The Role of News Media in Amplifying Marginalized Voices: An Essay

This essay critically analyzes the role and influence of news media in amplifying the voices of marginalized communities. It begins with a historical overview of journalism and its evolution, emphasizing the impact of media on shaping public opinion. The essay then focuses on specific groups, including women in sports, indigenous Australians, environmental activists, and refugees, examining how news coverage affects their representation and societal perceptions. It highlights instances where the media has both undermined and championed the voices of these groups, discussing the challenges journalists face, such as financial constraints, biases, and limited access to information. The analysis includes examples from Australian contexts, such as coverage of women's cricket and indigenous issues. The essay concludes by underscoring the significant role of news media in advocating for marginalized groups while acknowledging the need for journalists to overcome barriers to provide accurate and comprehensive coverage. The essay also stresses the importance of unbiased reporting and the impact of media on policy-making.

Running head: ANALYZING THE POWER OF NEWS MEDIA
ANALYZING THE POWER OF NEWS MEDIA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Journalism has its origins in the early 14th to 17th century when printing was just
beginning to make it presence felt. Newssheets devoted to news from beyond boundaries,
newspapers that laid the foundation of the Press, mass circulation of papers characterized the
later 18th and 19th centuries. The 20th century witnessed the evolution of other forms of the media
that is the radio and television.
The aim of the essay however, is to focus on the role of the news media in strengthening
the voices of the people in the margin. The marginalized people may include the women in the
field of sport, the indigenous Australians, refugees and the environmentalists. The essay will
provide an overview of the news media and scrutinize its role in bringing the voices of these
people to the fore.
McQuail (2013), while focusing on the role of journalism, identified “three levels of
attention” that comprised the practice of journalism. The individual journalist, the news
organization and the society comprised these three levels of attention.
The journalists often find themselves in a dilemma while deciding whether to follow
principles of the organization or the principles of the society. The news organization maintains
and follows its own set of principles although without colliding with the societal norms and
rules. It is but interesting to note that the principles followed by the news organization often
collide with the principles of the individual journalists. The reason for this is the tendency of the
news organization to enhance its position within the field by building connection with the
political parties or politicians. On an individual level, the relationship between journalist and the
audience is argued to be of either a critic or a medium.

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During the 1991 Gulf War, the way CNN, an American news-broadcasting channel
covered the entire war and sent live feed to the viewers across the globe; it changed the shape of
the media (Mowlana 2018). The people regarded the media as the source by which they could
voice their opinions against or in favor of various issues. Many organizations and individuals
that work towards ensuring equal opportunities for all classes of people, turn to the news media
to tell their stories. However, not always are their stories told in ways they desire. There are
numerous instances where the news media played an important role in putting forward the views
of the marginalized people. One such instance is the place of women in sport.
In sport, the representation of women has always been a matter of debate to the
journalists since the media entered its realms. It needs mentioning that sport holds a prominent
place in any society including Australia. In fact, the craze for sport has surpassed the films as
well. The Australian nation is obsessed with sport and many role models have come out from
this field. They included the cricketing legends like Sir Don Bradman, tennis legends like Rod
Laver, swimming stars like Ian Thorpe and so on. Like the sporting legends, sport journalists
also became somewhat a star while covering the lives of these sporting legends. People like John
Arlott, John McPhee and Norman Mailer amongst others redefined the way sport is transmitted
to the viewers. However, the significance of women as both sporting personalities and sport
journalists was not realized until the late 20th century. Even after that, women have not been
given the importance they deserve as sport players and writers. Evidences are in abundance that
shows the role news media plays in both undermining the voices of women sporting personalities
and acting on behalf of the suppressed voice. The telecast of men and women’s cricket is a great
example of understanding this bias. While all the mainstream news media channels and papers
cover the men’s cricket, women’s cricket receives the least coverage. Other sports like the

