Markets

10 The Deconverging Convergence of the Global

Communication Industries in the Twenty-First Century 199
Dal Yong Jin

11 Deconstructing the Music Industry Ecosystem 217

Jim Rogers

12 Is Convergence the “Killer Bug” in the Media Ecosystem?

The Case of Flemish Media Policymaking 2010–2015 241
Hilde Van den Bulck
 Contents ix

13 Connected TV: Conceptualizing the Fit Between

Convergence and Organizational Strategy Within a
Contingency Theory Framework: The Case of Germany 261
Paul Clemens Murschetz

14 Regulatory (de) Convergence: Localism, Federalism, and

Nationalism in American Telecommunications Policy 285
Christopher Ali

15 The Triple-Network Convergence in China:

Implementation and Challenges 305
Fei Jiang, Kuo Huang and Yanran Sun

Index 329
 Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Sergio Sparviero is an Assistant Professor at the Department of

Communication Studies of the University of Salzburg, Austria. His main
field of research and teaching are: media economics; media management;
and media innovation. In particular, he published research on the devel-
opments of the news, film and music industries. He is also the coordi-
nator of the Erasmus + Joint Master Program “Digital Communication
Leadership” (DCLead).
Corinna Peil is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of
Salzburg’s Department of Communication Studies, Center for
Information and Communication Technologies & Society (ICT&S),
Austria. Her research and teaching focus is on mobile communications,
media (de)convergence, online publics, the use of media in everyday life
contexts, and the mediatization of society.
Gabriele Balbi is Senior Assistant Professor at the Institute of Media
and Journalism, Faculty of Communication Sciences, USI Università
della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland. He is director of the China Media
Observatory. His main areas of research are media history and history of
telecommunications, with a focus on the relationships between analogue
and digital media.

xi
xii Editors and Contributors

Contributors

Christopher Ali University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA

Matthew Allen School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin

University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

Gabriele Balbi USI Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

Luca Barra Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Mark Eisenegger Department of Communication Studies, University of

Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria; Research Institute for the Public Sphere and
Society (fög), University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

Angelo Gisler Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society
(fög), University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

Uwe Hasebrink Hans-Bredow-Institut, Hamburg, Germany

Sascha Hölig Hans-Bredow-Institut, Hamburg, Germany

Kuo Huang English Service of China Radio International, Beijing,

China

Fei Jiang School of International Journalism and Communication,

Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China

Dal Yong Jin Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

Lothar Mikos Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Potsdam,

Germany

Kathrin Friederike Müller University of Münster, Münster, Germany

Paul Clemens Murschetz Alpen-Adria-University of Klagenfurt,

Klagenfurt, Austria
 Editors and Contributors xiii

Corinna Peil University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

Jim Rogers Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

Jutta Röser University of Münster, Münster, Germany

Massimo Scaglioni Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

Mario Schranz Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society
(fög), University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

Sergio Sparviero University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

Yanran Sun Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,

Beijing, China

Caja Thimm University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Hilde Van den Bulck University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Occurrences of the term “media convergence”

in Factiva, 1990–2015 44
Fig. 2.2 Occurrences of the term “media convergence”
in Google Books 44
Fig. 3.1 Typology of households according to the status
of the internet in domestic media use 63
Fig. 4.1 The inverted-pyramid model of television convergent
consumption practices 80
Fig. 4.2 Modifications of television convergent consumption
practices on the inverted-pyramid model 88
Fig. 5.1 Functional operator model of Twitter 102
Fig. 5.2 Tweet operators in context 102
Fig. 6.1 Media repertoires as conceptual link between
two areas of research on media use 117
Fig. 6.2 Example of the visual reconstruction of a media repertoire 119
Fig. 6.3 Time budget for eight types of media in Germany
1980–2010 (minutes per day) 122
Fig. 6.4 Communication services and communication modes
as interrelated concepts 127
Fig. 7.1 Readership trends for various newspaper types 147
Fig. 7.2 Development of the quality score of press and
online titles in Switzerland, 2010–2014 (n = 46,963) 151
Fig. 13.1 A systems model contingency theory approach
to convergence strategy 264

xv
 List of Tables

Table 6.1 Correlation between the frequency of online use

and the frequency of use of other media in 2005
(Pearson correlation coefficients) 123
Table 6.2 Clusters indicating five media repertoires in Germany 2005 125
Table 7.1 Readership data for newspaper titles in Switzerland
(daily use) shown separately for “exclusive print users,”
“exclusive digital users” and “dual users” for the period
from 9 April 2014 to 29 March 2015 145
Table 7.2 Gross advertising revenues for selected media titles
in the press and online sectors in Switzerland, 2012–2014 149
Table 10.1 Big 10 global media companies (US$ Billion) 208
Table 12.1 Distribution of claims by types of stakeholders 248
Table 14.1 Comparison of stakeholder positions 293
Table 14.2 Comparison of Texas, Kentucky, and Vermont
franchising laws 295

xvii
 PART I

Introduction
 CHAPTER 1

Media Convergence Meets Deconvergence

Corinna Peil and Sergio Sparviero

Media Convergence as a Concept

It is now more than thirty years since Ithiel de Sola Pool keenly observed
a “convergence of modes” (Pool, 1983, p. 23), by which he referred to
the increased connectivity between media and the erosion of formerly
fixed boundaries. Ever since then, especially with the emergence and wide
diffusion of the internet and online technologies, media convergence has
been considered an overarching transition process and one of the major
implications of digitization. As such, it has become a buzzword and a key
issue in academic texts, policy documents and industrial papers (Diehl
& Karmasin, 2013; Dwyer, 2010; Fagerjord & Storsul, 2007; Jenkins,
2006; Jensen, 2010; Jin, 2013; Lugmayr & Dal Zotto, 2016a, b).
The term convergence indicates a movement directed towards,
or terminating in, the same point, a “coming together of things that
were previously separate” (Meikle & Young, 2011, p. 2). In media and
communications, where it has maintained unbroken popularity until
today, it is used to describe a wide range of different developments and

We acknowledge the financial support of the Open Access Publication Fund of

the University of Salzburg for the article processing charge.

C. Peil (*) · S. Sparviero

University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
e-mail: corinna.peil@sbg.ac.at

© The Author(s) 2017 3

S. Sparviero et al. (eds.), Media Convergence and Deconvergence, Global
Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and
IAMCR Series, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51289-1_1
4 C. Peil and S. Sparviero

transformations at the technological, industrial, cultural, social, spatial and

political level (for example, Jenkins, 2006; Latzer, 2013; Miller, 2011; see
also Balbi, Chap. 2 in this volume). An agreement concerning the exist-
ence of a media convergence at the level of technology stands out as the
common denominator of different approaches. Although there have been
forms of convergence in the pre-digitization era (see Balbi), contemporary
appearances of a technological convergence have in common their being
deeply rooted in the process of digitization. With the rise of a common
digital standard, digitization has not only facilitated the recording, storage
and transmission of data, but also enabled, for the first time, the decou-
pling of technologies and their respective media services: Digital media
formats—be they voice, sound, text or film—were no longer restricted
to one device only and, at the same time, almost all media devices were
able to represent a plurality of different media formats and services. “This
is the core of what is meant by technological convergence: all forms of
media being increasingly stored and transferred on the same format and
therefore becoming completely interchangeable” (Miller, 2011, p. 73).
Without adhering to a technological-deterministic view on media
change, it seems safe to assume that, in the course of digitization, tech-
nological convergence has become a reality in today’s media and com-
munication landscape. Previously separate media technologies have
indeed come closer together and lost their distinctive features; they are
able to represent the same cultural forms and they provide similar func-
tions and scopes of application. As all other forms of media convergence
are linked to it, technological convergence can thus be considered an
underlying feature of media convergence and a prerequisite for the emer-
gence and development of other manifestations of convergence.
Taking technological convergence as a starting point, media conver-
gence covers a set of different change processes at the macro, meso and
micro level (Peil & Mikos, 2017). At the macro level, it can be located
in the context of a series of socio-cultural and economic transforma-
tions commonly described with keywords such as commercialization,
globalization, deregulation and market liberalization. More specifically,
the convergence of media and communications markets indicates the
opportunities that became available to information and communication
technologies (ICTs), media, and telecommunication corporations to
expand their activities by redesigning their value chains and becoming
multimedia companies. As a result of this process former telephone and
cable providers, television stations, and hardware and software providers
 1 MEDIA CONVERGENCE MEETS DECONVERGENCE 5

