Year 11 ‘Reading to Write’ Discursive Exemplar: Shenelle Lokubalasuriya

What it Means to be Australian in the Early 2020s

It was last period on a random Tuesday – science. Our usual science teacher had left a few days earlier for maternity leave. Ever since we’d been burdened with all the almost-retired casual teachers that let us do whatever we wanted. Some classmates were making TikToks, some were sleeping and others were melting aluminium on bunsen burners. When I looked to my right, there was an active conversation going on.

A bunch of girls were chatting about video games. I shuffled closer to join in on their conversation despite the fact the only video game I’d ever played was Roblox. The girls kept talking about each of the characters and avatars in the game and where each character came from – that is, each character’s ethnicity. 

One of the girls was an avid Valorant fan and could ramble on for hours about it. She wore a pair of blue-light filter glasses and her wolfcut sat perfectly around her shoulders. She argued about how amazing and inclusive the Valorant characters were and listed all the countries each character was from. She mentioned how every Valorant character was from every single ethnicity that each of our classmates was from. There was another girl who sat across from me who was also part of the conversation. She had caramel highlights and her stone, bead bracelets rattled against each other every time she played with her hair. 

She looked over at me and asked, “What about Sri Lanka? Is there any character from Sri Lanka?”. The rest of the girls looked over at me, and as soon as they did, the girl with the wolf cut looked at me and stuttered, “Well, you’re just a minority”. 

“A minority?!”. As I let the words sink in, I tried to account for all the well-known Sri Lankan media personalities. It wasn’t until then that I started to question whether or not my ethnicity was considered a ‘minority’, given the fact that not even I could whip out a list of famous Sri Lankan personalities I’ve seen in any type of digital media or TV. 

In Australia’s print media, a growing number of individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds have left a name for themselves. Yet, it’s a different story in Australian digital media. Even though nearly 30% of Australians were born abroad as of 2020, people from non-Anglo Celtic backgrounds are still glaringly underrepresented in the country’s media, especially on television. 

This includes hundreds of thousands of people from various countries, including Sri Lanka. Radio networks have circumvented the problem by providing ethnic broadcasters in various languages with daily or weekly slots. Since television is, by definition, more visible to viewers in comparison to other types of media, its lack of diversity is shockingly apparent in this regard. 

It would be difficult for most television viewers to recite a list of regular TV show hosts or CALD presenters. There are a few that do come to my mind such as Waleed Aly from Channel 10’s ‘The Project’ and David Chau and Jeremy Fernandez from Channel ABC. Thankfully, digital media personalities from CALD backgrounds are fairly represented only on SBS. Yet, the ABC and the tokenistic presence of CALD individuals is limited to very few commercial and broadcasting networks. Consequently, Australian television does not even come close to representing the diversity and multiculturalism of Australian society. 

In a 2020 Deakin University study titled Who gets to tell Australian Stories, senior lecturer in journalism Dr. Usha. M. Rodrigues discovered that over 75% of TV show hosts were of Anglo-Celtic descent over two weeks, compared to 9.3% of non-European and 2.1% of Indigenous Australians. According to the report, despite Australians with non-European and Indigenous ancestry constituting 24% of Australia’s population, they were featured on TV screens merely 6% of the time. Ironically, Australia’s multiculturalism was the subject of less than 4% of all news and current affairs stories carried out by 81 programmes. 

What obstacles exist then for equal racial representation in Australian digital media? The broader Australian attitudes regarding race play a significant role in efforts for a solution. Although the vast majority of Australians are open-minded and accepting, a sizeable minority still hold racist beliefs. According to an Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) report, around 1.5% of Australians think that some racial groups are still superior to others. Now, while 1.5% doesn’t seem like a huge number, this equates to hundreds of thousands of Australians who still hold this belief. 

Learning to speak with an ‘Australian accent’ or an accent that can be commonly understood is another challenge that CALD people must overcome. Even the small percentage of CALD individuals who work in Australian digital media have an ‘Australian accent’. Television executives believe that ‘native’ Australians would prefer to hear their news, current affairs, and other forms of digital media in a familiar accent rather than a foreign one. Additionally, comedians on Australian television frequently imitate and make fun of various accents such as the famous ‘Indian scammer’ accent. So, it would be safe to say that mainstream views and ideals on race are reflected in the choice of storytellers and representatives in Australian media. 

So, what can be done to improve the diversity and multicultural representation in Australian digital media and television? Dr Rodrigues, the author of the Deakin University report, suggests in an article published in ‘The Conversation’ that methodical diversity data collection needs to be consistently collected. Alongside this, setting cultural diversity targets and giving diversity top priority when hiring and promoting newsroom staff is a must. 

Dr Rodrigues further argues that decision-makers in Australian television networks, such as senior executives and boards, need to be more diverse. At the moment, there is a dearth of multiculturalism in these positions. Our society suffers as a result of excluding CALD people’s rich cultures and experiences from Australian digital media. However, it must be mentioned that Australia’s multiculturalism is finally beginning to be reflected in Australian commercials, TV shows, news reports, movies and many other forms of media and entertainment. 

So, the next time my classmates and I are ever talking about Valorant or any other video game, I hope that I can finally mention a video game where Sri Lankans aren’t considered a minority. 

English Team Comment

Across the Year 11 ‘Reading to Write’ common module and the Year 12, Module C ‘Craft of Writing’ course, many students find the discursive writing component to be the most difficult. Both Standard and Advanced Students tend to struggle with discursive writing as it is the most unfamiliar to them. In this case however, Shenelle Lokubalasuriya is a high-achieving English Advanced student whose personal essay demonstrates a great storytelling ability, especially in terms of the creative nonfiction text type. This discursive piece has a unique (and at times) funny, witty voice. The written expression is crisp and clear, and Shenelle’s narrative arc of positioning herself as a real-life character within the wider discussion of diverse media representation comes full circle from opening to conclusion.

For more English Advanced Discursive Writing exemplars, click here!