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Australian Football League (AFL) also have been biased towards male players
(Sportsbusinessdaily.com 2018). The news media in these cases must put aside the profit motives
and think of their role as those who have the responsibility to be the voice of the people in the
margins like the women in sport. Farzalipour et al. (2012) conducted a study on the role of mass
media in women’s sport and found that the mass media has “high potential role in women’s sport
but for some reasons, they do not do it properly”. Some reasons could the lack of understanding
of journalists about their role as amplifiers of the suppressed voices. Other reasons could include
the barriers they face while trying to help the marginalized ones. The most significant and visible
barrier is financial support. It has been found in most cases that women sports do not attract
sponsors and thus lack sufficient budget. Journalists too are constrained by the lack of finance to
cover women in sport. The question priority is also an issue and acts as a barrier to journalists
concerning supporting women’s voice in sport. Most viewers prefer male sport and are willing to
pay handsome amount for it but do not feel the same for females. News organizations are paid
more to cover men in sports and hence they too are bound by company policies and profits.
Focusing on the indigenous Australians, they constitute a significant part of the
Australian population and yet receive the least attention. As Stoneham, Goodman and Daube
(2014) remark, the indigenous people comprising of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
have been the true inhabitants of the country and still they have been neglected on a large scale.
Although later reforms and acts tried to uplift the community, there was a renewed conservatism
with the election of John Howard as the prime minister in 1996 (Gulmanelli 2014). Indigenous
land rights, the resources allocated to them and the initiatives and services meant for them were
abolished. The mainstream Australian media covered the events from the mainstream perspective
neglecting the voices of the indigenous people. The stories of the indigenous people lacked

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clarity and credibility and were not wide ranged as well. The people were stereotyped when
shown in the media and core issues were suppressed by sensationalizing violence. Instead of
highlighting the injustice done to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the media focused
on their old traditions, family disputes, poor health and other issues that were not related to the
core issue. The projection of indigenous people in such a way in the media led to the belief that
they do deserve the treatment. In all this, the journalists forget that they are sometimes the only
source of information that reaches the non-indigenous people and hence the picture portrayed by
them is taken as the ultimate truth. The stereotypes induce a sense of racism amongst the
mainstream people towards the indigenous population. It has been found that the news media
significantly affects the opinion of the people and the policies that are framed by the government.
Therefore, it is important for the news reporters to understand their importance as the medium
and voice of the margined people and act cautiously in this regard. Many barriers limit the
journalists and news organizations from depicting the true situation of the indigenous people and
being their support. The first is the perception that controversy, negativity and unexpectedness
regarding indigenous people garner more viewership. Second is the journalists’ perception that
the audience have restricted craving for stories relating to the indigenous people. Third barrier is
financial. The limited availability of resources as opposed to the cost of reporting indigenous
stories by visiting remote places causes huge financial stress upon the news organizations.
Lastly, the journalists who report on indigenous issues rely on expert sources or official sources
rather than relying on authentic sources. Overcoming these barriers would allow the news media
to contribute genuinely towards portraying the true picture of the indigenous people.
The next section of people in the margins includes the environment activists who work
day and night for protecting the environment from further degradation. These people are aware

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of the power of the media and thus work hard to draw attention of the journalists towards this
issue. Although news media in the contemporary setting puts least significance to the issues of
environment, separate department of environment journalism was formed to look into issues
related to it. Environment journalism provides significant links among science, policy and the
people. It helps audiences understand the multifaceted issues related to environment. Further,
environmental journalism forms people’s thoughts for action. However, the issues raised by the
activists are given least coverage by the mainstream media and these only find place in feature
stories. In Australia, environmental journalism developed during the 1800s, the same period
around which, the Australian press had developed. Gradually, the stream developed and started
reporting on multifarious issues out of which some had political influence while other were
neutral. Rachel Carson was a prominent figure during the 1960s to 1970s who contributed
towards environmental reporting that raised people’s awareness. On the other hand, environment
activists shifted their attention from environmental movements to attaining maximum media
coverage (Simons et al. 2017). This led to public accusing the activists of having too close
relationships with the journalists. Around the globe, the changing paradigms of environmental
journalism witnessed the rise in interests in climate reporting due to growing alarm about climate
change. Journalists while reporting on environment hence confront many challenges. these
include, activists with various agendas coming to journalists, rise of the internet as the new
claimer of the bulk of the market and the lack of context and depth in stories further decreasing
public’s interest in environmental issues. News media has the crucial role of reporting issues
environment and science from an unbiased perspective as policy makers often use it to frame
different policies.

