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Dumbing down SBS

By Peter West - posted Wednesday, 5 September 2007


What is happening at SBS TV? We have had  a couple of weeks of drama heralded by the news that Mary Kostakidis is unhappy with her role and indeed, seems to be suing the station. But this is merely the end of a very long process. Gerald Stone (deputy Chairman of the SBS Board) and Shaun Brown (SBS managing director) have denied that SBS is being dumbed down and vigorously defended the station in a National Press Club discussion.

Now that’s interesting. How come these two are so outspoken in defending SBS? One seems to be an Anglo Australian. The other is an American resident in Australia. Where is the diversity that SBS is supposed to provide? And why haven’t the ethnic communities sprung to SBS’ defence?

Where, in this debate, are the voices of Italian, Greek, Lebanese, German, Turkish and all the other ethnic communities? The message from management has been that, no, SBS TV is not being dumbed-down. But I think they protest much too much.

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What is SBS supposed to do? And what does it do? To do this we have to look at the SBS Charter, which I have added to the bottom of this article as displayed on SBS’ own website.

In essence, SBS is supposed to be different from the commercial stations: and different again from the ABC, which has its own responsibilities across Australia and its own limitations.

SBS’ website encapsulates a responsibility to be different. Thus:

SBS celebrates difference and promotes understanding. It gives Australians access to other cultures and languages, and targets prejudice, racism and discrimination through creative and quality programming that is inclusive and diverse.

SBS is the voice and the vision of multicultural Australia.

This is a grand and laudable vision, and should give the station the licence and responsibility to broadcast a range of diverse and challenging programs with many perspectives and in many languages.

There have certainly been SBS programs which show us a window on the world. News is broadcast from a range of countries. There is Latin American news, news from Germany and Italy, and so on.

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There have been some excellent movies from Africa, Asia, France and a host of other countries. I have often watched them and had my Anglo-Australian eyes opened. I have frequently told my teacher education students to watch these programs, particularly Global Village.

There have been some engaging sports programs offering useful alternatives to the usual diet of Rugby League or AFL which dominate most stations, or the cricket presented so reverently by ABC.

All these programs are illuminating and a useful contrast to the high American content on commercial channels, and the weight of British programs on ABC TV.

With very few exceptions, one looks at the commercial channels in vain for anything substantial on Africa or Asia or even Europe, apart from Britain. The almighty dollar rules. We get endless amounts of Big Brother nonsense because it is cheap, presumably.

Commercial TV even shows us people having accidents - because people send in their home videos to prove it. Well that’s cheap programming! We saw recently Channel 9 heavily advertising a program in which a well-known footballer confessed to long-term drug use. Not because the station cared about people using drugs, but because it was a ratings winner.

For a distinct Australian culture to continue, we desperately need alternatives to dollar-driven TV based on American ideas and content. And at its best SBS has provided a useful and quality addition to TV broadcasting as we know it in Australia.

However, in the past two or three years a worrying trend has begun. SBS has progressively lost much of its dignity and gravitas. David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz have long abandoned SBS for ABC TV. They have been replaced by a program which looks shoddy and amateurish. Pizza - which once seemed to be a satirical show - now seems to be happily reinforcing stereotypes. SBS looks and sounds like commercial TV, most of the time.

There is an occasional current affairs program on SBS, but nothing ground-breaking. Too often we get pious statements and worthy depiction of one group or another, but nothing that really seizes the imagination.

Announcers like Anton Enus and Mary Kostakidis used to sound authoritative, in a solid half hour of world news. Now we get conversations with key figures, reminders of what was said ten minutes earlier and a presentation that smacks of commercial TV. SBS management is smug and complacent, with little to boast about. The News Hour broadcast nightly on SBS shows us what first-rate US public television can do.

Meanwhile, the most innovative and sparkling shows are appearing elsewhere. Thank God You’re Here on channel 10 is unscripted, consistently entertaining and is deservedly popular. The Chaser’s irreverent fun continues on ABC-TV. There are excellent programs on other channels. Channels 7 and 9 give occasional glimpses of solid drama, including Sea Patrol.

Where are the fresh and innovative shows on SBS? Why don’t we have more shows like Remote Area Nurse? SBS has a large enough budget, and potential support from many sectors of the community. But it will fritter this away if it is seduced by commercial dollars. Where is the vision? Where are the authentic voices of Africans, the Chinese or Latino-Australians? Where are the programs teaching people how to speak English and Spanish and Mandarin?

