Towards a multi-ethnic public sphere? African-Australian media and minority-majority relations

Abstract

The potential connections between minority ethnic media producers and the majority ethnic group in multicultural societies have received little academic attention. As a result, important questions regarding the role of ethnic minority media beyond their specialised audiences have remained largely unanswered. In this article, we draw upon a series of interviews with African-Australian media producers in Melbourne and interrogate the relationship between ethnic minority media and the broader Australian public sphere. Drawing on Husband’s notion of the multi-ethnic public sphere as an ideal-type model, we analyse the explicit and implicit attempts by African-Australian broadcasters and media producers to communicate across communities and to positively impact the practices and understandings of White Australian journalists and audiences.