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Coupe, Bronwyn and Jakubowicz, Andrew, withRandall, Lois Nextdoor Neighbours - A Reportfor the Office of Multicultural Affairs on EthnicGroup Discussions of the Australian Media,Canberra, Australian Government PublishingService, 1992, pp 1-5, 29-37, 77-82.

by Bronwyn Coupe andAndrew Jakubowiczwith Lois Randall

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION1.1 Audiences and the media1.2 Race, culture and social difference1.3 The role of the media1.3.1 The media as mirror to reality1.3.2 The media as leader of public

opinion

2. METHODOLOGY2.1 The group discussions2.2 The media diaries2.3 Scope of the report

Figure 1Figure 2

3 MEDIA CONSUMPTION3.1 Memorable programs3.2 Programs liked3.3 Programs/stories disliked3.4 Youth

Figure 3

4 HOW THE MEDIA SHOWSAUSTRALIA/NS4.1 Australian Values4.2 Identifying as Australian

Figure 4Figure 5

5 THE PICTURE OF AUSTRALIA/NS INTHE MEDIA5.1 Blonde and blue eyed5.1.1 Family structure and relationships5.1.2 Attitudes to sex and sexual

relationships5.1.3 Acceptability of violence5.1.4 Attitude to work and education5.1.5 Importance of Religion5.2 Beer drinking5.3 Sport loving5.4 Friendly and easy going5.5 Tolerant or fair5.6 Intolerant, unfriendly or racist5.7 The Lucky Country5.8 Always at leisure5.9 Wealthy and materialistic

Figure 6

6 AUSTRALIAN SOAP OPERAS6.1 Casting Practices - Only Anglos6.1.2 Stereotypical representations of

ethnics6.1.3 The 'wrong NESB'6.2 Australian Families in Soaps6.2.1 Family structure6.2.2 Nuclear families6.2.3 Children in families6.3 Sex in soaps6.4 Representation of women in soaps6.5 Good, clean soap

7 ADVERTISEMENTS7.1 Representation of Australians and

Casting Practices7.2 Representations of non-Anglos7.3 Women in Advertisements7.4 Realism and Selling -

Should Ads Be Representative?7.5 Amount of advertising & reduction

of viewer enjoyment

1Making Multicultural Australia Nextdoor Neighbours

Nextdoor Neighbours

8 NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS8.1 Interest in News

and Current AffairsFigure 7

8.2 International News:The Distorted Globe

8.2.1 Amount of news8.2.2 The nature of news -

or Our News is Bad NewsFigure 8

8.3 Representation ofnon-Anglo migrants in Australia

8.3.1 News, current affairs and theimmigration debate

8.3.2 Boat people and therepresentation of ‘Asians’

8.4 Bad Company - Negativeassociations and stereotypes

8.5 When an Australianis not an Australian

9. REPRESENTATION OF ABORIGINES9.1 Negative representations

Figure 99.2 Amount of Representation9.3 Aboriginal art and culture9.4 When an Aborigine is

not Aboriginal

10 REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN10.1 Stereotypes10.1.1 Glamour -

Sexy vs. Sexual exploitation10.1.2 Traditional Roles -

Home Vs. the Workplace10.1.3 Professional and independent10.2 Appearances10.3 Ethnic stereotypes

and notions of beauty10.3.1 Southern European women10.3.2 Asian women

11 TELEVISION STATIONS11.1 SBS11.2 ABC11.3 Commercial TV11.4 Youth

12 RADIO12.1 ABC12.2 SBS12.3 Commercial Radio

13 ETHNIC MEDIA13.1 Radio13.2 Press13.3 Youth

Figure 10

14 CHANGE AND ASPIRATION14.1 Changes noticed14.2 If I owned the media

Figure 11Figure 12

15 CONCLUSIONS15.1 Options for Reform

16 RECOMMENDATIONS

Excerpts

1 Introduction

1.1 Audiences and the media

The mass media have become the avenue forsocial communication, providing access toinformation and entertainment, while offeringthe space for public rituals, the "cement" ofsocial relations. The mass media are deeply andcentrally implicated in the social and politicalinteractions of contemporary societies, actingboth as "carriers" of the views of social groupsand interests, and at the same time selecting andinterpreting those values and interests. Much ofthe debate about the media has focussed on theintentions of the key players - powerful socialgroups and those who control and distribute theflow of cultural communication. Yet the largemass of the population play crucial if oftenunrecognised roles in these communicationflows. These people are constituted by the massmedia as audiences - indeed in democratic freemarket societies, it has been argued that a majorrole of the media is the creation of audiences


and their transformation into consumers for"sale" to advertisers.

