Connecting attitudes, aspirations and values: Australia's media engagement in the Asia Pacific and apprenticeship in Soft Power

Abstract

The traditional model of public diplomacy through broadcast media is being fundamentally disturbed by a significant increase in the number of nations committed to international broadcasting and the diffusing effect of digital media. Australia has been committed to international broadcasting for over 70 years and through Radio Australia and Australia Network television engages with some 46 nations in the Asia Pacific. But in the context of diverse audience expectations, values and traditions, how effective is this engagement? The Confucian and Islamic values of much of Asia and the Melanesian and Polynesian ethos of much of the Pacific contrasts with views of the world from Melbourne and Sydney. Principal considerations in the practice of Soft Power are the notions of attraction and persuasion. Australia has had modest success as a Soft Power practitioner. In this lecture Murray Green provides a roadmap for Australia's media engagement in the Asia Pacific in the light of current thinking about public diplomacy and the potential of Soft Power [Bruce Allen Memorial Lecture, Soft Power Advocacy and Research Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney, 31 October 2012].