Raymond Nairn, Angela Moewaka Barnes, Jenny Rankine, Belinda Borell, Sue Abel & Tim McCreanor

Mass Media in Aotearoa: An Obstacle to Cultural Competence

Raymond Nairn, Whariki Research Group, Massey University Angela Moewaka Barnes, Whariki Research Group, Massey University Jenny Rankine, Whariki Research Group, Massey University Belinda Borell, Whariki Research Group, Massey University Sue Abel, Whariki Research Group, Massey University Tim McCreanor, Whariki Research Group, Massey University

Studies of mass media news materials show that the dominant culture is & Abel, 2008) assume that discourse not recognised as a culture and that its role in shaping society is thereby – language in use – is both shaped naturalised. In marked contrast, portrayals of indigenous peoples and minority by and, concurrently, gives meaning ethnic groups present individuals as (negatively) different and their culture and structure to people’s social and is trivialised. This article describes how these patterns sabotage psychology experiential worlds. Consequently, we practitioners’ efforts to develop and maintain cultural competence. all, always, live in a cultural world (Black & Huygens, 2007; McHoul “Systems that are established newspapers), radio (RNZ, Radio Live, & Rapley, 2001), because the world by the newcomers [settlers] ZB network), and television (TVNZ, we experience, know, and understand then ensure this redistribution TV3, Prime, and MTS) that was analysed is framed within and depends upon continues until colonization is for content and themes. Those analyses the regnant culture. In this “mediated explicitly acknowledged and were supplemented by focus group environment“ (Chamberlain & Hodgetts, addressed” (Cram, 2009, p.210) discussions about New Zealand media 2008, p.1109), the mass media, by with Māori and non-Māori groups focusing on the deviant, the marginal, uilding on the findings of our studies and interviews with journalists and and the novel, routinely implicate of New Zealand media (Moewaka B media managers that were analysed and thereby re-affirm and re-imagine Barnes et al., 2005; Rankine et al., 2008) thematically. The aim of the project was dominant understandings of what is and the HRC funded project “Media, to explore the mass media treatment of normal (Ericson, Baranek & Chan, health and wellbeing in Aotearoa” Māori in national life, and to assess the 1987, 1991; Kress & van Leeuwen, (Gregory et al., 2011); this article aims impact of negative discourses about 1998). Effectively, mass media stories to encourage psychologists to see and Māori on Māori wellbeing and on naturalise the real world as imagined act on the implications of identified Māori/Pakeha relations. by the dominant, culture-defining group media practices for efforts to develop (Black & Huygens, 2007); yet, and this of and sustain cultural competence. We particular importance for practitioners, outline the HRC study, briefly review Mass media in modern the mass media are the primary basis relevant international media research, societies of our knowledge about citizens whom before describing how mass media As the storytellers of our society, we do not know personally. This was routinely mask and normalise Pākehā mass media are simultaneously products trenchantly expressed by Hartley, “The culture. We show how the disparaging and reproducers of the dominant culture only real (sic), contact with others portrayals of Māori appear to justify (Silverstone, 2007). Across factual and is, paradoxically, symbolic (sic), and the fragmented representations of fictional genres, mass media routinely rendered in the form of stories, both Māori culture in the mass media and construct the world within which all, factual and fictional, in the electronic conclude with a discussion of how practitioners and clients, live. That and print media” (1996, p.207). these practices threaten or undermine construction, shaped by and utilising efforts to develop and sustain culturally cultural and discursive resources A vital implication of Hartley’s competent practice. developed by the dominant culture, argument is that while practitioners probably do not intentionally look to For “Media, health and wellbeing owes much to the homogenous society the mass media for knowledge about in Aotearoa” the authors collected a imagined in the 19th century rush of their own or others’ cultures, they are three-week, representative sample nation-building (Anderson, 1991). routinely exposed to that mediated of New Zealand news media – print Analysing media the authors, like other ‘knowing’. That exposure to portrayals (metropolitan, regional and local researchers (Barclay & Liu, 2003; Chamberlain & Hodgetts, 2008; Smith of other people that have both an apparent