Yet the ways in which these created audiences"use" the media reflect complex social, culturaland socio-psychological processes. Thiscomplexity reflects both the diversity of thesocial experience and locations of the audiences,and the ambiguity and "open-ended" nature ofcommunication - often despite the intentions ofcommunicators to limit and "close" theopportunities for audiences to interpret themeaning of what they are consuming. Audienceswork on the media to extract meanings whichare relevant to their lives. Yet the range ofmaterial on which they work clearly limits thepossibilities they have to explore.

In this report we address the experiences ofethnic Australians and their attitudes to theirexploration of the mass media with which theyhave contact. The research shows that whataudiences do with the media they consume isaffected by their social location and background(factors of ethnicity, language, class, gender, age,are important here), and the material to whichthey have access.

The development of a media strategy for theOffice of Multicultural Affairs must thus addressboth the "social reality" of immigrantsettlement, and the political realities of mediacontrol. We begin then with a contextualstatement about that social reality.

1.2 Race, culture and social difference

All colonial and post-colonial societies, andAustralia is no exception, reflect in their socialstructure the hierarchies of power generated bythe historical experience of settlement andsocietal formation. The residues of this historyare evident in the patterns of domination, andin the nature of resistance, in the socialinstitutions which have emerged, and in thecultural practices which manage, explain orcontest this history.

Australian cultural practices and socialinstitutions are involved in an often ambiguous

way in creating, transmitting, challenging andtransforming our ways of understanding ideas ofrace and ethnicity. ‘Race’ has changed in publicdiscourse from a quasi-scientific concept whichbrought together biological similarities, culturalbehaviour and social hierarchies (as in the ideaof the superiority of the white races whichunderlay the White Australia policy of thecentury from 1865 or so), to a term whichtoday is generally used as merely a descriptivedifferentiator of physically distinguished socialgroups or has been discarded as an anachronisticor dangerous form of explanation of behaviour.‘Ethnicity’ has been developed as an alternativeconcept based on an egalitarian and non-judgmental interpretation of culture as a socialprocess (as distinct from biologically caused).

Apart from these definitional questions, incomplex societies it is clear that culturallyhomogeneous groups, which have often formed(or re-formed) following immigration, seek toestablish social institutions to reinforce andfacilitate the survival of cultural practices whichthey value. These ethnic groups (howeverdiverse and contradictory their values may beinternally, and however complicated theirhomogeneity may be in reality as a consequenceof gender, class and age divisions and conflicts)experience various structural and culturalbarriers to their persistence; indeed theysometimes form in opposition to these barriers,particularly those based on racist responses totheir presence.

Racism describes those situations where theascribed membership of an ethnic group (be itbased on physical features or cultural practices)reduces the opportunities of individuals to actfreely in pursuit of their values and beliefs, andlimits their access to wider social opportunities.Thus racism can exist where the way in whichsocial institutions traditionally behave reducesopportunities and limits access. In particular, itexists where a social hierarchy, expressed in thepower to control ‘social reality’ and culturalpractices, systematically excludes or limits theopportunities of members of ethnic groups(whether or not they consciously identify withthose groups or seek to publicly advance the

3Making Multicultural Austral ia Nextdoor Neighbours

group interests).

For ethnic communities as audiences, the mediaas social institutions play a powerful role instructuring opportunities in many socialdimensions. But these audiences are neithermonolithic nor powerless: their power islimited, they are diverse, but they are activesubjects in the use of the media. In this reportwe explore how their power is constrained, andhow they use what they have to gain somecontrol of the media communication processesin which they are involved.

1.3 The role of the media

There is a long history of debate on whatshould be the role of the media. While there isno doubt that the media is largely consumed forits entertainment value, Australian audiencesrely on the media, in particular TV, as theirmost important source of information aboutwhat is happening in their local community,state, nation and the world. Economic factorsaside, there are community expectations of whatconstitutes responsible practice.

1.3.1 The media as mirror to reality

Many people talk of the media in terms of a"reality" which can be distorted or, throughgood practice, be truthfully mirrored andcommunicated. Many people expect that themedia will in fact mirror this reality, andbecome critical of it when they feel it fails to doso. They see the media distorting what is reallygoing on. Many media workers say, particularlyin relation to news and current affairs, that theyreport or broadcast merely that which is outthere - the problem is with reality, they wouldsay, there is no need to adjust your set.

