Does the Media Fail Aboriginal Political Aspirations?: 45 years of news media reporting of key political moments

For too long Australia's media has failed to communicate First Nations political aspirations. This unique study of key Indigenous initiatives seeking self-determination and justice reveals a history of media procrastination and denial. A team of Indigenous researchers examine 45 years of media responses to First Nations initiatives, from the 1972 Larrakia petition to the Queen seeking land rights and treaties, to the desire for recognition expressed in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. The analysis exposes how the media frames stories, develops discourses, and supports deeper historical narratives that corrode and undermine the intent and urgency of Indigenous aspirations, through approaches ranging from sympathetic stalling to patronising parodies. This book will be useful to media professionals to improve their practices, to First Nations communities seeking to test media truth-telling, and by anyone seeking to understand how Indigenous desires and hopes have been expressed, and represented, in recent Australian political history.