Hearts and Minds: punters explain why Australian content rools

Research goes beyond the usual statistical breakdowns to document some conversations with Australians about local content.
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Qualitative research? Say it ain’t so! Research goes beyond the usual statistical breakdowns to document some conversations with Australians about local content. It turns out Australian content creators are delivering exactly what our audiences want from Australian production. 

The Mind & Mood Report team, run by Ipsos Australia, interviewed six friendship groups in Sydney, Melbourne and Orange in some depth about their experience of and affection for Australian screen content. The results are published today.

According to Fiona Cameron, chief operating officer of Screen Australia, the research is a modest project to ‘get Australian content and why it matters on map, before delving into the public policy conversation on the subject.’ 

It provides soft data to prepare for the Jobs, Dollars, Hearts and Minds Conference about the sector in Canberra today. The truly significant research announcement is the Australian Bureau of Statistics data, being collected again after a seven year gap. 

The researchers interviewed a group of educated men in their forties, who met through their wives, who mostly watched news and current affairs and don’t go to the cinema. Also shaped by time constraints is a group of women in their thirties who met through their kids at the local school. A cohort of women in their fifties who live in inner-suburban Melbourne turn out to be avid cinema goers, and also watch plenty of television. 

These people are mostly anglo-celtic. But they also interviewed a group of university friends in their twenties who all come from India. They turn out to be ‘not strongly drawn to Australian content.’

Perhaps the most interesting are young women completing their HSC, who are ethnically diverse, and watch plenty of Australian material. 

Generally speaking, the report concludes, people enjoy the Australianness of our screen media, ‘full of characters, humour, locations and a way of life they recognised and could relate to.’ They talked about the revelatory power of films based on real life like Rabbit Proof Fence and First Australians, extending out to Go Back to Where You Came From and even Underbelly.

Surprisingly, the respondents understand the implications of our limited budgets. ‘Participants were proud of what Australian filmmakers had achieved with relatively small budgets and didn’t expect them to produce blockbuster.’ And ‘There was a strong belief that Australian filmmakers excelled at a ‘down-to-earth’ and nuanced style of storytelling, thought to be perfect for the ‘smaller’ stories they told about contemporary, multicultural Australian life and Indigenous Australians.’

They also tend to realise that the sector and its stories have matured, and moved ‘well past cliché stories and stereotypes to better reflect our more sophisticated and culturally diverse society.’ The tone of the comments is remarkably consistent: 

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David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.