• 168 • New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol. 40, No. 3, 2011 Mass Media in Aotearoa: An Obstacle to Cultural Competence obviousness and a taken-for-granted (Silverstone, 2007). That would mean irrelevant to the way in which society authority is so relentless it becomes that all cultures, including the dominant, is structured or managed (Moewaka difficult to recognise that experiences of would be identified as cultural and Barnes, et al., 2005; Rankine, et al., our own and other people’s actions are, media, especially in former colonies, 2008). Insisting that cultural or ethnic in these ways, located within “culture, would represent the cultures of the identity is irrelevant is manifest in and discourse and history” (Monk, indigenous people and other groups with Pākehā resistance to ethnic definition Winslade, & Sinclair, 2008, p.xix). For the same assumption of normality and (Statistics New Zealand, 2006), the cultural competence this understanding richness with which the dominant culture monitoring of Māori outcomes (Nairn of media identifies two areas of concern: is represented. Unfortunately that is not et al., 2009), and opposition to steps how is the dominant culture represented, the case in New Zealand (ECOSOC to rectify social and health disparities and how are the members and cultures of United Nations Economic and Social (Brash, 2004). non-dominant groups characterised? Council, 2006; Ramsden, 2000, 2002; Three brief print media examples Wepa, 2005, 2007) and consequently, show these processes at work. First, from at all times, psychologists must be alert the lead paragraph of a Daily Post story Cultural competence to that which undermines their efforts (October 2004): “Most of us know it as to develop cultural competence so they Since 2006 cultural competence has Lake Rotorua, but to many local Māori can resist effectively. Individuals who been part of core competencies for the it is Te Rotorua nui a Kahumatamomoe”. are monocultural and monolingual, like practice of psychology in New Zealand The writer identifies with the majority the majority of Pākehā New Zealanders (New Zealand Psychologists Board, of readers: “most of us”, who call this (Bellett, 1995), are especially vulnerable 2006a). There are three elements in this body of water ‘Lake, Two lakes’. That to such impacts as they have no easily specification of cultural competence: unmarked commonplace naming is accessible point from which they can understanding of one’s self as a culture- contrasted to that used by “many local identify the “media saturated world” bearer, recognition of the “historical, Māori” who have been grammatically (Chamberlain & Hodgetts, 2008) as social and political influences on health” segregated by the ‘but’. cultural and, therefore, struggle to (New Zealand Psychologists Board, Second, the cover of Metro identify the framing culture. 2006a, p.5), and being open to the cultural magazine (November 2004) asked: world of clients (Love & Waitoki, 2007; “Hone Harawira and the Māori Party: Ramsden & Spoonley, 1993). Culturally News media and the culture what have we got to fear?” Here the competent practitioners are expected defining group colon separates the “we” of the readers to modify their practice according to Analysing our representative from those Māori who may threaten the situation and their client’s needs samples of news stories about Māori them. The ambiguity of the tag question (Love & Waitoki, 2007). Understanding in newspapers, radio and television we - it may be read either as dismissive or one’s self as a culture-bearer requires found no themes concerning Pākehā deeply concerned – offers Pakeha only practitioners to identify and reflect on as a group, although there were many two options both of which evaluate both their personal preconceptions - negative themes about Māori (Moewaka Māori negatively. their cultural standpoint - and the culture Barnes et al., 2005; Rankine et al., 2008). A third example is drawn from of the discipline of psychology, tasks That absence of discourse about Pākehā the cover of North & South magazine made more difficult by any masking as a group occurs because Pākehā (June 2008): "They're not rugby heroes, or misrepresenting of one’s own or the individuals, groups, and situations are not gang members. They're the fast discipline’s culture. Similarly, being routinely depicted as ordinary or normal growing Māori middle class. Prepare able to recognise historical, social and so that the values, beliefs, and practices to