Aboriginal People, Film and the Media

Aboriginal people, film and the media

Discuss some examples of both positive and negative representations of Aboriginal people and culture. How do such representations of Aboriginal people within the media impact upon Aboriginal subjectivity?

Like every citizen around the world, Australians use the media to get information about the world around them. The media not only provides information about international events but also about national, regional and local events.

The events that happen and that are covered by the media are used by people to construct an opinion about certain themes.

The Australian media is representing Aboriginal people and their culture in a negative way. This has been so for a very long time, though there are some channels now that are portraying Aboriginal people without bias or prejudice. Channels such as ABC and Channel 7 have regular weekly programs about Indigenous people.

For the most part the media in Australia has been negatively portraying Indigenous people due to the institutionalized racism that has worked its way in the mainstream media. Some are blatantly racist and others a bit more subtle in their reporting. Aboriginal people cluster in two media genres; advertising and news/current affairs programs. In soaps and