Content and source analysis of newspaper items about Māori issues: Silencing the ‘natives’ in Aotearoa?

  • Sue Abel
  • Angela Moewaka Barnes
  • Belinda Borell
  • Amanda Gregory
  • Tim McCreanor
  • Anna-Lyse McManus
  • Raymond Nairn
  • Jenny Rankine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v20i1.195
Keywords: Aotearoa, comparative journalism, content analysis, hegemonic discourse, indigenous, Maori, Maori representation, mass media, newspapers, New Zealand, representations

Abstract

This article reports on a content analysis of newspaper items from Aotearoa/New Zealand about Māori issues, focusing on level of coverage, topics and sources. Results from analysis of a representative sample of news items from six months over 2007-2008 were compared with two previous pilot studies in 2004 and early 2007. The study found that the mass media covered Māori stories at very low rates, worked a narrow range of topics and prioritised Pākehā sources over Māori, even in articles specifically about Māori issues. The authors sketch an indigenous theory of media news processes and relate these findings to already published thematic and discourse analyses of the materials from the same database to illustrate the roles of mass media coverage in the dynamics of national life in Aotearoa.

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Published
31-05-2014
How to Cite
Abel, S., Barnes, A. M., Borell, B., Gregory, A., McCreanor, T., McManus, A.-L., Nairn, R., & Rankine, J. (2014). Content and source analysis of newspaper items about Māori issues: Silencing the ‘natives’ in Aotearoa?. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 20(1), 213-233. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v20i1.195
Issue
Vol. 20 No. 1 (2014): Investigative journalism trends
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Articles

Copyright (c) 2014 Sue Abel, Angela Moewaka Barnes, Belinda Borell, Amanda Gregory, Tim McCreanor, Raymond Nairn, Jenny Rankine

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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