Globalising, Cosmopolitanisng Mediated World

By Sylvie Shaw

We live in a world surrounded by images, messages, visual noise, and soundscapes. News is instant. 24/7 television news brings even the trivial to the living room, phone, computer. News is global - but what news is that? Who makes the decisions about what is shown and which religious, social or ethnic group is depicted and in what ways?

What is broadcast streams in from media companies locally and internationally but only certain stories are selected. The way the stories are framed, edited, delivered and packaged may mean that important elements of the story are left out, not explained or not backgrounded to fit into the program's format and time and advertising constraints. So often the question to consider is not only what is being covered in the news, but what and who is left out, and why.

Despite the media being global and the attention is placed on a narrow selection of stories. Local politics - but very limited time for any discussion of an issue. Local drama, accidents, disasters. Local sports - which has its own dramas (drugs in sport, off-field antics). International and local celebrities. International disasters. International (US, UK) politics. International wars and other violence. And occasionally religion, especially if connected to drama or celebrity.

From this kind of news I know little about what is going on in the world beyond the fearful and the sad. In a global media saturated world, I would presume to know more about  what is happening in other nations beyond the superficial and the stereoype. But I seem to know less.

My ideal for a globalised world is to end divisions between mediated stories revelling in us and them dichotomies. I would welcome an understanding that we live in a cosmpolitan society and with a precious environment. Both need care.

In an article titled Religious Cosmpolitanism, Justin Neuman (2011) states that: 'any cosmopolitanism worthy of the name must offer a model of inclusivity and universalism that both recognizes and reckons with the substantive differences that separate varieties of religious and secular experience'.

He continues to explain the process saying that cosmopolitanism can be viewed as a 'desire, especially of those on the 'cultural left' (are they simply idealists?) 'to forge an ethos of political engagement that navigates a middle path between the particularizing relativism of multiculturalist identity politics on the one hand and managerial globalisms on the other.'

I am caught between the desire for inclusivity and the argument Newman puts forward that this is a desire of the 'cultural left'. If so, what happens to interfaith movements and peacebuilding across religions and nations? What happens to those seeking to end violence and promote peace if it is presumed that these desires are only to be found among a certain small collection of individuals?

I am left with a sadness about this divided view of cosmopolitanism and refer back to Ulrich Beck in A God of One's Own (2010:71) who talks about the bridge of religious functionalism which no longer distinguishes religionists from non-believers but brings understanding 'as an enrichment in a quite personal sense', and ultimately as habitus. He recommends a culture where 'religions are the object of mutual recognition' (72),

References
Beck U. 2010. A God of One's Own. Malden MA, Polity Press.
Newuman J. 2011. Religious Cosmopolitanism? Orhan Pamuk, the Headscarf Debate, and the Problem with Pluralism. The Minnesota Review, 77

Connecting with Indigeneity

 

by Sylvie Shaw

Travelling to Arnhem Land was an adventure in learning and change.I met a group of Yolngu women who changed the direction of my life and taught me things I felt I should have known since I was a child. To them I am eternally grateful for showing me 'both ways'.

Both ways is reflective of a two way approach to education developed by the Yolngu women in NE Arnhem Land, notably by someone who was central to my knowledge of Aboriginal lifeways and understandings, Raymattja Marika. Along with a group of inspirational women, she gave me a way of seeing which has become central to my understanding of things relationally.

Sitting on the Yirrkala beach she told me about the significant metaphor of ganma, an expression grounded in the interflow and exchange of two waters, salt and fresh which merge and swirl in the confluence of the intertidal zone. In recent times, this ancient metaphor has come to be used in discussions on both ways education, a bicultural and bilingual approach to teaching where Yolngu (Aboriginal) and Western ways of leaning and knowing are brought together.

The metaphor reflects the confluence of the coming together of two peoples, two knowledges, two lifeways and is cited in the glorious book (and now online site), Singing the land, signing the land by Helen Watson, the Yolngu community at Yirrkala, and David Wade Chambers.

Taken from the text, ganma refers to the place:
'where a river of water from the sea (Western knowledge) and a river of water from the land (Yolngu knowledge) engulf each other on flowing into a common lagoon and becoming one. In coming together, the Streams of water mix at the interface of the two currents, creating foam at the surface, so that the process of ganma is marked by lines of foam.'

