This week, I would like to take a look at the use of stereotypes by the broadcast media, and their effect on people’s perceptions of those stereotyped sections of society. All of us have heard many stories about the problems between Australia and India because of supposed racial attacks on Indians in Australia. Everybody found fault with everybody, but I believe that the issue would not have lead to so much confusion if the media had reported it right.
In a 2008 article in the Chicago Defender, Marissa Lee describes studies done by professors at the University of Illinois, which found that Television news often perpetuates racial stereotypes. The study showed that watching African Americans being portrayed as criminals over and over again, made viewers believe that they were poor, intimidating and had low incomes. In another study described in the same article, it was found that in comparison with statistics from the California Department of Justice, African Americans were over represented as criminals on the news. You can read the article here:
In another 2009 article on the Temple Journalism Review, it is noted that the only time that Hispanics and Asians make the news in Philadelphia is when bad things happen. They feel that the news media tends to marginalize them in news coverage and the reasons for this they do not understand, as they are a strong presence in the state. Even the non minorities in the state admit that there is definitely an imbalance in the news when it comes to equal and fair coverage of minorities. Here’s the article:
http://tujreview.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/minorities-in-the-media-stereotypes-and-negativity/
In yet another article titled Stereotypes of Minorities in the media, (http://liz-mccormick.suite101.com/stereotypes-of-minorities-in-the-media-a134017 ) the author describes how the people of America are constantly exposed to stories about crime and negative activities, which builds a notion that the cities are not a safe place to live in. These stories are also not balanced in terms of race and demographics. These stereotypes also continue to be exaggerated when it comes to depicting poverty in the media with most stories about poverty being accompanied by photographs and footage of African American neighbourhoods.
With regard to Australia, I am not in a position to comment on news reporting here, as I have only been here a short while. But I did come across this article while doing my research for this post, and I thought it would be interesting. The article talks about the portrayal of Aboriginals in the news, and from what I have seen and heard, there is quite a bit of negative portrayal of Aboriginals and their lives in the media. Here it is:
As established by a previous week’s discussion, the media plays a huge role in shaping public opinion, and in establishing our views about the various issues in the world. With such an important responsibility on its shoulders, what steps should be taken to ensure fair and accurate reporting of people from different races?
The article about the Aboriginals and the media talks about an Aboriginal Media Liaison Group formed in western Australia, consisting of journalists and Aboriginals, who conduct campaigns to raise awareness on how to improve reporting (for the media) and how to handle the media (for the Aboriginal people). Steps like these definitely point to a brighter future, but will this be enough? How can journalists ensure that they don’t fall prey to the trap of stereotyping when reporting matters related to minorities?
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Yesterday I had come across a scholarly article written about the portrayal of refugees in Malaysian media. The article basically talks about the inaccurate way in which the refugees are portrayed causing unnecessary tensions between the Malaysian citizens and the refugees. Although media reporting on refugees are minimal, the reports that do make it on the news usually consist of crimes being committed by the few bad apples among the refugees. What the media fails to talk about are the terrible lives that they have been forced to flee in their own countries. “Generally, media coverage on illegal or undocumented workers, including refugees, tends to highlight accusations and fear of their spreading infectious diseases, gangsterism, theft, violence among the different groups, and involvement in other criminal activities leading to a rise in crime in areas where these people reside.” (Kaur, 2007). http://www.une.edu.au/asiacentre/PDF/No13.pdf)(
This is similar to what Evita has said about stereotyping in the Australian media. I think that more attention should be given to a more even reporting so that minority groups are not given a bad name. Australia is a very multi-cultural country and the broadcast media has the important role of being able to create harmony by not stereotyping.
I believe there are a few steps that can be taken to reduce the type of problems we see today where minority groups are often stereotyped. Do I think any of these will actually be put into practise? If history is anything to go by, probably not! In any case, here they are.
Firstly, journalists should be trained in cultural issues as part of their uni curriculum. As the article Evita cited by Diana Plater suggests, it’s an industry issue. The Royal Commission recommendation that journalism courses cover Aboriginal affairs to reflect the social context that journalists work in is a good step in the right direction.
It looks like something was actually put in place after the 1991/92 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The National Media Forum was established to bring together journalists, Indigenous community members and media researchers to discuss the representation of Indigenous people in the Australian media. A paper titled “Reporting on Indigenous Issues: Some practical suggestions for journalists” was produced in 1999. This is more than 10 year ago. Has anything changed as a result?
Secondly, there needs to be more Aboriginal presence in broadcast media –in both radio and television newsrooms. Despite the ABC currently employing 21 Indigenous staff members, I can’t think of any on mainstream news at all.
Finally, there needs to be more balanced reporting that includes the achievements of Indigenous People, not just the negative aspects of their lives.
What strikes me most about Aboriginal news stories is that there isn’t any, at least not in Melbourne. I wonder what it’s like in the Northern Territory where there’s a greater Indigenous population. This article by Jeff McMullen paints a very disturbing picture.
I like the topic Evita. Australian media is guilty of racial stereotyping. The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody proposed the development of codes of practice and policies relating to the presentation of Indigenous issues; the establishment of monitoring bodies. Lack of proper consultation is a problem. I also like the point about how media tend to ask the same spokesperson for opinions, Aboriginal Australia is such a diverse society it shows lazy journalism to ask Aboriginal person living in QLD for example their opinion on the Northern Territory Intervention, for example. You need to ask the people involved in the intervention themselves.
The Lester Bostock guideline “The Greater Perspective: Protocol and Guidelines for the Production of Film and Television on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities (SBS) was written many years ago. All Australian journalists should read it.
Mainstream media in Australia doesn’t like to report on any positive Aboriginal story’s.
