Dr Patricia Edgar has been at the forefront in the development of children's media in Australia and internationally for more than three decades. She is a media researcher without peer in Australia and was the first Chairperson of the Centre for the Study of Media and Communication at La Trobe University. In that role she established and taught the first courses on film and television, and mass media communication in an Australian University and undertook research for her PhD on Children's perceptions of film and television violence.
Previous experience
Broadcasting: She was the first woman appointed as a member of The Australian Broadcasting Control Board in 1975 and chaired the Board's review of Television Program Standards. She was the Chair of the Children's Program Committee of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal for five years during which time the CPC devised the children's television production and advertising standards which have been applied for more than 30 years in Australian broadcasting. In that role she oversaw the classification of hundreds of children's programs.
Director: She became the founding Director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation ACTF when it was incorporated in March 1982 and stepped down from that role in June 2002. As Director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation she was the responsible Producer for the ACTF's $100 million production slate. During her tenure as Director the ACTF she produced over 174 hours of television drama for children of all ages. These outstanding programs included Winners, Touch the Sun, Round the Twist, Lift Off, The Genie From Downunder, Sky Trackers, Crash Zone, L'il Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers, Yolngu Boy, Noah and Saskia and the ground breaking Kahootz. Together they won more than 100 national and international awards including four AFI Awards, two Logies, an International Emmy Award, the Prix Jeunesse, a Japan Prize, a Banff Rockie Award, a Grand Jury Prize at the New York Festival.
Summit: In 1995 Dr Edgar conceived and hosted the first World Summit on Television and Children in Melbourne. It was a seminal event involving 637 delegates from 71 countries. This Summit began a worldwide movement under the auspices of The World Summit on Media for Children Foundation which Dr Edgar chairs. Summits have taken place in London, Thessalonica, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and in 2010 Karlstad, Sweden.