This debate over what the media actually does -and in particular what perspectives on societykey information and cultural programs andarticles are conveying on television, radio and inthe press - are major questions, not only foracademic analysts but also for policy makers andthe general public. For the debate rapidly movesfrom arguments over fact - a hard enough

situation to address - to arguments over values,from what is the case, to what should be thecase. For instance many of those who claim thatthe media should reflect reality or report itaccurately, but say that this does not happen,argue for a more specific link between theoccurrence of phenomena in society, and theircoverage or appearance in the media. As anexample, if twenty per cent of the populationare of non-English speaking background, thenthat same proportion should apply to the storiesin the media about them, to participation intelevision soaps and advertisements, and to theavailability of broadcasting in languages otherthan English.

Their opponents take a different view - if thereis little representation of ‘ethnic’ Australians, ifissues affecting them are not featured, or if theydo not appear in soaps and ads, this is areflection of the reality of power in society. Thisreality may not be palatable, but it exists, it isclaimed, even if we do not like it. Key elementsin this reality are that ‘ethnics’ do not usuallymake interesting news stories because newsvalues identify conflict between powerful peopleas central, and ‘ethnics’ are de facto not verypowerful. In addition, audiences, it is claimed,prefer highly valued characters in soaps,characters who most resemble archetypal rolemodels - ‘ethnics’ are hardly this, in a society ofblue eyes, blond hair, affluence, and monoglottal Ockerism. These audiences may alsoinclude ‘ethnic’ Australians, who maythemselves prefer idealised Anglo-Australianvisions of the good life, than a reflection of theirown which may be hard, depressing, andunglamorous.

1.3.2 The media as leader of public opinion

If the media relation to reality is socontroversial, and so difficult to pin down,perhaps an alternative perspective will allowprogress. If all media is a selection from a rangeof possible interpretations, and if this selectivityoccurs in most circumstances as a simple andunself-conscious support for the status quo, orat least the majority version of it with all itsexclusion of minorities and intolerance of


difference, then surely the way forward is tohave the media become more self-aware of whatit does. With self-awareness, it might be argued,would come responsibility for the social effectsof the media. This responsibility wouldrecognise the real impact the media can have onvalues, and thus ensure that positions taken arewell thought through. Specifically, where socialvalues of egalitarianism, opposition toinequalities based on gender or ethnicity orreligious belief, are firmly entrenched ingovernment policy and public discourse, thenthere the media should be using its persuasivepowers to advocate for egalitarianism in its work- multiculturalism, equal employmentopportunity, anti-discrimination, human rightsto name a few of the arenas.

Advocating a "social engineering" role for themedia faces strong opposition from mediaowners and defenders. Even though there isevidence of significant bias and newsmanagement in much of the media (though notin all of it all of the time), the importance of afree press and media has been reiterated as thebasis of a democratic society. Once governmentregulation is imposed, or the media are forcedto respond to diktats from bureaucrats orpoliticians, or specific pressure groups, then thecitizenry lose their major weapon againsttyrannical government. The idea of the publicsphere in which free debate can take placerequires a media prepared to act without fear orfavour, even where this might in practicereinforce the inequality in society.

Yet willingness to support a free media does notrequire withdrawal from the field by thoseconcerned with social justice. It does requirewell researched and carefully argued cases forchanges in practice by media organisationswhere they can be shown not to live up to theirown claims to access and moral legitimacy. It iswithin this context that the research for thisreport was undertaken.

Earlier research for OMA by Goodall et al.(1990) and Bell (1992) has demonstrated theway in the which the content of the mediasignificantly under-represents and distorts the

experience of ethnic Australians and allAustralians' experience of the multiculturalreality of society. Both those studiesdemonstrated that the "media excluderepresentations of active, powerful, positiveaspects of cultural diversity and socialheterogeneity" (Bell 1992:v). For Bell, themeaning of multiculturalism in the media wasmoving towards "an empty label", while for theGoodall group, the media had demonstrated asystematic incapacity to cope with the realdiversity of Australian society, revealing a lack ofcompetence and confidence in this regard.

Other researchers have described these problemswith the media in terms of the ownership andcontrol, with the elite groups of society usingthe media to reinforce and reproduce theirworld views, and in so doing bolster and extendtheir power and protect their interests - themedia reproduce racism because it is in theinterests of an elite which profits from thecurrent social hierarchy (Van Dijk 1991) .

Given the sustained evidence about mediacontent, and the overseas evidence about theimpact on and the use by audiences of themedia in reproducing racism, an exploration ofhow Australian ethnic audiences perceive themedia offers an important insight to strategiesthat OMA will need to undertake.

6 Australian Soap Operas

The participants were asked how Australiansoap operas showed Australian society, inparticular Australian families, what soaps theythought were good and bad in the way theyrepresented Australia and why. In relating theiropinions the groups also drew on examples fromother Australian domestic dramas, such assituation comedies, and American programs.

