Archives: Autumn 2004
PCR-FM at the seams of Australian multiculturalism
Multiculturalism: back on the agenda
Multicultural community building and youth
Meet the Director of FECCA
1400 years of volunteer service! 3ZZZ honours long-term broadcasters
President's Pen
Autumn 2004: PCR-FM
at the seams of Australian multiculturalism
As you know we are currently off air and awaiting ABA's good wishes
to resume the allocation process. It may have been the first time
that PCR-FM attended the NEMBC Conference but not the last. We are
fighting on strongly and, all things being equal, are confident
to get the license on our own merits.
I would like to tell you a bit about PCR-FM's management issues
associated with being an Ethnic and youth station.
As you would be well aware, one of the problems of ethnic broadcasting
is to provide a “seam” between programs of various languages. Capital
city ethnic broadcasters may not have this problem as they generally
have a large pool of potential listeners. In our case – with a huge
diversity of small ethnic groups – listeners would switch off as
soon as their specific program finishes. I for example did not listen
to Tagalog programs simply because I do not understand the language.
The best example I can put forward to show the negative aspect of
the linguistic barrier is when I used to be a keen follower of greyhound
racing on the Sydney commercial radio 2KY, many years ago. At one
stage the program began to be broadcast in Italian, except for the
races broadcast in English by the TAB. That was sufficient to put
me off greyhound racing and I left the battler's racing scene for
the Sport of Kings. And this had nothing to do with anti-Italian
sentiments. It was simply bloody annoying.
Trying to partially overcome such problems we introduced “seam programs”
between various linguistic programs. At PCR-FM, all programs in
specific ethnic languages are preceded by a one-hour program (some
only 30 minutes) in English, in order to introduce to the listeners
the culture of the particular country. It had the effect of allowing
listeners to stay tuned even after “their” particular program had
finished.
There is nothing better than to listen to ethnic music and English
commentaries about the history and contemporary issues pertaining
to the country. As a matter of fact, it certainly would be a huge
improvement in multicultural acceptance and understanding of the
various cultures of the world if SBS TV were able to present its
excellent live World News with subtitles. Very often the images
are compelling but the context is lost without proper understanding
of the language.
So let’s come to the youth programs. As you may have guessed, it
is even more difficult to find a “seam” program between let’s say
a French program who broadcasts opera singers followed by a “heavy
metal music” program produced by youth. The transition from one
to the other is rather painful to the listeners and may even put
them off altogether from the station.
We have found an excellent program that smoothly links the “Old”
and the “Young”. There are 28 broadcasters only in Australia that
receive the prerecorded program “Radio Out There.” We are one of
only 13 community broadcasters in NSW that receives a free weekly
CD produced by youth for youth. It has proven to be an ideal program
to gently wean the “oldies” from any following contemporary youth
programs.
The structure of our programming is such that our youth have been
allocated exclusive air time from Friday midday to Saturday midday.
(They also have some spots during the weekdays.) We protect their
right to use their own contemporary language by preceding their
programs with an announcement from our management that states:
“The following program is a program produced and presented by the
youth for the youth of the Central Coast. PCR-FM management accepts
contemporary youth language and warns that some lyrics may offend
some conservative listeners. Gratuitous offensive language by presenters
is not acceptable and any complaints should be addressed to PO Box
1056 Gosford NSW 2250.”
Originally we moved to youth programs following a classical music
program and for us “Radio Out There” had proved to be an invaluable
tool of transition between discordant programs. You may or may not
be aware of the program produced by “Radio Out There” but if you
are not you could judge for yourself by logging onto their website
( www.radiooutthere.org ). Whether or not “Radio Out There” is a
useful program for other ethnic broadcasters is not vital but it
may throw an excellent challenge the NEMBC youth Committee to put
their thinking cap on and provide an Australian multicultural “seam”
program of their own.
PCR-FM’s philosophy about ethnic broadcasting is aligned with the
NSW “Principles of Multiculturalism Act 2000” which emphasises,
among other things, the benefits of multiculturalism to Australian
society, English being the common link. In other words it represents
“Australian Multiculturalism.”
One pleasing aspect about the NEMBC ethnic youth was brought to
me at our Saturday Conference dinner. As I was sitting at the table
I looked across to the next table where most of the youth had gathered
and I saw two things. I saw diversity but a unified diversity and
I also saw Australian Multiculturalism.
