Australia, ready to embrace diversity in media

According to US transmedia expert Jeff Gomez, Australians are more ready to embrace ethnic and culturally diverse projects than many Americans, but the media must first eradicate the sense of “otherness” they attribute to certain groups.

“The properties that we choose to work with tend to have international casts and universal themes, but it seems to my highly untrained eye that the Australian media’s default is to seal ethnics and natives in an envelope of otherness,” Gomez told Encore.

Gomez is the CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, an animation and live-action film company. He’s transformed intellectual properties (Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince of Persia, Tron, Halo, Avatar, Transformers, Hot Wheels, etc) into successful transmedia franchises, extending toys, animation or videogame titles across multiple platforms, evolving them into narratives and therefore, multiple revenue streams.

Recently in Melbourne for XMediaLab: Film Extended, Gomez said that diversity can make Australian stories more distinct, memorable and resonant with a global generation growing up right now “that simply accepts diversity”.