No television network is ‘relevant’ if its programmes are not of interest to viewers. The authors TELL us that a programme about aborigines is not just for aborigines, it’s for “all Australians”. That might be their OPINION, it might even be some producers INTENTION; but viewers know better than producers, television proprietors and these two women what they want to watch. It would be interesting to have a cross section of aboriginal people surveyed to see if even they were the slightest bit interested.

Regular surveys make it clear what people want to watch on TV. And, what viewers want is obviously the rubbish on commercial networks. Even the ABC has had to pander to the indiscriminate viewers with increasingly silly programmes.

These two authors and other members of the ethic industry can prate all they like about ‘differences’ and multiculturalism; most people are just not interested. They don’t want to be indoctrinated by media: they want to be entertained.

The nightly TV ratings that are published for commercial stations to set their advertising rates are a thing of wonder. The survey is small, do you know anyone with a ratings box? ABC is excluded from the rating count.

We know that young people in their 20s are glued to Channel 10.
We know that old people and hospitals are glued to Channel 9.
We know that people watch Mel and Kochie in the morning on Channel 7.
Foxtel appears to be full of rubbish and Fox News is slightly biased.
Although MacDonalds at Genrowan was tuned to SBS last night.

Personally I will be saddened when free to air TV and radio has been dumbed down. I guess I will have to learn how to use my iPod.

Most of my friends found the programs The First Australians very thought provoking and RockWiz does seem to be a Saturday night staple. We practice our German and dream of a Viennese holiday watching Kommissar Rex.

Mr Right.

Even so called "entertainment" is propaganda---all of it, even the most mundane. It ALL contains unexamined messages about the dynamics of the power relationships between the various characters, the wider culture altogether,other cultures and racial groups, and the natural non-human world too.

Neil Postmann summed it up in the title of one of his books. AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH.

Bread and circuses. Let them eat cake.

Also 1. http://www.dabase.org/disccomm.htm

Mr Right has a point. No point showing stuff no-one wants to watch. Australians would sooner watch Ghost Whisperer than stir some brain cells into action.

Some people prefer to use TV to learn occasionally and for this I agree with the author that SBS is as relevant today as ever. The mentioned program on Aboriginal history is unique, and having seen it I can assure any doubters it is a new and valuable account. This is only one program. Global Village is another that deserves wider recognition but goes against the grain of TV as infotainment.

On the other hand The Amazing Race provides no insight at all into the world about us other than how rich, emotive Americans cope without drive-thru Maccas for a week or two. Vicarious, shallow guff that treats the planet as a set. And it rates its socks off.

SBS helps provide some much needed perspective; it is the pinch of salt to complement the fairyfloss of commercial television. It remains one of few media organisations to look outwards and SBS deserves some recognition for this. If more people knew what took place beyond their visible horizon there would be fewer people thinking for example that “learning” equals “indoctrination”. Unfortunately combating anti-intellectualism is not part of anyone’s charter.

And besides, Janice Peterson is a honey!

I for one would be sad to see SBS go. It at least provides some thought provoking content, unlike the banal commercial TV channels.

I don't watch a lot of TV other than a bit of footy and cricket, but the options in the evening are certainly very limited, and the flood of crappy and repetetive police dramas and dul sit-coms on the commercial channels doesn't offer much to get excited about. I'm not saying that people shouldn't watch them, after all it's a free country, but there are plenty of us who would rather watch something more interesting, or not watch anything at all.

SBS has crappy sit-comes too...but at least it is balanced with some interesting programs...Cutting Edge, Insight, any number of one-off programs, films etc.

I think TV in Australia would be much the poorer without SBS. And yes, I even like watching the occasional episode of Top Gear (UK version).

Mr. Right,

Are you suggesting that high quality programs should not be shown because the majority of Australians won't watch them?

If so, that's a pretty thin argument. Thinking people looking to increase their knowledge and understanding should be prevented from seeing worthwhile programs because the majority don't want that sort of thing?

Next you'll be telling us that we should close libraries because most people would rather play video-games or watch DVDs these days?

I'm quite happy for people to have their minds stultified by commercial TV - that's their choice (and one day I'd hope they'd look at the best of SBS and ABC). Why take away my right to choose simply because it's not as popular?

"If Australia is to remain a harmonious society where hostile intercultural conflict is rare, we need social and institutional arrangements that promote not just social inclusion, but also a wholehearted recognition of diversity as an intrinsic feature of Australian national identity."

Excellent article. I agree totally that SBS and its original charter is as much needed and as relevant today as it ever was.

Cutting Edge is one of the best documentary shows on Australian television, Dateline and Insight are reliably high standard shows and there are many excellent one-off screenings, none of which are ever likely to appear on commercial channels. SBS News is the only truly global news coverage we have and to my mind is superior even to that of the ABC.

