Media Representation Analysis

SLIDE 3: REPRESENTATION: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Representation is defined as “the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way” (“Representation,” n.d.). Representations are generalisations or stereotypes about categories and how people or events belong to these categories (Stewart, & Kowaltzke, 2008), Media representations are the ways that the media portray certain communities, experiences, groups, or ideas, from a particular valued perspective (Beach, 2015). Representations encourage the public to agree with and understand them in certain favoured ways. A representation contains repeated elements, and the more the elements are repeated to the public, the more they will become normal or natural. Media representations are
Therefore, Indigenous Australians are often being represented in the media by non-Indigenous people who have little knowledge or contact with Indigenous Australians (Meadows, 2004). The media can broadcast negative and prevalent stories, images and ideas about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and these stories, images, and ideas can have a significant impact on the collective views and beliefs of non-Indigenous Australian people. These stories and ideas may be wilfully or inadvertently negative, but the damage they can do to Indigenous communities is the same either way (McCausland, 2004). Many representations of Indigenous Australians relate to conflict, crime, and differences, categorising or stereotyping Indigenous Australians as different or criminals (Meadows, 2004). Other common negative stereotyped representations of Indigenous Australians include drunkenness, welfare dependency, family violence, and having poor health (Hollinsworth, 2005). Additionally, the disadvantages that Indigenous Australians experience are often represented as a result of their own incompetence, which portrays Indigenous Australians as their own ‘problem’ to deal with (Gargett, 2005). On the other hand, there are positive stereotyped representations such as sporting and artistic
For example, in the films Walkabout (1971) directed by Nicolas Roeg, and Stormboy (1976) directed by Henri Safran, the Indigenous characters are represented as kind and helpful to others, and the movies represent Indigenous people in a way that suggests that are much more knowledgeable about the land than the non-Indigenous characters.

My Survival as an Aboriginal (1979) is a documentary directed by Essie Coffey and made in collaboration with non-Indigenous filmmaker Martha Ansara. My Survival as an Aboriginal (1979) was the first documentary directed by an Indigenous woman. It is also one of the first films where Indigenous people had a determining role in how they and their community were represented.

The documentary, Mabo: Life of an Island Man (1997) directed by Trevor Graham, provides a window into the struggles that Eddie Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander, went through to have his rights to ancestral land recognised by the government. Unfortunately, the decision to award Eddie the rights to his ancestral land was not won until after he had passed away. The Mabo Case influenced the portrayal of the land and rights to the land in many films that were made aftwards, such as Vacant Possession (1994) directed by Margot Nash, and even The Castle (although not an indigenous