Beyond Blame: How can Australia’s media best reflect the diverse faces and voices of Australia in news reporting?
Murdoch University, Sydney, 16 May 2008
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Cadigal people of the Eora nation.
Introduction
I'd like to thank Murdoch University for inviting me to open this forum.
I’m also pleased to be able to announce today an additional $185 000 in Australian Government funding for this important project.
The project
Today’s forum is part of a partnership between Murdoch University and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s Living in Harmony program.
The additional funding provided through this program will enable Murdoch University and its project partners to extend the reach and scope of their work.
A collection of high quality curriculum resources have already been produced for journalism education through the Reporting Diversity and Integration project.
The extension of funding will facilitate the development of further materials of this kind.
The power of the media
This project addresses a subject of great significance in our life and times: the role of the news media in a multicultural Australia.
I’d like to briefly quote a couple of scholars in the field of media and cultural diversity:
Firstly, Andrew Jakubowicz, who says:
The media provide the major avenues for the working through of debates about the acceptable cultural parameters of Australian society.
And then James Curran:
… the media are the primary machinery in the promotion of both social cohesion and social conflict.
There is no question that the media possess an enormous power to influence the public’s attitude to any given topic, including that of cultural diversity.
We all know that particular communities experience an abnormal proportion of the settlement task. For many Australians, they have minimal first hand interaction with new arrival communities and their issues. There is thus a tremendous dependence upon the information forwarded by the media.
The role of the media
So in a multicultural democracy like Australia’s, what role should the media play in reporting news which involves people with diverse cultural backgrounds.
Should they focus on representing the views of the ‘cultural majority’ of the country?
Should they mould public sentiment to conform to the government’s, or some other agenda? … To make us feel ‘relaxed and comfortable’?
Should they function as populist heroes and champion the ‘common sense’ opinions of the ‘mainstream’ or so-called ‘ordinary’ Australian?
Become ‘bleeding hearts’ and present a bias in favour of the least powerful in our society?
Alternatively should they also seek to become a reliable information conduit as a force of adaptation and integration into the broader society?
Or should the media provide a public sphere in which to examine and explore the multiplicity of complex realities that exist in a country like ours?
The media in a multicultural democracy
I would suggest that the role of the media in a true democracy is essentially: to provide a forum in which we can tackle and work through the issues – often difficult ones – that inevitably arise in a diverse society like Australia’s.
What’s more, the media need to ensure that the widest representation of the Australian population has access to this forum.
As Emma Dawson and Miriam Lyons – two experts in the field from the Centre for Policy Development in Melbourne – put it:
We need the media to provide spaces of national conversation: communication channels through which Australians in our myriad differences can find what we have in common by learning about and talking to each other.
This is why we are here today.
Research on representation by news media
The research completed in this project indicates that Australians of culturally and linguistically diverse heritage are not being fairly represented in the news media – at least, not in the television news.
This study, overseen by Murdoch University and their project partners, involved monitoring all television news bulletins in several regions of Australia over a two week period.
It delivers some sobering statistics.
We have almost one in four Australians who were born outside of this country, yet excluding SBS, only 4.5% of total news time featured people who were identifiably from ethnic minorities.
When this small proportion of news items was analysed, 53% presented a negative view of culturally diverse groups, focusing on crime and other forms of social deviance.
In other research in 2006, SBS conducted a study of younger Australians from culturally diverse backgrounds and found that they are highly critical of the way the news media portray social and political issues.
They feel that journalism is not living up to the ideal of serving democracy. It is worth noting that most of the ethnic groups instinctively displayed an initial keenness to explore media options popular with their peers and uninfluenced by the particular preconceptions of their parents. They did not initially have that negative analysis – it only arose through experience.
These young Australians are incredibly media savvy, but they cannot identify with the Australia they see depicted through the mainstream media.
They are increasingly turning to other sources of information to gain a sense of identity and belonging.
This is not only disappointing, it is potentially dangerous.
The availability of sometimes possibly radicalising, sometimes biased alternatives is a fact we should be mindful of in this policy area. I have long supported community ethnic media exactly because it is imbued with our values and operates inside our laws unlike some overseas competitors.
Media’s role in social cohesion
A healthy society is a cohesive one, where all of its members gain a sense of belonging through inclusion and participation in its institutions.
The media is a key institution in a modern democracy like ours, and all Australians should feel they are accurately and fairly represented in the stories that are told.
Of course, outside the public broadcasters, there are such things as ratings and newspaper sales which inevitably influence the flavour of the news as it is reported.
Aside from these considerations, all media – public and commercial – have an investment in a socially healthy society, and a responsibility to acknowledge the role they can play in facilitating such an environment.
The media’s recognition of this kind of social responsibility has been evident in recent years through changing practices in presenting sensitive issues such as suicide, self-harm, and mental illness.
Asking the media to exercise this social responsibility is not about curtailing the freedom of the press; it’s about acknowledging the impact that publications and broadcasts can have, and the media being mindful of this in exercising their influence.
The same principle applies to reporting of issues relating to cultural diversity: the media’s potential to influence both social cohesion and social conflict is huge, and so with this power comes considerable social responsibility.
Conclusion
You are here today to explore ways in which a fair and balanced picture of our diverse Australian community can be achieved.
I think the 2020 Summit has demonstrated that there is much to be gained through genuine dialogue between Australians.
If the news media are to help facilitate this national space for conversation and be a force for social cohesion rather than social conflict, the voices of all Australians will need to be heard.
I wish you a very fruitful dialogue today.
See:
URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au /parlsec/media/speeches/2008/lf080516.htm
Last update: 13 August 2008 at 17:14 AEST