Measuring the Cultural Value of Australia's Screen Sector
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Measuring the Cultural Value of Australia’s Screen Sector A report presented to Screen Australia by Olsberg•SPI 11th November, 2016 Measuring the Cultural Value of Australia’s Screen Sector Contents 1. Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. A Diverse Range of Interests ............................................................................................... 1 1.2. A Preference for Local Stories ............................................................................................. 1 1.3. Demonstrating Cultural Value ............................................................................................. 1 1.4. Generating Artistic and Instrumental Value ......................................................................... 2 1.5. Generating Social Understanding ........................................................................................ 2 1.6. Explaining Australia Internationally ..................................................................................... 3 1.7. Bringing Indigenous Stories to a Wider Australian Audience ............................................... 3 1.8. Preserving Australia’s Other Stories .................................................................................... 4 1.9. Educating Australia’s Children ............................................................................................. 4 2. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5 2.1. Aims of this Report .............................................................................................................. 5 2.2. Defining the Study Sectors .................................................................................................. 5 2.3. Analysing Cultural and Audience Contributions .................................................................. 6 3. Survey Results ........................................................................................................................... 8 3.1. Overview of Survey ............................................................................................................. 8 3.2. Domestic Response ............................................................................................................. 8 3.3. Noted Pieces of Content ................................................................................................... 14 3.4. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 19 4. The Film Sector ....................................................................................................................... 21 4.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 21 4.2. Time of Engagement ......................................................................................................... 21 4.3. Audience Response ........................................................................................................... 22 4.4. Australian Film and Australian History .............................................................................. 27 4.5. Overall Impacts ................................................................................................................. 29 5. The TV Sector .......................................................................................................................... 32 5.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 32 5.2. Audience Response ............................................................................................................ 33 5.3. Multiplatform Drama ........................................................................................................ 39 5.4. Overall Impacts ................................................................................................................. 42 6. Factual Production .................................................................................................................. 45 6.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 45 6.2. Audience Response ........................................................................................................... 45 6.3. Positive Externalities and Social Impact ............................................................................ 49 6.4. Future Opportunity ........................................................................................................... 50 6.5. Overall Impacts ................................................................................................................. 50 7. Children’s Media Content ........................................................................................................ 53 © Olsberg•SPI 2016 11th November, 2016 ii Measuring the Cultural Value of Australia’s Screen Sector 7.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 53 7.2. Audience Response ........................................................................................................... 53 7.3. Overall Impacts ................................................................................................................. 56 8. Indigenous Screen Content ..................................................................................................... 59 8.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 59 8.2. Audience Response ........................................................................................................... 59 8.3. Overall Impacts ................................................................................................................. 63 9. Appendix 1- Literature reviews ................................................................................................... i 9.1. Film: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ i 9.2. Television: Literature Review .............................................................................................. v 9.3. Documentary: Literature Review....................................................................................... viii 9.4. Children’s Media: Literature Review .................................................................................... x 9.5. Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders Media: Literature Review ................................... xiv 10. Appendix 2 – Bibliography ................................................................................................... xix 11. Appendix 3 – List of Consultees ......................................................................................... xxiii © Olsberg•SPI 2016 11th November, 2016 iii Measuring the Cultural Value of Australia’s Screen Sector 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This study highlights a range of different values for Australian screen content, noted by both domestic and international audiences. These results have been generated through a variety of different techniques, including qualitative and quantitative approaches, and underline the depth, breadth, and diverse value which Australian screen content delivers around the world. 1.1. A Diverse Range of Interests One of the strengths of Australian screen content is its diversity of style and subject matter. This is highlighted by the fact that 1,049 survey respondents, when asked to name important pieces of Australian content, identified 271 separate pieces of content or content types. Those pieces named covered a broad range of films and TV programs – from cult classics such as Crocodile Dundee to TV soaps such as Home and Away to socio-historical films such as Rabbit-Proof Fence to current affairs programs such as Four Corners to the genre of natural history documentaries. The titles named by international survey respondents showed a broad overlap with those identified domestically, suggesting a strong, common understanding of what Australia is. This helps to achieve international cultural impacts and soft power, as the Mad Max and Crocodile Dundee franchises – two of those identified – can only impact on international understanding of Australia if they are recognised as Australian. Supporting this, over 60 per cent of respondents considered that Australian content is fairly, very or completely different from other countries’ screen content. 1.2. A Preference for Local Stories Despite the vast range of imported programs on Australian screens (large and small), and their large production and marketing budgets, Australians surveyed expressed a strong preference for local content. Only 2% said that they don’t watch Australian content, while 64% said that local content accounted for up to half of their media diet, and 22% reported that most or all of their viewing was Australian. 35% of respondents said they were more likely to watch a program if it’s Australian, compared to 14% who stated that they were less likely, dovetailing with previous research which identified the strong cultural distinctiveness