Working with Cultural Differences

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Working with Cultural Differences

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Media plays a central role in representing cultural differences especially in
multiracial/polytechnic societies such as Australia; the way media portrays a specific culture,
it influences the perception of people towards such culture and people (Hsu et al., 2015). It
means that false portrayal and reliance on stereotypes result in creating a false perception
in people mind regarding the culture of a particular group. Moreover, little or no presence
of cultural diversity on the media makes it difficult for minorities to represent their issues to
the mass audience (Gay, 2013). This essay will evaluate different examples to understand
how the media portrays cultural differences in commercial television and whether this
representation upholds dominant discourse and disempower difference. This essay will also
focus on inclusiveness of the cultural difference along with evaluation of strategies for non-
commercial media outlets to promote working with cultural differences.
The cultural differences represented on commercial television in Australia is considerably
low because most of the channels are ‘whitewash’ which means that they represented little
or no cultural diversity through their platform. For example, a study conducted over 200
television dramas that aired between 2011 and 2015 found that only 18 per cent of the
main characters in these dramas are non-Anglo backgrounds despite the fact that they
contribute to over 32 per cent of the population in the country (Lattouf, 2016). For example,
Home and Away is a popular Australia drama in which the majority of the cast is white
whereas there is only one Asian in the cast. Another show is Neighbours which only had one
Chinese family that moved to the neighbourhood in the show. On the other hand, shows
such as The Family Law assisted in representing Chinese-Australian by hiring 90 per cent of
Chinese-Australian in the cast (Law, 2017). However, when it comes to advertisements, the
issue of ‘whitewash’ prevails because most of the advertisements only have while people
and diversity are represented appropriately. There are many shows in which the different
sexual orientation of characters was simply incidental such as House Husbands (Kane
Albert), Winners & Losers (Jonathan Kurtis), Offspring (Kim Akerholt), Janet King (Janet King)
and Neighbours (Aidan Foster and Aaron Brennan) (Daily Review, 2016). Since 94 per cent of
Australians watches television on a regular basis, the unfair and false representation of
cultural differences resulted in creating bigger diversity issues in the country that leads to
racism. For example, a recent Meal and Livestock Australia (MLA) advertisement were
described as “highly insulting” by Indian in Australia in which religious figures including

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Hindu god, Lord Ganesh, was sitting down to a meal of lamb; however, he is considered as
vegetarian. It shows that false representation of culture on the commercial television of
Australia (The Hindu, 2017).
Since the commercial television in Australia under-represents or falsely represents certain
group of people, it leads to promoting dominant discourses, and it also results in
disempowering differences. The number of Asian represented on Australia commercial
television is considerably low, and these individuals are also represented through
stereotypes which promote dominant discourses regarding these individuals (Christoff,
2013). There are many advertisements in commercial Australia that disempowers
differences. For example, Ultra Tune Australia posted an advertisement in which two best
female athletes were portrayed as a male sexual fantasy which resulted in promoting
women stereotyping and disempowers them as well (Thorpe, 2017). Another advertisement
of Ultra Tune Australia was popular on commercial television that glorifies rape culture by
portraying women as idiots who need a strong man in order to save them. This
advertisement also promotes violence against women that leads to promoting domestic
violence (Thorpe, 2017). Another example is the advertisement of VB Regulars that
promoted a new beer campaign in which they only represented while men. The
advertisement showed a strong relationship between men and beer and men and cars and
all the men were tall, handsome, white and muscular. The advertisement also depicted
women as sex objects for these men, and they also promote men as useless dads that did
not help women in parenting duties (Inspiration Room, 2019). The Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders are not properly presented in the media, and there are no major Australian
shows that properly portray their culture.
The importance of inclusiveness of cultural differences has increased because it provides a
better opportunity to ensure that alternative voices can be heard and the issues of
minorities can be brought forward. Since minorities and their issues are not properly
represented on the commercial media, it becomes difficult for them to raise their voice to
address their challenges (Lam, 2018). Commercial television has the ability to reach a large
audience in Australia since 94 per cent of Australia watches television on a regular basis. It
opens up new opportunities for people to raise awareness regarding major issues such as
lack of healthcare facilities available for Aboriginal people in the country. However, the