The Media and Indigenous Policy How news media reporting and mediatized practice impact on Indigenous policy A preliminary report Copyright © Kerry McCallum, Michael Meadows, Lisa Waller, Michelle Dunne Breen, Holly Reid, 2012 ISBN: 9781740883658 Editor: Associate Professor Kerry McCallum, Journalism & Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts & Design, University of Canberra Editorial Assistant: Monica Andrew Contributors: Kerry McCallum Michael Meadows Lisa Waller Michelle Dunne Breen Holly Reid Further information about the Australian News Media and Indigenous Policy-making 1988-2008 project is available at http://www.canberra.edu.au/faculties/arts-design/research/active- research-groups/public-communication/Indigenous-Policymaking This research was supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (DP0987457), with additional funding supplied by the Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra. ii Contents Acknowledgements v Executive summary vii Researchers ix Introduction 1 Media reporting and Indigenous policymaking 3 Kerry McCallum Policymaker perspectives 11 Managing the optics of Indigenous policy 13 Kerry McCallum & Lisa Waller When the stars align 23 Michael Meadows Media perspectives 33 Indigenous health reporting 1988–2008 34 Framing Indigenous Health, 1988–1995 37 Kerry McCallum Practice imperfect: media, discourse and intervention 43 Michelle Dunne-Breen Journalists, ‘remote’ Indigenous sources and cultural competence 51 Lisa Waller From little things big things grow: campaigning journalism and Indigenous policy 59 Holly Reid Indigenous policy actor perspectives 67 Intractable or indomitable? How Indigenous policy actors issues alive and contested 69 Lisa Waller Academic perspectives 77 Academics, think tanks and journalists: the trouble with expert opinion, empirical evidence and bilingual education 79 Lisa Waller Reciprocity and Indigenous knowledge in research 89 Lisa Waller Appendices 97 Appendix 1: Media and Indigenous Policy database 99 Appendix 2: Key sources 101 iii Acknowledgements The Media and Indigenous Policy project team would like to thank the following people and institutions: The Media and Indigenous Policy project was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant: ‘Australian News Media and Indigenous Policymaking 1988- 2008’ (DP0987457). Additional funding and support was provided by the Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra. As non-Indigenous researchers, we are indebted to those Indigenous Australians who participated in the project, including staff and colleagues from the University of Canberra Ngunnawal Centre, Yolgnu collaborators and participants from Northeast Arnhem Land, and representatives of Indigenous organisations who were interviewed for this project. The ANMIP advisory committee: Professor Meredith Edwards, University of Canberra; Mr Jack Waterford, The Canberra Times; Mr John-Paul Janke, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies; Ms Kaye Price, UC Ngunnawal Centre, for their advice and support. The Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) for providing me with a visiting fellowship in 2011. Monica Andrew, senior researcher, project manager, statistician and editor for the Media and Indigenous Policy project, for her patience and expert oversight of so many aspects of the project. Research assistants Kynan O’Brien, Nils Langford, Erika Mudie and Arika Errington. Kerry McCallum, University of Canberra Michael Meadows, Griffith University Lisa Waller, Deakin University Michelle Dunne Breen, University of Canberra Holly Reid, University of Canberra Honours Program 2010 v Executive Summary The Media and Indigenous Policy report is presented as a series of essays addressing the outcomes of six independent but interlinked research projects. Each paper addresses a different research question in a particular policy field, utilising a range of qualitative research methods. Together, these essays shed light on the complex relationships between Australia’s news media and the development of Indigenous social policies. Our research concludes that the way Indigenous issues are portrayed in mainstream news media does impact on the way Indigenous affairs policies are developed, communicated and implemented. Australia’s news media exerts its power over the policymaking process in complex and multifaceted ways. Taking a policy-specific approach has demonstrated that news media impact on policy is variable and inconsistent across policy fields. Between 1988 and 2008, Australia’s news media paid very selective attention to Indigenous policy issues, unless they were the site of controversy or politically salient. Indigenous broadcasting policy received virtually no public attention, while health and bilingual education received occasional intense media attention. Newspaper journalists told the story of Indigenous health policy through a small number of routine and predictable news frames. Reporting Indigenous affairs is a complex and difficult sub-field of journalism. Journalists faced a range of barriers that impeded their ability to report on the full range of Indigenous voices and experiences. Sections of the Australian media have engaged in campaigning journalism that can be seen to have made direct incursions into the policymaking process. Our case study of The Australian’s coverage of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) documents the strategies used in campaigning journalism. Policymakers working within government departments were media experts who have adopted ‘media logic’ in their practices. They pre-empt, monitor and use news media strategically in their policymaking practices. These ‘mediatized’ practices varied in intensity between policy fields and moments, but our project concludes that this is a significant manifestation of media power in the policymaking process. The 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) was the template for media-driven policymaking. It is difficult for Indigenous people’s voices to be heard in the policymaking process, but Indigenous policy advocates utilise media practices to keep alive the intractability of Indigenous policy issues and influence government policy outcomes. This finding challenges dominant understandings of ‘intractability’ in policy, leading us to conclude that maintaining the intractability of an issue can have constructive policy outcomes. In the field of bilingual education policy, think-tank experts opposing bilingual education became increasingly prominent and influential in mediated policy debates across the 20-year period under investigation, whereas academic voices were rarely heard. Waller’s research with Yolngu people on bilingual education policy has demonstrated how Indigenous research goals, methodologies and ethics can be incorporated into journalism and policy research, resulting in new models of research and journalism. vii Our policy-specific case studies identified gaps in understanding among the media- related practices of Indigenous policy advocates, public servants, journalists and academics. Further research in a wider range of policy settings is required to develop protocols for understanding and bridging these gaps. viii About the researchers Kerry McCallum Associate Professor Kerry McCallum is first chief investigator on the Media and Indigenous Policy project and Head of Discipline of Journalism and Communication at the University of Canberra. Her research focuses on public opinion, media and policymaking practice in Indigenous affairs and related social policy. In 2009 Kerry was awarded an ARC Discovery grant (with Michael Meadows) for the ‘Australian News Media and Indigenous Policymaking 1988-2008’ project (DP0987457). She led a team of researchers investigating the relationships between news media representation, the ‘mediatized’ practices of policymakers, journalists and Indigenous policy advocates, and how these operate together to impact on policy outcomes. Kerry is actively involved in the field of communication and media studies in Australia, as President (2010-2011) of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA), and organizer of the 2010 ANZCA conference: ‘Media, Democracy and Change’ at Old Parliament House, Canberra. Kerry is staff representative on the UC Research Committee and an inaugural member of the News and Media Research Centre. She is a Member of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and has held visiting fellowships at AIATSIS and at George Washington University, Washington, DC. Prior to entering academic life, Kerry worked in federal politics as policy and media advisor to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, and as an electorate officer to Members of Parliament in the ACT, NSW and SA. She brings this professional experience to her teaching and research, and maintains an active interest in Australian politics, ‘mainstream’ and Indigenous. Michael Meadows Professor Michael Meadows worked as a print and broadcast journalist for 10 years before moving into journalism education in the late 1980s. Since then, his research interests have included media representations of Indigenous affairs in Australia and Canada, Journalism theory and practice, media representations of the Australian landscape, and community media audiences, policy and practice. He has published numerous academic and generalist articles dealing with his work and three books: Songlines to satellites,