Media Discrimination on Cultural Safety to Aboriginal Health - Essay Example

Media Portfolio  Name: University: Date: Media Discrimination on Cultural Safety to Aboriginal Health Introduction The cultural safety concept has continued evolving as organizations as well as Aboriginal people continue adopting the term in order to define new approaches to community healing as well as healthcare. Brascoupé and Waters (2009) posits that the cultural safety definition must consist of an intensely practical a strategic plan with the intention of changing how healthcare is delivered to Aboriginal community. Particularly, cultural safety concept is utilized to express a healthcare approach, which acknowledges the current conditions of the Aboriginal and minority groups. Undeniably, Aboriginal persons have historically experienced social and cultural assimilation, colonization as well as other policies, resulting in the loss of cultural interrelation and trauma. The subsequent power structure demoralized and continued undermining Aboriginal people’s role as cohorts with healthcare employees in their own treatment as well as care. With regard to healthcare delivery, practices that are culturally unsafe are described as actions disempowering, demeaning or diminishing the individual’s well-being and cultural identity. Media portrays Aboriginal people as being devious, aggressive and primitive or submissive and passive. These portrayals have turned out to be an easy reference frame for many people every time a question concerning Aboriginal people pops up. The essay seeks to discuss mainstream media subjective coverage on the concept of cultural safety to Aboriginal health. Discussion Australian media akin to those in other countries often skew their reporting of issues affecting Aboriginal people towards stereotypes, and most of these media are successful in their ignorant treatment. As stated by Bin-Sallik (2003), cultural safety prolongs further than cultural sensitivity and cultural awareness empowering people as well as enabling them to achieve positive outcomes. Cultural safety incorporates a consideration on person’s cultural identity as well as acknowledgment of the individual culture impact on professional practices. On the other hand, practices that are culturally unsafe can weaken, disempower, or degrade the well-being of a person and cultural identity. The codes of ethics in most countries state that every person should receive care irrespective of their culture, race or sex or their religious, educational or economic backgrounds. Still, culture safety needs that every person receives health services by considering everything that makes them culturally unique. By clearly identifying cultural differences between Aboriginal as well as non- Aboriginal peoples is not adequate in addressing the problems associated with recognition. Even though the media portrays some biasness while covering Aboriginal issues, there are a number of journalists working hard to make sure the issues are acknowledged at the national level. However many journalists as observed by Stoneham (2014) are exceedingly racist and very ignorant when reporting on health issues affecting aboriginals. They are doing nothing about their ignorance and believe it is not their responsibility to help the Aboriginals. Evidently, a crucial role is played by the media in framing how people think about issues affecting the aboriginals. Therefore, when they portray the Aboriginal people as welfare dependents, drunks as well as aggressive perpetrators, it may subsequently fuel discriminatory attitudes from the non-aboriginal population. This form of discrimination racism has an enormous impact on the health of the Aboriginal population. In many instances, stereotypes from the wider population may be internalized resulting in a sense of shame as well as bringing about obstructions to take part in the mainstream society. In consequence, this leads to a cycle of disadvantage. Basically, media coverage of negative outcomes and disadvantage is normally reported by journalists in reaction to public commentaries and as a way of generating as well as expressing outrage and concern, and in search of change. Even though, the negative attributes of Aboriginal population should be highlighted, especially from the advocacy point of view, the media always highlight the negative aspects and hardly offer positive aspects. Most journalists do not interview Aboriginal population concerning their health issues and culture, and therefore, most of the news stories provided by the media about the aboriginal population are less accurate. Rather, they portray the aboriginals as aggressive and primitive people. As mentioned by Brascoupé and Waters (2009), the Aboriginal Australians poor health is attributed to the failure to realize their right to health. Without a doubt, aboriginal populations have never had the same opportunities to become healthier like non-aboriginal population. Besides that, they have not been able to take effective action so as to remedy the substantial and enduring health inequalities because of the negative attitude that the mainstream society has towards them. To understand the aboriginal population cultural health status, one must first understand the relationship between trauma, the process of colonization process and the ensuing health impact. Evidently, the rage, trauma, pain and anguish attributed to the protectionist policies, segregation, and assimilation of the past are still affecting the lives of the Aboriginal population. Lately, media portray of Aboriginal health issues are have impacted the relationship of Aboriginal population with the mainstream society. According