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The last section of people in the margin is the refugees residing in different countries.
The refugees are the most vulnerable part of any population because they are placed in the
middle of nowhere. They cannot claim to be the citizens of that country neither could they go
back to their own country. Therefore, it becomes the responsibility of the journalists to bring
forth their struggles to the larger population. Refugees often fall prey to the politics of two
countries and pay the price of it with their lives. The media coverage often lacks depth regarding
the plight of the refugees. In a report published by the Refugeecouncil.org.au (2018), it was
found that only 21% of the news coverage of migration and asylum referred refugees or their
plight. The focus of these news reports is mostly the laws governing migration. However, the
news coverage manages to bring to the surface, the contradiction in the policies discussed at the
political level and their implementation at the ground level. The main issue with this minimum
coverage and importance given to refugees is the access journalists have to report on such issues.
in Australia, most journalists fail to have access to refugees and thus only manage to report those
accounts gathered from a third source. Nonetheless, it is the news media that has been able to
bring a change in the lives of these refugees by covering their plight whenever they found an
opportunity. This led to the formation of several policies and organizations that look after these
people.
In the end, it can be stated that the news media plays an important role in making the
voices of the marginalized people heard despite the dominance of the social media. However, the
journalists face numerous challenges while bringing to the fore the voices of the people in the
margins. The essay provided an elaborated account of the role of the news media as a platform
that amplifies the margined people. These margined people include women in sport, the
indigenous people, the environmental activists and the refugees. The essay discussed the issues

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related to sportswomen being represented in the media as compared to male sportspersons.
Further, the essay explained the barriers that journalists face while reporting these issues.
Similarly, the media do not cover the issues of indigenous people and their problems entirely
accurately. The essay also mentioned how the trend in environmental journalism changed over
the years along with the changing responsibility of the journalists.

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References:
Farzalipour, S., Akalan, C., Tuncel, S., Ghorbanzadeh, B., Majid, M., Kashef, M.M.Z. and
Hajizadeh, N., 2012. The Role of Mass Media in Women’s Sport. Scholars Research
Library, 1(1), pp.6-13.
Gulmanelli, S., 2014. John Howard and the ‘Anglospherist’reshaping of Australia. Australian
Journal of Political Science, 49(4), pp.581-595.
McQuail, D., 2013. Journalism and society. Sage.
Mowlana, H., 2018. Triumph Of The Image: The Media's War In The Persian Gulf, A Global
Perspective. Routledge.
Refugeecouncil.org.au (2018). Speaking Out: voices of young people from refugee & asylum
seeking backgrounds - Refugee Council of Australia. [online] Refugee Council of Australia.
Available at: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/publications/reports/speaking-voices-young-
people-refugee-asylum-seeking-backgrounds/ [Accessed 21 May 2018].
Sportsbusinessdaily.com 2018. Women in sports media cite progress, obstacles. [online]
Sportsbusinessdaily.com. Available at:
https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2017/03/06/Opinion/From-The-Executive-
Editor.aspx [Accessed 21 May 2018].
Stoneham, M., Goodman, J. and Daube, M., 2014. The portrayal of Indigenous health in selected
Australian media. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5(1), pp.1-13.

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Simons, M., Tiffen, R., Hendrie, D., Carson, A., Sullivan, H., Muller, D. and McNair, B., 2017.
Understanding the civic impact of journalism: A realistic evaluation perspective. Journalism
Studies, 18(11), pp.1400-1414.