Most young Australians are proud of their roots, and rightly so,
but many youth do not speak the language of their parents. I believe
that keeping ethnic youth in an “ethnic pigeon hole” is not conducive
to furthering Australian multiculturalism.
At PCR-FM we have decided to merge our existing “ethnic youth coordinator”
and “youth coordinator” into one position, as we realised that “ethnic
youth” is already Australian youth without distinctions. Australia
has already evolved into a multicultural society, despite some troglodytes
still trying to make us believe otherwise.
The time has come to make a concerted effort to introduce ethnic
youth programs into prime time broadcasting and it was pleasing
to see that the NEMBC management had already identified and addressed
the issue. The challenge obviously will be to convince individual
ethnic broadcasters to support the inevitable but nothing is impossible
if there is goodwill. If we can nurture the enthusiasm and commitments
of our younger generation then the future of ethnic broadcasting
is in good hands.
Norbert Lindberg
PCR-FM
Norbert Lindberg
Back to top
Autumn 2004: Multiculturalism:
back on the agenda
Multiculturalism is a social policy that guarantees access and
diversity, and manages the processes necessary to ensure access
and diversity.
Access means providing all people, particularly those from cultural
and language backgrounds other than the dominant one, with the means
to participate fully in public life, working life and community
life.
But access without diversity is not enough. Assimilation is an example
of a policy that sets out to provide access without diversity.
Diversity describes the social reality of different cultural and
language backgrounds. Multicultural policies and practices reflect
and promote diversity as a fundamental social ethos.
But diversity without access often means that cultural differences
are trivialised so they become exotica; that ‘ethnic’ describes
cultures other than the mainstream and thus leaves this social division
the way it is; that issues of difference are marginalised by tokenistic
programs and difficult issues of access are not addressed; and that
a sense of forced homogeneity is replaced by an uneasy sense of
impending fragmentation.
Multiculturalism is a policy which makes diversity a resource for
access and through which access occurs without prejudice to diversity.
from a conference presentation by Mary Kalantzis
Back to top
Autumn 2004: Multicultural
community building and youth
In 2003, community broadcasting witnessed the emergence of new
youth radio stations in almost every state across the country. Two
of these stations, Edge Radio in Hobart and SYN FM in Melbourne
have been particularly active with youth communities and were rewarded
for their contributions at last year’s CBAA annual conference in
November. How exactly these new youth stations will effect ethnic
multicultural broadcasting remains to be seen but the early signs
are good, pointing towards a willingness from many of these stations
to engage with young ethnic communities and allow them a chance
to learn and develop their own program styles.
At the NEMBC conference in December, Patrick Abboud from SBS’s Radio
Alchemy demonstrated what multicultural youth radio can sound like
when careful thought and preparation is involved. The pieces that
were displayed were quite different from standard radio, using sound
effects, delays, repetition and multiple languages to communicate
to both English and non-English speaking listeners. The reality
is that with a minidisc recorder and a copy of CoolEdit Pro, this
level of production is possible even for volunteer community broadcasters
who have limited resources. Not everyone is comfortable behind the
microphone live on-air and making pre-produced pieces can be an
extra way of getting involved. Have fun with it and push the boundaries.
That’s what community radio is there for: to have a go and gain
experience.
A positive that came out of the NEMBC conference was the formation
of the new NEMBC Youth Committee for 2004/05. Sinéad Lee from 4EB
in Brisbane was elected as Convenor and state delegates include:
Anthony Colombo of NSW, Danijela Ivkovic of Tasmania, Mitu Kaur
of the Northern Territory, Abraham Kon Alier of SA, Naim Saifullah
of the ACT, Jagdeep Shergill of Victoria and Paula Tsakisiris of
WA. In coming months the Youth Committee will convene to discuss
issues concerning youth broadcasting and device policy and practice
to tackle these issues. If you have any suggestions or input you
can contact the committee by sending an email to youthcommittee@nembc.org.au.
For those youth broadcasters who live in Victoria, the NEMBC will
be holding an audio training day aimed at offering training and
development for young broadcasters from across the state and providing
advice and training from professional broadcasters. (For those outside
of Victoria, your station might be interested in funding your trip
- why not ask?) Young people under the age of thirty are welcome
to attend the free event which will be held on Saturday the 27th
of March at 10:00am at Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
(see p.15 for details). For more information contact Andrew Apostola
at the NEMBC office or visit the NEMBC website at www.nembc.org.au
for more details. Also, if you have a new program starting, let
us know. Send an email to youth@nembc.org.au telling us all about
it.
