Media Journal Assessment

We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country (First Nations National Constitutional Convention, 2017)
Read the full Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Stoneham, M. J., Goodman, J., & Daube, M. (2014). The portrayal of Indigenous health in selected Australian media. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5 (1), 5. http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/uploads/resources/27280_27280.pdf

The above article by Stoneham, Goodman & Daube (2014) concludes that ‘mainstream media mispresents Indigenous Australians’, with some 75% of articles on Indigenous health presenting a negative view.

Starting in week one of this unit, begin to collect a range of media items on the issue of constitutional recognition and a voice to parliament. (the items can be newspaper articles, editorials, cartoons, letters to the editor and internet materials). You will then analyse them using the same method as outlined in the paper in the Stoneham et al article. You should aim to collect at least ten articles, but no more than twenty (Stoneham, et al, 2014 analysed 6,025 over a calendar year).

Most media is found online but if your sources are not electronic you will need to copy them and scan them so that you can submit them with your journal via Learnline as labelled appendices that can be referred to in your analysis.

You will need to critique the collated media and present key discussion points on the topic. Some steps to help:

• Summarise the positions taken in the material collected.
• Compare the stance in the material to various models and approaches investigated in the unit.
• Discuss how the material might affect the current debate on the issue.
• Discuss your position and views on the issue as it is presented and explore other perspectives.
• Organise your writing under the journal format outlined in presentation.
• You will need to bring in other material from books, journal articles and government reports for both the introduction and discussion sections.
• Feel free to run ideas past the lecturer for feedback

Guidance:
Below is a summary of what is needed for this assessment. Please also refer to the presentation that will be provided in Learnline which provides more detail and includes common mistakes to avoid.

• Presentation
  An introduction - highlight the main issues from the Stoneham, Goodman & Daube (2014) paper and the impact that the media can have on public opinion. Show your understanding of Indigenous health with reference to the determinants approach the unit takes and how the Voice to Parliament might impact on the health of First Nations peoples in Australia.
• A description of what you did - include how you obtained your articles, the number, the ways that they could be categorized, and what categories you eventually selected.
• A short presentation of what you found - this could include a table or graph form (as per the article), but will also need a short narrative description.
• A discussion of what you found and the implications. Compare what you found to the Stoneham, Goodman & Daube (2014) findings. How does the portrayal that you found impact on policy makers? (You may need to take this step by step). Bring in any other relevant papers here to provide a nuanced analysis.
• Conclusions and implications. Tie up all the ideas emerging from your analysis and come to a conclusion about the impact of the media on Indigenous health. Briefly suggest how the media can approach coverage of issues in a way that does not contribute to negative/deficit-based understandings of Indigenous health issues.
• References.

Appendices. Include links to, or PDFs of articles.

Reference:
Stoneham, M. J., Goodman, J., & Daube, M. (2014). The portrayal of Indigenous health in selected Australian media. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5 (1), 5.

 Read the full Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Stoneham, M. J., Goodman, J., & Daube, M. (2014). The portrayal of Indigenous health in selected Australian media. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5 (1), 5. http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/uploads/resources/27280_27280.