I am just wondering how you think that Aboriginal people are portrayed in the media today. Are they portrayed negatively or positively?

Hi Lalaamy, thanks for posting. Hope it is the first of many. Thought I would throw into the mix a book I only became aware of on Wednesday. It's "The politics of suffering" by anthropologist and linguist Peter Sutton and it is a very critical of the liberal consensus on how to deal with aborigines of the last 50 years.

There is a short review of it here http://www.daretolead.edu.au/servlet/Web?s=169694&p=Book_Report_Peter_Sutton. The first of two parts of an interview with the author are here http://www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2010/s3017701.htm.

Well worth tuning in.

Hi lalaamy

The media is a large church. Noel Pearson is a hero among some journalist while a traitor according to others. People can have their prejudices confirmed easily today by selecting certain media outlets. Ask a person what newspaper they read and you have a pretty good view of how they vote.

Dear lalaamy,

Welcome to the Forum.

Negative representation of Aborigines in
the Media has been identified as a major
cause of prejudice against Indigenous
Peoples of Australia.

We often read reports where the Aboriginality
tends to be made known unnecessarily in reports
about alcoholism, and violent crimes. This adds
to the stereotyping of Aboriginal people.

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in
Custody asserted that negative media portrayals
of Indigenous People and issues were a major
concern and it was recommended that journalists
be educated in cross-cultural awareness.

We very rarely read much that is positive in the
newspapers. Look at the media stir that was caused
by Historian Henry Reynolds with his book,
"Why Weren't We Told?" The book is a frank account
of his personal journey towards the realisation
that he, like generations of Australians, grew up
with a distorted and idealised version of the past.

This book shocked, moved, and intrigued many of us,
and to me it should be crucial reading for all
Australians in the 21st Century.

However, there are many people who are still in
denial about things - and the Media certainly
contributes towards their thinking.

As Reynolds tells us:

"Tolerance and understanding have broadened out.
Bigotry is in retreat. But the racist past still
weighs heavily on the present and might yet
destroy any hope of reconciliation in this
generation. Black-armband history is often distressing,
but it does enable us to know and understand the
incubus which burdens us all."

I'd like to see more focus on the achievements of
the Indigenous People, not on the negative aspects
of some of their lives. Imagine if you're a young
Indigenous person growing up in Australia - who
would your role models be? The media could help
greatly by taking the right direction and focus
on this subject. We just don't seem to have enough
caring editors. They prefer to go for what sells
newspapers - sensationalism, rather than truth!

I just love the way that journalists from Sydney will happily go to some of the most remote parts of the outback, but would never dream of going to Mount Druitt, or Moree, or Casino etc. You would think that no Aboriginal person lives south of the Tropic of Capricorn.

Me too welcome Friend.
I put little trust in our media.
Look like it or not no race is excluded we have the good the bad and the ugly in every race.
It frustrates me, my job sees me looking after Aboriginal workers at work.
Some are headed for leadership rolls other total failure.
Education, culture and the simple shyness most have are often a problem.
It is true that post, some rural community's are very near lost for ever.
Pearson? should be without having to be in Parliament this country's Minister for Aboriginal affairs

Benk, could you please name "the journalists from Sydney" who "will happily go to some of the most remote parts of the outback, but would never dream of going to Mount Druit, Moree or Casino etc".

After you publish their names here, I'll phone them up and ask if it's true.

Deal?

Graham Y, interesting phrase you use there - - "how to deal with the aborigines".

Hmm.

Well, considering that whenever "Aboriginal" comes up in the media, it is usually as some disadvantaged community needing help in form of handouts, or having trouble making ends meet due to lack of material assistance from the government, sometimes with a gripe against the Australian government or people, I'd say that would sum up the basis of most portrayals.

And of course there is the VERY frequent portrayal of delinquency, alcoholism and sniffing- despite narcotics consumption per-Aboriginal person being roughly the same as the rest of Australia, (and decreasing).

I would safely assume that most Australians would get a very strong impression of a single race of angry, gluttonous delinquents with a drinking problem. Which is of course complete and utter bull.

