ABSTRACT
It is often argued that the national and network television in Australia, centrally controlled as it is, promotes an ‘artificial’ national monoculture when it does not contaminate it with American popular culture (University of Technology, Sydney 1990). Existing television services-even those like SBS-TV with a multicultural remit-often leave out or distort the multiplicity of voices and viewpoints of the many different communities that exist in Australia (Seneviratne 1992). And it is commonplace in cultural studies that broadcast television focuses and promotes the ‘ways of looking’ at the world of a few socially privileged producers concerned with producing images for large television audiences (Lewis 1991). This means that broadcast television must speak in general terms addressing audiences in a safe language and images so as not to upset television ratings or, more importantly, the television advertisers.
