1995 Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings, Sydney
Cultural Diversity and the Media:
the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Experience in Australia
Ms Sawsan Madina
Head of Television, SBS, Australia
Twenty-five years ago, I was preparing to immigrate to Australia. I had heard about the 'White Australia' policy, stayed out of the sun and went shopping for make-up a shade lighter than the one I normally wore. I never imagined then that one day I would stand to speak in praise of Australian's achievements in managing diversity. But here I am, and I am really pleased to be here.
This afternoon, I would like to tell you a story about a unique media organisation and the way it has been contributing to making Australia a more cohesive, a more equitable and a more harmonious society. I will try to paint a picture of the Australia I came to in 1970 and today's Australia and I will argue that one of the causes of the change has been this unique media organisation: the Special Broadcasting Service, Australia's multicultural and multilingual broadcaster, MY SBS.
The Australia I came to in 1970 was very different from today's Australia. It was a culturally diverse society in which diversity was unacceptable. There were basically two kinds of people: Australians, and migrants. Australians were those who thought of themselves as British. They had an Anglocentric approach to life. When they went overseas, their first point of call was London. They were suspicious of Asians. With the help of the "White Australia" policy, they made sure that no one looking too different would immigrate and settle amongst them. Migrants were people who came from far away, spoke in foreign tongues and kept to themselves. They worked in factories, milk bars and Chinese restaurants. On weekends they wore strange, folkloric dress and danced in their clubs.
There ought to have been another group but there wasn't. Our indigenous people who had lived in this country for 40,000 years were not regarded as part of the Australian society. In fact until 1967 they were not even citizens.
In the Australia of 1970 children were taught the history, literature and values of Britain and not much else. The little Australian history that was taught, was taught from an Anglocentric perspective.
In 1970, a good Australian meal was a T-bone stake with mashed potatoes and green peas accompanied by a beer. If there was no time, a meat pie would do.
So what was the media like in those days? The two kinds of Australian people I spoke about were served a heavy diet of American programs with some British side dishes. Australian-made programs reflected the lives and values of those Australians who thought of themselves as British. It did not reflect the lives and values of those who worked in the factories, the milk bars and the Chinese restaurants. And of course it did not reflect the lives or values of Australia's indigenous people.
Almost all broadcasts were in English. It is forgotten today that until 1957 all newspapers and broadcasts in Australia had to be in English because of fear of subversion. This, despite the large post-World War Two immigration of non-English speakers.
A few weeks ago, I went to the library to find out the types of television programs Australians were watching in 1970, no feast of intelligent culturally-diverse programs I am afraid. In 1970,on our television screens Superman was relentlessly fighting for the American Way of Life, Hawaii Five O's Steve McGarret was defending the American Way of Life, FBI was doing the same but on mainland USA, Star Trek was boldly carrying the American Way of Life to where no one has gone before and Gunsmoke, late at night, was blasting everything that did not fit the American Way of Life. On our screens, we also watched the intelligent and subtle "Carry on Films", Carry on Matron, Carry on Doctor, Carry on Sergeant and Carry on Nurse. The latter described as a bed panorama of British life with plenty of double meanings about buttocks, bosoms and bedpans!
Watching and listening to the news, one would have been forgiven for assuming that the globe was made of Britain and the United States. Strange places like China were close enough to appear threatening yet too far away to understand. They were different. Their people were different.
Sport was weeks of endless cricket. Cricket in the morning, cricket in the afternoon, cricket on news,never mind that war, what is the cricket score?
The faces we saw on our television screens and the voices we heard on our radios did not reflect the diverse reality in which we lived. There were no black faces, no yellow faces and no strange accents.
That was the Australia I came to in 1970. Today, Australia is an exciting, vibrant, diverse society in which cultural differences are viewed as social and economic strengths. Today Australia is a society coming-of-age. There is a sense of "aren't we lucky" to be living in a society so rich in languages and cultures. It is generally accepted that all Australians have the right to express and share their individual cultures. It is generally accepted that all Australians have the right to participate fully in Australian society. In today's Australia, children learn much more about Australia's history than their parents did.
