Indigenous Australian Interests - Essay Example

Title: Media professionals’ Attempt to Protect Indigenous Australian Interests Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date Submitted: Media professionals’ Attempt to Protect Indigenous Australian Interests Introduction Media in Australia is a dynamic industry that provides people with information, news and entertainment. Today, the Australian media have been revolutionized by technology, just like it has happened in all other parts of the world. The Australian media play a key role of setting the agenda in various social issues affecting the country. One of these issues regards the interests of the indigenous people. The current media policy and regulation mechanisms have not efficiently addressed the problems of the indigenous people as well as their interests. Australian Media Industry today The current media regulation in Australia limits investors from owning many kinds of media. It also limits foreign ownership of media-related assets and the number of licenses that one can get. One of the media forms that have been subjected to these regulations is print media, particularly newspapers. The leading national newspapers that are in circulation currently started being published during the colonial period. Early Australian newspapers provide a record of many local, state and national occurrences that define the history of different communities (Meadows & Molnar 2002, p. 12). There is a strong sense of optimism that things will get better in the Australian print media. Many newspaper companies are looking forward to investing heavily in technology in order to get better returns. Television is an extremely popular media form in Australia. Today, the world of TV is changing through the convergence of the internet and television broadcasting. It is possible to access TV on the Internet. This makes this type of media highly accessible to many Australians. The Internet has also made it possible for the Australian TV and radio to be consolidated across national boundaries (Hartley 2004, p. 7). This is the reason why today, competition in the Australian media is being played out from a global perspective. Even as the Australian media continue to take a global shape, some issues such as the interests of the indigenous people continue to demonstrate a sense of localness. For this reason, they need to be solved through focus on national perspectives. Although laws relating to Australian media ownership have remained unchanged for many years, a lively debate on the need for reform continues unabated. The debate has tended to revolve on issues of the impact and role of new media technologies, inquiries proposing different regulatory changes, and the self interests of media organizations that report controversial issues. The concerns have been driven less by the needs of communities such as the Aboriginals than by the need to control ownership by foreigners. The ownership regulation laws have impacted largely on the way the indigenous debate is carried out (Plater 2006, p. 110). It should be borne in mind that the plight of the aboriginal people attracts attention of not only local media but also international journalists as well. When common ownership of television, newspapers and radio broadcasting licenses in the same region is prohibited, media companies that are based in areas inhabited by indigenous populations end up feeling constrained in terms of the use of different media in order to attract different audiences. The most commonly voiced justification for restriction on media ownership is that in a democracy, diverse ownership of the media should be encouraged so that everyone’s public life is reported in the mass media in a fair manner (Stockwell & Scott, 2000, p. 13). However, the policymakers do not pay attention to a situation whereby some communities, such as the aboriginal people, have been marginalized and denied attention in the mass media since the colonial times (Rankine 2004, p. 26). It makes little sense to apply media ownership rules to corporate establishments that are trying to open up disclosure journalism in marginalized areas (Meadows 2001, p. 14). The media regulation rules out to apply media houses which are heavily commercialized. Professional code of conduct, guidelines and protocols in the Australian media industry Most Australian media journalists are members of the Australian Journalists Association (AJA). This association is a division of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), a trade union. Members of this association are required to adhere to a clearly stipulated code of ethics. In case of a breach of the code of conduct, one can lodge a complaint with the MEAA’s Judiciary Committee, where a panel of five journalists will listen to the complaint. If an individual is dissatisfied with the outcome, he can lodge an appeal. The Appeals Committee is a panel of three journalists that has been set up for listening to appeals. A person who still feels that the matter has not been addressed properly can lodge another appeal whereby a panel of five journalists who comprise the National Appeals Committee will listen to the complaints. The media proprietors also belong to a club of self-protection, known as the Australian Press Council. This club has a similar mechanism of dealing with complaints. Some years ago, the AJA withdrew their continued support from the Australian Press Council chiefly because of stringent measures of dealing with media stakeholders who aggrieved other parties. The farthest that the Press Council goes is to keep warning the offenders. All journalists who are MEAA members commit themselves to maintain honesty, independence, fairness, and respect for other people’s rights. They are required to pursue these values in the process of ensuring that the public’s right to information is guaranteed. They are required to treat the role of conveying information, opinions and ideas as a privileged one. Many journalists work in private enterprises, but this does not shield them from all the public responsibilities associated with the job. They are required to not only scrutinize power and to exercise it, but also to be accountable and trustworthy. For private media practitioners, protocols are an ideal way of appreciating the intellectual