offer nowadays a variety of services ranging from the delivery of content

to communications and connectivity, often bundled in packages. The
resulting emergence of large multinational corporations has not only
advanced a cross-media concentration process, but also imposed per-
manent changes on market structures and dynamics in the media sector
which have been the subject of numerous convergence studies (Meikle
& Young, 2011, pp. 39–41; Miller, 2011, pp. 77–79) . At the meso
level, media convergence mainly concerns the alteration of media texts
as well as their production and distribution. Content, genres and for-
mats have merged in multiple ways and they are distributed over a vari-
ety of platforms and channels. As it is widely known, much work in this
vein has been done by Henry Jenkins (2006) who elaborated in great
depths on transmedia storytelling, the expansion of media texts and the
participatory behavior of the media users in convergence cultures. At
the micro level, attention is shifted to the users’ activities in converging
media environments (Peil & Mikos, 2017) . The latter are character-
ized by an extended ensemble of functional identical media technologies
of which each affords a plethora of different applications, products and
services. Convergent uses of media then refer to ways of access, to indi-
vidual media biographies and interests and to related media repertoires
(Hasebrink & Domeyer, 2012; Kim, 2016; Stark, 2014), or, in short, to
“media life,” as Mark Deuze (2012) has described the extensive perva-
sion and increased invisibility of media in today’s everyday life and its
consequences for the users.
All these processes, which are included under the generic concept of
media convergence, are evolving dynamically and with close relation to
each other. In a certain way, they all predict a movement towards the dis-
solution of former fixed boundaries and a unification of discrete elements
merging into some greater whole. The emergence of the particular and
somehow defined vision of media convergence delineated above can be
explained with the concept of “social imaginary,” which defines the exist-
ence of widely shared understandings that have achieved general legiti-
macy (Mansell, 2012, p. 6), and which are produced, accepted and then
taken for granted as “people seek some consistency in their experience of
the ‘reality’ of their lives in a world of rapidly changing technologies and
cultural and social norms” (Carpentier, 2011 cited in Mansell, 2012, p.
31). Therefore, here we claim that there is a widely shared understanding
of the imperative nature of media convergence, which has taken a par-
ticular pathway associated with assumptions such as efficiency, synergy,
6 C. Peil and S. Sparviero

simplification, information abundancy, participation, availability and mul-

timodality. The elements of reality of this vision are multimedia compa-
nies exploiting the combined transmission of images, texts and sounds to
offer better and cheaper products and services that facilitate the existence
of active and participating users. As these images have achieved general
legitimacy, they render media convergence a powerful concept, serving,
among others, to influence the political agenda or to legitimize and jus-
tify policy decisions.
Nonetheless, these privileged meanings of media convergence, which
emphasize the inevitability of the once adopted direction, are increas-
ingly challenged. Media convergence is not about a newly achieved sta-
tus quo (Jenkins, 2006, p. 16); rather, it relates to the idea of a process,
a continuous change characterized by several parallel running develop-
ments and not terminating in a designated endpoint. Therefore, a variety
of imaginaries exist. Critical viewpoints, for example, stress that media
convergence has been used as a buzzword for outlining the impact of
digitization while oversimplifying the complexity of media and techno-
logical change and neglecting the possibilities of modifying or turning
around paths that have once been taken (Fagerjord & Storsul, 2007;
Storsul & Stuedahl, 2007; Silverstone, 1995; see also Balbi, Chap. 2 in
this volume).
Alternative views on transformation processes in today’s mediatized
societies are essential for a balanced view on media innovations and their
advancement. Competing visions of media convergence include some
recent ideas of a divergence process complementing and going hand in
hand with media convergence (Fagerjord & Stuehdahl, 2007; Lugmayr &
Dal Zotto, 2016c). According to this perspective, it is not the integration
of media technologies, markets, uses and content but their disintegration,
multiplication and increased complexity that are believed to be central fea-
tures of recent developments. In order to grasp these often underexplored
tendencies we suggest comprehending current transformations in media
and communication as interplay of media convergence and deconvergence.
Deconvergence is a term originally coined by Jin (2011, 2013) to
describe the breaking apart of media and communications companies
through spin-offs, split-offs and demergers. It defines a trend that is a
reaction to, and departs from, the convergence of media and communi-
cation markets, yet it is not divergence because it also unfolds in parallel
to the former. In fact, as detailed below, in reaction to the digitization of
 1 MEDIA CONVERGENCE MEETS DECONVERGENCE 7

media and communications, many companies in these sectors have fol-

lowed either the strategy of expanding their capital and market oppor-
tunities, or the strategy of refocusing their operations around core
activities, or both of these strategies at different points in time. Here, the
term deconvergence is applied more broadly to different facets of the still
dominant media convergence narrative to emphasize the interaction of
converging and diverging movements in the media and communication
sector. Taking into account processes of diversification and fragmentation
as well as unresolved ambiguities that accompany media convergence or
are a part of it, deconvergence also stands for the refusal to recognize
the ongoing changes as linear, connected processes leading to predict-
able solutions. The perspective on deconvergence embraced in this book
can help shed light on the ambivalent nature of media convergence and
the simultaneity of competing forces such as coalescence and drifting
apart, or linearity and discontinuity. Its purpose is to provide alternative
viewpoints, which are often overlooked in the dominant readings of the
concept. While these sites of tension constitute a general focus of this
book, two of them, which are the user’s perspective and the convergence
of markets, are analyzed more carefully in the following sections. They
demonstrate the contradictory nature of technological change and illus-
trate the ways its consequences for society are met.

Media Convergence and Deconvergence from

the User’s Perspective

One distinct area of media convergence discourse concerns the media

users as well as their scope of actions and their behavior in convergent
media environments. To begin with, there is not even a consensus as to
what is meant by convergent media use. Empirical research in this vein
shares a common interest in the people’s media activities within environ-
ments that are less and less characterized by standalone media and their
respective contexts of reception. It takes into consideration the ubiqui-
tous and time-independent availability of media technologies that have
similar or identical range of applications. The media repertoire approach
by Hasebrink and Domeyer (2012), for example (see Hasebrink and
Hölig, Chap. 6 in this volume, for further explications), describes the
specific combination of media and content. Media repertoires refer
to relatively stable, transmedia usage patterns that are perceived as the
8 C. Peil and S. Sparviero

outcome of numerous media contacts resulting from concrete selection

decisions. The polymedia concept introduced by Madianou and Miller
(2012, p. 125) supposes the existence of media-saturated environments
in which media technologies gain significance in relation to each other.
Against this background, it focuses on the meaning-generating user
practices that determine the single media’s role within the media ensem-
ble. Herkman (2012), with his concept of “intermediality,” emphasizes
historical continuities and contextual differences between media while
Terje Rasmussen (2014) sees the media increasingly personalized and
integrated into everyday life leading to a “networked lifeworld.” The
“mediatized world” approach (Hepp & Krotz, 2014) also refers to a
transmedia understanding of today’s media environments, as it centers
on the situations of media communication in the context of new techno-
logical possibilities. Taking into account the capacity of almost all media
to provide similar content, communication modes and gratifications, the
concept of “communicative figurations” (Hepp & Hasebrink, 2013)
looks at patterns of communication processes that exist over a variety of
different media. The point of departure of all these newer, user-oriented
approaches to media convergence is the decoupling of device and ser-
vices, which render ineffective conclusions on usage based on the selec-
tion of media technology. Rather, the whole media ensemble, as well as
the media’s overlaps, is considered in order to comprehend how the dis-
crete devices are used, combined and put in relation to each other.
For the purpose of describing the interplay of convergence and decon-
vergence from the user’s perspective and to shed light on processes that
so far have often been overlooked, three different dimensions of media
usage have been identified where these antagonisms show in a particular
way: (1) the proliferation of devices and media-related practices; (2) the
transmedia flow of content and the dissolution of distinctive usage sce-
narios; (3) the interconnection of media and the management of domes-
tic infrastructures.

