Ethnic Media

One of the great strengths of Australias culturally diverse society is its community language media. In print, on radio or television there is a treasure trove of information, viewpoints and opportunities to look inside any community. It also has a role in allowing anyone to maintain or improve their knowledge of a particular language. More significantly the community language media plays a significant and growing role in marketing and is a key tool in the process of whats called multicultural marketing.

Each language group is different from the others since media people come from different media traditions and different experiences of the concept of freedom of expression. The various media outlets also reflect different needs and different periods of settlement in Australia.

However they are surprisingly similar in one aspect, that the main stories dominating the mainstream media are very often on the front page or in the headlines of the non-English media as well. However the community media presents much more.

In radio, you can get a very broad news picture because many stations are 24 hours in the same language. Others stations have hour-long programmes in each language every day or in some cases a few times a week.

There are several full-time single language commercial radio stations covering Chinese, Arabic, Spanish and Italian. Some of these are subscription and require a special radio receiver. Radio 2000 is a full time multilingual community- based radio station and there at least 10 community radio stations who broadcast part-time in community languages. Government radio broadcasts on two frequencies in 68 languages and dialects.

All of this represents a very complete media picture and one which services our community well in helping the integration process, in marketing mainstream products and services directly to targeted audiences and in strengthening the democratic process by allowing everyone who votes to be fully informed through their own language about the issues and personalities involved in elections at local, state and federal level.