Ethnic content: the other Australia

Our society is constantly being shaped by a constant influx of immigrants from all cultural backgrounds, and the influences they bring with them. But for a country that prides itself on its multiculturalism, there is a very limited amount of ‘ethnic’ content in the media, aimed specifically at these groups. Aravind Balasubramaniam reports.

The statistics are well known,” said audio and language content director at SBS, Dirk Anthony. “One in four Australians is either born overseas or has parents of migrant backgrounds, so it is very important that we recognise that fact and continue to be able to communicate Australian messages in the relevant languages”.
The media landscape appears not to have evolved with this increase in migrant population and the consequent growth in demand for specialised content. When taking into consideration the early identification
of the Hispanic population in the U.S as a potential market, Australia’s reaction is afflicted with a sense of lethargy. Since the 1950s, the US has seen the growth of Spanish language broadcasters such as Telemundo
and the emergence of other networks from the mid 80s onwards, like Univision.
In Australia, SBS has been assigned the responsibility of communicating with non-English speaking background (NESB) communities.

“Throughout the 30 years of television and the 35 years of radio at SBS, the key task has been to help encourage multiculturalism across the cultures in the country”, said Anthony.
SBS was launched as an innovative radio service with the frequencies 3EA and 2EA, at a time when the Federal Government needed to communicate with the new Australians that were arriving – about, for example, Medicare, the then-new universal health service introduced in 1975. Five years later, SBS TV became a platform to expose Australians to other cultures, both the ones around the world, and the ones living here. It also started offering its ethnic language news services for migrants.
Traditionally, the ethnic communities of Australia needed sport, music, entertainment and movies in their native languages to maintain a link to the homeland – or because they wanted to teach the language and
the culture to their children. Community-specific print and radio outlets have been producing content locally for decades, but in terms of television – including SBS – most of this content has been brought directly from overseas.
Local production companies are now starting to create programs to target these niche markets.

A LOCAL SERVICE
The 1990s saw the arrival of a new medium, the internet, which gave ethnic communities access to information directly from their home countries without the need for intermediates. The challenge for SBS
to remain relevant was to provide information about Australia to these communities, in their own languages.
Launched on November 24, SBS’s latest project targets the Chinese community. Mandarin News Australia was conceived to work alongside with the Chinese Virtual Community website, and presents new opportunities for content creation and demand.