The Proliferation of Devices and of Media Related Practices

An early and central idea of media convergence touching the usage
dimension has been the imagination of the “supermedium” (Jenkins,
2001; Herkman, 2012, p. 11) or the “Über-Box” (Fagerjord, 2002)—
the emergence of an all-in-one device as single point of media contact
 1 MEDIA CONVERGENCE MEETS DECONVERGENCE 9

where all media uses come together (see also van Dijk, 2012). This
supermedium has in fact become a reality: Now, even the smallest media
technology enables access to a great variety of functionalities and appli-
cations which were previously linked to standalone devices only. Highly
personalized and portable online media like the smartphone inte-
grate telecommunications, content and information technology, and
thus represent in an almost paradigmatic manner one of the original
notions of technological convergence. Yet this transformation of media
into all-purpose devices is far from replacing the numerous technolo-
gies and boxes available in the home and offering a single solution for
all the mediated activities of the users. In fact, almost every device has
kept its unique place in the media ensemble. And since media have not
only expanded their scope, but also specialized in terms of size, look and
performance, households are now engaging with more devices than ever
before. Described by Jenkins (2006, p. 14) as the “black box fallacy,”
the number and diversity of technologies has significantly increased in
the last few years. And, equally, so have the standards, formats and prac-
tices of the users. Part of this convergence process is that the media have
indeed moved closer together, as they are linked in manifold ways to one
another. However, involving a high degree of disorder and complexity,
the outcome of this development is not at all a streamlining of the media
landscape. Rather than owning and making use of one personal all-round
medium, users nowadays have to deal with an extremely sophisticated
media environment and a multiplicity of media technologies, each of
which comes with a specific focus or core competence and a broad range
of functionalities. Traits of deconvergence thus appear in different forms
of media access, in personalized media interests, in individualized media
repertoires and in disparate media biographies.
The strong rise of media technologies, which is characteristic of con-
vergent media environments, can be easily explained on the basis of the
German long-term study Massenkommunikation (mass communication).
In the response options of a question concerning the media equipment
in the home, it listed only two electronic devices in the year 1970, but
more than ten times as much in 2010 (van Eimeren & Ridder, 2011,
p. 3). Several of these devices enable internet access and thus facilitate
the use of various applications that are provided by other media as well.
Ultimately, after 2010 even more devices including tablet computers
have contributed to the increased variety of multipurpose technologies
10 C. Peil and S. Sparviero

available to the average household (Engel & Breunig, 2015, p. 311).

The users are thus able to make use of a certain media technology based
on individual interests and demands. For any imaginable request they can
select a specific device and assign a particular task to it. At the same time,
the practices of media use have multiplied and diversified, too. Before
digitization, one medium was usually related to only one form of activ-
ity (for example the radio was related to the practice of listening). Today,
the above-mentioned study lists fifteen general online activities (for
example, online banking, information seeking, forum discussions and so
on) alone for the internet and seven activities linked to specific applica-
tions, like instant messaging or the involvement in photo communities
(Frees & Koch, 2015, p. 372). In addition, more than twenty activi-
ties are allocated to just one single online application, such as the use
of online communities (for example, watching videos, uploading photos,
posting and so on) (Busemann & Gscheidle, 2012, p. 383). This variety
of media-related activities exemplifies a fundamental shift of media com-
munication which refers to a growing disparity rather than to a process
of merging.

The Transmedia Flow of Content and the Dissolution of Distinctive

Usage Scenarios
The interplay of media convergence and deconvergence becomes also
apparent in the appropriation of media texts. On the one hand, media
content, genres and modalities have grown together, most notably on
the internet where written text, audiovisual content and interactive ele-
ments are regularly combined. On the other hand, the multiplication of
distribution channels and the cost-effective production of digital content
have led to the emergence of numerous platforms and to the differentia-
tion of formats. As a consequence, the users have more options than ever
to select the content they like while specialized interests can be met more
easily by the producers. The convergence of media texts is thus likely to
come along with greater individualization, fragmentation and deconver-
gence on the side of the users (Peil & Mikos, 2017).
One strategy to deal with the increasingly complex and disordered
flow of content is the concept of transmedia storytelling (Jenkins, 2006),
which has gained much attention in media and communications. It refers
to a new form of narration that creates a textual universe and an overall
media experience around a specific narrative. Jenkins himself (2006, p. 19)
 1 MEDIA CONVERGENCE MEETS DECONVERGENCE 11

speaks of the “art of world making” where different media are organized
around a starting point, such as a movie or a TV series, in order to let
the narrative expand onto diverse platforms and to maintain a continuous
audience flow. Transmedia stories have to be functioning both within a
single medium and as a narrative puzzle piece within a transmedia cosmos,
comprising classic media as well as computer or mobile games and mer-
chandising products (Peil & Schwaab, 2014, p. 342; Peil & Mikos, 2017).
They are considered highly participative, driven top-down by the produc-
ers and also bottom-up by the users, who can decide how deep they want
to immerse themselves in a given story. While the migration of texts across
different media is constitutive of convergent media environments, the
relocation of usage practices onto different devices and platforms indicates
tendencies of deconvergence. In the shifting reception of television from
the home TV set to the small display of the smartphone, Max Dawson
(2007, p. 233), for example, has detected an “unbundling” of media
objects: Larger program packages like an episode of a TV series or a news
show are shaped into smaller, more easily consumed segments which are
able to promote a falling apart of media experiences and a fragmentation
of media usage into diminishing units of signification. By emphasizing the
coexistence of separate media, second screens similarly refer to disinte-
gration and a “crisis of convergence,” as Stauff (2015, p. 127) explains:
“‘Second screen’ therefore points at a not only simultaneous, but also
interrelated and supplementary use of different screens, thereby under-
mining the clear distinction between separate media.” Fleeting forms of
media consumption and shorter periods of attention as well as parallel,
overlapping uses of different media are thus likely to characterize media
use in convergent media environments. In contrast, with the emergence
of additional distribution channels like DVD boxes and streaming services,
new forms of concentrated and time-consuming media reception have
arisen, too, for instance, in the form of binge watching (Mikos, 2016) or
“media marathoning” (Perks, 2015).
The described processes are ambiguous, and they are not fully cap-
tured by the notion of convergent media use. In “Convergence Culture”,
Jenkins (2006) refers to an intensified experience of media texts that are
enhanced and improved through transmedia storytelling. The stories are
too broad and complex for being told in one medium only. The activi-
ties of the users who engage in the text are perceived as richer and more
comprehensive compared with past forms of media reception (Schwaab,
12 C. Peil and S. Sparviero

2013). This association of an advanced condition or product is also part

of the dominant social imaginary of media convergence. But rather than
coming together or matching a harmonized textual universe, media
usage is marked by overlaps of content, meaning and context (D’heer
& Courtois, 2016; Stauff, 2015; Vukanovic, 2016). The convergence
of media texts thus corresponds with different forms of deconvergence,
as illustrated in the increased complexity of usage situations. These are
reflected in opposing tendencies, such as elusive and extensive forms of
media reception, and in nonlinear and multidimensional consumption
modes resulting from the ubiquitous availability of media texts and their
independence from former technological restrictions.