6.1 Casting Practices - Only Anglos

There was considerable criticism regarding thecasting practices of Australian soaps which showa white, Anglo-Australia and exclude ‘ethnics’,‘Asians’, Aborigines and ‘blacks’.


Neighbours was the subject of a few particularlybitter attacks in relation to its exclusively Anglocast, especially given its premise that it is anaverage Australian Street. Where would you findsuch a street in Australia one group asked.‘Unbelievably, even the school apparently has noethnic students enrolled.’ It was also criticised asunrepresentative of Australian society wherepeople rarely know or have close relationshipswith their neighbours.

GP and A Country Practice were the onlyAustralian soaps mentioned as featuring positivenon-Anglo characters, while one group said thatKingswood Country was not very good but has atleast portrayed a mixed Anglo/non-Anglomarriage.

American soaps were also referred to with theCosby Show praised:

Programmes like these raise the self-esteem of ethniccommunities. These portrayed the AfricanAmericans as professionals, wealthy and disciplined.These types of programmes should be encouraged.

6.1.2 Stereotypical representations of ethnics

Acropolis Now, which was discussed as a soap bya number of groups, was sometimes thought toshow negative stereotypes of migrants in generaland of the Greek community in particular.

Even in ‘Acropolis Now’, which is meant to be ashow about migrants, Jim and Effie are dumb, butthe Australian girl on the show is tall, blond,educated and intelligent. She's well spoken and theycan't speak good English.

However other groups thought this humorouslook at Greek Australian culture was a positivecontribution to broader representations ofAustralians on TV. This division in attitude tothis program has been previously noted.

The recently introduced Italian character inNeighbours ‘Marco Alessi’ was also seen asconfirming stereotypes.

...Marco Alessi in 'Neighbours' who is supposedly of

Italian decent. Only after appearing for no morethan two or three episodes, the respondents wereconfronted with a common Italian stereotype.Another character, upon meeting Marco, was quickto make the following blatant assumption: 'something shifty about him, Mafia connections, Ibet he comes from Sicily, I'd like to see his passport.'

Where non-Anglo-Australian actors were used theygenerally were typecast. One group membercommented on the programme ‘All Together Now’,where the only Italian part was cast as a “sleazysneaky lazy comical” Italian, and said there should bean Italian part to counterbalance this role.

6.1.3 The 'wrong NESB'

A number of cases of the “wrong NESB” werealso described. That is a non-English speakingbackground character of one nationality orethnicity being played by another.

A participant commented that in ‘A CountryPractice’, a Filipina actress featured as a Vietnamesedoctor.

Or in another case:

...where Mediterranean looking characters were cast,it was more than likely that these characters weregiven Anglo names... Recently 'E Street' introducedactress Chantel Contouri, who is of Greek descent,and who was cast in the prestigious role of a doctor.The respondents acknowledged that this is a positiveprogressive step, however, Anglo domination becameapparent once again when, instead of adopting anethnic name for her character, she was labelled 'DrPreston'.

The group felt that migrant people were veryunrepresented in TV dramas with non-Englishspeaking people and accents rarely featuring inprogrammes. In some cases English speaking peoplewere used to play people with accents and the resultwas annoying to those with the particular NESBaccent as well as being a questionable practice not toemploy a migrant.


6.2 Australian Families in Soaps

Over half the groups thought Australian familieswere always depicted as Anglo-Australians.However, it was the structure and behaviour offamilies in soaps that generated the most heateddiscussions with nearly two thirds of the groupsnot relating to and often disapproving of thesefamilies.

6.2.1 Family structure

The Anglo families on TV were mainly seen asbeing variously dysfunctional and lacking incare, respect and love. (Anglo) Australian cultureeither did not value family life or was unable toresist dissolution. Families that were plaguedwith conflict and unable to resolve problemswere commonly perceived to be characteristic ofsoaps. While some groups acknowledged thatthe amount of family conflict was probablyexaggerated in the interests of drama, othersthought or suspected that:

the scenes depicted in 'E-Street' and 'Chances' wereprobably what happened in any Australian homesand Australian society with marriage breakdown andother domestic and social problems being depicted as'normal'.

Other groups echoed this sentiment and theregular portrayal of de facto partners, divorce,unmarried mothers, runaway and adoptedchildren causes a great deal of anxiety, especiallyin regard to the likelihood of these eventsoccurring in their families. Further, soaps wereoften blamed for contributing to familydisintegration, marital breakdown andintergenerational conflict:

Australian soaps... do not support good values offamily life. Instead they show lack of bond betweenparents and children, constant conflicts withinfamily and lack of respect of children towards theirparents. They portray almost total lack of parentalcontrol over teenage (and younger) children. Theyshow divorce as a common 'adjustment' in a familylife and in some cases even show the financialbenefits of it.

