Archives: Autumn 2002

Barriers to Broadcasting

Identity, Language & Broadcasting

AMRAP

Autumn 2002: Barriers to Broadcasting

Below are some of the barriers identified by the NEMBC as making it difficult for emerging and refugee communities to become ethnic community broadcasters. Most of the barriers are common to both refugee and emerging communities although some of them are probably more significant for refugees. These barriers have been identified after consultations with communities, broadcasters, stations and organisations working with emerging communities.

Don't know about community radio

Many new migrants don't know that community radio exists in Australia. The importance of information being available about ethnic community broadcasting in the languages of emerging communities cannot be underestimated. Other strategies include incorporating ethnic radio information in DIMIA services and 'visits to the radio station' into English language teaching courses.

Lack of English skills

Communities with low literacy rates in English are less likely to access the information needed to start a radio program.

Lack of awareness of funding and training available

Many community members and organisations had no idea that funding was available for programs and that training could also be arranged. If the government fails to refund the Australian Ethnic Radio Training Project (AERTP) this will be an enormous impediment to the involvement of emerging and refugee communities in broadcasting. Without these funds specific funds for training emerging and refugee communities will need to be found.

Lack of confidence

This was especially the case with women's groups and was linked to both a lack of English but also the dislocation which is experienced after migration.

Lack of mobility

Transport is one of the biggest obstacles in large cities and especially in relation to women's groups. Arranging transport or funding for transport is the solution.

Making radio may not be a priority during the first stages of settlement

Where communities are newly settled they are in the process of finding employment, training, housing etc. While they would certainly be listeners of the program, many may not be able to get involved in making the program.

Not enough people from the community wanting to get involved to sustain a weekly program

Many stations only offer weekly programs to communities as the path to become a broadcaster. The sector needs to create a development path into stations for emerging communities who cannot sustain weekly programs from the start. This can include radio projects, special broadcasts, segments, being part of a multicultural program, etc.

Not able to sign up enough people as members in order to qualify for the broadcast hours where it is required

Once again, this is a question of economics and priorities in the first stages of settlement. The lack of awareness of ethnic community broadcasting amongst community members also makes paying membership fees difficult. Stations with this sort of requirement need to waive it for emerging and refugee communities

Lack of resources to pay for the airtime where applicable

Some stations charge for their airtime and in many cases broadcasters rely on sponsorship and donations to pay their fees. Smaller communities cannot rely on sponsorship or donations. Again stations with this requirement need to waive it for emerging and refugee communities

Lack of airtime

Some stations identify the lack of airtime as a reason new communities aren?t on air. Some stations identified the need to reshape their programming to accommodate new groups in their stations.

Stations under resourced and therefore aren't proactive

Community radio stations are very under resourced organisations and do not have the human or financial resources to provide outreach and specialist services to emerging communities. Stations that want to work with emerging communities will need to strengthen their links with local settlement services and be proactive in the development of radio projects for new communities. To do this they will need to find additional sources of funds for such projects.

Lack of opportunity to come in contact/participate with the station

Stations need to develop station visits and open days, as well as inviting potential broadcasters to station events. They need to have Migrant Resource Centres and emerging community organisations participating in the station.

Flexible training

In some cases emerging communities are made up mostly of men. Other communities have significant groups of women with children and no male member of the family. Training needs to be both flexible and meet the specific needs of emerging communities to ensure all parts of these communities have access to the airwaves.

NEMBC

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Autumn 2002: Identity, Language & Broadcasting

Below is an edited extract from Professor Michael Singh's speech delivered at last year?s conference dealing with the issues of identity, language and broadcasting. A copy of his speech in full is available from the NEMBC web site at www.nembc.org.au/conf2001/

Alfred Deakin, the founding Attorney General of a federated Australia, three times Prime Minister and among the most influential advocates of Federation proclaimed its corporate vision thus:

'that we should be one people,
and remain one people,
without the admixture of other races'

That the century of the Federation's failed social experiment to create a Whites-only Australia has now passed is cause for celebration. However, Anglo-fundamentalism, White Australia politics and the tensions associated with these legacies of colonial racisms are still with us.