Ignorance is dangerous. We recently saw a ludicrous scene in which a Miss Teen America candidate attempted to describe America’s role in the world. She was responding to news that one fifth of Americans, apparently, cannot find the USA on a world map. We find this hilarious; although I was amazed to hear that four-fifths of Americans could find the USA on a world map. But without a diverse and sometimes confronting media, our children will grow up just as ignorant. They will believe what they read on Wikipedia. They will buy American values and ideas. They will never become educated people.

We now cannot watch anything on SBS without gritting our teeth in anticipation of strident voices from carpet warehouses and discount stores. Why were these begun? Where is the evidence that they help produce quality programs?

The ferocity and sheer number of these ads demean SBS and pulls it down to commercial levels. He who pays the piper calls the tune: as the commercial dollars roll in, so will pressure. How can SBS report impartially on the Australian political scene when it is tied to commercial needs?

As George Orwell suggested in his novel 1984, the modern genius is to state a noble intention while practising the opposite. For instance, simply announce that we need to go to war in order to preserve peace. Thus SBS’ Corporate Plan says “We are a pioneering broadcaster ... independent from external pressures to conform or favour (sic) … we are courageous in what we do”.

These grand ideas are contradicted by the make-up of the SBS Board. Flicking through the list of directors is like checking through a list of big businesses. Westfields Holdings, Coca Cola Amatil, The Courier-Mail and many other big business and media interests are well represented. Too many people are linked in cosy ways with one powerful business after another. Yet there is a solitary member of the unions whose members work in TV.

What confidence can we have that ordinary Australians can have any say, when the rich and powerful are so entrenched in what is supposed to be public TV? Where are the educators and other people who might be dedicated to the public good? Where is the much-lauded independence from the corporate sector?

Once again, SBS’ Corporate Plan says we are “pursuing new ideas and imaginative solutions”. It all sounds exciting. This is fairly common language in advertising agencies. It’s picked up by phone companies, universities and other institutions which have sold themselves down the corporate path. And SBS promises to be “fair, clear and transparent in the way we interact with each other”. Terrific!

Could I ask what transparent process is there for complaints to be heard? And can we have any confidence that complaints are listened to? I suspect that viewers’ criticisms are thrown in the rubbish bin. Anecdotal evidence suggests increasing frustration at the corporate path down which SBS is being dragged. I wonder what an independent audit of complaints would show?

The corporate plan even talks about “increased efficiencies through outsourcing”. Not this old warhorse! Outsourcing is often lauded as efficient, but all we do is pay expensive experts to do slick jobs that could be done in-house, and often done better. How does this encourage cost-cutting or innovation? Another “imaginative solution” or more corporate-speak? Corporations are good at paying their managers outrageous salaries and grinding opponents into the ground. There is no contest between public need and corporate greed.

And now back to the dumbing-down issue, which is where we started. If the issue of dumbing-down is important enough to discuss at the National Press Club, we need to commission proper media analysis of SBS programs. Or pay for a reputable survey agency to ask audiences what they think. Until then, all comment must be subjective.

SBS at its best has been world quality television. I urge all intelligent Australians to get out there and lobby for its retention as an intelligent and thoughtful station. The union movement and the ethnic communities need to get involved. I challenge Labor and the Greens to produce policies that will reverse the trends noted above and return SBS to its proper role.

Ditch the ads, SBS. Use the money you get from the public wisely, and do what your charter tells you to do.

The SBS Charter, provided in the SBS Act, sets out the principal functions of SBS and a number of duties it has to fulfil. The Charter, contained in Section 6 of the Special Broadcasting Services Act 1991, states:

  1. The principal function of SBS is to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's multicultural society.
  2. SBS, in performing its principal function, must:
    (a) contribute to meeting the communications needs of Australia's multicultural society, including ethnic, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; and
    (b) increase awareness of the contribution of a diversity of cultures to the continuing development of Australian society; and
    (c) promote understanding and acceptance of the cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity of the Australian people; and
    (d) contribute to the retention and continuing development of language and other cultural skills; and
    (e) as far as practicable, inform, educate and entertain Australians in their preferred languages; and
    (f) make use of Australia's diverse creative resources; and
    (g) contribute to the overall diversity of Australian television and radio services, particularly taking into account the contribution of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the community broadcasting sector; and
    (h) contribute to extending the range of Australian television and radio services, and reflect the changing nature of Australian society, by presenting many points of view and using innovative forms of expression.

SBS Board members are listed on this site.

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About the Author

Dr Peter West is a well-known social commentator and an expert on men's and boys' issues. He is the author of Fathers, Sons and Lovers: Men Talk about Their Lives from the 1930s to Today (Finch,1996). He works part-time in the Faculty of Education, Australian Catholic University, Sydney.

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