The Interconnection of Media and the Management of Domestic

Infrastructures1
A seamless interconnection of different media and their smooth inter-
play is part of the dominant social imaginary of media convergence,
since convergence is expected “to allow user experiences to move fluidly
through multiple content and devices” (Tavares & Schofield, 2016, p.
246). While at the hardware level home networks need to be set up and
maintained in order to establish the domestic infrastructures and manage
the interrelations of convergent media technologies, cloud services are
supposed to integrate media at the software level. In fact, cloud services
seem to represent everything that convergence stands for: They integrate
data, applications and personalized content, regardless of type or for-
mat, and make them available to users wherever they are and whenever
they need them, thus supporting multi-device and cross-platform uses of
media. In many respects, however, the idea of the unhindered interplay
of media devices and the ubiquitous accessibility of content are inclined
to conceal the disruptions and deconvergences that are involved in these
processes.
First of all, unlimited interoperability and connection is not necessar-
ily supported by the device manufacturers and service providers. Often,
lock-in systems force users to receive content, services and applications
from one brand only as switching to another brand goes with higher
costs and inconveniences. “In digital cross-media culture, the specific
affordances of each device or platform only unfold through intercon-
nection with others; seamless connection, however, is guaranteed only
 1 MEDIA CONVERGENCE MEETS DECONVERGENCE 13

by the ‘walled garden’ (the market power and proprietary technical

standards) of one brand strongly constraining interoperability” (Stauff,
2015, p. 132). As a matter of fact, infrastructures are shaped by the mar-
ket’s need to be profitable and to strengthen customer loyalty; they are
not automatically geared towards convergence at the side of the users.
Deconvergence comes into play when connections fail or there is a lack
of compatibility between content producers and distribution platform, or
between services and devices.
More important, the users themselves are often compromising the flu-
ent interplay of media since the work of connecting devices and bringing
content and services together within the personal media repertoire lies
mainly in their hands. Even though software solutions suggest compen-
sating for some of these exercises, their simplifying potential tends to be
overvalued. “Far from serving to realize the putative end of labour in
the home, new technologies often require significant work” (Kennedy,
Nansen, Arnold, Wilken, & Gibbs, 2015, p. 410). The labor of estab-
lishing media convergence includes diverse tasks such as setting up
digital networks, storing, synchronizing and organizing data, and admin-
istering the media ensemble. In addition, with the increasing number of
devices and shorter production cycles, regular and sometimes challeng-
ing updates, maintenance and coordination tasks become necessary. In
light of the differentiation of almost each media device and given the
permanent advancement of networked technologies these exercises can
be demanding and frustrating (Montpetit, 2016). For a beneficial exploi-
tation of convergent media environments, people need to have certain
skills, they need to invest time, money and social capital in their media
usage. This aspect of ability should not be underestimated as several
studies point to the user’s need for helpers and supporters who bring
their technical expertise in order to connect media and make them work
(Bakardjieva, 2005, p. 98; Courtois & Verdegem, 2016; Peil & Röser,
2014, p. 241). In this sense, media convergence can be perceived as
some kind of challenge or even burden for the users with the poten-
tial to tire them out or overstrain them. The dominant social imaginary
of media convergence, represented in the idea of the harmonized and
interconnected infrastructure, should therefore be complemented by the
notion of labor that comes into play when dealing with manifestations of
deconvergence at the level of structures and interfaces.
14 C. Peil and S. Sparviero

The Convergence and Deconvergence of Media

and Communications Markets

The diversity and complexity of the media environment just described

is nowadays fostered by networks of specialized and interconnected
companies. Nonetheless, as explained in this section, in reaction to the
emergence of technical convergence, many large media and commu-
nication companies first attempted to engage in mergers and acquisi-
tions (M&As) in order to expand their capabilities and market shares
of particular products. It is only in a later period that prioritizing the
development of core competencies alongside the establishment of key
partnerships became a more popular strategy to obtain these same
goals. In this section, we review theoretical contributions and writings
from business analysts and we attempt to explain these seemingly con-
tradicting trends: market convergence and deconvergence.

The Rationale for Market Convergence

The main factors enabling the convergence of media and communications
markets (in short, market convergence) were technological convergence and
neoliberal globalization, defined as the process driven by policies designed
and implemented to promote liberalization, deregulation, privatization
and capital investment (Hesmondhalgh, 2013; Jin, 2013). In particular,
the deregulation of the media and the telecommunication sectors, which
is abundantly discussed in some of the chapters of this book, is the process
that led to the removal of the existing barriers and the establishment of new
comprehensive rules for competition in the emerging markets. These new
rules, enacted in the US Telecommunications Act of 1996 and in the 1997
World Trade Organization Agreements, and supported by the 1997 EU
Green Paper on Convergence, allowed corporations to own assets in differ-
ent media and communication markets and to grow and expand their activi-
ties, not only domestically, but also internationally (Chon, Choi, Barnett,
Danowski, & Joo, 2003; Jin, 2013).
Moreover, the dominant social imaginary of market convergence has
certainly been shaped by new giants, like Google, Facebook or, in for-
mer days, America Online (AOL), which quickly emerged as providers
of new services based on the new technological opportunities. Notably,
their efforts to innovate have not always been produced internally, within
their own organization; on the contrary, their innovation strategy (still)
 1 MEDIA CONVERGENCE MEETS DECONVERGENCE 15

supports integrating emerging new companies with their ideas and prod-
ucts, or, as it was the case for AOL (see Johnson, 2000), joining forces
with an established player providing complementary skills and assets.
However, the strategy of adapting to the new digital paradigm by inte-
grating existing ventures into their value chains was pursued not only by
a few new or large media and communications companies. The wave of
M&As that took place between the mid 1990s and the mid 2000s in
the media, telecommunication and ICT sectors was indeed quite exten-
sive and involved a variety of different organizations. While qualitative
evidence is also provided by Jin and Rogers in their respective contribu-
tions to this collection, a quick illustration of the scope of this trend is
provided elsewhere by Jin (2013, p. 112), who estimated the cumulative
value of 103 mega-deals carried out between 1999 and 2008 to be 1326
billion dollars.2
Many mergers and acquisitions between media and communication
companies were presented to the authorities, the press and the share-
holders, as attempts to generate economic value through the realiza-
tion of synergies. This rather loose concept embraces a large variety of
case scenarios that are contingent to the sector, the industry or specific
companies. Nonetheless, from a more theoretical viewpoint, the realiza-
tion of synergies through conglomeration generally includes the follow-
ing five objectives (Flew, 2011; Ozanich & Wirth, 2004): diversification
(that is, spreading risks and opportunities across multiple industries
and markets), the repurpose of media content over multiple platforms,
the cross-promotion of media content across platforms, the creation of
brands and the exploitation of subsidiary rights.
However, business innovation is a trial-and-error process driven by lead-
ers that base their decisions not only on theoretical notions and on the
information provided by (formal and less formal) research departments, but
also on a generally accepted understanding of the current economic and
business environments and of the technological trajectories of particular
products and services. Notably, this happens in the case of M&As between
public companies because, prior to the realization of any benefits, the busi-
ness leaders involved have to sell the merger or acquisition to investors,
small or institutional, with ideas that the latter understand and are likely to
embrace. Therefore, in order to comprehend the rationale for M&As in this
specific historical period, it is also useful to look into the specialized press,
which refers to the opinions (mostly of them articulated simply through
buzzwords) of analysts and of business leaders explaining their decisions.
16 C. Peil and S. Sparviero