adjust your stereotypes”. Here the political influences of health will be less of the hegemonic culture appear natural, writer, in mobilising the readers’ - likely if the influences are denied or commonplace and consequently not “your” - stereotypes to summarise the obscured, and if portrayals of a client’s ‘newsworthy’. Telling stories in this way story has also segregated those readers cultural world have been fragmented presumes readers know, endorse, and from the “fast growing Māori middle – lacking coherence and context – it will utilise whatever cultural elements class”. Each example encodes a social may be very difficult for a practitioner are required without needing to have positioning that separates Māori and to be open to that world. The vast those elements identified for them, so Pakeha assigning the latter normality and majority of psychologists practising in the dominant culture is simultaneously some superiority. For Māori and other New Zealand, some 90% of trainees affirmed and masked. The myriad ethnic minorities, being constructed as and practitioners, self-identify as “NZ mundane repetitions of this practice outside the dominant culture in these European” or “Other European” placing that constitute discursive practice in ways is a painful everyday experience themselves in the culture defining group newsmaking (and other social domains) (Essed, 1991). (New Zealand Health Information construct the culturally dominant group Service, 2006) who are particularly as the norm, the standard community affected by these three difficulties. against which other groups are identified Readers should not be misled by the apparent slightness of these examples; In a just society, culturally and evaluated. Masking the dominant the pronouns - “most of us”, “we”, “your” competent practice would be supported culture in this way, allows speakers and - are routinely used in constructing the by the society and its mass media thinkers to insist that ethnic identity is dominant cultural group as a simple

New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol. 40, No. 3, 2011 • 169 • Raymond Nairn, Angela Moewaka Barnes, Jenny Rankine, Belinda Borell, Sue Abel & Tim McCreanor a-cultural aggregation (Reicher & Metge, 2001; Metge & Kinloch, 1984). resources (Abel, 2006; Moewaka Barnes Hopkins, 2001). Other phrases widely Cultural concepts in which the dominant et al., 2005; Rankine et al., 2008; Smith, used for the same purpose include: ‘the culture and practices differ from those of 2006). public’, ‘New Zealanders’, ‘the nation’, other groups include, among others: the ‘taxpayers’, ‘Kiwis’, ‘us’, or ‘our’. In emphasis on the nuclear family rather Mass media and the ‘Others’ Pou Kōrerō (2007, p.90), Carol Archie than whānau; how time is understood; Mass media project and sustain a summarised the practice: “...we don’t the use of money; making decisions; how relatively homogeneous imagining of write about ‘Pākehā leaders’, ‘Pākehā to run meetings; and expectations about their society (Anderson, 1991; Belich, activists’ or ‘Pākehā MPs’. But ‘Māori eye contact and silence in conversation. 1996): effectively inviting readers leaders’, ‘Māori activists’ and ‘Māori However, such descriptions of Pākehā and audiences to construct a sense of MPs’ are part of the everyday news culture have had restricted circulation who “we” are through the contrasting language.” That is particularly true in and, as mass media neither routinely portrayals of the “Others”, the people crime reporting, where a compliant news identify such practices as cultural nor and groups who are characterised as media persistently reproduce Police utilise such descriptions in telling news “not us” because of different beliefs, over-labelling of Māori and people from stories, the culture of the dominant practices and behaviour (Cottle, 2000). minority ethnic groups, while ignoring group is masked, an absence that Those differences of culture are mostly or under-labelling Pākehā ethnicity underpins the “taken for grantedness accomplished by emphasising negatives (Kernot, 1990; McCreanor et al., 2011; of particular constructions of national such as failing to fit in and alleged Rankine et al., 2008). News media are identity” (Reicher & Hopkins, 2001, threats to the majority’s security or extremely resistant to labelling Pākehā p.222). way of life. Further, the impact of spokespeople as such, or identifying The news media construction those topic choices is compounded by a systems or organisations as Pākehā- of Pākehā as the norm also refuses preference for White sources (McGregor dominated (personal communications, to acknowledge the