Effective cultural policy in the 21st century: challenges and strategies from Australian television

Abstract

This article uses Australia to illustrate the need for more ambitious cultural policy measures in response to industrial reconfiguration wrought by digital distribution and other industry change. In many countries, cultural policy is challenged by industrial shifts that have further escalated the internationalisation of the television industry in ways that directly challenge policy mechanisms designed to ensure the achievement of cultural objectives. In Australia, cultural policy has also been diminished by politically popular industry-sector supports that have subordinated cultural policy to economic objectives such as job creation. With increased market pressure to produce ‘stories that travel’, criteria such as creative talents’ citizenship and location of production do little to guarantee the achievement of television that reflects the ‘identity, character and cultural diversity’ of the country. The article identifies how contemporary market conditions require more extensive criteria–such as a culture test–to meet the aims of 21st-century cultural policy.