Symposium Addresses Native American Participation in Media and Politics
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 3/16/2006
Mainstream media coverage of Native Americans is either nonexistent or subject to rampant stereotypes, according to media experts and civil rights experts participating in a Washington, DC symposium earlier this month.
The flawed coverage of Native Americans has political implications because Native issues are not part of current policy debates, panelists said.
"Nowhere is there a serious discussion about what is going on in Indian Country," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, who addressed coalition building around relevant Native interests, and contemporary issues affecting Native Americans, such as voting rights.
Native American journalists participating in the symposium discussed the ignorance of media outlets with respect to the many issues that inform contemporary Native American life--from native religions and tribal sovereignty to some tribes' unwillingness to be profiled in mainstream news.
Mary Kim Titla, publisher of the Native Youth Online Magazine, described her experiences as a TV news producer in Arizona, and how Native Americans on Arizona reservations was a subject rarely talked about.
The invisibility of Native Americans results from the fact that mainstream media has yet to see the Native American community as a "community" in the way it sees African Americans and Latinos, according to Dr. Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media & Public Affairs.
Lichter said that perception of Native Americans as a community "worthy of news of what they do, not what is done to them" is crucial to changing the quality and integrity of reporting of Native issues.
In addition to relative invisibility, the image of Native Americans as either the "blood-thirsty savage" or the "noble savage" has hindered mainstream media outlets from seeing other issues relating to Native Americans as truly newsworthy.
"There is no such thing as a good stereotype," said Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Morningstar Institute. "We [Native Americans] often think we only have two options. The truth lies in the middle."
Increasing the diversity of representations of Native Americans in mainstream media is tied to their ability to join the "body politic," symposium participants said.
Panelists also said involvement in the political process is an invaluable way to insert Native issues into public discourse.
"You [Native Americans] can be the best spokesman yourself," said Jose Barreiro, editor of Indian Country Today.