So, writing in 2001 about the Majors, which are the companies that
dominate the distribution of blockbuster movies owned by the largest
media and communication conglomerates, Harmon (2001) explained
that combining content and distribution was viewed as a smart para-
digm and the strategy improving the efficient exploitation of assets.
Such was the case during the Golden Ages of the Hollywood stu-
dios (see also Sparviero, 2014). Following this smart paradigm were,
among others, AOL-Time Warner, which aimed at expanding the dis-
tribution of its content over the internet, as well as Viacom and News
Corporation focusing, respectively, on cable markets and satellite distri-
bution. Also, given that governments became more lenient on limiting
the cross-ownership of assets in the media and communication sectors,
many companies pursued the strategy of expanding their assets through
M&As, simply because they were allowed and because many others did
(Harmon, 2001). Finally, the large wave of M&As in the media and
communication sectors of the late 1990s to the mid 2000s can also be
explained by the pursuit of the personal interests of public companies’
key leaders and stakeholders. As explained by Gaughan (2011) in a criti-
cal text about current practices in corporate governance, many CEOs
received important financial benefits from carrying out M&As [Michael
Cappellas, for example, received 14 million dollars in connection with
the sales of Compaq to Hewlett-Packard, and, a few years later, 39 mil-
lion dollars for the sale of MCI to Verizon (Gaughan, 2011, p. 490)].
Therefore, without necessarily doubting the good faith of the CEOs who
earned important revenues for steering the process in favor of a merger
or acquisition, one could nonetheless argue that these key stakeholders
might also have been attracted by the amply available arguments explain-
ing the benefits of integrating companies in the communication and
media sectors because, finally, these helped them achieve personal goals.

The Rationale for Market Deconvergence

On the other hand, less attention is generally paid to the deconver-
gence of media and communications markets (or, in short, market
deconvergence)—that is, the drastic slowdown of M&A activities in the
communication sector since 2002, as well as the failure of 70% of the
mega mergers carried out between 1998 and 2003 (as estimated in Jin,
2013) , which also included the breaking apart of the most representa-
tive companies of the smart paradigm, namely Viacom-CBS (in 2006),
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Worora, known vernacularly as “wirrauwa,” is beyond doubt an
indigenous evolution. It is much like a bushman’s billycan in shape—
a cylindrical vessel closed at one end and with a handle at the other,
measuring from four to twelve inches in height, and from six to nine
inches in width. A circular piece of woolly-butt bark is cut for the
base, and this is surrounded by another sheet which forms the
cylinder. The joints are carefully stitched together with threads of split
cane, using a bone-awl to prick the holes; then melted resin from the
eucalyptus tree is applied over the seam to render it water-tight. The
edge of the open mouth may be strengthened by cross-stitching and
applying resin. The handle is made of human hair-string, several
pieces of which are threaded diametrically across the open end of
the bucket, through holes previously made with a bone-awl, and tied.
The outer surfaces of the vessel are often painted. The usual device
consists of alternate bars of red and white or red and black, joined at
the top and bottom by horizontal lines of red; occasionally the whole
surface may be splashed or daubed with white, or the above designs
may be embellished with regularly spaced dots and “emu tracks.”
Lastly we shall briefly refer to the skin water-bag which is used (or
has been used) by the desert tribes of central Australia, from central
Western Australia to Western Queensland. A kangaroo, wallaby,
euro, or dingo is killed and the animal’s skin removed almost in toto
by making a circular cut around its neck, and, whilst one or two men
hold on to the head, others detach the skin from the carcase and pull
it off inside-out. The neck-hole forms the mouth of the bag, but all the
other openings are tied, stitched, or pinned together. The limbs are
cut off near the paws, the tail near its root, and the resulting holes
securely tied with string. The limb-pieces are tied together and act as
straps to assist the native carrying the bag when filled with water.
To fill these vessels with water, bailers are available either in the
form of specially constructed or of naturally occurring objects; no
matter which they are, they usually also answer the purpose of
drinking cups. Along the north coast of Australia the large melon
shell is perhaps the handiest; it is either used as it is found or its
inner whorls and columella are broken away, leaving just the
spacious outer shell to hold the water like a bowl. The same remarks
apply to the large Fusus pricei, and other molluscs.
The Narrinyerri and other tribes south of Adelaide used human
calvaria as drinking vessels. The facial skeleton of a complete skull
was broken away so as only to leave the brain-box; and this held the
water.
The broken shells of the large boabab nuts are similarly used in
the Northern Kimberleys of Western Australia, and now and then the
broken shell of the emu egg also makes a very serviceable cup.
A miniature bark-cooleman is constructed by the Wongapitcha,
Aluridja, and Arunndta tribes, like that described on page 92, about
eight inches long and half as wide, which serves the purpose of a
bailer, drinking-vessel, fire-shovel, and special food-carrier. It is
strongly convex lengthwise, and therefore comparatively deep.
The Bathurst Islanders tear or cut a piece of bark from a tree,
usually the ti-tree or “paper-bark,” out of which they fashion a cup.
The piece of bark measures about twelve inches in length, and eight
in width. It is first folded longitudinally at about its middle, and then
both ends of the doubled piece are folded transversely at about one-
quarter the whole length. The overturned parts of the inner sheet of
the first fold are clasped between the fingers on the inside and the
thumb on the outside, when the cup is ready for use.
The natural water supplies available over so vast an expanse of
territory as is embraced by the continent of Australia and its
subjacent islands, occur, as one might have expected, in great
variety. There is no need for us to consider such familiar supplies as
rivers, creeks, lakes, billabongs, waterholes, and springs; we shall
just briefly consider a few of the more uncommon cases, which are
of special interest. The native has a wonderful instinct for locating
hidden supplies of water; and many a European wanderer has
perished in the Australian bush, within a stone’s throw of the life-
saving fluid, all for the want of that gift, which to the primitive
inhabitant of the desert central regions means his very existence.
 Along the superficially dry, sandy beds of “rivers” in arid Australia,
he is able to pick sites, at which, by shallow digging with his hands
and yam-stick, he can in quick time produce a “native well,” sufficient
to supply the needs of all the camp. The water is often exposed
within a foot or two of the surface, but at times he has to dig to a
depth of from five to six feet, which so far as my experience goes
seems to be the limit. When not in use, or when the camp moves on,
the natives always take care to cover the mouth of the well in order
that wild animals cannot reach the water and pollute it. When the
well is deep, its sides are made secure with pieces of timber and
brushwood, and cross-pieces are left to serve as a ladder whereby
the native can attain the water. Similar wells are constructed in the
catchment basins adjacent to the hills.

PLATE XII

Juvenile Types.