property rights and cultural heritage of the indigenous people (Australian Film commission 2003, p.2). Protocols are simply convenient ways through which indigenous cultural material is used as well as interaction with indigenous communities. Protocols encourage ethical conduct and promotion of interaction that is based on mutual respect and good faith (Australia Council for the Arts 2010, p. 4) Attempts being made by the Australian media to protect indigenous interests and possible improvements Different views of the aboriginal populations are clear in both academic writings on the one hand and in media terminologies on the other. The Australian media highlights the interests of the first inhabitants of the country through media-based awareness. This awareness is communicated through the media of disclosure, and the journalism of popular enlightenment. The media also plays a critical role in reporting the government decisions that impact on the lives of indigenous people (Hartley & McKee 2000, p. 166). Sometimes the media have been instrumental in highlighting the negative perceptions expressed against aborigines. However, instances of negative and racist reporting have been reported among various Australian and international journalists. The nature of reporting of issues relating to the aboriginal populations reveals a distinct feature and lifestyle journalism, which borders on elements of fiction. Sometimes, the expression of racist journalism is not intentional. It is merely a reflection of the way other communities perceive the aboriginal people. For this reason, coverage on issues of the aboriginal people tends to attract criticism from many sections of society. Criticism mainly centers on claims of negativity and racism with regard to the established modes of news narration that are conventionally used. There are lines of continuity with regard to the way in which Australian academicians and media practitioners portray the indigenous people. Interestingly, the Aboriginal people are overrepresented in the Australian media in terms of coverage. They attract widespread media attention, both locally and internationally, whereby their plight is disclosed. However, racial stereotyping has been institutionalized in Australia, and journalists find it difficult to address the problems of these first inhabitants of the country without being viewed as social perverts. The best way of improving the amount of focus that is put on Aboriginal issues is through embarking on efforts of institutional overhaul of perceptions towards the aboriginal people. Many Aboriginal people across Australia express dissatisfaction with the way the Aboriginal people are portrayed by the national media. The media industry as well as media unions have not been encouraging form and informal contact with different Aboriginal organizations, including key Aboriginal media organizations where they are available. The main purpose of such forms of contact would be creating a better understanding on different issues on how the Aboriginal affairs should be treated. Although the Aboriginal people claim to have gotten a lousy deal from the media because of racial stereotyping, many journalists are of the opinion that the problem of racial stereotyping is institutional and not individual. It is true that there is a negative side of the media industry with regard to representation of the aboriginal peoples’ interests. Although journalists believe that some of their colleagues are extremely racist reporters, they agree that most of them engage in negative reporting merely out of ignorance. It is difficult for such reporters to be part of the media industry’s efforts to eliminate the ignorance that reigns with regards to the specific social, economic and cultural interests of the Aboriginal communities. Conclusion The prevalence of ignorance among reporters can be traced back to the institutional nature of the racism problem in Australia. Because of racial stereotyping, a enormous gap exists in the teaching of journalism courses in Australian institutions, whereby there is little or no discussions of issues affecting the Aboriginal people (Irwin 1993, p. 160). Failure by would-be journalists to discuss the affairs of this neglected community brings about negative implications on the social context in which they end up working for the rest of their professional lives. In order to remedy the problem is disproportionate reporting and coverage of the plight of the Aboriginal people, journalists should be trained on the how not to wish away the challenges that the aboriginal people face. An institutional approach should be adopted, whereby teachers of media training institutions spend enough time discussing Aboriginal issues. References Australia Council for the Arts, 2010, Protocols for producing Indigenous Australian writing, Retrieved from http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/32373/Writing_protocol_guide.pdf September 22, 2010. Australian Film commission, 2003, Issues paper: Towards a Protocol for Filmmakers Working with Indigenous Content and Indigenous Communities, Hartley, J, 2004, Television, ‘Nation, and Indigenous Media’, Television New Media, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 7-25. Hartley, J, & McKee, A, 2000, The indigenous public sphere: the reporting and reception of Aboriginal, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Irwin, H, 1993, ‘Communication studies in Australia: Achievements and prospects’ Howard Journal of Communications, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 157 – 165. Meadows, M, 2001, Voices in the wilderness: images of Aboriginal people in the Australian media, Greenwoood Press, Westport. Meadows, M, & Molnar, H, 2002, ‘Bridging the Gaps: Towards a history of Indigenous media in Australia’ Media History, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 9 – 20. Plater, D, 2006, Aboriginal People and the Media - Reporting Aboriginal Affairs, Macmillan, Sydney. Rankine, J, 2004, ‘Colonial Coverage: Media Reporting of a Bicultural Health Research Partnership’ Journalism Vol. 5, No. 1, 5-29. Stockwell, S, & Scott, P, 2000, All-Media Guide to Fair and Cross-Cultural Reporting for journalists, program makers and media students, Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Melbourne. Read More