Journalism and Indigenous health policy

The Australian News Media and Indigenous Policymaking 1988–2008 project is investigating the relationships between media attention to Indigenous issues and policy development processes. The ways in which Indigenous issues are discussed through public media as ‘intractable’ have concrete policy outcomes that impact on the lives of Indigenous Australians, and on the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in urban, rural and remote settings. The project is investigating the emergence of policies governing Indigenous populations in specific discursive environments, through the analysis of news reporting, policy outcomes, and the local knowledge of actors involved in the development of health, media and education policies. This paper reports on a qualitative framing analysis of media texts, policy documents and public statements concerning Indigenous health from 1988 to 1995, finding that there were direct and indirect relationships between media reporting of Indigenous issues as policy ‘failure’ and dramatic shifts in federal government health policies.