Thankfully there are Indigenous media outlets that one can get news stories from. The Koori Mail National Newspaper – http://koorimail.com, The National Indigenous Times http://nit.com.au/ are both examples of quality newspapers.
When a news story is reported about someone who is Aboriginal their ethnicity is mentioned yet when its someone of British descent it isn’t mentioned. Why does this occur?
Great topic Evita. It is a sad truth that the media puts such a heavy focus on negative stereotypes. The only time I can recall positive news stories about Aboriginals is in sporting stories. I think stereotyping can go all the way back to the early weeks of this course and the editing of footage. Teaming certain editing techniques with certain images can enhance the stereotype the media is trying to portray.
At the same time though Australia is subject to stereotyping in other countries (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-08-07/pop-culture-racism-stereotyping-australia/1381768). It is a shame Australia has this stereotype portrayed to the rest of the world because we are such a multicultural country.
I agree with Rose in that there needs to be a more Aboriginal presence in mainstream broadcast media, and I do not think we should stop of Aboriginals. There needs to be a much larger cultural diversity in broadcast media and perhaps that will diminish the stereotypes.
First of all, many thanks for your interesting post. After finishing your post, I’d like to discuss several points of view:
The first point is that media is a ‘living mirror’ which reflects the face of our society. It is true that public is heavily affected by the media (in this case, stereotypes). Yet, the media itself is not guilty, it serves the only purpose: informing news to people. The root cause comes from those making the news. I mean, a few of reporters having stereotypes use media to influence the community. So, the best way to reduce stereotypes in society, I think, is to make sure that no reporters have stereotypes in their mind. About the Aboriginals group that you mentioned, it is also a good way to deal with this ongoing issue. However, I wonder if the Aboriginals group itself has stereotypes upon those who used to do it to them. If yes, then there will never be an answer for this endless issue.
Secondly, I’d like to discuss another point, which may not relate to our topic: revenue. In my opinion, people are much more interested in ‘breaking news’ than ‘ordinary news’. For instance, news about a bank robbery, a murder, etc definitely draws more attentions than those such as charity, scholarship. People like shocked news, and stereotypes on media is indeed a very good way to attract people, thus more revenue. The first purpose of media, in my opinion, is to make money, then the news inform comes second.
Thirdly, according to what I know in Vietnam, there is no stereotypes on broadcast media. Vietnam is not the multinational nation, so everybody speaks the same language. However, Vietnam is divided into 3 parts: the north, the middle and the south. People from different parts of the country may have slight differences in accent, culture, behavior. The fact is that there is stereotype amongst the community, for example, people from the south sometimes don’t like people from the north and vice versa. However, the government controls the flow of information. In order to keep the nation unified, no broadcast media is allowed to have stereotypes on their posts.
Another stereotype I’d like to mention is with the Chinese. I usually read Vietnamese news websites. They all rarely broadcast news about the improvement in relationship between 2 nations Vietnam and China (scholarship, charity, delegations). Instead, they all focus on the issues, conflict between 2 countries such as sovereignty invasion, counterfeit products, smuggle. These news build up the anti-Chinese ideas in lots of Vietnamese people. In fact, this issue has not been resolved.
As we were saying on week 6, with Rebecca, media shapes the public opinion and influences them in their choice. Stereotypes are one of the biggest issues generated by medias. Stereotypes are mainly negative. Wherever we go, in every country, medias will discriminate a section of the society. I can clearly see that in my country. We pretend being a government, which welcomes any refugees. So many different cultures are mixed in France. BUT, there is a major conflict between emigrates from North Africa, and the policemen. They can’t understand each other, and the situation is going down mainly because of the medias. So due to the stereotypes, French citizen live in a fear which is not always justified.
Speaking of the stereotype in broadcast media, the problem has been existed in Taiwan for decades. When Evita mentioned about the racial stereotypes of watching African Americans being portrayed as criminals could make viewers believe that they were trouble makers, I agree with the idea and there should be a regulation in broadcasting to evaluate the consequences to make it balanced. For example, in Taiwan, such an opened minded country in every aspects, you might not believe that some people are actually afraid of going out at night, buying foods in the convenient store or withdrawing money alone…etc, simply because of the great impacts from the daily news reports that people have received. The stereo type that I’m trying to reach is about the robbery, murder, traffic accident and discriminations of different nationalities…etc, those kind of news are broadcasted in every channels whereas none of them could be more serious and delighting with the positive news. In this case, most of news is broadcasted for attracting audience’s attention with sensation but it turns out to be scary pieces to warn or to threaten the audience that they are living in the very dangerous situation where media has constructed.
Australia, for a country that prides itself on the coined terms of a ‘fair go’ and built on the pretence that the harder you try the more Australia your (take the ‘Aussie Battler’ phrase for example). Sadly within the media as in the broader community, racism still veers its ugly head.
Andrew Bolt is a great example of a journalist that has been scrutinised for his derogative comments regarding an ethnicity. In fact in September this year, he was accused to have committed a violation under Section 18C of the ‘Racial Discrimination Act’, for two of his articles published in the Herald Sun (see article). http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog-name-ten-journalism-andrew-bolt-robert-manne-4088
It was said that his articles “Had the capacity to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate members of the group about which he had written”, Bolt did of course what many Journalists do and cried ‘Freedom of Speech’ and luckily for him, he was not found in any violation of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
I’m not sure that the ‘Freedom of Speech’ liberty is really an excuse to make derogative comments about a group of people based on their ethnicity.
The above article discusses how Bolt’s article about Lowitja O’Donoghue and the stolen generation, had influence over the Liberal Government at the time. With that said Journalists have proven to have power over creating public opinion and given their position of power, it is therefore very important for them to adhere to legislation concerning racial discrimination.