A respondent from Vietnam, who was a widow-mother gave the following account which illustratedhow the two different sets of family values hadbrought about intergenerational conflict among theChinese. The respondent explained that being asingle parent, she was rather strict in bringing up herchildren. She would not allow her teenage daughterto go partying with her schoolmates. One eveningwhile watching one of the soaps, she was accused byher teenage daughter as an unreasonable and cruelmother, since in the soap, the Australian mother didnot only encourage the daughter to go outsocialising but the mother actually helped thedaughter dress up for the party.

Whether soaps were seen as being representativeof Anglo family values or not, many groupsfound the depiction of disrespectful or uncaringfamily relationships distressing:

One of the participants mentioned that he does notwatch soaps on television, however, the closest showto family relations he has watched is a comedy show‘Mother and Son’. This programme, he feels, in theway it shows the family relation is really bad. Hethinks using the family relationship or the relationbetween a mother and son in this case as a subjectfor a ridiculous comedy show is bad taste. The sacredrelationship between members of a family should berespected not ridiculed.

Most disturbing were the number of groupswho specifically watched soaps to learn whatwent on in Australian families, and what wasconsidered normal behaviour.

All the participants enjoyed watching TV Soaps forrelaxation, also mini-series. These are regarded as animportant indicator of what Australians accept asnormal behaviour.

They could not make out or understand thebeginnings and ends of many of these soaps shows.However, the young members of the groupresponded that they want to know how youngAustralians behave in the society and learn good rolemodels.


6.2.2 Nuclear families

Another area of concern for eight of the groupswas the dominance of nuclear families. Theextended family was considered to be the normfor many migrant groups, particularly thosefrom Asian countries. Not having anyrepresentation of extended families on ‘family’programs led to a feeling of being ‘odd’ andsometimes to embarrassment.

The concept of extended family is very strong in thegroup and having uncles, aunties, grandparentsaround at home or nearby and with almost dailycontacts with them, was normal. This is not shownin any of the soaps.

A proportion of the group still live in an extendedfamily environment, and as a consequence ofacceptable and unacceptable norms, these membersclaim that, amongst their Anglo-Australian peers,they are embarrassed by concepts of "living with in-laws" or "being escorted to school by grandmother".These respondents claim that relative to the progressthat is being made in the acceptance of culturaldiversity, the concept of the extended family remainsalien to many Anglo-Australians.

However not all groups were disturbed by theportrayal of unfamiliar family structures. Evenless traditional presentations of families wereconsidered to be good by some:

‘Hey Dad!’ and ‘All Together Now’ portray bothfathers as single parents trying to handle teenagec h i l d ren. The shows are presented lightly and tow a rd sthe end the relevant moral lesson or value is shown.

6.2.3 Children in families

The behaviour of children on soap operas upsetand alienated many of the participants (20 or athird), including young people born inAustralia. Children were seen to be disrespectfulto their parents and other elders, to talk backand disobey parents, to be engaged in sexualactivities at an unseemly early age, to rarelysocialise within the family, to behave like 'littleadults' and to be 'hanging out for the day theycan leave home'

In some cases it was considered to be'unbelievable' behaviour and that childrenwould not get away with the antics portrayed inreality. Such extraordinary acts were thought tobe a ploy of the producers to keep their mainlyteen audience "hooked'. Other groups saw thisas a sad reflection of declining values in Anglo-Australia.

Either way there was considerable concern thattheir own children might mimic what they sawon the screens:

...the major portion of TV "soaps" acted as poor rolemodels for their children and conveyed conflictingcultural ideals that opposed the traditionalMacedonian methods of child rearing and parentalrespect. Some examples that the group shared were:teenagers running away from home, youngstersbringing boyfriends to the family home and teenagepregnancy. These issues that "soaps" representedillustrate some of the differing values that parents andc h i l d ren of non-Anglo background have to cope with.

They worry when their children see daughtersanswering back to parents, swearing or acting againstparents’ advice, or worse not caring about them.Now the participants fear they may die alone inAustralia because their children are adopting thecultural values of the TV.

Some of the young people surveyed admitted tosometimes feeling confused or that adopting theAustralian attitudes seen would put them inconflict with their parents. They usually camedown on the side of their traditional values.This is not to say that their views of Australiansociety we re necessarily the same as their pare n t s .

On a family level, it is way out of Samoan familyand culture. We have principles, standards, valuesand all that. The way some of the actors andactresses reflect their home life, their reaction to theirparents, some of us start to question our values. Butsomehow, we prefer to stick with our disciplinarymeasures at home.