For me though, SBS has definitely been spoilt with the introduction of advertising, especially now that programs are being interrupted. We need to maintain a high level of government funding for SBS. Not only is it an investment in the ability of all Australians to gain a better understanding of the wider world, but also, as the authors point out, in creating an Australian society which is more inclusive, tolerant and harmonious.

Spikey
I'm with you.I would add.
My TV (in my cubby hole) rarely ventures beyond SBS/ABC. Popular isn't necessarily best by any sensible measure.
I would also dispute that sampling(ratings) representative and are anything more than an indication. Certainly not one I would want to stake Aunty and her less corseted sister's futures on.

It seems to me that both ABC and SBS are simply a recognition that
Football, meat pies and inane soaps and political monocularism are no longer (aka 1950's god, queen, business interests and jingoism) Australian reality in the 21st century

All attempts to hobble/eliminate either are ultimately about the acquisition and maintenance of political power and nothing to do with fair representation or reality.

As a nation we have survived by virtue of our non conformity yet all powers want us to conform to some outdated stereotypical image.

Collective government supply services for the minorities(?), like it or not it is the minority that define/advance our boundaries and therefore our collective futures.

"Australian Top gear" (in my opinion is an ideological retrograde step) is a symptomatic mistake like the Australian copy of 'Kumars at 42'. By commercial ratings obsessed media gnomes assuming that we need to dumb everything down to meet'our' Aussie audience.

Media must be more than 'more of the same me too band wagon' for profit or ‘1984’ is only temporally wrong.

If we rely on capitalism for our inspiration God(s) help us all

" ... All attempts to hobble/eliminate either are ultimately about the acquisition and maintenance of political power and nothing to do with fair representation or reality. ... "

Some insightful comments by *eXAMINATOr* i.m.o.

Still, it often disgusts me what a grossly wasted resource SBS is.

Let me couch my argument here a tad by saying, I have not been to a single place on this planet, from whose peoples, languages and cultures I have not learned immensely.

Having being able to speak 3 languages at various times at a high intermediate lvl, with a handful of specialised areas of vocab, one of the things that most amazes me is that all of the languages that I have been exposed too each have a unique mechanism of forming meaning by way of different thought form cohesion.

Now, this is ever so stimulating to the grey matter and offers wonderful insight into other peoples and their cultures and in this regard, those people who prattle out this party line about why we can't have translated news+shows should be just summarily sacked and replaced with more "enlightened" individuals.

In this regard, SBS is not inclusive at all. When the Indo is on, only Indo speakers can understand, when the Ruskies or the Original Aussies, only them. No one likes to be left out from a funny joke and why shld we b? It even amazes me that we are having this conversation but however ... ;-)

If u av 10 news shows each day for 30 mins, it takes no more than 35 mins to do the translation + admin no more than 1 hr @ say $AU100 is $AU1000 a day by 6 days is $AU6000 a week on contract or $AU5000 on salary, for the sake of argument. Now, how many poxy little ads to U need to charge some fatcat to pay for that? Anymore than 1? And what is the reward? 1/2

A new wealth of entertainment and information that most Ozzies are barely aware of, rich and stimulating and beneficial for the economy when poppets are dispatched to trade shows etc etc.

And I have met so few people who haven't gone:
OOHOHHHOHHH REEEALLLLYYY? Is that what it means? IS that what they're going on about? Truly I would have never thought?

And what a wonderful tool to keep the bastardios in Canberra honest and conversely, when U hear some of the less than ordinary stuff consider, mmmm, yes whilst far from perfect we are very lucky to be Ozzies.

In this way all Australians can become to gain a greater sense of inclusiveness with the rest of the big global family, and also develope a more mature "palette" simply by being exposed to newness.

P.S.
By translating I DO NOT mean turn it into Australiana and thereby lose the benefit of the unique cohesion.

Before we get warm and gushy about SBS, we need to revisit some of its major faults, which I wrote about in www.crikey.com.au

Do we really need SBS?

By Sasha Uzunov

Does Australia really need to be serviced by two public broadcasters? Sasha Uzunov investigates the audience of SBS, 25 years on:

Date: 9 June 2005

The ABC's Chairman Donald Macdonald recently gave an elegant speech at the National Press Club in Canberra about where the public broadcaster was heading. Afterwards, as he fielded questions, reporters once again honed in on the thorny issue of whether the second public broadcaster, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), should exist.

read more... http://wanews.org/news/sbs.htm

cheers
Sasha Uzunov
freelance photo journalist

No joy with the link Sasha, is it short enough to paraphrase?

If your specialty is news and current affairs you would have every reason to support this side to SBS. If you're a paparazzi I could understand your distaste about government funding for intelligent broadcasting. Is it, as you say, a thorny issue?

