Analyzing Australian Media's Coverage of Aboriginal Issues

This essay examines the role of Australian media in addressing the issues faced by Aboriginal Australians, focusing on the media's influence in highlighting government inaction and advocating for justice. It analyzes various news reports and articles from prominent media outlets like The Guardian, BBC, CNN, and ABC News, which discuss topics such as racism, discriminatory practices, and the historical mistreatment of Aboriginal people. The essay highlights how the media has evolved in its coverage of these issues, shifting from supporting government policies to openly criticizing them and pushing for social change. It also explores the impact of media reports on public perception and government responses to Aboriginal issues, emphasizing the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights and the media's crucial role in this fight. The essay uses reports from the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA) to illustrate the systemic racism within the health system and the overall societal impact of discriminatory practices, concluding that the Australian media is essential in creating pressure on the government to address these issues.

Running Head: NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Australian news media on the false victimisation of Australian aboriginals
The distance between the Australian government and the indigenous Australian is a
phenomenon of long last racial practices and the government negligence to make a better
environment for the aboriginal people. As a matter of fact, the regional and commonwealth
regulatory bodies are not adequate enough to deal with the address and resolve the indigenous
issues. Therefore, the some of the Australian news media take great responsibility to push the
government to take proper measures for the benefit of the indigenous Australians. In this regard,
this essay aims to point out the role of the Australian media in highlighting the indigenous
problems and the way Australian media is willing to put pressure on the government to bring
justice to the aboriginals.
The report of Allam (2019) currently pointed out the government inaction and negligence
to bring justice to the Torres Strait Islanders people. The report is current and proves that still the
Australian government is incapable to register positive measures for the indigenous Australians.
The story of the report pointed out that there was a program initiated by the Federal and the
Northern Territory government to reduce the number of indigenous children and adults in jail.
The program was basically a part of the federal government report named “Pathways to justice”.
The article reported that there was a huge representation of the aboriginals people in Australian
prisons and also recommended some actions that would facilitate the process of curbing down
the problem. This news of The Guardian Australia is considered to be an important reflection of
the government wrong doings and the discriminatory politics that the federal and the regional
government are played while questioning the indigenous interests (Allam, 2019). As a matter of
fact, the report is not only restricted its analysis on the government inactions rather highlights the
maladministration that was going to amend the youth justice amendment bill in the Northern

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Parliament. As per this bill, the rights of the aboriginal youths will be endangered as the
government wants to impose force and restraints on the indigenous youth detainees. Many of the
NGOs and Australian social work organisations feel the threat to the extinction of the aboriginals
and called the new act as unconstitutional and discriminatory. On the other hand, the newspaper
tried to cover the government speeches as well that tried to justify the enactment as a rightful
measure to secure the lives of the people. In addition to this, the article of Allam (2019) also tried
to depict a contradictory measure that the Northern Territory government tried to implement by
violating the federal program of reducing the number of aboriginal prisoners in Australian jails.
Based on this understanding, it can be stated that the negligence and the discriminatory
practices are not new in Australian and the government is always one step ahead to segregate the
indigenous population from the mainstream social development. Discrimination is bestowed in
the federal mechanism. As per the report of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association
(AIDA), the issue of racism towards the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people can also
be seen in the health system of Australia (Aida.org.au., 2017). The trauma of colonisation and
the discriminatory practices of the Australian government make it vulnerable for the indigenous
people to fight for their rights. Moreover, the AIDA report articulated that racism in Australia
substantially influenced the acceptable increase in the health gap between the indigenous and the
non-indigenous population. In fact, poor mental health, anxiety, psychological stress are also
clear indication of the racial practices that is still prevalent in Australia.
In this context, it will be improper to say that the Australian news media never highlight
the issues of the aboriginals Australians. There are numerous leading news media article that can
confirm that the Australian media is highly powerful and is willing to make a better arrangement
for the indigenous population. According to the report of Coward (2010) it can be argued that in

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the early 20th century the Australian media is highly and deliberately supported the government
and tried to cover up discriminatory policies that the Australian government initiated. However,
with the advent of globalisation, the moral support of the Australian media is going to change
and it becomes more extrovert and open enough to do its job. For example, a BBC article was
clearly reported about the stolen generations of the Australia and an apology that thethen Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd was shared 10 year back was highly significant (Mao, 2018). It is a
transparent statement to say that the Australian government did nothing for the development of
the native people rather more focusing on the process of making a better country with the white
settlers. It was considered to be a watershed in the history of Australian and the media played a
significant role in reporting the events by showing the malpractices that the Australian society
and the government ushered in the name of development.
Besides this, the CNN report on the racism in Australia opined that there was huge
possibility for the Australian society to become the more racist than ever. The White youths in
Australia are more influenced with the neo-Nazi principles and the CNN report asserted that a
superiority in attitude leads to dismantle the social cohesion within the country (Westcott, 2018).
On the other hand, ABC News media is also ventilated the same threat in terms of highlighting
the systematic procedure of racial problems in Australia. Detention of the aboriginal youths and
treating them like animals in jails raised question for the national media to come forward and
protest against the discriminatory politics in Australia (McGlade, 2017).
Based on the understanding, it can be stated that the Australian media is highly
participated against the government’s indecisions and discrimination against the aboriginal
people. A number of national and international level newspapers are criticising the government
policies and make a popular nexus for curbing down the practice of racism predominantly. In this

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regard, the article of The Guardian also shared the discriminatory policy making of the regional
and the federal government as well and intended to create a mass protest against this malpractice.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the Australian media strictly and extensively focused on the
aboriginal matters and try to create pressure on the government to take proper steps to mitigate
the aboriginal problem.

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Reference
Aida.org.au. (2017). Racism in Australia’s health system1. Retrieved from
https://www.aida.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Racism-in-Australias-health-
system-AIDA-policy-statement_v1.pdf
Allam, L. (2019). Governments accused of inaction and backflipping on Indigenous justice.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/28/governments-
accused-of-inaction-and-backflipping-on-indigenous-justice
Coward, R. (2010). Practice review: journalism ethics and confessional journalism. Journalism
Practice, 4(2), 224-233. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512780903523142
Mao, F. (2018). Australia's apology to Stolen Generations: 'It gave me peace'. Retrieved from
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-43039522
McGlade, H. (2017). Australia is still fighting racism and it's time we faced up to it. Retrieved
from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-27/australias-race-relations-will-be-
examined-by-un-in-geneva/9198272
Westcott, B. (2018). Is Australia becoming a more racist country?. Retrieved from
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/07/australia/australia-racism-interview-intl/index.html