Identity and Nationalism
Identity refers to a set of shared values and beliefs. Australianness is what constitutes the Australian identity. The identity does not stem from the geographical boundaries but the shared beliefs. Identity can be termed as a proxy of Nationalism (Coady, 2017). A nation is an imagined group of individuals who exhibit some form of cultural similarities. On the other hand, Nationalism refers to an individual's attachment to the predefined set of values and belief. A particular group's identity distinguishes it from other groups. The identity represents their historical backgrounds, past achievements among others. It is apparent that identity is highly regarded by communities. Some of the Australian identities include masculinity, National phantasm among others. Those mentioned above are enshrined in the belief system of the Australians.
The Role of Media in Shaping the Australian Identity
In any state, the role of the media is to either inform or entertain. Through these acts of either informing or entertaining people, media shapes up public opinions. It is thus apparent that media is a tool for promoting the Australian identity by shaping public opinion. However, globalisation has made the world seem like a small village. Hence, most of the Australians can access lots of foreign content from foreign media easily. The foreign content is a threat to the Australian identity as it erodes some of the values. In this essay, we examine how the media either undermines or builds the different surrogates of dominant Australianness.
Media's Influence on Masculinity
Masculinity is a core tenet of the Australian national identity. It is enshrined in the Australian culture. Men are supposed to be brave and assertive. They are required to assume the leading roles in the society. The concept of Masculinity is present in the Australian National anthem, where there is a suggestion that the sons of Australia should rejoice because of their youth and freedom. No reference is made to the daughters perhaps showing the marginalised role they play in the society. The marginalisation of the women is also observed in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. Contrary to the expectations, both men and women were present in the opening ceremony arena. However, the discrimination became apparent when there was a representation of men as lawn mowers and builders. The men were depicted as helping build Australia to its present-day status. However, there was no presentation of pregnant women or women performing domestic chores, clearly showing the reduced importance that was placed on the role of women in the Australian culture.
The Role of Australian Media in Shaping Masculinity
The Australia media has played a pivotal role in both constructing and challenging the Australian culture of Masculinity. Different media platforms such as podcasts, radio, and television stations in Australia have often run gender stereotypes messages (Price, 2010). For instance, televisions adverts such as Tooheys Tall men portray the Australian idea of masculinity that beer is always associated with men. It is the men who are supposed to drink and not women. A young child exposed to such content will grow up knowing that drinking is a luxury left only for men. Again, another advert such as Honda Crv Dress for it tends to depict the image that men only own cars in Australia. It is not that there are no women in Australia who possess Honda Crvs, it is instead the general culture of masculinity. Big toys such as cars are associated with men. The ABC advert ironing is wonderful further posits the notion that the role of women in the Australian culture is restricted to only the house. From the above examples, it is apparent that the media helps construct the cultural identity of masculinity among Australians. The Aussie blokes are supposed to be the heads of their families. The women are supposed to be restricted to the kitchen cooking and taking care of the kids (Whitman, 2014).
Shift in the Concept of Masculinity
In recent years, there has been a shift in the idea of masculinity as the national identity of the Australians. In 2010, Julia Gillard was elected as the prime minister of Australia. Interestingly she was elected unopposed. Her election signifies the changes in the gender stereotypes that have happened in Australia. With increased globalisation, most of the Australians have access to international films from regions such as America where women are held differently. In those regions, the concept of masculinity is not as profound as in Australia. A recent study showed that many Australians view these foreign contents more than the local contents. The average Australian is eagerly waiting for the next series of Games of Thrones, The Wire among others. By consuming these media, the films change the Australian's perception of masculinity (Pickering, 2014). Besides some of these films, have women as leading characters. Thus, this poses a challenge to the long-held view by Australians that women are supposed to play a secondary role to men. The exposure to these films has eroded the concept of masculinity in the Australian National Identity.
Racial Stereotypes and the Australian Identity
Racial stereotypes often bring about divisions. The stereotypes are an excluding tactic. Racially stereotyping an individual infers that two individuals are not of the same race. Individuals from different races have different cultures. In Australia, although the aboriginal people are part of the Australian nation, they are often portrayed as strangers. They are depicted as a different set of people altogether with unique customs and traditions. In fact, before 1967 they were not recognized as a part of Australia. In the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the indigenous people only appeared in the opening and final part of the opening ceremony. Their reduced representations seem to infer they never played any profound role in the building of Australia. Besides individuals who attended the opening ceremony and factions of the Koori people argue other parts of the opening ceremony were neither shown on televisions nor captured by the print media. The parts censored by the press had a group of local Koori elders of the natives welcoming the spectators and fans to the Olympics.