Another program which was spoken negatively ofwas ‘Degrassi Junior High’ on ABC at 5.30 pm,which was also described as “rubbish”, showing


sexual liberty and drugs as a normal part of schoollife. During the discussion, one of the groupmember's teenage children who was perhaps 14 yearsof age, said that this was really what happened atschool.

Strangely, the two groups of young girls whowere identified as avid soap watchers werehappy to accept them as unrealistic butenjoyable fantasy. This perhaps reflects thefamiliarity these young women have with thetradition of romantic melodrama also found inwomen’s novels and magazines.

Another interesting point is that while parentswere mainly concerned about the effect ofAustralian soaps on their children, their viewingwas actually dominated by American programs.

6.3 Sex in soaps

Disapproval of the sexual mores enacted insoaps was a dominant theme in the discussionswith nearly half of groups finding themunacceptable in some way. The programChances was almost always mentioned as anexample of a program that contained too muchor too explicit depictions of sex, with manyparticipants referring to it as 'pornographic'.

The participants think the real bad soap is ‘Chances’,because there is nothing but sex and sex acts which ispornographic. They feel angry because this soap isshown during prime time.

The men from the Finnish group were alone insaying that they found the sex portrayedattractive (although none of them recordedwatching it in the week surveyed). For aprogram so generally abhorred, the majority ofparticipants seemed to be familiar with itscontents, although this could be due to thepromotional trailers which some young Filipinowomen suggested should be banned from primetime airing.

A high proportion of the groups obviouslythought that the program was a media fantasy.Nonetheless it was considered to be a potentiallydangerous influence on community, especially

young morals. In addition it was thought toexploit and degrade women.

They firmly believe that the portrayal of womenespecially in ‘Chances’ is disgraceful and insulting toall women. In their opinion, therefore, ‘Chances’ isthe worst show in the way it shows Australiansociety.

Other soaps were also considered to opposetraditional values and relationships. Once againit was the effect on minors that most worriedgroups:

Also, sexual desire and sexual love were repeatedlyshown in soaps TV in vivid details while parents-children love plays only a minor role which couldlead young viewers to believe that leaving school,leaving home, having a girl/boy friend, are betterthan staying home with parents and studying for abetter future.

The soapies portrayed teenagers as poor role modelsfor their own children who should be studyingconscientiously to pass exams. The TV stars wouldbe preoccupied with sexual relationships and otherout of family pursuits not encouraged by the ethnicgroups represented.

6.4 Representation of women in soaps

The representation of women in the media willbe dealt with later in this report. It should benoted that this was a topic that was bought upspontaneously by a large number of groupsspontaneously in the discussion of soaps. Thecomments can be broken down into a numberof categories:

• sexual exploitation - generally bought up inrelation to Chances

• Anglo and ethnic women especially regardingnotions of beauty

• portrayal of traditional roles

• other roles and equality

• representation of women vs the reality,


especially with regard to equality andemployment

6.5 Good, clean soap

On a more positive note, soaps were sometimesconsidered to be promulgating useful messages,even if there were reservations about theircasting practices and how representative theywere of Australian families. GP, The FlyingDoctors and A Country Practice were oftensingled out as promoting positive values.

'Country Practice's story is just round and round thecircle. But participants enjoy it because it has a'mission' to tell the society about the caring of othersamong the communities in the country and it showsabout how to solve the conflict in society in afriendly way.

‘A Country Practice’ (channel 7) and ‘GP’ (channel2) are by far the favourite programs, because theydeal with real life problems, like leukaemia andsuicide, and provide useful information and acontact number afterwards.

They were generally quite pleased with the theme of‘Flying Doctors’ and ‘Country Practice’, but theseagain lacked in portraying the multicultural natureof the Australian society.

15 Conclusions

The issues of social context and groupexperiences which we indicated would frame theway in which ethnic groups perceive and use themedia are borne out by the results of the study.There are a few general statements that can bemade about ethnic audiences. The caveatremains that we are not in a position tocompare them with Anglo-Australian orAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audiences.

Ethnic audiences are heavy consumers of themedia, particularly commercial electronicmedia. They do not appear, on the whole, touse English language print media regularly,except to follow issues directly relevant to theirparticular concerns. Therefore, while the printmedia are important for some news stories, and

have been criticised for bias etc., the emphasis ison the electronic media.

Within the electronic media SBS is usedextensively where it is available, especially fornews and sport. The use of the ABC also tendsto be concentrated on news and current affairsprograms, which are perceived as more reliableand accurate than those of the commercialchannels and stations. The commercial mediahave the widest audiences, reflecting generalpatterns in Australian society.

