Making meaning: Media, health and wellbeing in

Aotearoa

Kupu TaeaPHA conferenceDunedin 2009

Kupu Taea

Projects 1 and 2 on Treaty Resource Centre website (www.trc.org.nz)

HRC Media study project 2007-10 Bi-cultural multi-disciplinary team Multi-method design

PHA StrategyValues / Media values

PHA Priority tasks and practices Emphasise the importance of te Tiriti o

Waitangi Racism is a social determinant of health/

Population health gains Media values undermine Treaty-based

social justice Audience values are critical of media

performance

Focus group research

Audience meanings around media items 4 Maori, 4 non-Maori, 1 mixed group To meet three times over two years Non-Maori groups, two Treaty/media

active, three not active Findings and thematic analyses

Data – Media, Treaty and relationships

Tina (Tauiwi woman 50s): If you had just come here or hadn’t been living here for a long time and you relied on media explanations you wouldn’t understand much about the Treaty (Group T)

April (Pakeha woman 60s): I think we all know it’s about crime and stuff. If you have no contact with Maori, all you get in the media is the crime rates – all those sort of statistics are always in the paper. You never hear any good stories. …I just think we judge Māori from the papers, from the news media and we get a very negative view. (Group O)

Analysis - Media, Treaty and relationships

Treaty coverage - negative, absent, diminished or dismissed

Representation of Maori negative, absence of positive stories

Creates division, suspicion of Maori, social exclusion

Data - Pakeha privilege

Mandi: So what impact do you think that the reporting as it is at the moment has on Pakeha?

Harry (young Pakeha male): Positive.Fred (young Maori man): I wouldn’t say

positive, I’d say its just go normal views, no one really takes any notice of it. …

Mandi: So do you think in some ways that Pakeha don’t notice?

Harry: Yeah. Exactly.Jason (young Maori man): They’re so

conditioned to it happening that it doesn’t really stand out of the ordinary things. (Group M)

Data - Pakeha privilege

Mary (Pakeha female 30s): I just wonder if journalists don’t go and do those Maori stories because they think nobody wants to know anyway.…People have to open up and want to know the other side, if you want to call it that. (Group O)

Analysis - Pakeha privilege

Pakeha assumed to be the audience Media assumes and projects Pakeha

world view Pakeha treated better/ have more

beneficial relationship with media Pakeha don’t notice/ don’t care so it

remains unchallenged, naturalised.

Data – Impact of coverage

Carin (Pakeha woman 50s) : Yes, I think its seeding alienation, mistrust, hurt, pain, fear and hatred and that’s pretty much what’s happening under the radar and then occasionally you get really good stuff happening as well that cuts across and builds bridges …I mean we have awesome experiences but it wasn’t because the media helped…I think what’s happening in this country is we now have Maori media with lots of good news stories and lots of positive stories and so people can choose to watch that but lot of people don’t even know its on or don’t watch it because they wouldn’t, or can’t get it and wouldn’t identify with it and yet that’s where you get all this very positive different view. (Group G)

Analysis – Impact of coverage

Undermines Maori identity, confidence, and aspirations

Detrimental to Maori development

Affirms Pakeha prejudices Causes Pakeha fear, suspicion and

confusion Encourages Pakeha avoidance of Maori Diminishes empathy towards settlement

claims and affirmative action

Implications

Participants critical of mass media representations of Maori

Mass media is not a valid source of Pakeha cultural competence

Mass media does not reflect potential positive future

Wider access to alternative representations (i.e. Maori Television) is urgent.