The change in attitudes over the past twenty-five years has been remarkable. Many would argue not enough. Of course, not enough. And of course, there is the big blot on the record when it comes to redressing the wrongs done to Australia's indigenous people. Nevertheless the change has been remarkable. We have changed from a parochial, mono-cultural British colony into a functioning, cosmopolitan, multicultural society. A society not without problems and not without pain but a society that functions. We have had no riots, no racial violence, no civil unrest, no bloodshed. Did it just happen? No. Would it have happened anyway? I doubt it.
I believe things changed because the government adopted multiculturalism as a public policy. Things changed because the government introduced a number of measures to manage diversity. One of these measures is SBS. And given the power of the electronic media, it has been one of the most effective tools in getting Australia to accept differences.
SBS is a unique broadcaster. It was established 15ÿyears ago to (and I quote from its Charter) "provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians, and, in doing so reflects Australia's multicultural society". Funded mainly by the government, SBS is charged with the mission of contributing to a more cohesive, a more equitable and a more harmonious society. Its radio and television arms broadcast nationally 18 hours a day, 7 days a week in over 70ÿlanguages. It is Australia's smallest broadcaster, at least in terms of budget, yet it has become a cultural force within Australia and has contributed to changing both the Australian media landscape and society.
The radio arm is predominantly multilingual. Its schedules are structured around individual language programs. So we have a Spanish language program, a Cantonese language program, a Yiddish language program and so on. These programs help the various communities maintain their languages. They also provide them with information about Australia and its institutional structures. They encourage them to participate in Australia's political, social and artistic life. To a newly arrived refugee, with little or no English, traumatic experiences fresh in mind and new systems and rules to negotiate,to that person SBS Radio is a life line. To a member of an old established community, SBS Radio is valuable in maintaining a cultural identity.
The television arm is predominantly multicultural. It broadcasts programs for all Australians and its emphasis is on cross-cultural viewing. It broadcasts news, current affairs, sport and other programs produced in-house or in Australia. And it broadcasts programs bought from countries around the world.
SBS Television seeks to promote an understanding of other cultures. It seeks to expose Australians to the widest possible range of cultures and perspectives. It seeks to reflect the diversity of Australian society. It seeks to counter prejudice, racism and discrimination. It seeks to counter stereotyping.
Because of its mission, SBS's approach to programming is quite different from that of other broadcasters. Its programming is not only diverse, it is also intelligent, innovative and quality, often controversial and provocative and, on occasions, distasteful or even offensive to particular individuals or groups.
The look of SBS is also different from that of the other broadcasters. On SBS you can see Greek, Chinese and Aboriginal faces and you can hear a variety of accents.
Language is of particular importance to SBS and the way we deal with it reflects our belief that culture and language are inseparable. Fifty per cent of programs on SBS Television are in English and fifty per cent in languages other than English. This allows us to reach a wide audience in Australia's common language and at the same time to reflect the country's linguistic diversity and help various communities maintain their first language.
As someone who travels daily between two languages I cannot begin to describe the joy of hearing one's first language on national television and radio. I learnt English as a primary school child, loved the language and enjoyed practising it. Today it is the language I think in when I am in the office. However, my first language, Arabic, retains a strong hold on me. It is the language I think in when I am at home. When I hear it on SBS Television or Radio, I feel good. I feel I do not have to renounce my childhood and adolescence in order to become a real Australian. I feel I do not have to forget about the first poem I ever read and the first time I heard the words "I love you".
To make our non-English television programs accessible to a wider Australian audience and thereby promote cross-cultural understanding we subtitle them in English. At SBS we do not dub. We subtitle because we believe that subtitling preserves the integrity of the program. It allows the viewer to hear the voices of Maria Callas, Chairman Mao rather than voices of those acting their parts. Our subtitlers are internationally renowned. Their work is a labour of love. They seek to reflect faithfully the ambience of the program, the impact of the original language, its subtle nuances.
