Does the Media Fail Aboriginal Political Aspirations?: 45 years of news media reporting of key political moments

Description

For too long Australia's media has failed to communicate First Nations political aspirations. This unique study of key Indigenous initiatives seeking self-determination and justice reveals a history of media procrastination and denial. A team of Indigenous researchers examine 45 years of media responses to First Nations initiatives, from the 1972 Larrakia petition to the Queen seeking land rights and treaties, to the desire for recognition expressed in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. The analysis exposes how the media frames stories, develops discourses, and supports deeper historical narratives that corrode and undermine the intent and urgency of Indigenous aspirations, through approaches ranging from sympathetic stalling to patronising parodies. This book will be useful to media professionals to improve their practices, to First Nations communities seeking to test media truth-telling, and by anyone seeking to understand how Indigenous desires and hopes have been expressed, and represented, in recent Australian political history. Contents Tables Acknowledgements Note on terminology Foreword Preamble Executive summary PART 1: Introduction Why this project? Framing terms Methodology Media bias and media ecology Situating the literature on Aboriginal representation Indigenous standpoint theory Agreement-making and Aboriginal policy in context About the research team PART 2: Case studies Introducing the case studies The princess and the protestors: The 1972 Larrakia Petition and discourses of failure in Aboriginal White possession and belonging: a treaty to secure Australians of European descent in an ancient lan The ‘quite historic’ compact that wasn’t: media silence and the 1983 Two Hundred Years Later report ‘Like writing in the sand’: Media discourse, the Barunga Statement and the Treaty ‘88 campaign Carved in stone: The 1992 Redfern Statement Where is the ‘native’ in the final days of the Native Title Bill 1993 (Cth)? For all of us-for none of you? Practical reconciliation ‘Dawn of a new era’? Media narratives of Aboriginal futures following the Apology to the Stolen Gene Tough love and talkfests: Discourses of Aboriginal policy in media reporting on Closing the Gap Erasing race and racism on the long road to recognition From recognition to reform: the Uluru Statement from the Heart PART 3: Findings References