Ethnic minority media and the public sphere: The case of African-Australian media producers

Abstract

This article analyses the work of ethnic minority media producers through a series of 13 in-depth interviews with African-Australian broadcasters, writers and producers. Focusing on the aims and motivations of participants, the article demonstrates a more expansive role for African-Australian media, one that brings niche media products into dialogue with mainstream Australian public life and challenges common understandings of ethnic media as appealing to a small, linguistically and culturally defined audience. Such a role also raises questions around wider conceptual understandings of the public sphere, particularly as it is employed to interrogate minority–majority relations. The article concludes by engaging with previous literature focused on the changing contours of the public sphere ideal in multi-ethnic and multicultural societies.