It was this knowledge and the lesson on the beach that led to profound change and personal exploration. Having worked in the media for many years, I had taken on (hegemonically? or through ignorance?) the stereotype of life in community and was unaware that the stereotype and the representation of First Nations people was a misrepresentation. It showed nothing of the things I learned and continue to learn about Traditional Owner culture and relationships.

To extrapolate this into the wider community, the way Indigenous people are presented in the media can be, as the TV shows Living Black and Message Stick demonstrate, a form of 'resistance identity'. This concept is defined by Manuel Castells (1997:8) as aspects of communal identities 'generated by those actors that are in position/ conditions devalued and/or stigmatized by the logic of domination, thus building trenches of resisistance and survival on the basis of principles different from or opposed to those permeating the institutions of society.'

In Castells' terms, resistance identity emerges as a counter to 'legitimizing identity', those institutions such as the state, political parties, the church, and/or mainstream media, all which represent power, privilege, and in Australia, whiteness. These issues merge when considering how the media frames First Nations' people, in many cases in ways that deny them visibility, 'agency and governance' (Marika et al 2009: 404).

Behind these processes are the western conceptualisations of linear thinking, hierarchical decision making and cartesian dualism. Mainline media constructions of Aboriginal peoples become almost rigid and timelss transpostions of 'them' and 'us' - where images and imaginations reflect an institutionalized system of built-in racism. In contrast, Traditional Owners, over many years, have established and grown a network of community media organisations across the country, and as well, the stations SBS and the ABC have incorporated Aboriginal programs in their weekly radio and TV rundowns.

In 1991, the federal government undertook a significant report, Report of the National Inquiry into Racist Violence by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1991), which noted 'there was ample evidence of discriminatory reporting and racial stereotyping.' In particular it was argued that such representations 'legitimise coercive and violent measures against Aboriginal people.’

Similarly, Marcia Langton, in her landmark report, 'Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television…' (1993), outlines the issue is not only one of racial discrimination, but 'the need to develop a body of knowledge on representation of Aboriginal people and their concerns in art, film, television and other media and a critical perspective to do with aesthetics and politics, drawing from Aboriginal world views, from Western traditions and from history.' Almost twenty years later her observation is still acute despite the inroads First Nations peoples have made in developing their own media products.

Questions
- How are Indigenous people largely represented in mainline media, e.g. news programs?
- What difference do shows like Message Stick and Living Black make?
- Discuss your view of any Aboriginal film you may have seen, e.g. Warwick Thornton's masterful Samson and Delilah.
- Discuss the difference in the Ramingining communityTen Canoes where Yolngu and Ngapaki (non-Indigenous people) have worked together to create the story and representation.

References
Castells M. 1997. The power of identity. The information age: economy, society and culture Vol. II. Cambridge, MA & Oxford, Blackwell.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. 1991. Report of the National Inquiry into Racist Violence by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/doc/racediscrimcomm_2.pdf
Langton M. 1993. Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television…" An Essay for the Australian Film and Television Commission on the politics and aesthetics of filmmaking by and about Aboriginal persons and things. Australian Film Commission, Sydney.

Marika R., Y. Yunupingu, R. Mununggiritj, S Muller. 2009. Leaching the poison – The importance of process and partnership in working with Yolngu.

Journal of Rural Studies 25(4): 404-413.
Watson H, the Yolngu community at Yirrkala, and DW Chambers, 2008 online [1989, 1993] Singing the land, signing the land. Originally published by Deakin University Press, Geelong Vic.

The Asian Screen Test

by Sylvie Shaw

In the early 1990s, the Federal Government was keen to build stronger bridges to Asia. The Hawke-Keating governments of the time wanted to establish tighter economic relationships with Asia. Countries like Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan were growing rapidly in industry and manufacturing and Ausrralia saw opportunity. Asia was no longer seen as a threat to keep out - as governments had done from 1901's White Australia Policy.

The early 1990s marked a loosening of ties to Britain, and a strengthening of relationships with Asia through a reduction of trade barriers, increased immigration, promotion of Asian language learning in schools, and a growth of tourism from Asia, especially from Japan. 

