Television, Nation, and Indigenous Media

Abstract

Broadcast television has most often been understood as a site for the narration of unified national identity. But at the same time, it has been associated with the development of diversified cultural citizenship. This article considers some of the issues arising from situations in which cultural identities have clashed with national ones, especially the case of Indigenous issues on Australian television. The evolution of new forms of citizenship is matched by post-broadcast forms of television, in which audiences can be seen as organized around choice, affinity, and the production as well as consumption of media. These developments have powerful implications for the way nations are narrated in broadcast television and for our understanding of how television itself is evolving. The article argues that Indigeneity points the way to new notions of both nation and television.