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Mediatisation, marginalisation and disruption in Australian Indigenous affairs

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Version 2 2024-06-13, 09:54
Version 1 2016-08-12, 16:16
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-13, 09:54 authored by K McCallum, LJ Waller, T Dreher
This article considers how changing media practices of minority groups and political and media elites impact on demo-cratic participation in national debates. Taking as its case study the state-sponsored campaign to formally recognise In-digenous people in the Australian constitution, the article examines the interrelationships between political media and Indigenous participatory media—both of which we argue are undergoing seismic transformation. Discussion of constitutional reform has tended to focus on debates occurring in forums of influence such as party politics and news media that privilege the voices of only a few high-profile Indigenous media ‘stars’. Debate has progressed on the assumption that constitutional change needs to be settled by political elites and then explained and ‘sold’ to Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Our research on the mediatisation of policymaking has found that in an increasingly media-saturated environment, political leaders and their policy bureaucrats attend to a narrow range of highly publicised voices. But the rapidly changing media environment has disrupted the media-driven Recognise campaign. Vigorous pub-lic discussion is increasingly taking place outside the mainstream institutions of media and politics, while social media campaigns emerge in rapid response to government decisions. Drawing on a long tradition in citizens’ media scholar-ship we argue that the vibrant, diverse and growing Indigenous media sphere in Australia has increased the accessibility of Indigenous voices challenging the scope and substance of the recognition debate. The article concludes on a cau-tionary note by considering some tensions in the promise of the changing media for Indigenous participation in the national policy conversation.

History

Journal

Media and communication

Volume

4

Pagination

30-42

Location

Lisbon, Portugal

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

2183-2439

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2016, by the authors

Issue

4

Publisher

Cogitatio Press

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