The Australian media were not seen to bepresenting an accurate or wide-rangingreflection of Australian society. Rather they wereinterpreted as avenues for the communication ofAmerican or British cultural concerns, with thequality of Australian material somewhat lesseffective in stimulating audience involvementand response. There were real concerns at thenarrowness of Australian society as it appearedin the media. The limitations of physical type,story line, and issues found in programs was aconsistent theme across groups.

There was also a consistent concern that wherethe media reported specific issues affectingethnic communities, this was done in either apatronising or biased way, with inaccurate orpartial information typifying the presentation.The "bad news" focus was overwhelming,leading to a view of ethnic Australians whichportrayed them as conflictual, violent anduncivilised. There was widespread unhappinesswith the way the media treated Asianimmigrants, for example, and there wasfrustration with the lack of balance in reporting.It seemed to be assumed that the point of viewof the audience was that of Anglo-Australians tothe exclusion of any other people. Ethnicity waspresented continually as problematic, rarely as apositive quality of a multicultural society.

Media representation of Aborigines and TorresStrait Islanders caused some distress to theaudiences. The overwhelmingly negativeportrayal was seen as one-sided, unfair or tooharsh. Audiences expressed the need for betterinformation, more historical background, and a

1 0Making Multicultural Australia Nextdoor Neighbours

more sustained and sympathetic representationof Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanderscommunities.

Gender roles generated a range of responses -three main perspectives were offered. The mediawere criticised for presenting women only asdomestic drudges or sex objects; the media werecommended for valuing the role of women asmothers and as professional workers; the mediawere encouraged to break free of stereotypes andshow women in a range of roles, and ethnicwomen as other than simply working classcooks and cleaners. Significant comments weremade about culturally specific notions of beautyand attractiveness serving to denigrate womenwho were not blonde and slim.

The ethnic media were widely used whereavailable, and provided a useful service whereEnglish language skills were limited. In thisregard ethnic radio services were sometimescriticised for being old fashioned, or limited intheir coverage and accessibility, thoughimportant for cultural and linguisticmaintenance.

15.1 Options for Reform

This report has produced some evidence for thedissatisfaction of a wide range of the Australianethnic population with the Australian media.Television is the medium most well attendedand important as an information source. It isfailing to address the range of issues and eventsof interest to this population and to representadequately their communities, both in terms ofamount and diversity of representations.Commercial television is the main target ofthese grievances. The perceptions andconclusions of this population are supported byobjective analysis of the mass media, that is:

The mass media in Australia are involved in whatsome commentators have called the ideologicalreproduction of racism. The media are literally that -media rather than structurally significant causes ofethnicism and ethnocentrism: they reproduce andmaintain the ways in which an ethnically diversesociety makes sense of itself and the ways in which

the dominant groups define and re-define the lessnumerous and less powerful.

A number of ways of dealing with this havebeen suggested and recommended in the past.They include awareness and educationcampaigns for both the public and mediaworkers, government regulation and industryagreements and enforcement. It is apt at thisparticular point in time, in the light of thecurrent change in government and industryregulation governing the electronic media, tofocus on the latter two approaches.

The transformation of the AustralianBroadcasting Tribunal into the AustralianBroadcasting Authority in October 1992following the passing of the BroadcastingServices Act, 1992 by Parliament in June 1992,has significant implications for future strategies.In the past The Broadcasting Act laid downStandards governing discriminatory broadcastsand fairness in current affairs reporting(Television Program Standard 2 (b) and 24 andRadio Program Standard 3 and 8), breaches ofwhich were independently investigated and (inpractice rarely) addressed through penalties.These Standards, ineffective as an ABT Inquiryrecently found them to be, are to be maintaineduntil October 1994 or until the relevant codesof practice have been registered. After this timesuch regulation will be replaced by an industryCode of Practice. The ABA has advised theindustry to take a number of steps in theformulation and practice of these codes,importantly:

• liaison with community groups

• maintaining supervision of programsbroadcast

• incorporating mechanisms for independentarbitration when complaints have beenreceived or codes have been breached

• wording of relevant codes to address theineffectiveness of the Standards mentionedabove, specifically by including amendmentssuggested by submissions to the Inquiry.


To date the draft Code of Practice for thecommercial television industry put out forpublic comment has not taken any of the aboveinto account.

16. Recommendations

1. Given the importance of the media in thelives of ethnic Australians, given theambivalence expressed about the capacity of themedia to adequately reflect their experience ofAustralian society, OMA should request theAustralian Broadcasting Authority to carry outan inquiry into the most effective guidelinesnecessary to ensure that ethnic Australians'needs to participate in public communicationwith other Australians is addressed by theelectronic media.

