ABSTRACT
Australian media demonstrate a hybrid quality, with its mainstream elements fashioned out of the intersection of British and American structures. A commitment to public service broadcasting and a “Fourth Estate” journalistic ethos exists alongside an unabashedly popular commercial sector, which has predominated in both broadcasting and print. To this established mainstream hybrid has been added significant new elements. The unique Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) arose as a result of contemporary progressive politics and policies of multiculturalism as a top-down strategy of governance, while there has also been support for bottom-up initiatives in the community broadcasting sector. These developments have occurred alongside further commercialization of mass media with the introduction of subscription broadcasting services and deregulation of related industries such as telecommunications.