to Korff (2015), negative portrayals by media towards Aboriginal population perpetuate discriminatory stereotypes from the mainstream society, which consequently have an effect on the aboriginals’ health. For instance, most media in New Zealand are regularly reporting that the Aboriginal population, especially the Mãori peoples are being over-represented in the country’s disease statistics, and determinedly portray them as poorer and ill people as compared to the dominant cultural group. As observed by Stoneham, Goodman, and Daube (2014), media use racist discourse to portray indigenous people; for example, in New Zealand the media use undermining language when reporting bout the Mãori peoples by using words such as needy and poor. Besides that, they use discriminatory facts and always omit important information, and conform or exclude certain Mãori stories so as to fit a particular ideology. Basically, cultural safety has surfaced as a concept of research and a practical tool to manage health inequalities coming from institutional, structural as well as interpersonal racism. Even though much progress has been done by governments to close the gap between mainstream society and Aboriginal population, Stoneham, Goodman, and Daube (2014) posits that the latter are still experiencing a lower life expectancy. In the past, the health sector was tasked with tackling ill health, but cultural difference has created challenges. Even though delivering health to everyone is part of the health social determinants, the high illness burden in most instances is attributed to poor conditions of the environment where people live. The unequal conditions have consequently brought about poor social programs and policies, bad politics and unequal economic arrangements. Essentially, cultural safety concept was developed with the purpose of expounding the concept of cultural competency within the healthcare environment. In view of this, cultural competence connotes increased cultural understanding as well as knowledge exhibited by health care practitioners. According to Bin-Sallik (2003), cultural safety seeks to address the power dynamics between the mainstream healthcare providers and health service users for Aboriginal population that are anchored in the historical forces as well as the wider power structures that have an effect on the health of Aboriginal population. Therefore, power relationship within the health care environment is shifted by cultural safety, as patients from Aboriginal population outline what is culturally safe in line with their individual experiences as well as cultural norms. Basically, structural discrimination as well as racism against Aboriginal population has generated pervasive social as well as health inequities, which have intergenerational, lasting effects. Some of the practices and practices that are systemically racist, and which have harmful impact on Aboriginal population include the residential school system, the Indian Act, as well as the uneven number of children from Aboriginal society in the child welfare system in Canada. Stoneham, Goodman, and Daube (2014) associate the social injustices with the unbalanced rates of premature death, disability, disease and violence experienced by Australian Aboriginal peoples. Even though there is an incredible diversity within as well as between Aboriginal populations in countries like Canada, scholars argue that the effects of social exclusion, racism in addition to colonialism epitomize common experiences influencing and interacting all other health determinants. Without a doubt, positive media can only be tapped by journalists advocating for reduction of the gap between the Aboriginal people and mainstream society as well as those advocating for improved Aboriginal health. Moreover, media may be used as a vehicle for constantly reminding people to value aboriginal population and may as well be used as an advocacy tool for achieving policy change. Currently, most of the media stories concerning the Aboriginal health are negative; therefore, the public health professionals must become vigilant and offer positive aspects Aboriginal health so as to reduce such negative influences. Conclusion In conclusion, the essay has discussed the mainstream media subjective coverage on the concept of cultural safety to Aboriginal health. As indicated in the essay, the mainstream media portrays the Aboriginals as child abusers, drunks as well as aggressive persons, which consequently creates a negative impression. Evidently, the nature of media influence on healthcare delivery to aboriginal population is changing, but still their potential and power is constant. Persistent portrayals of Aboriginal communities negatively have resulted in ignorance in a world and the media industry that always steered by negative stories. References Bin-Sallik, M. (2003). Cultural Safety: Let's Name It! . The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , 32, 21-28. Brascoupé, S., & Waters, C. (2009). Cultural Safety Exploring the Applicability of the Concept of Cultural Safety to Aboriginal Health and Community Wellness. Journal de la santé autochtone, 1(1), 6-41. Korff, J. (2015, September 13). Mainstream media coverage of Aboriginal issues. Retrieved from Creative Spirits. Stoneham, M. (2014, April 1). Bad news: negative Indigenous health coverage reinforces stigma. Retrieved from The Conversation: http://theconversation.com/bad-news-negative-indigenous-health-coverage-reinforces-stigma-24851 Stoneham, M. J., Goodman, J., & Daube, M. (2014). The Portrayal of Indigenous Health in Selected Australian Media. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5(1), 1-13. Appendix Mind Map Read More