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.