About 4.2 million Australians tune into SBS Television every week. They enjoy their own culture and venture into other cultures. Everytime they dip into another culture they come to appreciate things different rather than fear them. They learn to think against the background of a diverse society.
By now, some of you must have concluded that SBS is some type of propaganda service. It is not. We are funded by the government but independent of it. Our journalists adhere to a Code of Ethics and follow the journalistic principles of factual, accurate and balanced reporting of events. We seek to contribute to a more cohesive society but we do not broadcast "good news" messages about the communities. We reflect the reality of diversity and explore the positives and negatives within each community and within the overall diverse society. We do not shy away from sacred cows or taboo subjects.
I spoke earlier about the television diet in 1970. Today the American Way of Life still dominates our screens and the British component is still considerable. However, on SBS one can see the world and real Australia. For example, this week on SBS one can watch "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", a documentary exploring death as it is dealt with in Tibetan Buddhist culture; "Happy Birthday, Turk!", a German film about Kamal, a Turk raised by German foster parents; or "Black River", an opera film in which an Aboriginal women relives the horror of her son's death in custody. One can also watch "Combination Platter", a Cantonese film about a Chinese waiter's pursuit of a Green Card and his life in America. "Karachi Kops" is a documentary series in Urdu about the work of the Pakistani police force. "Why Wasn't He There?" is a Hungarian film about a young Jewish girl who relates shattering events that took place during the war.
Australia's experience in managing diversity has been remarkable. It is far from perfect but it is the best I know of as I travel around and read about our fragile world.
SBS has made a large difference to the way people perceive differences. It has always been small but its influence on the media and the attitudes of this country has been immense. It has been actively involved in the creation of a new Australia, an Australia that is culturally no longer an outpost of Britain, no longer a Pacific base of the United States, no longer a European enclave at the edge of an enigmatic Asia. A cohesive diverse Australia which is equally comfortable with its Asian neighbours as with its European and American ties.
In conclusion, I would like to read you two paragraphs from Robert Hughes' book "Culture of Complaint". In his book, Hughes criticises the politics and culture of his adopted country and offers a brilliant defence of multiculturalism.
Here is the first paragraph: "Who talks of 'Asians' now,even as we utter our vague generalizations about 'European' culture? There are only Chinese, Japanese, Indonesians, Cambodians and within even these national categories lie complexities of identity and heritage that are lost on the distant foreigner. But my father thought ever more abstractly than this. He rarely mentioned Asia to me. He called it the Far East, meaning the Near North, and would not have considered going there. Far East of where? East of Eden: that is, east of England, a country in which, by his death, he had spent less than three of his fifty-six years, in between tours of duty flying a Sopwith Camel in France for his King and Empire in World War 1. Today, if you asked a twelve-year old Australian boy what he thought about 'the East', he might hesitate: what does the oldie mean? New Zealand is in the east; maybe he means that, or Peru, which is even farther east."
The second paragraph reads: "It is probable that young Australians, away down there in what so many Americans still persist in imagining as a sort of Texas conducted by other means at the bottom of the globe, have a far better picture of the rest of the world Near North included,than their American equivalents have or are likely to get. They have been given it by education and, of late, by television: the Australian government sponsors not just a few programs but an entire network channel, SBS, broadcasting seven days a week, which presents news, documentaries, film and commentary from all over the world, in twenty languages from Arabic to Tagalong (with English subtitles). One can imagine the howls of outrage about 'cultural fragmentation' that would issue from the mandarins of American conservatism if Washington were to even think of spending taxpayers' money on such a scheme in the United States. Yet if SBS's programming has any effect on the Australian policy it is probably to cement it through mutual tolerance and curiosity rather than to fragment it into zones of cultural selfinterest. In Australia, no Utopia but a less truculent immigrant society than this one, intelligent multiculturalism works to everyone's social advantage, and the conservative crisis,talk about creating 'a cultural tower of Babel' and so forth is seen as obsolete alarmism of a fairly low order."
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