Media Right, Media Wrong

The article discusses the use of community media as an intervention platform that can change the media stereotypes against the racialized communities in Australia. It also highlights the importance of listening to the marginalized communities. The interventions of community media analyzed by the author are developed from the racial inspired news that had been reported in Australia before and during the war on terror declared on the terror groups that bombed the USA in September 2001. The author argues that media interventions are a reminder that speaking up only makes people audiences but does not guarantee being heard. Thus, it is important for media research to focus on silences and refusal of dialogue or else people may get blinded from exclusions and dominations.

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Media Right, Media Wrong
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Media Right, Media Wrong
Summary of the Reading
The article, speaking up or being heard? Community media interventions and the politics
of listening, authored by Tanja Dreher is about the use of community media as an intervention
platform that can change the media stereotypes against the racialized communities in Australia.
In this article, the author observes that media research has often analyzed media racism as a
common problem but failed to explore the possibilities of finding change to the problem (Dreher,
2010, pp. 89). In the first section, the author introduces the concept of the intervention of the
community media and gives strategies of media interventions amongst the marginalized
communities since September 11, 2001. In the following section, the author identifies the
different dilemmas and limitations for interventions of community media as a means of
responding to the racial stereotypes propagated by the media. In her conclusion to the topic, the
author argues that for the public to realize the change in media, there is a need for media
research to focus not just on the politics of speaking up but rather listening from the racialized
communities. For the author, putting attention on listening helps to shift responsibility and focus
from minority groups and puts the attention to the institutions, conventions, and privileges that
define what and who the media can listen to.
Summary of the Case
The interventions of community media analyzed by the author are developed from the
racial inspired news that had been reported in Australia before and during the war on terror
declared on the terror groups that bombed the USA in September 2001 11(Ewart, Cherney and
Murphy, 2017, pp. 152). In Australia, the idea of Muslim terrorists is connected with the fears of

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national insecurity and ethnic crime which draws back to the beginning of the war on terror. This
article is inspired by the constant linking of the Muslim community to terrorist groups and the
failure of the media to listen to them.
From the article, the author argues that media interventions are a reminder that speaking
up only makes people audiences but does not guarantee being heard. Thus, it is important for
media research to focus on silences and refusal of dialogue or else people may get blinded from
exclusions and dominations. Further, the author argues that there is a need to think about the
possibilities and conditions of contestation (Dreher, 2010, pp. 94). Shifting the attention to
listening would make the media to learn new ways of listening to the marginalized community
rather than just requiring them to speak up all the time. Whereas the interest in alternative media
and community normally focuses on the empowerment and participation of the marginalized
community, the author stresses the difficulties and dynamics of recognition.
Critical Reflection
Whereas media is aware of the importance of improved and unbiased coverage, study by
Dickens, Couldry and Fotopoulou (2015, pp. 104) has observed that news outlets do not have
specialized resources and knowledge needed to understand complexities and difficulties that the
racialized communities undergo (Dunn, et al., 2016, pp. 201). A study by Bassel (2017, pp. 7)
found that whereas the feature of speaking out is often argued, listening is hardly given any
attention. This situation is evident in the Australian communications and media platforms, which
has loudly proclaimed the significance of free speech without acknowledging the importance of
seeking truth and comprehension from the racialized communities. Instead, the biased nature of

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Australian media has continued to be evident whereby certain voices have had more power on
the political-economic and social arena (Colic-Peisker, Mikola and Dekker, 2016, pp. 379).
The society depends on honest information from the media to deduce accurate
conceptions about people from different cultural backgrounds. Honest information and the rights
of the public should form the foundation of media coverage. Honest information in media
demonstrates respect for cultural backgrounds and encourages tolerance within the society.
However, for Australian media, the association of the Arab and Muslim community as terror
group has failed to give an honest representation of the Arab community but instead has made
the public to form hatred and fear against the Arab community in Australia (Cherney and
Murphy, 2016, pp. 484). Further, the Arab community in Australia has also lost trust, respect and
confidence in the media since the negative representations about them by the media are not
truthful (Ewart, Cherney and Murphy, 2017, pp. 152). Given the significant role that media plays
in the society, lack of honesty in the media coverage sets a dangerous precedence for the future.
Media is a significant vehicle that the society depends on to realize human rights. Yet, for
many media corporations across the world, media houses have become part of multinational
businesses committing serious violations on human rights (Ahmed and Matthes, 2017, pp. 232).
The portrayal of Arab community as a terror community in Australia subjects the community
into prejudice and intolerance and as such they are not able to live freely in the country (Dunn, et
al., 2016, pp. 201). Further, the media has failed to listen to their side of stories and often they
are only called upon to respond to allegations which are already formulated by the media.
Another ethical consideration in relation to the media is fairness (Barry and Yilmaz, 2019).
When airing news, there is need for the media to ensure accurate and fair reporting free from any
bias. The purpose of fair reporting is to ensure that viewers get exposed to diverse viewpoints

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(Colic-Peisker, Mikola and Dekker, 2016, pp. 379). For Australian media, it has failed to conduct
fair coverage of the society and as such the society is exposed to unfair representation if different
societies. The Muslim community in Australia is exposed to unfair representation and as such
they are suppressed and not capable of living freely.
Facilitation materials
For group discussions, our group will explore one or more ethical concerns about bias
media coverage of racialized communities in Australia. The second prompt will be for students
to evaluate the intentions of the author in the article, speaking up or being heard? Community
media interventions and the politics of listening. Here, the students will examine the veracity of
the author’s intentions and the effectiveness of the style used. Lastly, the group will analyze one
image of terror from the media and how the image informs hatred and fear on the public against
the community associated with the image.

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Bibliography
Ahmed, S. and Matthes, J., 2017. Media representation of Muslims and Islam from 2000 to
2015: A meta-analysis. International Communication Gazette, 79(3), pp.219-244.
Barry, J. and Yilmaz, I., 2019. Liminality and racial hazing of Muslim migrants: media framing
of Albanians in Shepparton, Australia, 1930–1955. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(7), pp.1168-
1185.
Bassel, L., 2017. Why a Politics of Listening?. In The Politics of Listening (pp. 1-15). Palgrave
Pivot, London.
Cherney, A. and Murphy, K., 2016. Being a ‘suspect community’in a post 9/11 world–The
impact of the war on terror on Muslim communities in Australia. Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology, 49(4), pp.480-496.
Colic-Peisker, V., Mikola, M. and Dekker, K., 2016. A multicultural nation and its (Muslim)
Other? Political leadership and media reporting in the wake of the ‘Sydney siege’. Journal of
Intercultural Studies, 37(4), pp.373-389.
Dickens, L., Couldry, N. and Fotopoulou, A., 2015. News in the community? Investigating
emerging inter-local spaces of news production/consumption. Journalism Studies, 16(1), pp.97-
114.
Dreher T 2010. Speaking up or being heard? Community media interventions and the politics of
listening University of Technology, Sydney pp 85-102

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Dunn, K.M., Atie, R., Kennedy, M., Ali, J.A., O’Reilly, J. and Rogerson, L., 2016. Can you use
community policing for counter terrorism? Evidence from NSW, Australia. Police Practice and
Research, 17(3), pp.196-211.
Ewart, J., Cherney, A. and Murphy, K., 2017. News media coverage of Islam and Muslims in
Australia: an opinion survey among Australian Muslims. Journal of Muslim Minority
Affairs, 37(2), pp.147-163.