The creation of indigenous media content has proven highly beneficial and important for indigenous audiences. Indigenous media is important because it allows a platform for indigenous audiences to present themselves in a way which is often either neglected or negatively portrayed in mainstream media. This is important to the identity work of indigenous cultures and extends to the culture and connection of the indigenous community and wider culture. In particular this essay will focus on the representation of indigenous people in their own media and how they use indigenous media to show accurate and positive representations of themselves. Specifically focusing on television content, this essay will draw upon work by media scholars to illustrate …show more content…
For example, Poihipi notes that by acknowledging Māori people in the media as a collective group it gives a “false impression of a unified Māori opinion” (3 Poihipi). Indigenous media however acknowledges the diversity within indigenous cultures and allows the opportunity for individual representation by producing shows which represent this. For example, shows on Māori Television such as ‘Iwi Anthems’ have been created to respond to this. The programme “showcases performances of our unique tribal songs combined with informative interviews” showcasing the “personality and qualities of each iwi” (Māori Television). Quote from Poihipi about iwi shows. This is important for not only indigenous audiences but the wider public community, including non-indigenous audiences, as it gives an authentic insight and promotes understanding. Additionally, through media technology such as ‘on demand’ services, this new information can be gained despite geographical boundaries.
However, despite the multitude of positive effects that the participants observed they still acknowledged problem areas within current Māori media. For example, lacking funds, inability to access certain channels and limited content produced in the South Island of New Zealand were all of concern for the participants particularly concerning that the participants all live in a low Māori population area (). Additionally, both Aboriginal and Māori participants voiced concern over who benefits from research into media usage by indigenous audiences
Through this hypothetical scenario the actor highlights, that as Australians we have never seen an aboriginal family on television. Thus through, integrating and placing an aboriginal family into the show scenario, it enables the communication of dramatic meaning as it demonstrates that it is possible of both indigenous and non-indigenous people accept to one
Thomas King uses an oral story-telling style of writing mingled with western narrative in his article “You’re Not the Indian I Had in Mind” to explain that Indians are not on the brink of extinction. Through this article in the Racism, Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Canada textbook, King also brings some focus to the topic of what it means to be “Indian” through the eyes of an actual Aboriginal versus how Aboriginals are viewed by other races of people. With his unique style of writing, King is able to bring the reader into the situations he describes because he writes about it like a story he is telling.
The idea that indigenous Australian communities are underprivileged and do not receive the same justice that the white community accrues is represented through Jay Swan and his interactions with the corrupt white police officers and the indigenous locals of the town. My empathetic response to the text as a whole was influenced directly by way the text constructs these ideas as well as my knowledge of the way indigenous Australians are represented in the mainstream media and the behaviour of the police force as an institution. These contextual factors and the way Sen has constructed ideas influenced me to empathise with the indigenous
The novel “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese demonstrates the many conflicts that indigenous people encounter on a daily basis. This includes things such as, the dangers they face and how they feel the need to flee to nature, where they feel the most safe. Another major issue they face is being stripped of their culture, and forcibly made to believe their culture is wrong and they are less of a human for being brought up that way, it makes them feel unworthy. Finally, when one is being criticised for a hobby they enjoy due to their indigenous upbringing, they make himself lose interest and stop the hobby as it makes them different and provokes torment. People who are trying
This led him to create Reel Injun to persuade viewers that Aboriginals are humans too. The film has done a great job of addressing the impacts of western films among Aboriginals. These pictures should be used to influence the audience’s view and debunk the misconception of the identity of indigenous people. The message of this film is to question personal beliefs and opinions about the Aboriginal’s portrayals in the media and films. In today’s society, aboriginals are still over-represented and have disproportionate representation in the criminal justice (Personal communication, A. Eyjolfson, Oct. 19, 2016). The majority still believe that Natives are alcoholic and that they are more likely to have run-ins with the law. These depictions of Aboriginals promote racism and discrimination that creates a social structure of “us versus them”. This social structure promotes inequality in our society. According to Wilkinson and Pickett (2010), when we reduce inequality we increase our well-being and our quality of life. To reduce inequality it is important to address the issues and how individuals contribute to these issues. Reel Injun questions personal opinion and beliefs in order to address the issue and break false stereotypes of
Jiwani and Young's argument also causes me to consider Audra Simpson's talk, "The Chief's Two Bodies," in which she discusses both how and why the eradication of Aboriginal women was necessary to the development of patriarchal colonialist society. In short, Simpson acknowledges that through the creation "status," an arbitrary blood relationship to one's Aboriginal lineage, marriage, and scrip colonialist were able to remove land "ownership" from Aboriginal women, by essentially making them invisible. In effect, Jiwani and Young reinforce and provide evidence to suggest that ideologically, the concept of Aboriginal women being invisible or contrarily "hypervisable" (899), in that they are the antithesis of the "good" Christian women (the mother, the sister, the wife, the virgin) creates a binary. These apposing ideological women cause a "moral and racialized economy of representation [that] works to privilege dominate societal norms" (Jiwani and Young, 904). What is interesting about these discursive modes is the fact that news reporting itself is a colonialist practice rooted in economic stability. These modes maintains the cycle of violence and marginalization and only counter media rooted in art, such as the "Red Dress Campaign," or the "Walking with Our Sister's Campaign" which, bring awareness to the Aboriginal perspective can act as a retaliation to standard media
Lliu, K., and H. Zhang. "Self- and Counter-Representations of Native Americans: Stereotypical Images of and New Images by Native Americans in Popular Media." Ebscohost. University of Arkansas, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014
40 Fleras, Augie and John Lock Kunz. Media and Minorities: Representing Diversity in a Multicultural Canada. Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing, 2001: 30.
