The Representation of Indigenous People in the Mainstream Media - Essay Example

Name : xxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxx Title : Ethnocentrism, Stereotyping and Orientalism in the Australian press Tutor : xxxxxxxxx @ 2015 Ethnocentrism, Stereotyping and Orientalism in the Australian press Introduction Researchers of Indigenous mass media representation have established that media comment around Indigenous issues is virtually universally desolate and negative (Meadows, 2001; McCallum, 2007). This paper will examine the representation of Indigenous people in the mainstream media and examine the social effects of the construction of Aboriginal identity in Australia. Ethnocentrism is prevalent in media outlets in Australia. Indigenous people and issues remain to be fraught with falsification and stereotypes in the mainstream media (Gardiner, 2003; Due et al, 2011). Journalism in Australia has played a significant role in developing public discourse regarding issues of diversity. Consequently, journalism and media studies researchers have studied and criticized the role of the media in developing and representing bulletin around Aboriginal affairs. The media has been relatively slow in developing media coverage of issues about cultural diversity in Australia (McCallum, 2011). Ethnocentrism, stereotyping and orientalism have been evident in the Australia Press. There has been negative subject matter in the media when reporting ethnic issues and the absence of appropriate participation by Indigenous people in developing the media discourse. Indigenous people have always been framed by the modern media according to non-Indigenous ideologies, that is, the ignoble savage, the exotic Other, the noble savage, a dying race, the invisible, the activist, the drunk, welfare-dependent or the threat to current order (Bayet, 2005). Journalism practises have remained to be complicit in constructing and sustaining specific images of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia (Meadows, 2002). An analysis in the way the media represent Indigenous issues often reveals stereotyping and vast coverage of negative themes. During the 1980s, the media overwhelmingly represented Aboriginal people as a threat to the current order, more or less always reporting on Indigenous people as the cause of conflict and propagating the notion of ‘Aboriginal privilege’’, whereby the Aboriginal people are depicted as having biased advantage. This can also be seen in the 1990s when there was a move towards social dogmatism and neo-liberal economic restructuring. During this period of Howard Government, recompilations, native title and ATSCIC activism were largely reported as evils and sparkled agitated discussions among general public (Nicoll, 2008). In this modern era, there has been a change in the reporting of Aboriginal issues which has worsened to the point of creating a moral panic, whereby the Aboriginal people are depicted as victims or criminals (Hartley, et al, 2000). Social justice issues and Indigenous identity have been lost in a context of misperception and conflict and the agenda remains to be widely dominated by the ideal bulletin value conflict (Meadows, 2001). The common themes that the media seem to report about Indigenous issues includes sexual abuse and domestic violence of Aboriginal communities, and the link to categorized characteristics with historical experiences of deprivation, stolen or unequal wages, child removal and failure of the Aboriginal governance (Nicoll, 2008; p6). The representation of the Indigenous people in the mainstream press is characterised by stereotypes, negative themes and misrepresentation. Moreover, research studies analysing the inclusion of Indigenous people’s comments and viewpoint in the press show that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are played down as sources for mass media reporting. A perfect example of this is an article by the Australian Associated Press in the Sydney morning Herald on 9th March, 2012 titled ‘Dugong, turtle cruelty claims sparks stoush’’. All the people mentioned in this article are non-Indigenous Australians as well lacks the voice of the Indigenous people. In most news articles, the non-Indigenous sources are represented talking on behalf of Aboriginal people. For example, in the Sydney Morning Herald on 5th December, 2011, there is an article called ‘’Secrets men’s business threatens $30 billion gas Bonanza’’, that quote a non-Indigenous lawyer representing an Indigenous proprietor of the Kimberley area. The lawyer says, ‘’A proposed $30 billion gas hub at James Price Point on Western Australia’s Kimberley coast would disturb sites used for secret Aboriginal‘ men’s businesses’’. The silencing of Aboriginal voices on a wide range of issues reported on a regular basis by the community and mainstream media is a dominant theme in the Aboriginal media representation (Meadows, 2001). A research study showed that out of 28 news stories analysed just 9 of them directly quoted Indigenous sources and out of 15 television news stories examined concerning Indigenous issues just 3 included an Aboriginal person talking (Meadows, 2002). A study conducted by Scott on the reporting of print media about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission found that despite the fact that the majority of reporting questioned the abilities of ATSIC, the media did not represent the Aboriginal people, who are directly impacted by its operation. Only 8% of the articles coverage about the controversial Chairperson of the ATSIC quoted an Aboriginal person. Moreover, a study done by Due and Riggs found that the Indigenous voices were underrepresented in the coverage on native title in the Australian press (Due and Riggs, 2011: 147). The media hold that all Indigenous people are the same and equally understand one another, without considering cultural difference, gender, sexual preferences and history among others. Orientalism provides the basis on which to analyse the media representations of Indigenous peoples. Orientalism exemplifies the imprisonment of identity and label by analysing European Middle East’s representation as the place of the first and ultimate colonial conquest by Europe. The media has plays a significant role in the process of entrenching racism at an institutional level through the repetitive, daily reinforcement of stereotypes (Said, 2003: 26). In Australia, the misrepresentation of the Aboriginal people and issues has been commonplace throughout the European history of this country in a range of modern media, including colonial and modern news stories, television series, school textbooks, press photographs, films and postcards (Meadows, 2001). The media has played a significant conceptual role in framing the Aboriginal people in specific ways from the time when they first come into contact with the Europeans (Ashcroft, 2001). Post-colonial structural as well as ideological power inequities carry on in the representation of Aboriginal matters in the Australian Press. The media tend to create and circulate ideologies