1. Full-face, female, Wongkanguru tribe.

 2. Profile, female, Aluridja tribe.

Rock-holes in granite (Musgrave Ranges), quartzite (Krichauff

Ranges), or limestone (Nullarbor Plains) are favoured on account of
the cool, clear water which they generally contain. Where such are of
a cavernous nature, and opening from a bare inclined surface, the
natives often build a small bank of clay across the slope to direct the
flow of water, resulting from a downpour, towards the hole. A unique
variety of this type was discovered by us at Ullbönnalenna, east of
the Musgrave Ranges. Through a hole in the barren slope of gneiss,
a communication has been established by atmospheric denudation
with a small reservoir below. To obtain the water contained in it, the
natives keep a broom-shaped piston handy, with which they pump
the fluid to the surface, as required. The piston is merely a rod, about
five feet long, round one end of which a bundle of brushwood is
securely tied with string. The size of the brushwood bundle is such
that it exactly fits the hole in the rock (about six inches). The
implement is inserted, brushwood foremost, and slowly pushed down
into the water, and, after a short interval, quickly withdrawn again.
The water, which had collected behind this “piston-head,” is thereby
forcibly ejected, and is collected inside a small enclosure of clay built
around the hole.
The aborigines are most particular about preserving their water
supplies against pollution, especially where such is brought about by
excremental and decaying animal matter. In the Musgrave Ranges,
the natives did not in the slightest object to our camels being
watered at the supplies they were dependent upon, but when the
animals dirtied the rocks above the hole and there was a chance of
the discharge running into the water, they immediately set to and
built a barrier of earth to intercept the flow before it reached the hole.
In the Northern Kimberleys of Western Australia valuable pools of
water collect upon the boabab trees. The branches of this species
surround the “gouty” stem in a circle at the top, like the heads of a
hydra, and by this means form a concavity between them, which is
capable of storing a considerable volume of cool, clear rain-water. To
reach this water, the natives construct ladders by simply driving a
series of pointed pegs into the soft bark of the tree one above the
other.
Certain desert trees like the Currajong have the property of
retaining considerable quantities of water in their tissues, even under
the worst conditions of drought, for periods of many weeks or
months. This water the native obtains by felling the tree and setting
fire to the crown; the water oozes out from the cut trunk and is
collected in bark carriers. The “Bloodwood” (Eucalyptus corymbosa)
has similar properties.
In the Denial Bay district a remarkable mallee (Eucalyptus
dumosa) grows, whose roots supply the natives with water. This
mallee is a rather big tree, which lives in association with other
smaller species of the same genus. It appears, also, that not every
specimen of the particular species referred to contains water; it
requires the experience of an aboriginal to predict which of the trees
is likely to carry such. Having selected his tree, the native proceeds
to expose one of the lateral roots, which grow in the sand at no great
depth from the surface. The root is then cut in two places, three or
four feet apart, and lifted from the ground in a horizontal position;
finally it is turned on end over a bark cooleman, when water, clear as
crystal, begins to drip from the lower end into the vessel. Sufficient
water can thus be collected to sustain the camp, if need be, for even
a longish period.
Other trees in central Australia are known to possess similar
properties though to a lesser extent, as for instance the Needle-Bush
(Hakea lorea, var. suberea).
When, after a good day’s march, the natives have the luck to strike
a big waterhole, each of the party immediately quenches his thirst by
literally “filling up” on the spot. Different methods are adopted to
accomplish this. Some prefer to remain prone at the water’s edge,
whilst others wade into the deeper parts of the hole, and, placing
their hands upon their knees, stoop and drink off the surface.
The Cambridge Gulf tribes pull a long-stalked leaf of the water-lily,
which, after they have cut it at top and bottom, acts like a tube and
permits them to suck the cooler fluid from a depth.
 After quenching his thirst, a native will on a hot day often cool his
system by pouring water on to his head. The women-folk and
children are very fond of splashing the head with cold water, which
they might do repeatedly during the day, provided the opportunity is
afforded. Bathing during the heat of the day is also commonly
enjoyed by all the northern tribes, especially those resident in the
tropics where water is abundant.
 CHAPTER XIII
CAMP LIFE

Preparation of camping ground—The bed and its coverings—Sleeping order—

Brushwood shelters—Various habitations—Vermin-proof platforms—Common
position during sleep—Friendly meetings and salutations—Sitting postures—
Sense of Modesty—Bird-like attitude—Gins procure firewood—The campfire
—Methods of cooking—Fire-shovels—Fire-stick—Fire-whisk—Fire-saw—
Women the recognized transport agents—Care of weapons—Sundry
occupations while in camp—Absence of wearing apparel—Pubic coverings—
Cosmetics—Hair-belts—Pristine philosophy—Removing thorns—The
aboriginal loves his dog—The dingo.

Having arrived at the chosen camp-site, each family group at once

busies itself clearing a patch of ground of any obstacles, like stones
and lumps of earth, the biggest of which are picked up by hand or
crushed by foot, the smaller brushed aside with the sides of the feet.
In addition, the women may be told to sweep the ground with
branches to clear it of grass-seeds and burrs. Should it be that the
spot is only reached after dusk, the natives set fire to one or two dry
bushes, the glare of which supplies them with the necessary light.
Each adult scoops a “bed” for himself on the sand, and lights a
small fire on one or both sides of it.
The northern coastal tribes very often spread sheets of paper-bark
over the sand, and they might also cover their bodies with similar
material. Should the mosquitoes become a great nuisance, one often
sees them completely covered with sand.
The south-eastern tribes of Australia, including those of the River
Murray and Adelaide Plains, used skins and rugs made of kangaroo
and opossum skins, neatly sewn together, to lie upon and under.
 PLATE XIII