How can you write about a culture whose history is passed on by oral traditions? Better yet, how can you comprehend a culture’s past which a dominant society desired to assimilate? These two questions outline the difficulty in understanding the historiography of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. In 2003, Paige Raibmon published her article, “Living on Display: Colonial Visions of Aboriginal Domestic Spaces.” Her work, although focused on Canada’s colonial “notions of domesticity,” presents the role of Aboriginals as performers to European notions of indigenous culture and identity. Early social historians believe that Aboriginals’ place in history is in their interactions with European Jesuits. A decade later, historians argue Aboriginals exemplify a subordinate culture fighting against assimilating and hegemonic forces. More recently, social historical perspective shows Aboriginals as performers of the white-man’s constructed “authentic-Indian.” Obviously, there is disparity between historians’ viewpoints but each decade’s published histories concur with James Opp and John Walsh’s concept of local resistance. Using Raibmon’s paper as a starting point, a chronological examination of select histories reveals an evolving social historiography surrounding historians’ perceptions of Aboriginals’ local resistance attempts.
Yosso, T. (2002). Critical race media literacy: Challenging deficit discourse about Chicanas/os. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 30(1), 52-62.
In her article, Sarah Senghas argued that media demonstrate their own view of reality in the effort to provide life to the overall form and tone while this tone is of racism and bia...
“Cultural identity is not something that is easy to manipulate by acting on the mass media, nor does it seem to be much influenced by media culture. It survives and flourishes in many a form, and the general expansion of television, music and other media have added some widely (internationally) shared cultural elements without evidently diminishing the uniqueness of cultural experience in different nations, regional and localities of Europe” (McQuail, 2000, p. 237) Cultural imperialism thesis has also lead to many cultural protectionism policies, designed “to defend indigenous cultures against their corruption, pollution or destruction by foreign elements” (Morley,2006, p.36). Problems arise when trying to understand what is meant by foreign (and to who) and also when trying to examine and define the purity, originality and indigenousness of one’s culture that needs to be defended. Cultural imperialism tends to assume that the most countries from the global South had indigenous, pure and authentic cultures before the Western influence came along via transnational corporations. One could argue that this view tends to be a romanticized perspective of the Third World which disregards the complex relations between countries and their former colonial powers while also ignoring the fact that most cultures are hybrids. There is a problem with the inaccurate presumption that the phenomenon of cultural mixing is recent, when actually all cultures have, to certain extent, absorbed elements from another cultures through history. Therefore, the complexity of intercultural flows must be acknowledged, along with the ambivalence of their meaning when being brought into new
Flew, T., & Smith, R. (Canadian). (2011). New: Media An Introduction. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press p.
As Singh points out, “The facility of modern technology to amalgamate the colossal variety of elements from different times and places has led to the involute cultural identities...New media is engulfing the culture at a very fast rate. It has left human relationships behind. Media today has taken the role of parents, relations, and friends.”(Singh 87-88). This supersession of relationships can cause a myriad of quandaries when withal developing one’s identity, and cause one to lose the “self” among the identity portrayed in convivial media. The result in a cultural shift of what one’s “identity” means, constructing, as Gilpin suggests, not only the identity of individuals but the identity of cultural groups such as public relations
The author and I are experiencing the same point of view on how the media influence people around us. This article is not only written for any particular group, race, ethnicity, gender, etc… I think as a human being, this article is related to all of us. The author has done an outstanding job for all of us by describing as people how the media represent a big problem for our society or our community. I learned a valuable lesson from this article, which I also discovered that central Africa women must have hips, but because of the western image that value is no longer applicable. I also encourage everyone to stay focused and love their culture while watching some TV shows because it is easy to forget about who you are and adopted another way of doing things you never used to do before.