Bennie... I also write on a wide variety of issues...

continued....http://wanews.org/news/sbs.htm

Macdonald refused to be drawn on whether SBS was just duplicating a role the ABC is already performing. It's a pity – we all know that SBS will soon broadcast the Ashes Test cricket from England, normally the preserve of the Nine Network, a large commercial entity. SBS prides itself on being the voice and face of multicultural Australia. But do we really need it? Another question is have Australia's ethnic communities already moved into the mainstream of Australian society? Just look at the non-Anglo-Celtic surnames in our parliaments, favourite sporting teams or on mainstream television!

What is ironic about SBS is that it claims to serve multiculturalism. But that has to be questioned. Since its inception in 1980, SBS TV, then known as Channel 0-28, has had reporters and presenters from a wide variety of backgrounds, such as Greek, Italian, Croat, Serb, South American, Asian and so on.

In 25 years there has not been one reporter or presenter from Australia's sizeable Turkish and Macedonian communities. This is a remarkable statistic. Members of the Turkish and Macedonian communities claim that SBS TV marginalises them because the broadcaster fears the influence of the politically savvy Greek lobby. All of these ethnic groups do not get along because of historic tensions that have no place in peaceful Australia. SBS by playing favourites rather than showing toughness is in fact keeping these tensions alive.

Mark Boyd, SBS TV's News and Current Affairs Chief, says SBS doesn't discriminate nor does it have a quota system. But surely in 25 years, one Turk or a Macedonian would have broken through SBS's glass ceiling?

In its coverage of the Iraq War, SBS's Dateline program, the current affairs flagship of the network, has never given much coverage to the Assyrians, who are Iraq's indigenous people and also happen to be Christian. We hear daily about the plight of the Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs and the non-Arab Kurds in the north. But the Assyrians remain a forgotten people in their own land.

Mr Uzunov..... I know the game you are playing.

You are a Slav-Macedonian who has a grudge against Greeks.

How convenient that the 2 ethnic groups you have chosen are Greece's current 'enemies'.

Both your country of origin, FYROM, and Turkey have irredentist ideals against Greece.

But I note you do not reveal these facts.

Young Savvas,

You should never assume anything.... You say Im "Slav-Macedonian".

For the record, my parents are Macedonian migrants to Australia, not "Slav-Macedonian."

Im born and bred in Melbourne and proudly served in the Australian Army. I also have some Sephardic Jewish ancestry in my family tree, though raised nominally as an Orthodox Christian.

Secondly, I dont have anything against other ethnic groups.

Thirdly, as a journalist I never allow bias to interfere in my news reporting.

Let me give you an example. In early 2003 I was working as a freelance journalist in the Republic of Macedonia when I was removed at gunpoint from a bus on the Serbian-Macedonian border by Macedonian border police and thrown out of the country for writing a critical article.

It was published in The Sunday Times (UK) in June 2002 and you can view it on my website if you like.... www.sashauzunov.freeservers.com

If we were to use your logic, then I should have been embraced by my parents "original homeland" not kicked out. I dont recall any Australian journalist of Greek background ever criticising Greece or for that matter deported from that country.

You and I as Australians of non-english speaking background need to lead by example by not being cheerleaders for our ethnic origins.

cheers
Sasha Uzunov

Sasha

Thinking there might be a good argument for having the ABC and SBS rolled into one solid national broadcaster, I followed the link you provided to your article on Crikey.

The points you raise appear to be quite minor and very specific to your own ethnic background. To me, your article appears to be much more influenced by an ongoing sense of grievance - relating to your homeland politics, and a subsequent determination to see the demise of SBS, than it is by any genuine desire to present a compelling case - as to why Australia might benefit through a merger of the two broadcasters.

Sasha you’re speaking out of class. Viewers don’t care whether the presenter is Macedonian, Turk or Calathumpian. Furthermore there are scores of conflicts around the world that get no coverage at all, favourable or otherwise.

It seems to me you’re unhappy SBS isn’t taking the ‘right’ side, though if as you say ethnic origins aren’t relevant then what’s so 'thorny' about SBS? There are no Kiwi presenters either and they’re a dime a dozen.

The overwhelming response to this article is clear. SBS fills a niche and does it well. I sincerely hope your bark is worse than your bite.

Thank you Bennie and Bronwyn,

At least your criticisms avoid the typical right wing nationalistic Balkan response that this issue generates from certain quarters.

My point is precisely that it should not matter what your "ethnic" background is. Im not of Turkish or Assyrian background but I believe the criticism of SBS for playing ethnic favourites is justified. It is simply a cynical political exercise in number crunching... appeasing a larger and louder group at the expense of others.

If you read more of my article you would have come across the unfair treatment of SBS TV reporter Vladimir Lusic, a Croat, at the hands of SBS TV management.