Here's a fun game to play:

Imagine you are watching a news article on TV about an Australian alcohol problem- what are the images that would come to mind you would be seeing on the TV?
Maybe a bunch of shots of some white patrons entering a pub, beer on tap?

Now imagine if it were specifically related to Aboriginal consumption?
What would you see?

Also, on a side note, does anybody else notice that 'Aboriginal' stories, regardless of what they are, usually show adults randomly sitting on the ground (ignoring that maybe the persons are at a park, or waiting to meet somebody), or some kinds wandering the streets alone (out of delinquency, or maybe going home from school, to the park, shops)?

Simply put, media (easily unintentionally I would imagine) always seem to go for more exotic or stereotypical shots on their Aboriginal content than on other Australian content- and this would ingrain polarizing perceptions of difference.

Graham Y, interesting phrase you use there - - "how to deal with the aborigines".

Hmm.
Posted by Transki, Thursday, 23 September 2010 6:41:00 PM

Thats right Transki, take Mr youngs fair reply and take it out of context.
Since you have all the answers, Iam all ears.

TTM

Dear KH,

And then you wonder why some people only
see our Indigenous community in this
stereotypical way...

The media has a lot to answer for - especially
television which brings a flood of information
into the home, much of it is highly selective
or distorted. Even news programs tend to feature
the visually exciting or emotionally moving
stories that draw large viewing audiences -
even if this mean omitting issues that are more
sober but perhaps more significant also.

And of course we have the Indigenous people
who are underrepresented in a positive light.

Sad really.

Graham Y,

Many thanks for the 'heads up' and the link to the Peter Sutton interview on Bush Telegraph 21 Sept 2010.

Perhaps Peter could be talked into contributing a short article for OLO and to promote his book.

There's been talk here of a "liberal consensus". This is a clear example of how people politicise Aboriginal issues.

The right basically believes there's a "liberal consensus" and the left basically believes "there's a redneck consensus". This rubbish then polarises people. BOTH sides follow their politically correct ideologies with religious like intensity. And guess who gets caught in the middle? Yes, the aboriginal people of Australia.

Blame the abos! No, Blame the whiteys! I'm right! No, I'M right! Hey you, blame those damn lefties! No way son, blame the conservatives! Blame, blame, blame, blame.

Nothing's changing. Only some people "really" care.

Carry on with the politics. The right grabs every book, every video, every catastrophe, every whistle blower, every turncoat - - - yep everything and everyone that agrees with their already held political view regarding aboriginal people and they use it, use it, use it to RAM ram their point home. And the lefties do exactly the same thing.

It's politics,politics,politics - - - - and stuff the aboriginal people!

the media isn't allowed and doesn't portray first Australians negatively because that would be racist.

Dear whistler,

Can you give us any examples of some recent positive
media coverage of Indigenous People?

hi Foxy,
Blackout, Cathy Freeman 10 years after the Games [sydney], Christine Anu's new release [ch7 sydney this morning], inaugural first Australian in the House of Representatives, a hundred first Australians escape the intervention [tonight] ...

<<<<Can you give us any examples of some recent positive media coverage of Indigenous People?>>>

Well, just off the top of my head –here’s a few:

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/fxejGmEaH9A/Closing+Night+Melbourne+International+Film/WpuZ8kRC78g/Jessica+Mauboy
( randomly picked, this came in at number 3 –but when I looked at it! –it just had to be number 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn0q-BZXEv0

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/07/08/236041_gossip-news.html

http://westernaustralia.tv/video/335/No-Leave-No-Life-Scenic-Helicopter-Ride

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2010/09/21/3016532.htm

http://www.broncos.com.au/default.aspx?s=photo-galleries&galleryid=1183

http://www.bangarra.com.au/

benk,

'You would think that no Aboriginal person lives south of the Tropic of Capricorn.'

Hahahaha. That's gold!

