From Sat, July 1, a new Victorian Government policy will require that departments spend at least 15 percent of their campaign media budget on multicultural press.
Premier Dan Andrews committed to this increase during the last election campaign, at a multicultural media conference on November 16, 2022.
This was in part a recognition of the role multicultural media played during the pandemic in delivering critical information to diverse communities.
Fotis Kapetopoulos, the Secretary for Independent Multicultural Media Australia (IMMA) welcomed the policy and said it was important that departments focus on communicating with multicultural communities effectively, “instead of spending vast amounts on foreign social media companies.”
Kapetopoulos said that independent multicultural media is diverse and includes legacy and new digital media, “that represents the breadth of multicultural Australia.”
“IMMA represents a media ecology that is unique, some of our members have very long legacies, while others are new and represent new emerging communities.
“Multicultural media speak to the community, across generations in community languages as well as in English, we start conversations in families and communities.”
Christopher Gogos, Neos Kosmos’ publisher, a founding member of IMMA said, “the Victorian government recognised that our sector provides essential means of communication to our communities, we are much more than media, we are institutions in the community.”
“Multicultural media complement the mainstream media landscape, we produce public interest journalism which is essential for a thriving democracy with Australian values.”
He said that Australia’s multicultural media includes print, digital, radio and electronic media, and utilises social media channels which “when combined can result in highly effective reach and engagement.”
“We remain independent and hold all governments and institutions to account, we provide weight and context for government messages in community languages and in English, in the case of Neos Kosmos we speak to first, second and third generation Greek Australians.”
Fotis Kapetopoulos said that the move was welcome however that getting the departments and agencies to “shift old habits may need some education” and added that “IMMA was happy to assist.”
The Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) tracks government advertising expenditure via the Master Agency Media Services (MAMS) contract and reports this in the annual Victorian Government advertising expenditure reports.”