and hence breed stereotypes and myths which help to strengthen white hegemony (Hall, 1995). The media projects images of white culture whereby the non-white population are seen as a problem, an oddity instead of as belonging to the society (Hartmann and Husband, 1974: 165). The press reporting of Indigenous issues represent Australia as a white state across all dimensions of political, legal, cultural and social life. The Press’s representations tend to function successfully to support and maintain the mutual interests and discourse of the white (Nicoll, 2008). There are various racist themes which recur in the variety of representations of Indigenous people in the Australia press, including an emphasis on ethnocentrism, negative primitivism, frame-up in a regressive culture and a distress with the risk posed by Indigenous people, through outbreaks, violence and crime into white society. Moreover, the media represent the Aboriginals as failures as they are able to deal with the modern world as they are incapable and undisciplined. The media also represent the Indigenous people as victims of white whereby the white tend to treat them sympathetically or unsympathetically. The media has contributed to the continuing acts of ethnocentrism through the invisibility of Aboriginal people in the media reporting and the racialization of economic and social problems (MaCausland, 2004). Research studies have found out that ethnocentrism is not individual but institutional, meaning that it is as a result of news values, reporting policies and other practices of news collecting which are not in themselves knowingly prejudicial. Ethnocentrism results from reality that many bulletin stories are already created before the event occurs or a reporter is assigned to them. News including Indigenous peoples are purely more probably to be reported or more probably to survive sub-editorial spiking or revision, if it fits current meanings of the situation (MaCausland, 2004: 99). The process the mass media uses to present particular issues often and prominently can result in the larger part of the population identifying those matters as more significant than others. The media represent ethnic issues in certain ways that makes it the truth, making it very hard for the subject people to challenge. The reporting of Aboriginal issues is lop-sided to the real population of Indigenous people; Aboriginals Australia evidently provides marketable content, manifest in the constancy with which it represented in valued front page space as well as forms the issue of opinion columns, editorials and features (Nicoll, 2008). Indigenous people provide a boundless source of information for photo drama in the modern print media (Gardiner, 2003: 240). Often, the necessity for quick reports for time dependent bulletin stories contributes to stereotypes being embraced by the press as labels that function to bring into the light an issue to the audience, hence decreasing the complexity of an issue (Angel, 2008).However, the pervasive stereotypes of Aboriginals Australians observed in news are problematic as a result of their dependent upon stereotypical representations (Due and Riggs, 2011). News is the outcome of a complex process that filters and selects events and issues in terms of socially created set of categories. Moreover, the angles and stories used to cover them are stereotypically conformist and traditional, supporting mainstream perspectives and opinions regarding the world (Due, 2011). The Press defines what ethnic is as well as what it implies for the world and helps to categorize out the world according to categories of ethnic. It is the labels, constructed by post-colonialist notions and racist and maintained through news priorities and agenda-setting which create the identity in the depictions of Indigenous peoples and matters in the Press. In conclusion, the media constructs Indigenous identities which are fraught with stereotypes, inaccuracies and oppressive discourse. There is flawed use of aboriginal sources in news coverage, especially the lack of Aboriginal people quoted as well as the use of non-Indigenous Australians talking on behalf of Aboriginal people. Thus, Indigenous people are frequently misrepresented by homogenising perceptions and idealizing Indigenous sources. The major themes in most news are of failure of Indigenous governance, turmoil of Indigenous custodianship, social disadvantage and the use of language which reinforces inequality. The Indigenous people are represented in news as the sources of conflict, with no acknowledgement of diversity and individuality and with no self-determined governance. The evidence of ethnocentrism, stereotyping and orientalism in Australian Press calls for the government to implement policy that focuses on shifting the social fabric of the country. Bibliography Angel, S. (2008) ‘Radio writes back: Challenging media stereotypes of race and identity’. Pacific Journalism Review, 14(2). Pp 122-138. Ashcroft, B. (2001). Post-colonial transformations. London: Routledge Bayet, Fabienne (2005) ‘Overturning the Doctrine: Indigenous People and Wilderness – Being Aboriginal in the Environment Movement’. Dryzek, J., Schlosber, D. (eds) Debating the Earth: The Environmental Politics Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Due, C., Riggs, D.W. (2011) Representations of Indigenous Australians in the mainstream news media. Brisbane: Post Pressed Gardiner, G. (2003) ‘Running for Country: Australian Print Media Representation of Indigenous Athletes in the 27th Olympiad’. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Vol 27 No233. Hall, S. (1995) ‘The whites of their eyes: Racist ideologies and the media’ in a text reader, G. Dines & Humez, J.M. Calif: Sage Publications. Pp 18-22. Hartley, J. and McKee, A. (2000) The indigenous public sphere: the reporting and reception of Aboriginal issues in the Australian media. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hartmann, P., Husband, C. (1974) Racism and the Mass Media. London: Davis-Poynter. McCallum, K. (2007) ‘Public opinion about Indigenous issues in Australia: local talk and journalistic practice’. Australian Journalism Monographs (8). Queensland: Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, Griffith University. McCallum, K. (2011) ‘Journalism and Indigenous health policy’. Australian Aboriginal Studies, no.2. Canberra. Pp21-31. McCausland, R. (2004) Race for the headlines: Racism and media discourse. Antidiscrimination Board of New South Wales. Australia: New South Wales Government. Meadows, M. (2001) Voices in the wilderness: images of Aboriginal people in the Australian media. Westport: Greenwood Press. Meadows, M. (2002) ‘Deals and victories: Newspaper coverage of native title in Australia and Canada. Australian Journalism Review, 22 (1). Pp 81 – 105. Nicoll, F. (2008) ‘Consuming Pathologies: The Australian Against Indigenous Sovereignty’. Moreton-Robinson, A., Casey, M., Nicoll, F. (eds) Postcolonising Whiteness in Theory and In Text. Maryland: Lexington Books. Said, E. (2003) Orientalism. London: Penguin. Read More

