Community attitudes and changing audiences : integrating Australia's multicultural diversity into media policy

This paper draws attention to the lack of focus on multicultural issues in the context of the programming and scheduling practices of the free-to-air commercial broadcasting sector in Australia. Inmany European nations, 'the state's intervention in creative production in the form of subsidies, government infrastructure, and so on is obviously part of a larger conception of the nation in which cultural participation is a manifestation of citizenship' (Uricchio, 2004), yet in Australia there appears to be little interest in the role the media plays in the development and consolidation of a strong and participating citizenry. Rather, we find a mismatching in the 'government [policy] infrastructure' that works against the development of a participatory culture capable of fostering strong citizenship by excluding the commercial media from responsibilities other than running at a profit. We argue that we should be working with a better informed understanding of the media environment and developing a media ecology that promotes diversity at many different levels (rather than only in the public broadcasting) of the media environment, where complex cultural differences of values and beliefs can find a place in public media discourse essential for the development of Australia as a vibrant multicultural community. Yet when it comes to media policy, and the debate turns to the broadcasting responsibilities of commercial television, questions of public responsibility and multicultural diversity evaporate into thin air. We particularly note the conjuncture of two contemporary trends that threaten to dismantle the fragile unity that characterises Australian cultural identity: the commercialisation of cultural production and the rise of peer-to-peer networking. Each of these exerts a fragmenting pressure on the unity of the national media (and cultural) sphere that threatens the stability of Australia as a multinational society.