John Budarick

In this article I use Chantal Mouffe's theory of agonistic pluralism as a framework through which to analyze the actual and potential role of ethnic media as facilitators of counterhegemonic discourses in Australia and other liberal democracies. The pluralist approach provides a powerful way to circumvent the integration-fragmentation divide that often inhibits both political and academic understandings of ethnic media. It articulates a political culture that can sustain and respond to counterhegemonic movements and has at its center the transformation of differing political identities from enemies into adversaries. Two areas of the current media landscape are analyzed: policy and professionalism. It is argued that both are far from simple in the way they shape ethnic media's counterhegemonic potential, and in its current form each presents an adaptable and flexible hegemonic position that must be exposed to further the democratic potential of ethnic media.

This article analyzes the relationship between migrants, news media, and feelings of belonging and security. It comparatively examines the role of news media produced in three distinct yet overlapping sociopolitical spheres—Australia, Iran, and the Iranian diaspora—in the management of “belonging-security” among Iranian migrants in Australia. The article investigates the experiences of Iranian Australians as they manage shifting understandings of identity, home, and community, all while engaging with a complex media environment that addresses multiple audiences and facilitates multiple overlapping communities. The findings demonstrate that participants apply their own evaluative frameworks onto media in an attempt to manage feelings of belonging-security and negotiate cultural and political borders.

In this article, I critically analyse the relationship between media and conceptualisations of diaspora as a form of imagined transnational community. Despite the central place of transnational media in understandings of diasporic communities, there is yet to be a sustained dialogue between theoretical understandings of diaspora and diaspora media studies. I argue that the role of transnational media in conceptualisations of diaspora is too often reduced to the facilitation of cross-border communities. Not enough attention is paid to the alternative possibilities, including the potential of media to challenge cross- border solidarities in ways that fundamentally undermine prevalent understandings of the media and diaspora relationship. As a way to address this issue, it is important that studies of diaspora and media incorporate non-diasporic media into their analyses.