As I stand by the veracity of my original story I have called for either a Royal Commission of Inquiry or a thorough Senate inquiry into SBS TV's conduct. If SBS has nothing to fear it will be given a clean bill of health and will, once and for all, silence the critics.

But SBS TV fears a thorough investigation will uncover many skeletons.

regards
Sasha Uzunov

PS. Young Bennie, I don't bite and I don't bark.

ST Uzunov
There is no doubt of your concern on this issue but I think you are ignoring a few pertinent commercial realities.
SBS was never intended to be a UN or the Solomon of the Australian Airwaves it is/was a TV station that reflected the cultural diversity of Australia.
The reliable supply of reliable appropriate news from 136 countries +ethnicities involved (including the internecine ethnic rivalries sensitivities) would be a task beyond the several times larger, UN general assembly bureaucracy and budget.
Logic dictates therefore that a more modest/realistic goal is required one of an international outlook with an Aussie focus.
Your criticisms and call for a royal commission is poorly based and it seems to reflect personal interests.
If however if you have clear evidence of bias present them to the appropriate authorities

The point that Sasha Uzunov is trying to make is that SBS is NOT a journalistic body-- it is one that is concerned with commentary and that being left-leaning commentary than anything resembling hard hitting journalism. In many ways it is the Left-Wing Evil Twin of Fox News--- just one look at those loony tunes Cutting Edge programs directed by the likes of Guido Knopp will underline that.

You are either a journo or not-- there is no half way house here-- like you are either Gay/lesbian or not; you are either a Vegan or not--- anything else is pure commentary.

I have said it once before, and will state it again-- being a political extremist does not differ from being a religious fanatic or a person who thinks that aliens are controlling their brains-- it is a form of mental illness.

So why we have to subsidize a bunch of mentally ill Satre-reading kooks is beyond me--- just because the commercial channels are crap does not mean that two wrongs will ever make a right.

BigBadBear (Is that title meant to be intimidating? Just wondered.)

"I have said it once before, and will state it again-- being a political extremist does not differ from being a religious fanatic or a person who thinks that aliens are controlling their brains-- it is a form of mental illness."

Nothing exemplifies this statement better than your own post, Big Bear.

Only someone from the extreme Right would describe SBS as the 'Left-Wing Evil Twin of Fox News' or its documentary program, Cutting Edge, as 'loony tunes'.

Perhaps you could proffer an example of a television station that does offer news and current affairs programs you consider to be based on 'hard hitting journalism'.

As far as Australian television is concerned, a lot of what appears on SBS and the ABC is to my way of thinking indeed hard-hitting, truth-based journalism. Programs like Four Corners, Cutting Edge and Dateline frequently expose current affairs issues from a carefully gathered, evidence-based perspective, and quite fearlessly of the government or corporate toes they might be stepping on in the process. They provide good examples of what I consider to be hard-hitting journalism.

I'd be interested to see your choices. No doubt they'll be quite illuminating in regards to your 'political extremist' claims.

Funny, I’m called Young Bennie at work too.

You’re tilting at windmills Sasha. A royal commission? You still haven’t made a case, your Crikey article notwithstanding. SBS merged with ABC, if this is your angle, would make an excellent broadcaster but would need two channels to fit it all in.

BBB you’ve equated leaning left with mental illness. That’s the sin bin for you. What’s hard hitting journalism – 48 minutes? Perhaps you don't like the docos on SBS but if you can switch over to CSI at the press of a button what's your bloody problem?

BigBadBear.
I saw her comments and understood her criticisms but my point was essentially SBS like ABC are Television stations not a font of all wisdom. If only because of its constricting captivity to budget and political masters (both sides)

Your political antenna is decidedly bent. Just because it doesn't glow on the Geiger counter set to register anything not corporate or extreme right doesn't mean it qualifies for the epithets of ‘extreme left’ or 'Looney Toons'. That is unless you’d concede that commercial media is Self Serving and Rabid Capitalist. This leads to monocular focus on the lowest denominator. Statistics shows that it is these vulnerable demographics (most profitable market segments) are most easily manipulated/fleeced/conned/ripped off.

Axe grinder tend to lose focus on issues seeing their issue as ‘the most important issue of all’ when in rationality its not. Not every one is as smart or wants to view the same things as presented by the me-too- (commercial) media.

Even if they are ‘left wing’ (what ever that means) surely they simply act as a bulwark to the alternative (Competition is good or so we’re told).

Dear Bronwyn,

Spoken like a true leftie......hate to burst your inner-city bubble, but i am as far from being Right wing as you can get.......Left/Right, all one big rort.

As for 4-Corners--- yeah, OK its not bad, but out of all Aussie TV, is that is all thats on the menu for quality journalism??....talk about sad!

As for my username, hahaha....who scared of the Big Bad Bear?...hahaha