Australia's Multicultural Policy And The Australian Media

Against the backdrop of Australian media under its multicultural polices, the thesis aims to get a deep understanding of the reason of a successful Australian multicultural policy and how the role the media plays to reflect the policy to promote the development of the multicultural Australia successfully by digging deeply into the reactions to the multicultural policy by various media, discussing the formation and development of the Australian multicultural polices, anatomizing the Australian media one by one in a multicultural context.No longer is an Anglo-Saxon country, Australia has become an aggregation of racial and ethnic groups, each seeking to advance its own interests by catching a free ride on the political, economic, and cultural infrastructure built by the Anglo-Saxon. It is the home to immigrants from 150 countries. As a society with rich cultural diversity, Australia sets its multicultural policy to deal with the mainstream culture and ethnic culture.Meanwhile, Australia boasts a highly advanced mass media with the state-of-the-art technology in the world. The media tries to serve different language-speakers through the press, magazines, radio, television, Internet and other new forms to meet their needs, such as the government-sponsored Special Broadcast Service. The Australian Indigenous people also actively take part in the business such as publishing newspaper and magazines and setting up their own radio and television stations.Due to the unrelenting efforts by the Australian government, the multicultural policy enjoys great success by means of the media, which brings tremendous economic and social profit to the Australian society. Based on a historic review, this thesis discusses the three stages of Australian multicultural policy, the reflections on the policies from various media, including the press, broadcasting media, Internet, and other forms of media, analyzes how the policy and media influence each other.The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction of the study. Chapters 2 to 3 are the body part of the thesis unveiling the formation and development of Australian multicultural policy, the influence of the policy to the media and how media reflect the policy through various practices under the multicultural background, and the contribution of the policy and media to the Australian society. And Chapter 4 provides conclusive observations.The summaries of the four chapters are as follows:Chapter 1 is an introduction in which the issue is introduced and the objectives, methodology and implications of the study are dealt with.Chapter 2 reviews the multiculturalism, the immigration policy and the three stages of the Australia's multicultural policy in relation to media. The policy was first introduced during Whitlam's Administration (1972-1975), and formed during Fraser's Administration (1975-1983). During Hawke's term, it was set as the national policy of Australia to cope with ethnic cultural diversity. Afterwards, Keating's Government (1991-1996) and Howard's Government (1996-2008) had made continuous improvement on it. Analyses are taken on representative cases and events of historic significance and summarization are made upon the reason, feature and influence of each period of the multicultural policy in relation to media.Chapter 3 explores the Australian media industry under the guidance of the multicultural policy, the role the policy plays and how it influences various forms of media, including the press, broadcasting media, Internet and new forms of media. Case studies involve how various media contribute to the further development of this policy and the part of Indigenous media is also set as a special case in term of the research of multicultural policy. Chapter 4 draws the conclusions of the study, pointing out the reasons behind the success of Australia's multicultural policy and the significance it has to Australian media and the Australian society as a whole.