News and current affairs

News and current affairs programs have traditionally been the flagship programs of television stations around Australia. Since television began in 1956, news broadcasts have grown from short, mostly-live reads to 24 hour coverage of local, national and international stories.

In recognition of this, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia began the Television News and Current Affairs Program in 1988. The program’s aim is to illustrate not only how news and current affairs has been conveyed to Australian audiences, but to record our history as it happens, providing future generations with vital information about the events of the day and how they were covered.

This collection is unique as it contains complete bulletins and, as in stories such as the 2009 Victorian bushfires, a comprehensive coverage.

The program is possible thanks to the ongoing support of the Australian television networks: Network Ten, Nine Network, Seven Network, Sky News, Premier Media Group (FOX Sports News), Prime Network, WIN Network, Southern Cross Media, ABC, SBS and Imparja.

In addition to this program, the NFSA also holds television news collections from the 1960s to 1980s. These early news items are for the most part the edited stories that went to air rather than complete bulletins. Collections include NWS9, NBN, CTC7, ATV0 and GLV8.

Read more about the development of TV news reporting in the 1950s and ’60s and Australian journalist Michael Schildberger’s contribution in our UN World TV Day blog post.