Identity, language and broadcasting

Australian identity is incorrectly seen as being inextricably bound up with the English language. English is mistakenly taken as a sign of national identity and identity conversion. Anglo-fundamentalists see multilingualism as weakening their dominating power to dictate what it means to be 'Australian,' and their promotion of policies of cultural and linguistic exclusionism.

Australian ethnic broadcasters have struggled long with efforts to reject vernacular broadcasting and the denigration of languages. In doing so they have demonstrated that it is not necessary to prescribe English-only broadcasting in order to create an egalitarian sense of Australianness that embraces Anglo-ethnics and all Other Australians.

To suggest that Australianness cannot survive the incorporation of bi and multilingualism implies a static conception of Australian history and denies social dynamics. The point is that Australian identity must change in response to its growing admixture of Other Australians through the creation of visible markers that express the new found desires of the admixture of Anglo-ethnics with all Other Australians, Indigenous and immigrant alike.

Critical language awareness

Australia's ethnic broadcasters are playing a significant role in developing their listeners' consciousness of the debates over the sustainability of linguistic diversity, sustaining egalitarian multilingualism; laying claim to and redefining constructions of Australianness.

'Australian ethnic broadcasters offer a view of languages, culture and identity as dynamic - as constantly adjusting to social pressures' (Ivaanic, 1990). This is a positive expression of the power of people to change the status and use of languages in this society. Multilingual broadcasting plays an important role in shaping the day-to-day practices of Australian multiculturalism through:

recognising and making explicit the power people have to influence changes in language use and identity construction in Australia;

promoting a commitment to the sustainability of linguistic diversity within Australia and beyond, and

encouraging a commitment to appropriating and remaking the Australian identity and Australian English(es).

Understanding language

Australian ethnic broadcasters perform an important function by talking with people about their understandings of how Australia?s languages are shaped by social and historical forces. Instead of regarding monolingual fluency in English as everyone?s ideal, they ask really useful questions such as: What are the social forces that value English monolingualism over bi- or multilingualism? How do we work to give value to, and gain value for Australia's bi- and multilingualism? How do power relations affect language use?

'There are concerns about the English language?s colonisation of the space of other languages, knowledge and identities' (Crystal, 2000; Nettle and Romaine 2000). It is in this context that standardised Australian English can be regarded as a mask that hides the loss of many of Australia's Indigenous and immigrant languages.

So many of these languages have been forcibly suppressed despite the efforts of active citizens who have struggled for years to overturn bans on the teaching of these languages. Now the project of globalising English is cause for concern as it threatens the sustainability of global linguistic diversity.

What language means

Australian ethnic broadcasters talk to people about how they feel about learning and using standardised Australian English and about the political press for English-only monolingualism. Ethnic broadcasters also play an important role in publicly airing how people feel about the language/s they already use; about their multiple, trans-national identities.

Further, broadcasters make their audiences aware of how language is used in ways that are demeaning, disrespectful, offensive, or exclusive. People?s experiences of being labelled, patronised or excluded are discussed. Knowing what the differences are means that your listeners know about the choices they have and can make informed choices.

It is important to engage people in an examination and development of their own language use on the basis of 'person respecting' principles. This involves discussing anti-racist and anti-sexist issues regarding language use. This helps people to understand that there are differences between 'person respecting' and offensive sexist and racist language. Finding out from people what they find offensive and what they prefer instead is a valuable public service.

Choosing the language we use

Australian ethnic broadcasters are instrumental in giving their listeners the self- assurance to make choices in how they use language and which language they use. This self-assurance is developed through talk back discussions that explore understandings of social situations, knowing the options for language use, and knowing the consequences of using different languages.

These on-air discussions provide a measure of confidence building ? or even assertiveness training ? with respect to people?s rights regarding language use, and can be supported with reference to relevant laws and agencies relating to anti-discrimination, human rights and equal opportunities.