unequal power & Comrie, 1995; Moewaka Barnes et Suburban Newspapers, 2008; New relations between Pākehā, indigenous, al., 2005; Rankine et al., 2008; Van Zealand Herald, 2009). and minority cultural groups (Robson Dijk, 2007). These production practices Another documented example & Reid, 2001). A practice that renders offer their audiences the reassurance of marking-off other peoples from invisible the privilege Pākehā receive that the strangers are being monitored, the dominant group is provided by from living in a system based on what Fiske (2000) terms “White Phelan and Shearer’s (2009) analysis of their values and encourages defensive watch”, while confirming derogatory, newspaper reports of the foreshore and reactions among Pākehā when challenged commonsense representations of them seabed debate in 2003 and 2004. They about Pākehā power and control. The as “Other” (Couldry, 2004; Couldry & found the phrase ’Māori issue’ was used mass media-promoted challenges to McCarthy, 2004; Silverstone, 2007). 55 times, while the phrase ‘Pākehā issue’ cultural safety initiatives provide a Consequently: appeared only twice, both in the phrase clear example of this (Ramsden, 2000, …, the marginalized and the ’Māori versus Pākehā issue’. Examining 2002). Those challenges were grounded excluded can be ontologically editorials about the topic, they found in the subjective responses of particular disenfranchised from humanity, that ’Māori’ was used 44 times and students whose interpretations of their misrecognized as ‘Other’, Pākehā group or ethnicity was never training were granted sufficient authority exploited and oppressed… (Cottle, mentioned - always being subsumed in a to support the story and to encourage 2000, p.2). larger national category. Unsurprisingly, fears that Māori were taking over the Clearly such portrayals are unlikely Phelan and Shearer (2009) found that the training of nurses and midwives. Those to inform audiences about minority politically-loaded labels ’activist’ and assaults on the integrity of cultural cultures, because reported actions ‘radical’ were overwhelmingly applied safety were particular instances of are rarely placed in context. Instead, to Māori and their supporters during this the creation of ‘news’. Fiske (1987) the offered explanations emphasise debate by journalists who used 64% of summarised the process: personal characteristics, deviance from the ’radical’ and 73% of the ‘activist’ “The state of equilibrium is not dominant practices and values, and labels. The authors described the lack itself newsworthy, and is never routinely associate actions with ‘race’ of any alternative framing of the event described except implicitly in further obscuring the culture of those in news media as ironic, "since arguably its opposition to the state of depicted. the most 'active' and decisive political disequilibrium, which, typically, is energy in the ... conflict was a heavily described in detail.” mediatised sense of a 'Pākehā' backlash Disequilibrium is identified by and to the Court of Appeal ruling" (p.231). in relation to the dominant culture (Fiske, There are published accounts of 2000; Gabriel, 2000). In many mass Indigenous peoples Pākehā culture - its concepts and media stories about Māori issues, the Mass media portrayals of indigenous practices - that describe how it differs disequilibrium is a challenge to existing peoples in contemporary colonial from those of Māori or other ethnic Pākehā control, while a Māori approach societies: Australia, (Banerjee & Osuri, minorities (e.g. Abel, 2006; Fleming, often defines the disequilibrium as 2000; Simmons & LeCouteur, 2008), Taiapa, Pasikale & Easting, 1997; originating in the expropriation of Māori Canada (Alia & Bull, 2005; Furniss,

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2001; Harding, 2006), New Zealand Zealand newspapers averaged one item Māori in media coverage”, United (Barclay & Liu, 2003; Thompson, of Māori news per day (Rankine et al., Nations Special Rapporteur, 1953, 1954a, 1954b; Walker, 1990), 2011), while for state radio such items Rodolfo Stavenhagen, reporting and the United States (Daniels, 2006; were about 4.6% of total coverage on the situation of human rights Poindexter, Smith & Haider, 2003) (McCreanor et al., 2011). and fundamental freedoms of construct the indigenous as ongoing More than fifty years earlier, indigenous people in Aotearoa threats to and drains on the established Richard Thompson (1953, 1954a, New Zealand, (ECOSOC United social order. Central to construction 1954b) analysed a representative corpus Nations Economic and Social of that threat is the surveillance of