Media Effects On Aboriginal Youth

The injustice of stereotypes begins with depictions of diverse groups as uniform. For Indigenous Australian stereotypes, there are prevailing negative views of laziness, welfare abuse, substance abuse, and criminality (Perkins, 2014). Initial negative stereotypes of Indigenous Australians were based on social-Darwinist theories (Harrison & Sellwood, 2016). However, contemporary stereotypes might be attributed to ignorance of Australia’s past paternalistic colonialism on contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Stereotypes negatively impact the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is clear in constructing identity, and the expectations others have of Indigenous Australians.

Cultural assimilation is the process by which a person or a group’s culture comes to resemble those of another group. As the each participant throughout the film narrate their harsh experiences, it is evident that this process was brutally enforced and implemented by the Canadian government. The system separates the children from their families at a young age, and forbade them to practice their Aboriginal rituals or speak their own language, and were taught that these ways are primitive and uncivilized. (Hanson, n.d) This process can be analyzed through the concept of socialization agents, which is defined by the people and institutions that influence ones attitude and behaviour. Families are considered to be primary agents of socialization, since they are the earliest source of learning and emotional connections. They play a critical role in forming individual behaviour and passing on culture from one generation to the next through language and rituals. (Tepperman, Albanese & Curtis 2012. pg. 57) However since the children were separated from their families at an early age, they became alienated from their roots, and the ties through which aboriginal culture can be passed

Over the past decades, Aboriginal people (the original people or indigenous occupants of a particular country), have been oppressed by the Canadian society and continue to live under racism resulting in gender/ class oppression. The history of Colonialism, and Capitalism has played a significant role in the construction and impact of how Aborignal people are treated and viewed presently in the Canadian society. The struggles, injustices, prejudice, and discrimination that have plagued Aboriginal peoples for more than three centuries are still grim realities today. The failures of Canada's racist policies toward Aboriginal peoples are reflected in the high levels of unemployment and poor education.

Chelsea Vowel's book "The Myth of Progress" (2016), explains that Canada has a long way to go to overcome the harmful and prevalent stereotypes about Indigenous people. The author supports this argument by discussing how the portrayal of Indigenous peoples in Canadian media has hardly changed over the last 200 years. Based on the language and subject matter, it's clear that the intended audience of this piece is Canadians both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

The other main theme the film focused on was the stereotyping of aboriginal peoples. I felt the film did an excellent job in addressing this issue. At the beginning it stated, “half of urban Canadians say they have little or no contact with Aboriginal people, but when they do its often negative” (CBC 8th Fire). By opening their argument by describing the current day stereotypes from people of all ethnicities, it allowed them to prove that the stereotypes of the native peoples are static and unchanged since the time of colonization. “Nearly 400 years of colonial contact has plunged many Aboriginal peoples into disarray and despair” (Fleras 170), because the attitudes of Canada’s towards the First Nation’s people have never changed. At the time of colonization, the natives received many negatives

Discrimination of Aboriginal culture and way of life has also been a pressing issue during the years between 1945 and 2010. Canada, as nation that promotes equality, has done a terrible job demonstrating it. False stereotypes and perceptions of Native American people are very common in society today and back then. It is most common in the media because it is seen by almost everyone and has a considerable influence on peoples perspective on an idea, whether their aboriginal or not. Media reaches everywhere, from movies to the new and from advertisement to literature, it gets coverage. In the media aboriginals only ever get minor roles with a lack of identity in their characters, but when they are recognized, they are seen as

1. What strategies can be used in schools to meet the main goal of the NSW DET Aboriginal Education and Training Policy (2008)?

Seeing that youth suicide rates amongst Aboriginal youth are five to seven times higher than non-Aboriginal youth, and Inuit youth are among the highest in the world, at 11 times the national average, there are several contributing attributes that should be further researched. (Health Canada, 2013) One of the contributing factors that are discussed in many Aboriginal courses is that of identity. Aboriginal youth who face high levels of intergenerational trauma due to the RS system often find themselves distanced from Aboriginal culture, without their mother tongue, and western culture. This alongside the negative portrayals of Indigenous peoples within media many times go much deeper to factors beyond an individual 's control and end up as a common root cause of suicide. One way for the federal government can combat this particular factor is through the emplacement of acknowledgment initiatives. Trying to reduce negative stigmas and stereotypes as well, to educate, can help promote healthy self-esteem and confidence levels within Aboriginal youth and result in the prevention of high suicide levels amongst Aboriginal youth. (CITE)

On August 9, 2014 Michael Brown, an 18 year old black man was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a 28 year old white man on the Ferguson Missouri Police Force. Before the altercation Brown robbed a convenience store where he stole several packages of cigarillos and shoved the store clerk to the ground when the clerk tried stopping him from leaving. The police were called and nearby Officer Darren Wilson caught up with Brown which led into an altercation between the two which began for the control of Wilson’s gun. During the altercation the gun was fired and Brown ran, with Wilson in hot pursuit behind him. When Brown stopped running he turned and faced Wilson and started moving closer to Wilson. Wilson then pulled the trigger and shot Brown

“The affect is that Aboriginal people suffer from many of the same social and economic problems as other victims of long-term bias and discrimination including, for example, disproportionately high rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, and low high school completion rates.” Stereotypes about aboriginal people also lead to a lack of self-confidence and the feeling of being meaning less in the society. These stereotypes usually lead to depression, anger, drug use, family violence, and problems in the

Our society commonly views aboriginals with a very negative stereotype. For example, they are commonly thought of as non-educated, lazy, substance abusers who live off the government’s support payments. Additionally, they are viewed to be a negative influence towards others and are often standardized as rappers and

Stereotypes relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people circulate through the media, including newspapers and reports, books both fiction and nonfiction, Australian children’s television, and any films or tv shows set in Australia. These stereotypes come from poor or shallow representations of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people in fiction – for example, a drunken Aboriginal stock character in television comedies – as well as biased reporting and nonfiction – for example, picking and choosing sound bites with which to represent Aboriginal leaders which do not encompass their full statements.

Adolescence is a time where an individual’s sense of identity starts to emerge and a majority of their social norms are perceived. In this day and age, adolescents live in a world heavily submerged around media, which plays an important and habitual part of an adolescents' life. In a national survey conducted in 2009, adolescents on average spend more than 7.5 hours using some sort of media a day (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts, 2010). With this unprecedented access to the world, individuals are learning and connecting with many different people and ideas through the media (Brown & Bobkowsi, 2011). With different forms of media playing an influential part in an adolescents’ life, their perceived social norms may be seriously influenced.

The media is a part of everyday life in American kids. Children are surrounded by technology, entertainment, and other media that is full of violence. Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the internet all contain violence. Today's media has a negative influence on children. The media does have an influence on them, but does it really influence them to act out even though they know it's wrong? Mass media, and its components, are very powerful and can influence one's mind, as well as their behavior. Children that imitate characters who use violence in the media and display aggressive behavior, tend to give them reason to believe that violence can happen without consequence. For children who grow up with poor adult examples or an

In today’s society, there are a number of factors that affect a child’s ability to learn. The media, for good and for bad, is the primary teacher of American youth. This environment reflects life itself, sometimes in a corrupt way, including the positive and heinous parts, along with the beautiful and hideous parts, as well as the charitable and violent parts. It is almost impossible to protect American youth from experiences reflecting the adult world when the media invades homes and becomes so much a part of everyday living. “American teenagers spend 31 hours a week watching television, 10 hours a week online, 4 hours a week reading magazines, and 17 hours a week listening to music” (Miss). Even though mass media is a huge part of a