Globalization and the public sphere: the space of community media in Sydney (2007) (original) (raw)

The space of community media: Globalization and the public sphere (2007)

Global Media and Communication, 2007

Recent accounts of Habermas’s conception of the public sphere concern the interlocking of multiple networks and spaces. In a global context new interfaces between existing (counter-) public spheres can lead to multiple counter-publics. This article explores this phenomenon through the examination of the communicative spaces that offer alternatives to Australia’s mainstream public sphere from three different strands of Sydney’s community media: diasporic media (Assyrian Radio SBS), Indigenous media (Koori Radio) and discursive sites that operate in between ethnic and mainstream media (Forum for Australia’s Islamic Relations).

Speaking up and talking back: News media interventions in Sydney's 'othered'communities (2003)

Media International Australia, Incorporating …, 2003

Since August 2001, Arab and Muslim communities in Sydney’s western suburbs have been caught up in a spiral of signification that linked ‘gang’ activity in the area to the standoff over asylum seekers aboard the MV Tampa, a federal election campaign fought on the theme of ‘border protection’ and global news reporting of September 11 and the ‘war on terror’. Many people who live and work in the Bankstown area responded to this intense news media scrutiny by developing community-based media interventions that aimed to shift the mainstream news agenda. Through media skills training, forums, events and cultural production, Arab and Muslim Australians in the Bankstown area positioned themselves as the subjects rather than the objects of news. This paper analyses news intervention strategies in terms of media power and the politics of representation. I argue that the activities of those working with racialised communities suggest valuable models for the wider process of improving the reporting of cultural differences in multicultural Australia.

Global Media Journal - Australian Edition - 6:1 2012

2012

The increasing complexity of the multilingual environment, in large part resulting from globalising media trends, is creating new challenges for multilingual media. This article explores forms of citizenship, issues of ‘community’ and transnational media use through the case study of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Australia’s multilingual and multicultural national public broadcaster. SBS was developed as an element of Australian multicultural policy in a response to political pressures of a diverse society. It now needs to engage with contemporary forms of identity and increasingly sophisticated media use trends to maintain its relevance.

Transnational news and multicultural Australia project: cultural diversity and news in Australia

2017

The impact of media and public discourse, including on new media platforms, is one of the priority themes of the Victorian Social Cohesion and Community Resilience Ministerial Taskforce. The proposed project aligned with the Taskforce’s research priority on “community polarisation and marginalisation”, wherein the project examined the media’s role(both traditional news media and non-traditional/new media such as social mediaplatforms/apps) in disseminating news and information about transnational events and multicultural issues in Victoria. For example, following the November 2015 Paris attacks, the media's coverage of the news event and the Australian community's reaction to the event –irrespective of its positive or negative nature – caused unease among Australian migrants, particularly those following the Muslim faith, as they felt they were put under the spotlight by the media. The primary aim of this project was to investigate the nature, and consumption, of news, infor...

'Alternative Solutions: Multiculturalism and the Struggle for Hegemony in Australian Community Broadcasting'

‘Who listens to community radio anyway?’ This has undeniably been the most common response to my investigations of the history of community radio in Australia. However, for those involved in the establishment of 3ZZ Radio in Melbourne, their struggle was about more than broadcasting to their own cultural and linguistic communities. It had a greater social significance, and would change the nature of the Australian broadcasting sector. The history of 3ZZ Radio is an indicator of the social context in which it is set; that is, 1970s Australia. Its rise and plummet out of existence between 1974 and 1977 reflects both the winds of change brought about by Gough Whitlam, and the sudden roll-back of social progressivism by Malcolm Fraser. Pioneers of Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) community broadcasting in the 1970s considered its development as a great triumph against Anglo cultural dominance. However, the triumph was never complete. To this day, there remains an ongoing battle between community broadcasters and bureaucracies for funding and control.

Community Media & The Public Sphere

Media Studies: Key Issues & Debates, 2007

This chapter situates community media in relation to Habermas' seminal concept of the public sphere. Mini case studies illuminate the social, political and cultural significance of community media across the globe.