During this period I was asked by a group at Melbourne University, Asialink, to look at what was happening in the media at the time - about Asia and Asians. How were they represented?

I thought this work would be easy. I imagined that there would be a lot of research material about representation of Asians in the media. But what was not the case. I certainly found the negatively stereotyped cartoons from the 1890s about Asia being depicted as a giant octopus reaching its tentacles into the heart of Australia. 

I visited the Chinese Museums in Melbourne and Bendigo and learnt of the history of the Chinese in Australia. I'd begun this historical journey as I had been picnicking on the side of the road in northern Victoria with a group of friends. We were on the edge of a cemetry in Beechworth and It was there that I saw a large number of small gravestones and wondered whose they were.

There was a small museum at Beeachworth and I learnt about a part of Australia's history that I did not know well - that a huge influx of Chinese mostly men, indentured labour, many from Canton, arrived in the colonies - Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland - during the 1850s and 1860s on the quest for gold.

In the Melbourne Chinese Museum, I stood in front of a huge painting of a very long queue, stretching way into the distance, of seemingly thousands of Chinese men loaded with goods, on their way to the goldfields.

What I also learned from the various museums I visited and books I read was that the experience of the Chinese miners was also filled with racism and violence. Other gold prospectors were critical of their mining methods, their different clothing and appearance, their hard work, and the way the Chinese practised their religion. In an effort to curb the numbers of Chinese coming to Australia for gold, various colonial authorities passed legislation to restrict immigration from China and imposed high taxes and fees, but only for the Chinese.

When the gold petered out, not all the miners went back to China. Those who remained established businesses, created market gardens, dispensed herbs, opened restaurants, and became part of the local community. But they continued to face discrimination. Anti-Chinese campaigns grew during the 1880s and 90s with movements to boycott local Chinese businesses and products. Mass rallies were held, especially in Sydney, calling for increased restrictions against the Chinese. In 1901, the Immigration Restriction Act was passed.
...
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, pockets of anti-Asian bias remained. But they were disappearing in the midst of increased immigration to Australia and a government intent on building trade and economic links with Asia. In 1989 the government commissioned a report from Professor Ross Garnaut, who recently headed the report on climate change. Known as the 'Garnaut report', it promoted Asia's growing prosperity and recommended the Australian community should become Asia-literate.

As part of this shift in policy and outlook, I was asked to develop a research project around Asia and Asians in the media. This was done in two ways - the first was to work with filmmakers, bringing Asian and Australian filmmakers together to discuss ways to enhance the image of Asians in Australian film. I worked with Chinese film expert, Chris Berry, and we ran a successful roundtable seminar to discuss the issue and ways to shift the limited representation of Asia on screen. An outcome of this meeting was a report called 'No Koalas Please'. It reviewed the image in Asia of Australia as a tourist destination to see animals, the reef and the outback and called for change to more realistic and contemporary media representations - of both Asia and Australia.

For the second part of the project I ran workshops with local television producers, direcrtors and actors, again to raise the profile of Asia in Australian soapies particularly and other programs as well. One of the results of this research became an article in the local film zine, Cinema Papers. It was called The Asian Screen Test. The article examined the role and representation of Asia in film and teleivision, focusing especially on the eroticism and exoticism of storylines and images, the martial arts stereotype, and the notion of the inscrutible and wise elder (e.g. Karate Kid, Ninja Turtles).

The research project was conducted at the same time as other projects scrutinizing the media around all aspects of multiculturalism and ethnicity. The question I still think about when I watch TV 20 years after doing the project is where are the Asians on Australian television and film? What roles do they play (e.g. newsreading on SBS)? And why is there still a tendency in ads and other shows to rarely show the diversity of Australians?

Questions:
- How are Asia and Asians currently represented on Australian television?
- What roles do they play on screen?
- Why has SBS introduced 'Pop Asia' while other stations have all but stopped their weekend video hit shows?
- Why was the film Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon important in Hollywood?
- What is your favourite Asian film?
- Have you seen a change in the way Asia and Asians are shown in film and television - and in what ways?

References
Shaw, S. 1990. No Koalas Please. Canberra. Commonwealth of Australia. 
Shaw, S. 1992. The Asian Screen Test, Cinema Papers, March.