of New Zealand newspaper items from Council, 2006, p.17) indigenous peoples, their organisations 1950. He found that Māori, when Clearly anyone exposed to this and practices; what Harding (2006, represented, were portrayed as: lazy, monotonously negative construction p.231) calls “keeping aboriginal people irresponsible, dole-bludging, dirty, of Māori people and their culture will ‘in their place’” (Nairn, et al., 2009). socially and morally lax, ignorant, be adversely affected unless they take Consistent with that sense of threat are superstitious, and opportunist, living active steps to acquire more reliable representations of indigenous people as in over-crowded accommodation and information and the means to understand primitive and violent, achieved through failing to cultivate or care for their land it constructively. telling stories about actual violence (Thompson, 1954a). He also reported (Budarick & King, 2008; Harding, that race-labelling was almost wholly Mass media and Māori health 2006) or stories in which violence confined to the reporting of Māori news Mass media representations of is latent but available for readers’ (Thompson, 1954b). Māori health provide a particularly interpretative work (Daniels, 2006; More recent researchers identified important example of the processes Simmons & LeCouteur, 2008). Mass similar patterns: selective reporting described above. Many ‘Māori health’ media have been shown to utilise other of negative events using anti-Māori stories in the mass media, like so much of negative personal characteristics in their themes, reliance on non-Māori sources, the research on which they are based, are constructions of indigenous people such and unequal use of race labels creating framed within the deficit model (Robson as: laziness, improvidence, and grasping and sustaining disparaging, one-sided & Reid, 2001). In that framework there opportunism (Furniss, 2001; Thompson, representations of Māori (Kernot, 1990; is no recognition that the health system 1954a). McCallum (2007, p.7) described McGregor & Comrie, 1995; Rankine & and the practices of health professionals such news items as “routine but not McCreanor, 2004; Spoonley & Hirsh, influence outcomes (Hodgetts, Masters, regular”: they were not common but 1990). Māori culture and language & Robertson, 2004). Rather, reports those that appeared were regularly appeared rarely and only in attenuated focus on differences between Māori and framed in these pejorative ways. forms in two representative samples Pākehā, or the non-Māori population, In New Zealand only a small of television news and newspapers. and define those differences as the proportion of daily mass media news A relatively common instance of such problem. In an analysis of 44 ‘Māori items, generally less than two per cent attenuation is provided by the television health’ newspaper items, Māori were whatever the medium, are stories about images of the wero (challenge) and routinely reported as over-represented Māori people (Comrie & Fountaine, pukana (grimaces in haka), that, because in national disease statistics (Rankine 2005; Rankine, et al., 2008) and the items they routinely appear excerpted from et al., 2008). By consistently focusing that appear are usually not about Māori the cultural context, are easily co-opted on individuals and their lifestyles and, achievements, priorities and culture. For to exemplify the primitive aggression by neither exploring nor explaining example, in our representative sample stereotypically associated with Māori. the importance of social context and (21 days) of mass media television news, Similarly, stories reporting claims that the contribution of the health system, collected between November 2007 and women are silenced within powhiri, the items effectively blamed Māori April 2008, we identified only 17 Māori often include no comments from people for that crisis. That construction stories in mass television news, a total of Māori women, while the initiating enabled items discussing treatment 28 items out of the 1757 items broadcast event that occasioned the claim is plans or intervention costs to imply by the five evening bulletins. Seven of not contextualised within tikanga that Māori, represented as failing to those 17 stories concerned implied or Māori (Moewaka Barnes, et al., 2005; take responsibility for their own health, acknowledged abuse of or violence to Rankine, et al., 2008). In summary, the were an unnecessary charge on "us", the Māori children and a further two alluded research shows that Māori are routinely presumed non-Māori audience. to Māori men as violent. Three stories monitored for