Indeed Foxy, and this is something most people clearly overlook when watching the news;

It would also go beyond actual racism on their part, but pure convenience;
Were a topic 'general Australians' the cameras could wander anywhere and film anybody (who are most likely going to be white if you pick a certain area, or mixed race if you pick another).

Again, Australian alcohol stories you could wander to your nearest pub at 5.00pm and film people walking in or out (and potentially imply a different statistic on alcohol abuse by race perhaps, I don't know).

If you wanted to make a story about Aboriginals, the media has to find a clearly black person to start filming (the audience doesn't actually know that many Aboriginal people can be white too), and because they don't really trust their own chances of finding some black guys to film in context of the story (at least in the way they could film a white person any old place), will just tack on any old footage they could find (some guys sitting by the side of the road they were driving along being the easiest)- and the implications towards the audience begins there.

I believe that the Australian media do, on the whole, portray Indigenous Australians in a negative way.

They also portray people of other ethnic groups such as Afghans, Pakistanis, Arabs, and Lebanese ...depending on which group has some newsworthy story at the time the papers need a story.

In any given day, the negative stories brought to us by the media far outweigh the positive stories. This is simply because their readers/listeners prefer more 'scandalous' stories, in the main.

I don't know what the answer is, but the SBS show 'Living Black' often has some very positive stories about Aboriginal Australians, and is well worth watching in order to get a feel for current Indigenous Australian issues.

Belly:>> Education, culture and the simple shyness most have are often a problem.<<

Well said and bloody succinct. The majority of Aussies do not "know" the hearts of Aboriginal Australians as they do their neighbours because there are so few of them. We had seen to that in the past, and with a child and adult mortality rate at third world standard right now, ongoing, will be the same tomorrow, we have seen to that in our futures.

The media targets social dysfunction and the only thing that can save a person or group from that is power and money, if you have it you can control the spin. Aboriginals have neither and their disadvantage leads them to dysfunction, just as it does the white fella.

The education we can fix, the culture will change if prosperity through achievement is fostered and nurtured, and the natural shyness and unassuming humility that is in these first citizens we would do well to emulate.

Belly I was born and bred in the inner city and all through school the class room mix was 33% Aboriginal kids, 33% Anglo kids and 33% immigrant kids so I had heaps of Aboriginal kids and families in my life. If you disregard the fact that some of the dad's and uncles regularly went off to the Bay for short periods of time because of their poverty and substance abuse I can honestly say that the community warmth and generosity I experienced with these poorest of citizens has not left me to this day. There is an honesty to their natures that we lost many generations ago.

Well said sono. While there are bad people everywhere regardless of race, what you say is essentially true.

Transki

All of the stories that I see on television or in newspapers about Aborigines seems to discuss only more traditional Aborigines in very remote places. I presume that most of the journalists who write these live in capital cities. Their names are normally found in bold letters at the start of the article.

Its a simple enough question, but a fair answer would be very long and complicated. If you read a newspaper from Cairns and compare it to a newspaper from Canberra, the Cairns one will have a lot of stories about terrible crimes that mostly end with "Police are searcching for a man of aboriginal or Torres Strait appearance". The Canberra paper would doubtless be more focussed on various Government schemes and programs to help indigenous folks out, as I imagine Aboriginality in Canberra would be limited to a few token affirmative action pin-ups.

I disagree that shows like Living Black are positive, but one has to start somewhere I guess. I reckon the greatest thing is the large numbers of Aboriginal footy players, it must give them some positive role models to aspire to. It does however, irk me that aspirations seem to more favour rap music and backwards baseball hats.

Pat the Bogan, "It does however, irk me that aspirations seem to more favour rap music and backwards baseball hats."

Which is nonetheless a very encouraging sign of a new found confidence. An even better sign would be a growing diaspora to other countries. It is tons better than living in a 'reserve'.

Well the "reserves", by which I assume you mean "Aboriginal communities", are a part of the negative images we see in the media. A more pointed question would be "Are these images and descriptions accurate?". Things like alcohol restrictions in communities, a good idea but not well thought out.