1. The game of “gorri,” Humbert River, Northern Territory.

2. A “Kutturu” duel, Aluridja tribe.

 The children sleep with or close to their parents. When an
aboriginal has more wives than one, his camp is subdivided
according to their number, and he sleeps with his favourite.
The strangest conditions reign on Groote Island in the Gulf of
Carpentaria, where the women practically live apart from the men
during the whole of the day, and only come into camp after sundown
to deliver the food supplies they have collected over day. When on
the march, every adult female carries two big sheets of paper-bark
with her, which she holds with her hands, one in front and another
behind her person. Whenever a stranger approaches, they duck
behind these sheets of bark, as into a box, for cover.
No matter when or where an aboriginal camps, he constructs a
brushwood shelter or windbreak at the head-end of his resting place.
This consists of a few branches or tussocks stuck in the ground or
piled against any bush, which might be growing upon the patch of
ground selected. Under ordinary circumstances, this is the only
shelter erected.
Even under the best of conditions, the night’s rest of an aboriginal
is hard, and at times very cold and wet. It is not an uncommon
experience for a person to sit up part of the night, hugging a fire, and
when the sun is up to lie in its warmth to make good the sleep lost.
During a run of wet weather or when the camp is to be of a more
permanent nature, different kinds of structures are erected, or
already existing habitations selected, which will afford a better
shelter than the crude structures referred to.
Natural caves or shelters beneath a sloping wall of rock, although
frequently chosen as a mid-day camp, are not favoured on account
of the superstitious dread of the evil spirit, whose haunts are
supposed to be in the rocks. Caves are in any case only occupied
during the heat of summer, the rocks being considered too cold to sit
and lie upon in winter. If possible, a tribe will always make for the
sandhill country in the winter, the sand making a very much softer
and warmer bed. Such caves as are regularly occupied almost
invariably have the walls and ceiling decorated with ochre drawings.
 The opportunity of camping under large hollow tree-trunks, when
available, is never neglected in wet weather. In the southern districts,
as for instance the Adelaide Plains and along the River Murray, the
large red-gums, especially such as have been partly destroyed by a
passing bush-fire, supply the best covers of this description, whilst
on the north coast of Australia the boabab occasionally becomes
hollow in a like way, and makes a very snug and roomy camp.
Huts are constructed after different patterns according to the
materials available. In the Musgrave Ranges, as in most parts of
central Australia, the usual plan is to ram an uprooted dry trunk of
mulga into the sand in an inverted position, so that the horizontal
root system rests at the top, generally about five feet from the
ground. Making this the central supporting column, branches of
mulga and other bushes are placed in a slanting position against it,
so that they rest between the roots at the top and form a more or
less complete circle at the base, measuring some eight or nine feet
in diameter. An opening is left, away from the weather-side, large
enough to permit of free access. The spaces and gaps between the
branches are filled with small bushes, tussocks, and grass, and on
top of it all sand is thrown.
Very often the branches are placed around a standing tree for a
central support, and now and again they are simply made to rest
against one another in the required conical fashion.
Roof-like shelters are made by piling branches and brushwood
either upon the overhanging branches of a tree or across two bushes
which happen to be standing close together.
On Cooper’s Creek, in the extreme south-western districts of
Queensland, these huts are more carefully constructed. A solid,
almost hemispherical framework is erected consisting of stout curved
posts, with a prong at one end, so placed that the prongs interlock
on top and the opposite ends stand embedded in the sand in a
circle. Vide Plate XV, 1. The structure is covered with the long reeds
that abound along the banks of the large waterholes of the Cooper.
Some of the huts are indeed so neatly thatched that they have quite
a presentable appearance.
 The eastern Arunndta groups, in the Arltunga district, cover a light
framework of mulga stakes, erected after the general central
Australian pattern, entirely with porcupine grass (Plate XV, 2).
At Crown Point, on the Finke River, other groups of the same tribe
cover their huts with branches and leaves of the Red Gum.
When camped on the great stony plains or “gibbers” of central
Australia, it is often very difficult to find a suitable covering for the
huts, the vegetation being either unsuitable or too scanty. On that
account the Yauroworka in the extreme north-east of South Australia
utilize the flat slabs and stones which abound in that locality to deck
their more permanent domiciles with. The supporting structure must,
of course, be made particularly strong to carry the weight of the
stones. The crevices between the stones are filled with clay to
render them water-tight, and earth is banked up against the base of
the walls both inside and outside.
Along the north coast of Australia, from the Victoria River to Cape
York, the prevalent type of hut is a half-dome structure, whose frame
consists of a series of parallel hoops, stuck into the ground and held
in position by a number of flexible sticks tied at right angles to the
former with shreds of Hybiscus bark. The ends of the cross-pieces
are poked into the ground on that side of the framework which will be
opposite the entrance of the hut when completed. The hoops are
made of slightly decreasing size from the entrance towards the back,
and so correspond in height with the upward curve of the cross-
pieces. This skeleton-frame is covered with sheets of “paper-bark”
(Melaleuca) and grass; and the floor of the interior is carpeted with
similar material; a small space is however left uncovered to hold the
fire. Such a hut measures about five feet by five feet at the base, and
is four feet high. In Queensland palm leaves may take the place of
the paper-bark sheets.
In districts where the mosquitoes are very troublesome, the dome
is completed by erecting hoops on the open side as well, and making
the cross-switches long enough to be lashed to them all and to be
stuck into the sand at both ends. The whole structure is covered with
bark, but three or four small holes are left along the base for the
people to slip in by; and a ventilation-hole is left at the top of the
dome to allow the smoke to escape from the fire, which is burned
inside to keep out the insects.
Provisional rain-shelters are made by cutting a big sheet of bark
from one of the eucalypts, usually the “stringy bark.” To do this the
bark is chopped through circumferentially on the butt in two places,
about seven or eight feet apart, slit vertically between the two
incisions, and removed by levering it off with two chisel-pointed rods.
The sheet is folded transversely at its centre and stood upon the
sand like a tent.
At times the sheet of bark is simply laid length-wise against two or
three sticks previously stuck into the ground. In the more durable
structures of this type, two forked poles are rammed into the ground
so that they can carry a horizontal piece after the fashion of a ridge-
pole of a tent. Against the latter then are stood several sheets of
bark at an angle of about forty-five degrees.
Occasionally a scaffold is erected with four poles and cross-pieces
at the corners of an oblong space, and sheets of bark are then laid
across the top. The sheets are of sufficient length to hang over the
sides of the frame so that their weight bends them into an arch along
the centre.
Commander Lort Stokes found similar structures near Roebuck
Bay in the north of Western Australia, but in place of the bark they
there had a slight, rudely-thatched covering.
In districts where thieving dogs, ants, or other vermin become
troublesome, the men construct platform-larders, upon which any
reserve supplies of meat are laid. Hawks are the greatest nuisance
in camp. It is astonishing with what fearlessness such birds fly right
into camp and swoop the meat from the natives. As a protection
against theft of this description, the campers cover their stores with
branches.
The position favoured during sleep is to lie upon one side, with the
legs drawn up towards the stomach and bent in the knees. The head
rests upon one or both hands; should one hand not be so occupied,
it is usually placed between the closed thighs. At Delamere in the
Victoria River country, the natives were observed to have convex
pieces of bark in their possession which were used as head-rests
during the night.
It goes without saying, of course, that the aboriginal might at any
time change his position during sleep to one of the many commonly
adopted by European or other people.
During the warm summer months, the campers are up with the
first glimpse of dawn, but when the nights become cold, they often
remain huddled by the fires until the sun is high up in the sky.
When a messenger or visitor approaches a camp at night, he will
not do so without announcing his arrival in advance by loudly calling
from afar to the groups at the fireside. Should a person be
discovered prowling the surroundings of a camp, without having
heralded his coming, he runs grave risk of being speared, on the
chance that he be on no good business.
In the way of salutations, hand-shaking and kissing are unknown,
but when two friends meet it is quite the usual thing for them to walk
together for a while, hand-in-hand. When a person, who has been
long absent, returns to camp, everybody is so overcome with joy that
he starts crying aloud as if his joy were grief.
On the occasion of friendly Arunndta groups visiting, all members
of both parties, male and female, approach each other with their
spears, boomerangs, shields, and fighting sticks. The visitors first sit
down in a body while the others walk around them, in a widening
course, flourishing their weapons high in the air and shrieking with
joy; later they return the civilities by acting similarly.
When seating himself, an aboriginal always prefers the natural
surface of the ground to any artificial or natural object, which might
serve him in a manner suggestive of a chair. Rocks and fallen tree-
trunks might occasionally be used, and children are sometimes seen
sitting upon the lowest big branches of trees, especially if they slope
downwards to the ground. But even in these cases they rarely allow
the legs to dangle, preferring to draw them, bent in the knee, close
against the body, and usually with the arms thrown around the legs
or resting upon the knees.
The men use the same method, when squatting at ease upon the
ground, keeping their thighs apart, heels touching and close against
the buttocks, with their elbows resting upon their knees and their
hands usually joined in front. When the hands are to be used, the
sitter acquires greater stability by placing the feet further apart and
swinging the arms over the knees.
Another common posture is to double the shins under the thighs
and rest them half-laterally upon the ground. This method is
frequently combined with the previously mentioned by holding one
leg one way and the other the other.
From either of these positions, the sitter may change by tucking
the shins well under the thighs and rolling on to the side of one of his
thighs.
Again, he may change by simply stretching his legs forward full
length.
These methods are made use of by men, women, and children
alike. Unless it be that the person prefers his legs to remain in close
apposition, whilst squatting in any of the positions indicated, he will
endeavour to hide his shame behind one of his feet. This is
particularly characteristic of the women, and their natural sense of
decency is prettily described in the narration of the voyage in search
of La Perouse as follows: “Though for the most part they are entirely
naked, it appears to be a point of decorum with these ladies, as they
sit with their knees asunder, to cover with one foot what modesty
bids them conceal in that situation.”
By their method of standing at ease on one leg, the natives of
Australia have evolved a remarkable posture which reminds one of
birds. In this position, a man rests the sole of his unoccupied foot
against the knee of the standing leg, and usually props his body with
a spear-thrower (Plate XVI, 2).
Strictly speaking, it is the duty of the women to gather firewood,
although very often, when there is a supply close at hand, the men
will also drag a few logs to the family camp. The women, on the
other hand, are required to collect sufficient to keep the fire going,
during the day for cooking purposes and during the night for warming
and lighting purposes. At times this entails weary searching and
long-distance marching. We have already referred to the way they lift
the pieces of wood from the ground, between the toes of one foot, to
the hand on the opposite side, by passing the piece behind the body;
the same hand next stacks the wood upon the head, where the other
holds and steadies it. By this method, the gin has no need to stoop,
and can in consequence build up astonishingly high piles of wood
upon her head (Plate XVII). A small pad is usually first laid upon the
head to prevent the scalp from chafing and the wood from slipping.
Arrived at the camp, a gin throws her load to the ground and breaks
the longer pieces across her head with her hands.
A native’s idea of a good fire is to keep it as small as possible, but,
at the same time, to derive a cheerful glow from it. His opinion of the
European traveller’s camp-fire is that it is so ridiculously big that one
cannot lie near to it, without being scorched. In the winter the native
often selects a large dry log if available and keeps this aglow at one
end throughout the night; in the absence of such a log, he will at
frequent intervals find it necessary to attend to his fire during the cold
hours of the night. So diligently, indeed, does he nurse his fire that
his eyes often become inflamed in consequence of the continued
irritation by smoke when he fans a smouldering flame with his
breath.
A small fire like this, especially when it has burned for some time,
is quite sufficient to cook all the smaller articles, which constitute the
daily bill of fare, as for instance roots, tree-grubs, and lizards.
When, however, big game like a kangaroo is to be prepared, larger
fires are essential and special culinary rules observed. A method,
which has been in use practically everywhere in Australia, and is still
found in use among the uncontaminated tribes, is to burn a big fire
for a while upon a sandy patch, and then to lay a number of flat
stones upon the red-hot coals and cover everything with sand. After
a while the sand is scraped aside and the oven is ready for use. In
the Northern Territory the stones are substituted by brick-like lumps
broken off one of the tall termite-hills, which abound in that country.
In south-eastern Australia and along the River Murray the stones
selected are usually composed of travertine or limestone.
In the Musgrave Ranges oven-stones are not in use, the game
being simply laid upon, and covered with, hot ashes and sand.
“Big” cooking is done by the men, whilst the women are required
to attend to the preparation of all smaller articles like yams, grubs,
and seeds.