deviance, and that Māori An earlier study of newspaper were the deaths of older Māori men and events, Māori people, and tikanga Māori items about Māori health found that another three depicted Māori reaction are marginalised in their own land (Abel, Māori were persistently constructed to actions of members of the dominant 2006; Barclay & Liu, 2003; McGregor as sicker and poorer than members of group. Across these items Māori culture & Te Awa, 1996; Ramsden & Spoonley, the dominant cultural group; a long was represented by fragments: practices 1993; Walker, 2004; Wilson, 1990). In sustained echo of the earlier settler talk excerpted from their cultural context, the words of Rodolfo Stavenhagen: of Māori as a “dying race” (Moewaka and occasional words of te reo. Over “These findings […] highlight a Barnes et al., 2005, p.23). Similarly, the same 21 days, the sampled New systemic negative description of an analysis of media coverage of

New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol. 40, No. 3, 2011 • 171 • Raymond Nairn, Angela Moewaka Barnes, Jenny Rankine, Belinda Borell, Sue Abel & Tim McCreanor the 2003 report Decade of Disparity instance of such reporting to see how reported to be healthier than Pākehā (Hodgetts et al., 2004) showed that those patterns are realised. On February (Moewaka Barnes, et al., 2005). In views blaming individual Māori and 5, 2007 the Ministry of Health launched that item the journalist, writing about Māori health services for Māori health a “chart book profiling health of New campylobacter food poisoning, reported status were widespread. Initial coverage Zealanders 65 and older” prepared by that: “Unlike many other diseases, it did report both structural and lifestyle an “Epidemiology Group Public Health is more common in Europeans” (New explanations for health disparities Intelligence” (Manawatu Standard, Zealand Herald, p.1, 25 September, but later commentaries ignored the 6 Feb. 2007). Headlined, “Govt chart 2004). As reported the ‘European’ rate structural explanations offered in the book looks at Māori health “, the item was nearly three times the Māori rate report, preferring to blame lifestyle refocused “Extensive data about New giving New Zealand the highest rate choices and the ineffectiveness of Māori Zealand’s elderly…” (para. 1) onto in the developed world. Because, as health services. Commentators did not journalist-chosen comparisons between described earlier, the dominant culture question whether public health services three sub-groups in the data. The sub- is not acknowledged the suggested were effective for their Māori clients. groups the journalist(s) chose were: explanation for the differential rates The authors noted a disturbing pattern 50-64 vs 65+, women vs men, and non- focused on “the barbecue a New Zealand in the analysed items. Where a Māori Māori vs Māori. Consequently, the first institution” without explaining how person offered a structural explanation paragraph continued: “…women live apparently nation-wide practices could there was always another speaker who longer, Māori die younger and people account for the reported differences. presented an opposing, lifestyle focused older than 65 are more likely to have account but there was no such ‘balance’ visited a GP…”. Six of the other seven Consequences for cultural when non-Māori sources blamed the newspapers reporting the launch: Bay of competence disparities on a putative Māori refusal Plenty Times, Dominion Post, Hawkes In making our judgements about the to take personal responsibility. Evidence Bay Today, Marlborough Express, impact of the media news practices on that might contradict this Māori-blaming Northern Advocate, and The Press, the core elements of cultural competence - for example, that Māori exercised more included the same information in their we have not assumed that people rely than Pākehā and ate less fast food was first paragraph. Readers were also told on media stories for knowledge of ignored, as were the more holistic and that: “At 50 Māori women and men had their own or other peoples’ cultures. culturally grounded Māori models of shorter life expectancy than non-Māori”, Rather, our judgement is grounded health (Hodgetts et al., 2004). had higher rates of mortality and in two features of modern, complex, Some health research has placed hospitalisation for “almost all types of fragmented societies. In such societies Māori health data within its historical, cardiovascular disease”, most cancers, media representations are practically social, and political context. Those and “chronic obstructive pulmonary inescapable: and, in the absence of