In this modern era, there has been a change in the reporting of Aboriginal issues which has worsened to the point of creating a moral panic, whereby the Aboriginal people are depicted as victims or criminals (Hartley, et al, 2000). Social justice issues and Indigenous identity have been lost in a context of misperception and conflict and the agenda remains to be widely dominated by the ideal bulletin value conflict (Meadows, 2001). The common themes that the media seem to report about Indigenous issues includes sexual abuse and domestic violence of Aboriginal communities, and the link to categorized characteristics with historical experiences of deprivation, stolen or unequal wages, child removal and failure of the Aboriginal governance (Nicoll, 2008; p6).

The representation of the Indigenous people in the mainstream press is characterised by stereotypes, negative themes and misrepresentation. Moreover, research studies analysing the inclusion of Indigenous people’s comments and viewpoint in the press show that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are played down as sources for mass media reporting. A perfect example of this is an article by the Australian Associated Press in the Sydney morning Herald on 9th March, 2012 titled ‘Dugong, turtle cruelty claims sparks stoush’’.

All the people mentioned in this article are non-Indigenous Australians as well lacks the voice of the Indigenous people. In most news articles, the non-Indigenous sources are represented talking on behalf of Aboriginal people. For example, in the Sydney Morning Herald on 5th December, 2011, there is an article called ‘’Secrets men’s business threatens $30 billion gas Bonanza’’, that quote a non-Indigenous lawyer representing an Indigenous proprietor of the Kimberley area. The lawyer says, ‘’A proposed $30 billion gas hub at James Price Point on Western Australia’s Kimberley coast would disturb sites used for secret Aboriginal‘ men’s businesses’’.

The silencing of Aboriginal voices on a wide range of issues reported on a regular basis by the community and mainstream media is a dominant theme in the Aboriginal media representation (Meadows, 2001). A research study showed that out of 28 news stories analysed just 9 of them directly quoted Indigenous sources and out of 15 television news stories examined concerning Indigenous issues just 3 included an Aboriginal person talking (Meadows, 2002). A study conducted by Scott on the reporting of print media about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission found that despite the fact that the majority of reporting questioned the abilities of ATSIC, the media did not represent the Aboriginal people, who are directly impacted by its operation.

Only 8% of the articles coverage about the controversial Chairperson of the ATSIC quoted an Aboriginal person. Moreover, a study done by Due and Riggs found that the Indigenous voices were underrepresented in the coverage on native title in the Australian press (Due and Riggs, 2011: 147). The media hold that all Indigenous people are the same and equally understand one another, without considering cultural difference, gender, sexual preferences and history among others. Orientalism provides the basis on which to analyse the media representations of Indigenous peoples.

Orientalism exemplifies the imprisonment of identity and label by analysing European Middle East’s representation as the place of the first and ultimate colonial conquest by Europe. The media has plays a significant role in the process of entrenching racism at an institutional level through the repetitive, daily reinforcement of stereotypes (Said, 2003: 26). In Australia, the misrepresentation of the Aboriginal people and issues has been commonplace throughout the European history of this country in a range of modern media, including colonial and modern news stories, television series, school textbooks, press photographs, films and postcards (Meadows, 2001).

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