Out of sight, out of mind

Recent news reports suggested that the federal governments’ takeover of several Alice Springs town camps might be in turmoil. A threat by locals to apply to the Federal Court for an injunction could have crippled Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin’s plan to compulsorily acquire the land.

But the stalemate ended on July 29, with both parties signing on to the 40-year lease. This will result in the government putting $100 million toward the camps. Yet, with no dramatic footage, this story has virtually gone unreported on commercial television news.

It was also revealed last week that the $700 million earmarked for building houses in remote communities across the Northern Territory has not yet resulted in any new housing. Commercial television newsrooms would have barely batted an eye when Territory ministers criticised Ms Macklin over what looks like a major bureaucratic bungle.

Without the shock factor of the Intervention, or the sympathy and symbolism in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s historic Apology, commercial television coverage of Aboriginal issues fades to the point of non-existence.

In the 18 months since the Apology, analysis shows that only a handful of commercial television journalists have reported on location from Aboriginal communities in the NT. This is despite a host of ongoing problems in the Territory. In October 2008 the intervention review board wrote: “Most people deal day to day with the ravages of alcohol and cannabis abuse, violence, poor health and plain poverty.”

How can commercial networks report news without journalists physically going to where the problems are most prevalent and speaking with affected people? What effect does this second hand, second-rate coverage have on Australians’ understanding of such an important national issue?

Television does not cope well with an ongoing crisis. The slow disappearance of Aboriginal news from our screens runs a predictable course. Journalists stop conducting interviews and providing fresh images. Instead, reporters read statistics off-camera, while stock images roll of shirtless kids kicking about in the red dust. Networks measure our growing disinterest, and reports then become shorter and move further back in the news program. Eventually we disengage almost entirely. 

For fear of losing the attention of the audience, Aboriginal news events are not presented as stand alone news items. Watch coverage of last week’s ALP conference and it’s likely you will see ‘Indigenous Affairs’ intertwined with another report. You may also see Ian Thorpe endorse Kevin Rudd’s latest rhetoric on Aboriginal issues. Black issues are turned white as Aboriginal perspectives give way to celebrity statements.

Aboriginal news events indicate some of Australia’s most complicated social problems and need to be presented as such.

Of those few commercial television journalists who did report from a Northern Territory Aboriginal community in 2008, one said, “It was a battle to even convince [the network] that it should be done.”

If newsrooms aren’t sending journalists to Aboriginal communities, how can viewers know what is going on? Can a public with no knowledge of Aboriginal issues be expected to care?

At best, commercial television simplifies Aboriginal issues beyond recognition; at worst, events are missed altogether. Either way, for those relying on commercial television for their daily news, ignorance is encouraged. Aboriginal problems remain, as John Pilger said in 1986, “out of sight, out of mind”.

– BY EDWARD WHITE