researchers have compared current and disease”. Further reported comparisons pro-active efforts to be informed, historical Māori data to show trends, with non-Māori were: Māori men (50- media provide most of what we ‘know’ have emphasised the role of contextual 64) more than 2.5 times more likely to about other members of that society variables like location and socio- have diagnosed diabetes, and Māori (Hartley, 1996). We have argued that economic status, and have explored the women were three times more likely news media practices affect each of the roles of colonisation and marginalisation to smoke. three elements of cultural competence in creating and maintaining health This instance of choosing to that trainees and practitioners require disparities (Ajwani, Blakely, Robson, highlight such Māori/non-Māori to be able to step back from and think Tobias & Bonne, 2003; Ministry of comparisons exemplifies the routine critically about the assumptions and Social Development, 2003; Public nature and content of the ‘sicker and practices nurtured by their culture and Health Advisory Committee, 2004). poorer’ construction of Māori that the discipline in which they have been Such reports would enable practitioners appears to be deeply entrenched in socialised. That stepping back and to understand the “historical, social and New Zealand media representations thinking critically is a fundamental political influences on health” (New of the world. Further, as lifestyle component of culturally competent Zealand Psychologists Board, 2006a, factors, such as smoking, are seen as practice and should be an integral part p.3). Regrettably that interpretative risk factors for cardiovascular disease, of vocational training in psychology context was largely absent from news diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary (Herbert, 1998a, 1998b; Pakeha Treaty media items about those reports that disease, and some cancers coverage Action, 1997). Yet, for members of continued comparing indigenous health that highlights differences in the rates the dominant, culture-defining group, outcomes with those of the privileged, for those conditions enables journalists media practices that routinely mask dominant group in stories that implicitly and commentators who portray Māori and naturalise that dominant culture assumed the existence of the mythic as not taking care of their health and - presenting its values, beliefs and ‘level playing field’ and failed to therefore burdening ‘us’, the non- practices as ‘how things are’ or ‘how acknowledge the cumulative structural Māori audience. The depth to which things are done’ - make it significantly advantages colonisation brought and that pattern is entrenched was shown more difficult for them to recognise continues to bring to Pākehā. by the only item, in three substantial their culture. Even the most generous It is instructive to look at a particular media samples, where Māori were would acknowledge this hinders efforts

• 172 • New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol. 40, No. 3, 2011 Mass Media in Aotearoa: An Obstacle to Cultural Competence to develop an informed appreciation the dominant, Pākehā culture as one References of one’s own culture, or of the cultural culture among many in New Zealand Abel, S. (2006). “The public’s right to basis of psychology. Practitioners who and identifying it as a regional variant know”: Television news coverage of are Māori or who identify with other of Western culture with its polyglot the Ngapuhi media ban. New Zealand non-dominant groups may find it easier origins, elements, and traditions. The Journal of Media Studies, 9(2), 17-26. to ‘see’ the dominant culture but they obverse of that acknowledgement is that Ajwani, S., Blakely, T., Robson, B., Tobias, still have to contend with its naturalised Pākehā are identified as one ethnic group M., & Bonne, M. (2003). Decades of dominance and ubiquity. 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Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition EDITOR IN CHIEF: Ronald P. Fisher Florida International University, USA

SARMAC Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition OFFICIAL JOURNAL An engaging mix of the latest high quality, theoretically motivated research: empirical studies, review articles, and target papers with invited peer commentary. The goal of this unique journal is to reach not only psychological scientists working in this field and allied areas but also professionals and practitioners who seek to understand, apply, and benefit from research on memory and cognition.

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