The real ratbags and troublemakers just hang around the nearest town where they can buy grog, then start hassling people and committing crimes, and then the media has to report all these crimes without appearing racist.

We have a long way to go yet, a few speeches and apologies might be a starting point, which we have now completed. The next step, and in my opinion the only step that will make any real difference, is to raise education standards. Unfortunately, it is much easier to dumb down the carriculum and base academic results on attendance alone

Problem Pat is that this is the ONLY news story we ever see about Aboriginal people beyond the ABC and SBS; crime-related, drug-related, poverty-related.

It's not entirely unlike how some media persistently portrayed Australians as kaki-clad desert survivalists with boomerangs and zero manners- or the fact that on the TV a good many of the shows about British people show snobbish upper-class invalids with zero knowledge of the world outside their tea room. How profoundly accurate are these stereotypes.

Now imagine carrying that over to Aborigines, only the portrayals are limited to either;
1- A bunch of black guys dancing around fire with sticks
2- A bunch of black guys up to no good.

How many people SUBconsciously acknowledge this as not being the whole picture, or necessarily even a majority case?

That the media only reports poverty/crime/alcohol issues...

"The media" is a mighty big animal. It might be a sensationalist ACA or TT beat-up, or a well made 4 corners type of program. Might be a redneck tabloid newspaper out in the boonies or the Nations best respected newspaper. My point is that the media is not controlled by any single entity, they compete actively to get right down to the nitty-gritty, well ok they dont all have that much integrity... But the thing is, maybe they seem to all say the same kinds of things because that is how it is. More ecotourism ventures etc. on shows like Living Black might make those writing the funding submission feel all warm inside, but the reality is that the place is littered with ecotourism ventures gathering dust. The genuine stuff, like the fact that rock art in Arnhem land is a living work of art being added to all the time does not get much airtime, because of cultural considerations (men or women cant see this or that, kind of thing) and because they dont want people thieving stuff to sell.

We have to get right away from the noble savage myth, life is extremely tough in the communities and it might be reasonably expected that people coming from the communities are used to living a tough life

A fair point about media Pat but my point is that most often Aboriginal people appear in media (again, outside ABC and SBS due to their culture and current affairs programs being more 'service' based than 'marketing' based) overwhelmingly in the two categories, related to a likely lack of interest in any events surrounding Aboriginal persons save for crime, scandals, folklore cultural production or sports- things that make a juicier story or more eye catching.

It's not so much a 'single entity' as the fact that all these entities have a similar approach to picking stories and catching the audience's interest- and this approach is part of the problem.

yes, but removing the ABC and SBS from the equation means it is no longer representative of the media as a whole. My point would be leave them in and they will report much the same things. Might it be better to try and address these things, rather than stifle the way they are reported?

If one were to suggest the folks could perhaps do a little more for themselves, that would be called racist and blaming them for their own misfortune. When the media shows a camp with burnt car wrecks and rubbish all over the place, regardless of whether they get mining royalties or not, a lot of people think exactly that. Maybe they should show an Aboriginal community where there is civic pride and genuine opportunities to change this widely held perception, if such a place exists.

It is going to get worse before it gets better, thanks to previous policies and actions. The fact is many of these places there is nothing to do except getting wasted and sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. Many of us have had only negative dealings with Aboriginal folks, and that sadly makes it worse. An Aboriginal person approaching me will mostly be ignored, and thats sad because they might be just asking the time or something. Experience has taught me it mostly goes- Cigarettes? money? racist c!

But that's the problem- we only SEE poor loiterers doing nothing, and only HEAR stories about scandals. I will make a perfectly safe presumption to say that most Australians have NEVER seen a positive example of an Aboriginal community- and are convinced that there really are none, save a few individuals who got a nice job once in a while.

Unless people feel inclined to watch Living Black or some other non-entertaining (ie serious cultural) show instead of the flashier news, or better yet, a written report of some kind about how Aboriginal affairs actually are, they simply will not know that.

And despite the poor taste of not doing these, the fact is, that is exactly what most people are inclined to do.