2. The issue of the inadequate and biasedrepresentation of non-Anglo-Australians in theelectronic media has been documented by manyorganisations. OMA should press thecommercial broadcasting organisations, and theABC and SBS, to adopt an affirmative actionstrategy in the recruitment of ethnic Australiansinto on camera/on air roles. Targets (not quotas)should be set to ensure that institutional andstructural factors do not continue to excludeethnic Australians.

3. OMA should meet with the advertisingindustry media bodies to develop a code ofpractice in the recruitment of non-Anglo-Australians, and the avoidance of the use ofpotentially derogatory stereotypes (as the onlymethod of portrayal). This code should betrialed and monitored.

4. Given the perception of the limitednumber of roles and types of roles available fornon-Anglo actors in Australian drama, OMAshould encourage the Media Council ofAustralia, FACTS and Actors Equity tonegotiate a code of practice to governdiscrimination in casting.

5. OMA should seek corporate sponsorshipof an annual award for the best reporting in themedia of ethnic issues, or portrayal in the media

of issues affecting ethnic Australians, not limitedto news and current affairs.

6. OMA should stress to the ABA that anyindustry guidelines developed for self regulationmust include a code of practice on therepresentation of and reporting of ethnicAustralian issues. These should at least includethe criteria with similar goals as those developedby the UK Broadcasting Standards Council, asin the following Code of Practice which refersto 'Preserving Dignity: Television and Radio -(c) Questions of Race':

It is important that broadcasters should familiarisethemselves with the law governing relations betweenthe races in Britain. Apart from strict legalrequirements within the country, sensitive treatmentof the differences which exist between races andnations is called for. Such differences and theconflicts they cause, as well as the occasions whenthey are overcome, must be reflected in any accurateportrayal of both history and contemporary life. Forexample, there are times when racial or nationalstereotypes, whether physical or behavioural, may beused without offence in programmes, but their useshould always be carefully considered in advance.Use of derogatory terms in speaking of men andwomen of other races and nations almost invariablygives offence and should be avoided where thecontext does not warrant it. Great distinctions existbetween many people within single countries, letalone whole continents, and a broad community ofinterests cannot always be assumed. The presentationof minority groups as an undifferentiated mass,rather than a collection of individuals with limitedinterests in common, should be discouraged.(Broadcasting Standards Council 1989:45-6).

7. OMA should monitor the development ofthe commercial television Code of Practicebeing drafted by the broadcasters, and urgethem to :

• actively consult with representative andcommunity bodies during this process

• include appropriately worded requirementsfor the non-discriminatory depiction andreporting of persons and events (including


news and current affairs programming )

• include a mechanism allowing independentarbitration for complaints of and breaches ofthe codes.

8. In the event of an unsatisfactory Code ofPractice being presented to the ABA at the endof the current transitional period of theBroadcasting Services Act (October 1994),OMA should request that the ABA not registerthe Code but impose a Standard governing theabove, this Standard being worded to includeamendments suggested by submissions to theABT’s Inquiry into Standards Relating toDiscriminatory Broadcasts to make theStandards effective and ensure that breaches areswiftly and appropriately addressed.

9. OMA should establish a communicationmedia strategy advisory group involving thepress, electronic media, advertising andmagazine publishing sectors, pluscommunication industry education groups, todevelop and implement a detailed plan of actionfor the media.

10. OMA should regularly monitor the massmedia, publicising and criticising poor practice,while commending good practice. Whereappropriate OMA should refer matters to thestate anti-discrimination authorities or theHuman Rights and Equal OpportunityCommission. Such a monitoring program couldbe contracted out to an independent mediaresearch body, with regular recommendations toOMA for action.

11. Given the perceptions by ethnicAustralians of Aborigines and Torres StraitIslanders, it is recommended that OMA seekurgent meetings with ATSIC and other ATSIorganisations, to help them target ethniccommunities in their public awareness andcommunication campaigns. In particular giventhe complaints that the media fail to adequatelycommunicate the all-round experience, historyand activities of Aborigines and Torres StraitIslanders, special emphasis should be placed ongetting information to the ethnic press, and to

community language radio programs.

12. OMA should liaise with the Office for theStatus of Women to ensure that the Mediawatchproject, the advertising project and othercommunication industry related programs(including Affirmative Action) integrate issuesaffecting ethnic women into the "mainstream"activities. OMA should insist that OSW expendat least 30% of its budget in this area over thenext two years on issues affecting ethnic women,and jointly monitor the effectiveness of thisstrategy for changes in media representation.

13. Following agreement with the consultanton the final form of the report, the reportshould be published and made available tomedia industry organisations, government andregulatory bodies, ethnic, women's andAboriginal organisations, and to the generalpublic.


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