Media not in tune with Minority Voice

Mana (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 10, 10 November 1977, Page 1

Media not in tune with Minority Voice

The views of Maoris and other Polynesians are often not heard by the general public because of self-appointed

people claiming to be representatives of minority groups.

The Race Relations Conciliator, Mr Harry Dansey says in his annual report to Parliament that the news media needs to “cast its net a little further" when presenting material on minority peoples. . .journalists tend to seek out the spokesmen most familiar to them. They are not usually those who are willing or even eager to talk and they may not necessarily always be the best. It is not unusual to find that the same spokesman for the same

group is quoted time and again when in fact there are many groups in the minority community which are never consulted at all. “Occasionally I have read opinions of people who are quoted as spokesmen, or representatives, or elders, when in fact they represent no one but themselves," says Mr Dansey. He says the influence the news media has on race relations cannot be stressed highly enough. Mr Dansey

says many people feel the news media hampers rather than helps race relations. . Minority groups often feel that the media stresses the bad things about their group while many Pakeha New Zealanders feel that nobody bothered about race relations until the news media began to give it prominence. Minority groups are aware of the injustice of the fact that race is not considered when the shortcomings of the majority (Pakeha) group are

concerned adds Mr Dansey. “Thus, when a Pacific Islander. . . breaks the law, all Pacific Islanders share the odium. Conclusions are drawn that the wrong-doing is somehow due to the offender’s race. On the other hand, when a Pakeha motor-cycle gang tears a house apart and terrorises the street, no one considers that this reflects some racial attribute," says Mr Dansey. The Race Relations report also noted that there was a great range in the understanding and knowledge on racial matters among schools. Some teachers ignorance of basic facts of Maori life was little short of appalling, says Mr Dansey, but in other schools (usually those with a high proportion of Maori and other Polynesian pupils) enlightenment on racial matters was splendid.