Andrew Apostola
Back to top
Autumn 2004: Meet the
Director of FECCA
Thank you for this opportunity to write about FECCA for NEMBC’s
magazine. In this short article I would like to talk a little about
FECCA, why issues to do with the media are very important for us,
and what we are doing that is media-related in our work plan.
FECCA is the national peak body that represents Australians from
diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. FECCA’s role is to
advocate, lobby and promote issues on behalf of its constituency
to government, business and the broader community. Established in
1979, FECCA is a non-political community-based organisation. Apart
from its national office professional staff, it is supported by
the work a voluntary Executive Council.
FECCA promotes Multiculturalism as a core value that defines what
it means to be Australian in the 21st century. FECCA works to protect
the fundamental rights of all Australians, regardless of culture,
spirituality, gender, language, social status, political or other
affiliations. Our goal is to enrich and enhance Australian society
through the fullest participation of all members of the community
by:
– promoting full access and equity;
– advocating community harmony and the celebration of diversity;
– championing human rights, and
– arguing that multiculturalism as central to the social, economic
and cultural health of Australia in the 21st century.
The subject of the media is very important to FECCA: it is one of
the “bread and butter” issues for communities.
The media particularly came to the fore as a priority area early
in 2003 with the impending war with Iraq. Out of that crisis was
born the group APERO (the Australian Partnership of Ethnic and Religious
Organisations). This is a “peak of peaks” body for which FECCA provides
secretariat services, it is an Australian-first attempt to bring
together both leaders in ethnic and faith communities in a formal
and ongoing way. APERO has endorsed a statement of shared values
and works to promote these through our various constituencies.
APERO and FECCA very much support the concepts of community harmony,
social justice, access and equity, and of mutual co-operation, acceptance
and respect between communities. The vital elements to building
this better understanding are destigmatisation, ending stereotyping
and promoting factual information. In the many discussions held
a year ago, the role of the media was considered vital.
By the media we mean both ethnic and mainstream media, and media
in its various forms (primarily television, print, radio and the
internet). It is through the media that all community members receive
information that they regard as credible. It is therefore vital
that FECCA and APERO need to target the media to achieve their over-arching
goals – indeed this has become a primary goal.
Some issues that have been identified as of critical importance
include:
– news room diversity and the “culture” of news broadcasting which
can often be sensational, stereotyping, looking for victims and
lazy. In this, the role of the editor is considered vital.
– An ethnic media that does not encourage the introduction of any
of the prejudices or conflicts in other parts of the world into
Australia.
– The training of the next generation of journalists. While media
organisation culture can change attitudes amongst journalists, it
is nevertheless considered vital that tertiary curricula encourage
curiosity and professionalism in the report of issues to do with
cultural pluralism, social justice and religious affairs.
– The lack of knowledge generally about diverse cultural and faith
communities by journalists – young as well as experienced – and
the uncertainty about where to find both credible information and
community contacts. This is what so often leads to stereotyping.
FECCA is therefore working with its partners in APERO and elsewhere
to make a contribution to changing some of the entrenched culture
in the media. We are publishing our next edition of our quarterly
magazine (Australian mosaic) on the issue. We are building up our
website to contain as much useful information about communities
as we can – the goal here is to “network” multicultural Australia
– and to provide a portal to credible information for journalists.
We hope to eventually establish an “on-line press room” for use
by people working in the news media.
FECCA has also been actively involved in issues relating to the
Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in recent months. We have held
a meeting with the management team at SBS and have lobbied to cease
broadcast of the VTV4 news program from Vietnam. Community consultations
about SBS Television are anticipated in 2004 and FECCA welcomes
the opportunity to be an active partner with SBS in this process.
There are a number of other matters that we hope can be addressed
in a continuing spirit of mutual co-operation between ethnic communities
and SBS. A vibrant, national multicultural broadcaster that works
closely with, and listens to, its constituency as an outcome we
both want.
FECCA is also working with some program managers at schools of journalism
and professional communications to explore ways we can encourage
better curricula development at tertiary institutions. Training
the next generation of journalists is one critical way to change
reporting practice. We are also piloting an Award in Multicultural
Journalism targeting trainee journalists and encouraging them to
think, and write, positively about cultural diversity.
APERO, FECCA and the Australian Multicultural Foundation are also
hoping to collaborate on a media forum to be held in Sydney before
the end of the 2003-04 financial year.
