Essay 2 - Alicia Thomas - Rethinking the Media - Strategies for Native inclusion

            Perceptions of Native people have always been portrayed inaccurately by the dominant culture. Today?s contemporary setting would suggest a kaleidoscope of constructive thoughts and viewpoints on this misunderstood community, but the dangerous reality is that inaccuracies and propaganda still perpetuate themselves, even on a global scale. From advertisements (i.e. Land O Lakes butter, Cherokee cigarettes) to sports mascots, this nation's indigenous peoples (as well as the broader community in the Western hemisphere) have been dehumanized and marginalized, and the news media continues to perpetuate these dangerous practices by their slanted depictions. 

            Nowhere is this more evident than the news media. While the forms may be subtle, the voice of the Native is still silenced and disregarded. In a study of the Boston Globe?s framing of American Indians across the media, ?Only one in six articles framed American Indians in neutral, empowered, or balanced ways. Thus, stereotypical or distorted depictions of American Indians dominated more than 80% of the coded stories. The three most frequent frames of American Indians in the Boston Globe were the generic outsider, the degraded Indian, and the historic relic? (Miller, Ross, 2004).

These skewed representations have done nothing to empower the Native communities in the digital age.  It has rather, denied them access and made it harder to bring them into the fold, if you will. Ethnocentric mentalities among those who rule the media world refuse to challenge these misrepresentations. Instead they (journalists, etc.) find ways to reinforce and emphasize them, compounding the problem even more. ?As cultural products, news media contain a limited range of content frames because the structure, norms, and practices of the media reflect and reinforce the elite group frame in which individual journalists and news organizations participate.? (Miller, Ross, 2004)  This is a direct correlation to McChesney?s view of global media where he asserts that, "the corporate media have the additional advantage of controlling the very news media that would be the place citizens would expect to find criticism and discussion of media policy in a free society" (McChesney, 2001).

There are opportunities for Native communities to become more engaged. In Hudson's Digital Divide, she highlights the K-Net program, a Smart Community Project serving remote Ojibway and Cree native communities in Ontario, Canada. This prototype model could be replicated in Native communities across the hemisphere, both rural and urban. It would enhance ?visibility? for the many that are disconnected.  ?Leaders of isolated communities should invite government and corporate leaders involved in telecommunications to visit their communities?, and she adds that this strategy  ?was very helpful for them to gain a better appreciation of the physical realities we face here, which in turn benefits us? (Hudson, 1996, p80). The NVISION project discussed in last week?s essay is continuing to gain momentum in its multi-media efforts, and is attracting more media coverage as well (NVISION, p 1).

Both of these projects are building on an inclusion model of news representation that has evolved over many years. ?In the late 1990s, about 25 radio stations, most public and nonprofit, served Native American communities in theUnited States and Canada. A daily national newscast. National Native News, and a national talk-radio program. Native America Calling, offered a voice and information. One of the Native American media's central characteristics has been fluidity of response to changing needs and conditions and to economic, social, and political pressures.? (Murphy, 1998, p. 422)

In a growing world of global connectivity, it is important more than ever for Native communities to engage and insert themselves into the domestic, international, and global representation agendas that affect them and that will ultimately decide how the entire world views, accepts and interacts with their people.

 References:

Hudson, H (2006).  Digital Divides: Gaps in Connectivity. Chapter 5 in H. Hudson, From rural village to global village: Telecommunications for development in the infomation age, pp. 62-82.  

McChesney, R. W. (2001). Global Media, Neoliberalism, and Imperialism. Monthly Review, 52(10).

Miller, Autumn (2004).  They Are Not Us: Framing of American Indians by the Boston Globe.  Ross, Susan. Howard Journal of Communications,  Vol. 15 Issue 4, p245-259

Murphy, Sharon M. (1998). Native American Media. History of the Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia, p420-422

www.myspace.com/nvision1 (Retrieved May 30, 2007)

Posted at 12:48PM Jun 01, 2007 by alicia kathryn thomas in General  |  Comments[2]