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Amplifying Indigenous News: A digital intervention

Overview

The Amplifying Indigenous News project aims to road-test, document and analyse an innovative digital strategy for amplifying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in news media. It draws together media researchers and practitioners from First Nations Media Australia, IndigenousX, University of Canberra, RMIT University and Monash University in a collaborative research partnership designed to support institutional listening and enable increased First Nations perspectives, agendas and worldviews in the generation and production of news. Previous research suggests that enabling a greater range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices and perspectives to be heard in mainstream media is key to achieving improved representation and policy outcomes.

In the first phase of the project (2020-21), an Indigenous journalist was engaged to work with Wakul at The Guardian to research and identify potential stories, sources and contributors, and provide feedback to the research team. In the second and final phase of the project (2022), Wakul will be deployed through First Nations Media Australia’s network of regional reporters as part of its News Sharing Project, enabling it to be further tested through the Indigenous community media sector. The research team will deploy a mixed methods approach combining ethnography, textual analysis and data analysis to assess the impact of this intervention and analyse the extent to which it disrupts or transforms relationships in the Indigenous news ecology.

For more information about the project, please see: https://amplifyingindigenousnews.org/

Aims

The Amplifying Indigenous News project aims to both support increased public understanding of issues and perspectives affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and contribute a major transformation in knowledge about Indigenous media representation in an increasingly hybrid space, at the intersection of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ media sectors. The major aims of this project are to:

  1. Amplify the range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, stories and agendas in Australian news media through an innovative action research intervention;
  2. Assess the impact of this intervention by analysing news production processes, textual outputs, and modes of audience-user engagement;
  3. Trace the shifting network of relationships that shape Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander news media representation today by using this intervention as a case study; and
  4. Gain a deeper, evidence-based understanding of the opportunities and challenges for improving Indigenous representation in the context of a changing media ecology.

Funding

Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP180100201 (2019-2022)

Amplifying Indigenous News Team

Chief Investigators

Associate Professor David Nolan, University of Canberra

Professor Kerry McCallum, University of Canberra

Professor Peter Radoll, University of Canberra

Professor Lisa Waller, RMIT University

Professor Scott Wright, Monash University

Partner Investigators

Mr Luke Pearson, IndigenousX

Other Team Members

Dr Alanna Myers, Project Manager, University of Canberra

Publications and outputs

Book Chapters and Journal Articles

  • Myers, A., Waller, L., Nolan, D., & McCallum, K. (2021). “Expanding Boundaries in Indigenous News: Guardian Australia, 2018–2020”. Journalism Practice, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1874484
  • Nolan, D., & Waller, L. (2021). “Analysing Innovation in Indigenous News: Deaths Inside”. Journalism Studies, 22(11): 1382-1399. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2021.1944278
  • Nolan, D., & Waller, L. (2021). “An Uncritical Incident? Journalism and Indigenous deaths in custody”. In E. C. Tandoc, J. Jenkins, R. J. Thomas, & O. Westlund (Eds.), Critical Incidents in Journalism: Pivotal Moments Reshaping Journalism around the World (pp. 230-243). London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003019688
  • Nolan, D., Waller, L., Latimore, J., Simons, M., & McCallum, K. (2019). Analysing the Indigenous News Network in Action: IndigenousX, The Guardian and the Wakul App. In S. Maddison & S. Nakata (Eds.), Questioning Indigenous-Settler Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 69-86). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com.
  • Latimore, J., Nolan, D., Simons, M., & Khan, E. (2017). ‘Reassembling the Indigenous public sphere’. Australasian Journal of Information Systems 21, 1-15. doi:10.3127/ajis.v21i0.1529

Conference Presentations

  • Nolan, D., Myers, A., Waller, L., & McCallum, K. (2021, May). Expanding Boundaries in Indigenous News: Guardian Australia 2018-2020. Paper presented at ICA 2021: Engaging the Essential Work of Care: Communication, Connectedness, and Social Justice (virtual).
  • Myers, A., Waller, L., Nolan, D. & McCallum, K. (2020, December). How Does Guardian Australia Tell Indigenous Stories? A content analysis of coverage, 2018-2020. Paper presented at JERAA 2020: Journalism and Democracy: Transformations in Journalism Research, Education and Practice, Melbourne, Australia (virtual).
  • Nolan, D., Waller, L., & Simons, M. (2019, September). Transformations in the Indigenous News Network: Decolonising Indigenous News? Paper presented at The Future of Journalism 2019: Innovations, Transitions and Transformations, Cardiff, UK. Abstract retrieved from https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/conferences/future-of-journalism-conference/overview2.
  • Nolan, D, Waller, L., Simons, M. & McCallum, K (2019, July). Transformations in the Indigenous News Network: Decolonising Indigenous news? Paper presented at ANZCA 2019: Making Sense: Data, Publics and Storytelling, Canberra, Australia.
  • Nolan, D., Waller, L., McCallum, K., Simons, M. and Latimore, J. (2019, May). A research intervention in Indigenous News: IndigenousX, The Guardian and the Wakul App. Paper presented at ICA 2020: Communication Beyond Boundaries, Washington DC,USA.

Forthcoming

  • Nolan, D., & Waller, L. (2020, forthcoming). An Uncritical Incident? Journalism and Indigenous Deaths in Custody. In Tandoc, E.C., Jenkins, J., Thomas, R.J. & Westlund, O. (Eds.), Critical Incidents in Journalism: Pivotal Moments Reshaping Journalism around the World.  London; New York: Routledge.