Much of this relates to the mainstream media. However, FECCA has
also identified that it is most important to work with ethnic media
as well. We hope to build closer relationships with many of the
print and electronic ethnic media outlets by improving our communications
with the sector.
FECCA has a draft media policy. We intend to establish a media policy
committee within the next year. The responsibility for this committee
will be to refine the policy document, provide advice to FECCA on
emerging issues relating to the media and, where possible, assist
with advocacy work.
Additional information about FECCA’s draft media policy, Australian
mosaic, journalism awards, media releases relating to SBS, APERO
and other issues raised in this article can all be found on our
website: www.fecca.org.au.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the important role that NEMBC
plays in the ethnic media in Australia. FECCA recognises NEMBC as
the peak body for Australian ethnic media and that you are a professional,
specialist organisation with the expertise to advise FECCA on many
issues of shared concern. In recent months we have began to communicate
a little better, but this must improve. I therefore look forward
to FECCA/NEMBC partnerships in the years ahead around issues to
do with building a more responsible, engaged mainstream media and
an even more vibrant ethnic media that meets the needs of the communities
we have both been established to represent and serve.
Conrad Gershevitch
Back to top
Autumn 2004: 1400 years of volunteer service! 3ZZZ honours long-term broadcasters3ZZZ honoured 140 of its volunteers who have given more than 10 years service to their communities at a presentation ceremony held atVictoria’s Parliament House on Wednesday November 12 last year.
The event was hosted by the Minister for Aged Care, Gavin Jennings MLC, and was attended by more than 250 people including family members of the volunteers and government dignitaries.
3ZZZ President, George Zangalis, said it was a great opportunity to say thank you: “Many of these volunteers have been coming to the station since it started 14 years ago. Week in, week out they collect information from their communities and prepare and present their programs. We also ask them to help fundraise for the station. There’s no doubt without volunteers we would not operate. This is a small way we can say thank you.”
The 140 volunteers were presented with a Certificate of Achievement, together with a specially made token to acknowledge the efforts, dedication and hard work they had contributed to 3ZZZ.
Volunteers from the following communities were honoured: Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, Austrian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, Egyptian, Esperanto, Filipino, German, Greek, Hmong, Hungarian, Indonesian, Indian, Iraqi, Italian, Laotian, Lebanese, Macedonian, Maltese, Mauritian, Malaysian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sri Lankan, Slovenian, Spanish-speaking, Syrian, Tamil, Turkish-Cypriot and Ukrainian.
3ZZZ hopes to be able to repeat the event every few years to ensure all volunteers receive recognition for their valuable service. 3ZZZ Back to top
Autumn 2004: President's PenUse our stations to campaign for government funds
With an election looming, perhaps earlier than later this year, and the federal government now preparing its 2004-2005 budget, ethnic and other community broadcasters obviously need to act immediately to get active community and political party support for a badly needed increase in federal government funding.
Our role in informing, educating and entertaining ethnic Australians – in places where no other ethnic program reaches, and doing this in a non-discriminatory, multicultural way – has never been more important than now, with so much divisiveness, conflict and uncertainty in the world, including Australia.
Our willingness and capacity to maintain and extend this role is, however, restricted by declining government support. The last time we had an increase for ethnic and other community broadcasting was in 1996. Although government support covers no more than 20% of all money required to run ethnic community broadcasting (the community raises the rest, in addition to voluntary work), this subsidy is absolutely crucial to the very existence of ethnic broadcasting.
The best way to promote our services and get public and political support is to use the one hundred radio stations from which we broadcast in one hundred languages. Politicians love the microphones in radio stations, especially when an election is on – and a close one in particular. Invite them to your program and make them answer your questions about their and their party’s support for ethnic community broadcasting.
More than 3,000,000 people listen to community radio. Invite community leaders to your program. Ask them to talk to, or better write to, all parties to support funding for community broadcasting. Tell your listeners why funding is important and how they can do something about it. Ask your station to organise an on air debate about funding.
Our first attempts to get political parties to listen to us have already begun – meetings were held on Thursday 19 February with Daryl Williams, Minister for Communications, and with Lindsay Tanner, the ALP’s spokesperson on media. More will follow.
But one thing we know for sure: a meeting and even a sympathetic hearing with ministers and shadows is no substitute for community action if results are to follow. In the queue for government funds, let’s make sure we are not last when we have the ability – via our one hundred radio stations – to be up the front. George Zangalis Back to top
|