PLATE XIV

1. Arunndta boy practising with toy shield and boomerang.

2. Wordaman warrior, holding prevalent north-western type of spear-thrower and

wearing pubic fur tassel.
 Slight variations are noticed in the method of cooking a kangaroo
according to the locality. In the Musgrave Ranges, the animal is
prepared whole. The skin is not detached, whilst the bony paws may,
or may not, be removed beforehand in order to secure the sinews,
which are used all over Australia for tying purposes in the
manufacture of their implements and weapons. The carcase is laid
upon its back and completely covered with hot ashes and sand, and
thus permitted to cook. When sufficiently, and that according to our
ideas often means only partly, cooked, the skin can easily be
removed. The belly of the baked carcase is cut open and the gut laid
aside. What remains is then pulled to pieces by hand and the
portions distributed among all members having a right to such. The
meat is tender and juicy when cooked this way. Even the intestines,
after their contents have been squeezed out by the aid of two
fingers, are eaten by the less privileged members of the tribe. The
Arunndta call the last-named dish “uttna kalkal.” Most of the bones, if
not crushed between the jaws, are shattered between two stones
and the marrow eaten.
The Wogait and other tribes on the north coast break the legs of
the animal and tie them together in pairs with shreds of Hybiscus
bark. The carcase is opened at one side to remove the entrails, and
an incision is also made into the anus to clear it. In the case of a
kangaroo, the tail is cut off and cooked separately in ashes. The skin
is not removed. When thus prepared, the animal is transferred to an
oven as described above and first covered with a piece or two of
“paper-bark,” then with hot sand and ashes.
In order that they may readily scoop out a fireplace, scrape the
sand to and from the roast, and handle the meat, vegetable, seed-
cake, or whatever the article in the oven might happen to be, the
Northern Kimberley tribes have invented a long wooden shovel. This
is a slightly hollowed blade, about three feet in length, four inches
wide at the lower end, and decreasing in width at the hand end. The
implement is mostly cut out of a sheet of eucalyptus bark.
The central tribes generally make use of a discarded or defective
boomerang, which seems to answer the purpose very well.
 Perhaps the most important article a native possesses is the fire-
stick. No matter where he might be, on the march or in camp, it is his
constant companion. Important as it is, the fire-stick is only a short
length of dry branch or bark, smouldering at one end. It is carried in
the hand with a waving motion, from one side to another. When
walking in the dark, this motion is brisker in order to keep alive
sufficient flame for lighting the way. A body of natives walking in this
way at night, in the customary Indian file, is indeed an imposing
sight. Directly a halt is made, a fire is lit, to cook the meals at day
and to supply warmth during sleep at night. When camp is left, a
fresh stick is taken from the fire and carried on to the next stopping
place.
In consequence of carrying the fire-stick too close to the body
during cold weather, most of the natives have peculiar, irregular
scars upon abdomen and chest which have been caused by burns.
The Wongapitcha call these marks “pika wairu.”
If by accident the fire should become extinguished, a fresh flame is
kindled by one of the methods depending upon the friction and heat
which are produced by rubbing two pieces of wood together. Two
methods are in use, all over Australia and the associated islands to
the north; the one is by means of the “fire-whisk,” the other by the
“fire-saw.”
In the first-mentioned case, two pieces of wood are used, usually a
flat basal piece, with a small circular hollow in its centre, and a long
cylindrical stick, rounded at one end. The native assumes a sitting
position with his legs slightly bent in the knees. He places the flat
piece of wood upon the ground and holds it securely beneath his
heels. The rounded point is now inserted into the small hollow, and,
holding the stick vertically between the flat palms of his hands, the
native briskly twirls it like a whisk (Plate XXII). The twirling action is,
however, not backwards and forwards, but in one direction only. After
a while, the wood dust that accumulates by the abrasion begins to
smoke, then smoulder. Suddenly the native throws his stick aside,
and quickly stooping over the smoking powder, gently blows upon it
whilst he adds a few blades of dry straw or other easily inflammable
material. When the smouldering dust has been coaxed into flame,
more straw and twigs are added, then larger pieces of wood, until
eventually a blazing fire results.
Often a small notch is cut at the side of the central hollow in order
that the smouldering powder might find its way down to a piece of
bark placed beneath the basal stick, and there, by the aid of gentle
blowing, ignite the dry grass, which was previously laid upon the
bark for that purpose.
Usually, during the process of twirling, a little fine sand is placed
upon the hollow to increase the friction. A curious practice was
observed among the Larrekiya at Port Darwin, which seems to be
opposed to the friction principle. When the fire-maker has, by careful
twirling, adjusted the point of the upright stick, so that it fits nicely
into the hole in the basal piece, he squeezes a quantity of grease
from the sebaceous glands of his nose, which he scrapes together
with his finger-nails and transfers in a lump to the ankle of his left
foot. Then he resumes the twirling, and, so soon as the stick begins
to smoke, he applies its hot end to the grease, which spreads itself
over the point. The stick having been thus lubricated, the process is
continued as before.
The central tribes, like the Dieri, Wongapitcha, and Aluridja,
usually make the basal piece short and flat, and wider than the
twirling stick. The Dieri select needlebush for the twirling stick, and
Hack’s Pea (Crotalaria) for the basal piece. The other tribes
mentioned combine the needlebush wood with that of a mulga root.
The northern tribes almost invariably employ two long sticks, one
of which has a rounded point at one end, the other a series of
shallow circular pits, into which the point of the twirling piece just
described fits when the implement is in use.
The Mulluk-Mulluk, Ponga-Ponga, and other tribes of the Daly
River district carry a number of these sticks about with them,
especially in the rainy season, when there is always a chance of the
fire-stick being extinguished by an unexpected tropical deluge. The
fire-making apparatus is carried in a receptacle, which consists of a
single segment of a bamboo, with a septum at the bottom. The sticks
are stuck into this cylindrical holder, which keeps them perfectly dry
even during a prolonged season of rain, after the fashion of arrows in
a quiver.
Fire-making implements are carried by the men, whilst the fire-
stick is, as often as not, carried by the women also. As we have
already seen in connection with the carriage of water, it is the
concern of the women to undertake the transport of the camp-
belongings from one site to another. When moving they pack
themselves with the domestic implements, collecting-vessels,
personal paraphernalia, and their infants, whilst their husbands
burden themselves only to the extent of a few spears, a spear-
thrower, and the fire-producing sticks just mentioned. The men
declare that it would be most unwise to be burdened with any
impediment themselves, while on the march, because at any
moment, and when least expected, they might be pounced upon by
an enemy, who would make good use of their unpreparedness. So
also, should game of any kind suddenly come into view, the men,
who are the recognized hunters, must always be ready for quick
action, or in a position to take up the chase immediately. Hence it
comes about that in the best interests of the tribe the women are
required to undertake the transport.