'South of the West': Cultural Coordinates of the Australian Audiovisual System

Abstract

The 'cultural exception' debate raised around the mega-policy issue of WTO-sponsored trade liberalisation imperatives and incentives should not be locked into a Europe-USA or an English versus non-English-language opposition. Cultural diversity across the audiovisual world is much richer – and more interesting – than that. This article focuses on cultural diversity in the ‘English world’ – more specifically, on cultural diversity in the Australian audiovisual system. If a country that seemingly shares so much with the US and other English-language countries of the old British regime, is actually quite different in the way it mixes its cultural coordinates, the complexity and richness of the world’s audiovisual systems are brought into sharper focus.