 The first of these works examined the so-called 'culture wars' of the 1990s as symptomatic of struggles over the redefinition of Australian national identity and culture in an age of global media.The second of these 'Australian' books looked at the transformation of a social democratic idea of the 'popular' as a political idea into a more market-based and media-driven popular culture.Both these studies grew out of Wark's experience as a public intellectual who participated in public controversies, mainly through her newspaper column in "The Australian", a leading national daily.