Defining what the current Australian culture is
among citizens is one, which can provide many alternative responses. It is not
a question of the values you hold, or where you live, but to me it is simply,
‘What makes us Australian?'
Through the migration of many cultures to our
shores the ‘Australian way of life’ has considerably changed in the past 50
years.
In the modern day of age we live in, it is very
easy to see Australia as a multi-cultural nation with exceptionally heavy
influences from the English, Indian, Greek, Chinese and Islamic cultures.
In Australia, with many different cultures spread
across the country, it is becoming harder to define what the full current national
culture is. Adding to the difficulty is the globalisation occurring, whereby
the world is coming closer together through the technologies that continue to
evolve.
With the world becoming seemingly smaller, the once
distinct separations of a nations culture are progressively becoming hazier. Just
as the multiculturalism and the globalisation within Australia changes the
definition of many cultures, so do the cultures utilising diasporic marketing
and social media in Australia to change alter their culture and align with what
they define the Australian culture as.
Globalisation however does not just effect the
culture changes within Australia, it of course changes the cultures of people
all around the world.
Globalisation continues to bring the world together
and in turn can change cultures through developments in the internet and modern
technologies.
An example is of the Bollywood films gaining
enormous popularity in Hollywood and the rest of the ‘film’ world.
Bollywood films began circulating outside of India
in the 1960’s and 1970’s after the war in Britain where it can be thought that
the globalisation of Indian culture began.
‘Contemporary Bollywood films can be seen as
diasporic and global cultural texts that transcend national sensibilities’
[Dudrah 2002].
From the 1970’s until the late 1990’s, Britain
continued to support Bollywood cinema and Indian culture as the mass migration
of Indians called England home.
Similar to the culture change in Britain, as a
result of the technologies causing globalisation in India, Richard D. Connerney
comments, “as recently as the mid-1990s,
when I returned to India as a graduate student, television consisted of a few
channels with low production values and simplistic programming. Now the airwaves
carried a full array of cable and satellite programming from every nation and
culture.” [Connerney 2009]
From recent globalisation, the changes in Indian
television programming highlight the rapid change globalisation has on a
culture. The British culture is influenced through the Bollywood culture that
enters the film screens, and likewise the Indian cultures that are exposed to
the various non-Indian television shows.
Likewise to cinema, television has a diaspora
effect; “Diaspora television is made in the host country by liminars and exiles
as a response to and in tandem with their own transitional and/or provisional
status. Television programs produced by Iranians, Arabs and Armenians and some
of the programs of the Jewish television network (JNT) fall within this
classification.” [Naficy 2003]
With the effects globalisation has on cultures,
diasporic marketing can influence an existing culture to adapt to a fresh one. The
scatter effect diasporic marketing has social media strategies has resulted in
changes of everybody’s cultures, as many of Australia’s immigrated population
own small businesses used this as a way.
The cultural changes many which have occurred have
resulted in many small businesses using the internet and varying marketing
tools to promote their business in an ‘Australian’ way.
In recent times, many Greeks, Chinese and Indians
are adjusting their culture to suit the current one which they now live in,
adding to the multi cultural nation Australia is.
Being an Australian and the culture which
Australians possessed 50 years ago certainly isn’t the same which is it today. Even
in 1954 with the immigration of the ‘ten pound pom’ the existing culture in
Australia was modified further to the English background that entered.
Following the rapid English immigration, the Welsh,
Italians, Greeks, Chinese, Germans and Turks took up Australian citizenship adjusting
their own culture to the Australian one.
Personally, I believe Australians are extremely
proud of their current culture, as it is one that gloats in an exceptional
performance, a culture that supports the Australian brand and the way of life
where everybody deserves a long weekend.
The government also expresses their thoughts on
Australian culture:
The Australian culture often represents a fair go,
and in some respects, an easy way of life, something many other cultures in
varying countries wish to poses.
The national culture that exists today is also one
that is accepting of new cultures, especially with the multicultural lifestyle we
now enjoy. The multicultural lifestyle results in many Australian communities
having to change their own existing culture to suit the incoming ones.
It is not uncommon to have a main street in
Melbourne filled with Indian, Chinese, Turkish and in some ways American
restaurants, thus, the simplest way to understand the whole notion of a
multicultural Australia.
A culture does not simply change by itself, in
Australia it has occurred naturally with the migration of existing cultures
seeking part of the Australian culture. It’s a culture that can possibly be a
new way of life, or just being provided with the straightforwardness of equal
rights.
The developments of the internet, and particularly
social media have allowed an even further change in culture, not just here in
Australia but all around the world.
Through today’s social media, everybody has the
ability to contribute to their definition of national culture. Whether that is
through the online identities on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, or simply engaging
in the Australian news on television and in the newspapers.
Social media has the ability to change what the
thought of a national culture is,
Brian D Loader (2007) comments, “Young people may
be more influenced by television, for example, than by the internet.”
(Livingston et al., Chapter 2)
While the internet has the capability to provide
users with immediate information, it is television that instead can greatly
change a culture.
It is easy for the public to look online for news
stories from around the world for balanced perspectives instead of the
Australian ones we are provided with, however, the television audience
(particularly commercial stations), which can often receive predominantly
Australian news and local stories therefore assisting in the shaping of the
viewers Australian culture.
What makes a culture ultimately comes down to a
person’s family and friends, and the amount of local, national and
international exposure an individual is given. Should a person experience large
amounts of international exposure, one would understand the different cultures
and ultimately modify their own culture.
Cultures are developed and changed through
globalisation, diasporia, existing cultures, and in today’s society social
media. A person is born with an existing culture, they know of others but
remain ignorant until they experience other cultures in life.
Similarly, a person’s culture will not remain the
same their whole life; they will no doubt experience things that will change
their culture for good, whether that is a change in lifestyle or living
conditions, or the changes diasporia has on society through the media.
One thing is for certain however; there will never
be a correct way to describing a nations culture. People experience culture in
different ways and will continue to do so just as they modify their own to suit
the incoming cultures from the ever-shrinking world.
References:
Citizenship 2012, 'What does Australian Citizenship
mean?', retrieved 21 August, <http://www.citizenship.gov.au/learn/schools/citizenship.htm/>
Dudrah, RK 2002, ‘Vilayati Bollywood: popular Hindi
cinema-going and diasporic South Asian identity in Birmingham (UK)’, Javnost -
the public, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 19-36
Foreign Affairs Trade 2012, 'Australian Culture'.
retrieved 22 August, <http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/people_culture.html>
Loader, BD 2007, ‘Introduction : Young citizens in
the digital age : disaffected or displaced?’, Young citizens in the
digital age : political engagement, young people and new media 2007,
Routledge, London, pp. 1-17
Naficy, H 2003,'Narrowcasting in diaspora: Middle
Eastern television in Los Angeles', in KH Karim (ed.), The media of diaspora,
Routledge, London, pp. 51-62
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