Media's Role in Racial Stereotyping
Media can shape up public opinion and eventually a nation's culture through racial stereotypes. The Australian media for long has racially stereotyped the indigenous people. The concept of Terra Nullius, which is a vital part of the Australian identity, is flawed. Terra Nullius posits that the state of Australia did not belong to anyone; hence, Australians (whites) did not replace anyone in Australia. The media, despite knowing that over 750,000 aboriginal people occupied Australia before the coming of the whites, still continue to further the narrative that Australia was nobody's land. The media has portrayed the indigenous people as being a problem to the rest of the Australians. It appears as if the aboriginal people are excluded from the Australian idea of nationalism. They are considered as a different set of people altogether. For instance, in matters that concern welfare and land rights, the media has often created an Us vs. Them mentality. The aboriginal people are presented as a threat to the rest of Australians. The Us vs. Them mentality insinuates that the aboriginal people are not part of the Australianness. Australianness is all the other things but not the aboriginal people being a part of the Australian Nation. Most of the time in Australia, the race of the criminal offender is mentioned by the media if the offender is an indigenous person. Evidently, remarks like this help push forward the National Phantasm of Terra Nullius. The natives are only presented positively in media whenever they are showcased as tourist attractions (Fozdar, Spittles, & Hartley, 2015). Presenting the natives as a tourist attraction is akin to reducing the role of aboriginal people to that of wild animals and geographical features in Australia.
Foreign Influence and the Australian Identity
The growth in technology has made it possible to access media content from other regions with ease. The American media, more so the film industry, has taken advantage of the growth in technology and started tapping into the Australian market. Currently, most Australians watch foreign content more than local content. The average Australian spends six hours daily watching television, yet a significant part of the time is spent watching foreign content. The result is a generation that is disconnected from its culture. Most of the foreign content is from the USA, and this has led to the development of the American culture in Australia. The reduced demand for Australian content has led to some Australian producers beginning to produce universal content that transcends boundaries. By producing universal content, some of the Australian identities are lost (Greenfield, 2014). These producers do not target the Australian market alone; they also target the worldwide market. Targeting an international market has its constraints in that the producers have to come up with something that a non-Australian can relate to (Hartley, 2017). In this realm, most of the Australian content that would have been captured in the media is gotten rid of. It is apparent that the increased filtration of foreign content into Australia and the shift toward international content has undermined the Australian identity. The above cases are a challenge to the depiction of Australianness by the media.
Government Regulation and the Australian Identity
Media does not operate in isolation but instead in states governed by rules and laws. In Australia, the government has tried to exert its control on the media operations in the country. The government understands that the proliferation of foreign content is a threat to the Australian identity. Thereby the government has put in place mechanisms aimed at promoting local content. The Australian government requires different forms of media such as radio and television to have a certain threshold of their content that is dedicated to Australian content only. The government also extends its regulation by determining what the media documents. Most of the media houses in Australia are reluctant to put forward content that hampers the Australian identity. For instance, whereas most of the foreign media will be willing to show incidences in a film where there is the use of drugs or obscene actions, such incidences are often screened by the Australian media. Screening such scenes is what constitutes Australianness. Australians are not as open or liberal as the Americans are. The directives to screen such content often come from the government. The Australian government also engages in partnerships with local media players to promote Australian content to its citizens. There is some form of state funding dedicated to promising media practitioners in Australia. The state undertakes to cater to the production costs for such individuals. By giving the state profound control over the production costs, the state also assumes a regulatory role in what is produced.
The Influence of Media Regulation on the Australian Identity
From the above cases, we observe that the media can both construct and challenge the dominant representation of Australianness depending on the prevailing situation. A vast majority of the Australian population has access to various forms of media, and hence media can shape public opinion in Australia. By directing public opinion, the Australia media can either promote or undermine the Australian identity. For instance, incidences such as the increased penetration of foreign press in Australia and the shift from the production of Australian content by different producers undermine the Australian identity. They threaten the Australian identity by promoting foreign cultures, which eventually replace the Australian culture. The media equally promotes the Australian identity by availing local content to its viewers. The local content helps shape the public view of the Australians.
References
Coady, C.T., 2017. Nationalism and Identity. In Identity, Self-Determination and Secession (pp. 69-84). Routledge.
Fozdar, F., Spittles, B. and Hartley, L.K., 2015. Australia Day, flags on cars and Australian nationalism. Journal of Sociology, 51(2), pp.317-336.
Greenfield, P.M., 2014. Mind and media: The effects of television, video games, and computers. Psychology Press.
Hartley, J., 2017. The Politics of Pictures: the creation of the public in the age of the popular media. Routledge.
Pickering, K., 2014. Australia's sons: Looking for women in Australian biopics. Metro Magazine: Media " Education Magazine, (181), p.88.
Price, E 2010, ‘Reinforcing_the_myth: Constructing_Australian_identity_in ‘reality_TV’,Continuum: Journal_of_Media " Cultural_Studies, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 451–459.
Whitman, K.L., 2014. Looking out for the ‘Aussie Bloke’: Gender, class and contextualizing a hegemony of working-class masculinities in Australia (Doctoral dissertation).