Once listeners understand that the rules of accuracy and appropriateness of language use are not forever fixed but subject to social influences they have a better sense of the choices they can make. They may want to choose between conforming to the social rules governing language use and thereby reproduce existing conventions as they are, or they may want to challenge them to help break new ground.

Sometimes bilingual Australians choose to conform to the convention of appearing to be an English-only monolingual speaker because opposing this practice is too demanding. Most bilingual Australians try very hard to use standardised Australian English in a job interview; typically they conform to this convention in the pursuit of their material interests.

An enhanced awareness of language can help people to conform to these conventions 'with their eyes and ears wide open', thereby recognising the compromises they are making, helping them to identify their feelings about this, and enabling them to maintain a positive, independent self-image.

Bilingual Australians need opportunities to discuss how they might weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of challenging the conventions associated with English-only politics. Ethnic broadcasters help bilingual Australians understand that they too can contribute to changing English-only politics, and that if they do not, egalitarian multilingualism will have less chance of becoming a reality.

Bilingual Australians can contribute to normalising multilingualism as part of everyday practices. They may sometimes feel confident and safe enough to explain to Anglophones to pronounce their names properly, and thereafter ask them to do so. They may make a speech in their first language at a public gathering that includes many Anglophones - and not translate it. They may code switch during a public presentation without feeling guilty - and without apologising. Clearly ethnic broadcasters are dealing with important language issues.

Professor Singh, Professor of Language and Culture, RMIT University

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Autumn 2002: AMRAP

Music For Your [Listeners?] Ears

Amrap is project designed to increase the amount of Australian recorded music played on community radio.

Apart from funding stations to produce compilation CDs. Amrap also offers a CD Distribution service to help Australian musicians get promotional copies of their CDs to community radio stations.

Musicians and record labels provide as many copies as they can afford of their CDs and Amrap distributes them to stations based on what sort of music is on the CD and which stations play that sort of music.

CDs are always sent from Amrap to a station address and it's worth checking in the record library and with the station manager to see if anything new has arrived recently. CDs are always marked clearly with an Amrap sticker that identifies the genre of music it is and highlights any specific language groups it may be of interest to. Below is a selection of CDs that Amrap has handled recently that may be of interest.

Inka Marka

On the Black Market record label, this was distributed to stations at the start of February. It?s a wonderfully produced CD that seeks to 'capture the rhythm of Andean life' and features pan flutes, charango, quena, guitar and goat skin drum.

Can Belto

Can Belto are a choir from Canberra whose independently released CD was distributed to stations in December 2001. Can Belto?s repertoire features material in many different languages. This CD features songs from Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Croatia, and Czechoslovakia.

Vu Is Dus Gazele

Released on the AM Records label and was distributed to stations in March. This compilation CD of contemporary and traditional Yiddish music addresses the Jewish experience and in particular the experience of Russian Jews.

Zephyr

Probably best described as a mix between world, pop and ambient music, we've included this one because of the rave review it got from Paul Pearman Station Manager of Perth station 6EBA. It went out to stations in February.

Culture Connect

One for the younger broadcasters. This hip hop outfit come from Darwin and feature a line up of members with diverse cultural backgrounds (PNG, Pacific Islands, Caribbean and West Indian). It?s all in English and there's some occasional coarse language but it's a dynamic, clever record that deserves attention.

Their CD was distributed to stations in September last year but they also had a track on the compilation CD that Amrap produced in conjunction with the noise festival. This CD also featured a beautiful electronic track by Poh Weng, under the name 'Antarctic Bear' which he describes as 'fusing traditional music with the modern electronica'.

If you know of musicians in your community who have produced CDs and could benefit from this Amrap service, please give them the Amrap contact details and we will do our best to help them out.

Paul Mason, AMRAP Coordinator, pmason@cbaa.org.au, ph 02 9310 2999

Paul Mason

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