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    Under the gaze : a study of the portrayal by the New Zealand print media of Pacific Island workers in the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, 2007-2012 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies at Massey University, Wellington New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Enoka, Angelynne Josephine
    Media reporting on Pacific people in New Zealand has frequently been criticised for being sensationalised, biased and narrow. Yet, there have been few broad and systematic analyses of the nature of reporting specifically concerning Pacific Island seasonal workers in New Zealand. My thesis explores how the New Zealand print media portrayed Pacific Island seasonal workers travelling under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme from 2007 to 2012. That period represented the first five years of the scheme and a time when it was in the news by virtue of its novelty in New Zealand, thereby providing a rich vein of media representations to study. My research focusses on the media themes occurring in the communities where RSE workers were living, while they were living there, so as to understand the discourse circulating in their immediate community. This provides understanding of the philosophical and cultural assumptions that underpin mainstream regional media reporting in New Zealand with regards to the particular representation of Pacific RSE workers, and how this compares with representations of Pacific people as a whole. Although the goal of my thesis is to trace the nature of the portrayal of Pacific Island workers under the RSE scheme, I have contextualised this with a review of the depiction of Pacific people dating back to their arrival in the 1950s and ‘60s. I look at how Pacific people were racialised in the early 1970s and compare that with coverage of the influx of Pacific Island seasonal workers in 2007, exploring underlying assumptions prevalent in the 1970s that Pacific Island workers were disruptive to New Zealand, such as by taking employment from New Zealanders or posing a threat to health, law or order. A sample of 115 articles drawn from the five regional newspapers – Bay of Plenty Times, Hawkes Bay Today, Nelson Mail, Marlborough Express and The Southland Times – was chosen for media analysis. Additionally, five selected case studies extracted from the NZ Herald, a metropolitan newspaper, for each calendar year from 2007-2012, were explored and compared to the regional sample, to help identify themes about Pacific seasonal workers that were portrayed in the wider New Zealand news media but missing from the regional coverage. I analysed the articles using interpretive thematic analysis. In this method, I looked at newspaper coverage in depth to make sense of the patterns of meaning. I identified themes used by print media to portray Island workers in regions that constitute a high number of Pacific seasonal workers during the scheme’s first five years of operation in New Zealand, and mapped these over time to investigate whether there was a shift in the discourse of stories as the scheme matured. With 115 articles assessed from 2007 to 2012, concentrating on November to March in each season when most RSE workers are in New Zealand, key themes were identified. Media analysis showed the reportage had extensive positive coverage of the scheme’s policy aims in New Zealand, with government, agency officials and industry spokespeople the most frequently cited news sources. Nine key themes; Labour shortage, RSE policy, New Zealanders first, Pastoral care, Economic benefits, New Zealand unemployment, RSE cap, RSE praises and RSE issues were represented in regional coverage across regions and time periods. The overall portrayals of Pacific Island seasonal workers under the scheme represented a more positive light in comparison to what we know broadly about historical depictions of Pacific peoples in the New Zealand media. The patterns and trends in media reporting in the studied RSE regions uncovered a more affirmative portrayal overall, but also indicated that local media perceptions shifted in particular regions as time passed. The characterisation of Pacific RSE workers by the New Zealand print media in the first five years of the scheme carried fewer stigmatising discourses than in the 1970s. However, examined critically, these seeming positive discourses can be understood as positive to those promoting capitalism and seeking cheap labour, but as positioning Pacific temporary workers as dehumanised commodities in ways that may contribute to undermining their human rights and long-term best interests. These discourses and patterns are important to understand. They fill a gap that exists in the examination of how Pacific people working in temporary labour positions have been represented by the New Zealand print media. The findings provide RSE Pacific countries with insights into the issues, challenges and successes depicted by the media about their workers, as well as alerting the New Zealand public more broadly to patterns in the way the scheme has been reported to them, and to broader patterns of racialised and economic discourse. [The RSE scheme was launched in April 2007 with a cap of 5,000 workers under the then Labour Government led by Helen Clark, but the cap was lifted to 8,000 in October 2008 and was lifted again in November 2014 from 8,000 to 9,000, and then again from 9,000 to 9,500 in December 2015 and 10,500 in December 2016. It lifted again in December 2017 to 11,100 and the latest increase was in November 2018 to 12,850. The workers are mostly sourced from the Pacific Islands. They contribute substantially to New Zealand’s economy but do not accrue any rights to citizenship in New Zealand as a result of participating in the scheme.]
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    (De)constructing 'refugeeness' : exploring mediated discourses of solidarity, welcome and refugee (self)representation in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Slade, Natalie Frances
    The tragic photo of Alan Kurdi ignited protests of solidarity and compassion across the Western world in support of refugees. In New Zealand, refugee advocates and media commentators urged the government to increase the refugee quota and welcome in more refugees. Although discourses of solidarity and welcome stem from humanitarian concern, they also risk encouraging a regime of compassion and charity that speaks more about ourselves and how we feel. Refugees are framed as objects of ‘our’ moral responsibility, stereotyped as helpless vulnerable victims without agency. These discourses consequently produce a generic type of refugee – an imagining of ‘refugeeness’ – that consigns individuals to an anonymous presence, silenced and marginalised by the very act of solidarity and protest that is performed on their behalf. Situated within a post-development and post-humanitarianism paradigm, and an actor-oriented approach to discourse and agency, this research aims to explore refugee representation and discourses of solidarity and welcome in the New Zealand mainstream media, and how people from refugee backgrounds experience and contest dominant discourses of ‘refugeeness’. Using critical discourse analysis, this research critically examines the discursive constructions of refugees and solidarity in the New Zealand mainstream news media, and the power dynamics involved in the production of discourse. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with refugee advocates and former refugees are employed to create spaces for participants to share their stories and experiences, enabling voices to be heard, misconceptions to be challenged, and new meanings to be constructed. The emergence of themes in this research highlight the relationship between discourses of solidarity, humanitarianism, and imaginings of New Zealand national identity. Within these discourses, refugees are stereotyped in a particular way that calls on the New Zealand public to respond. However, as the title of this thesis suggest, meaning is not infinitely fixed. Refugees may be labelled by discursive structures, but they will also use their agency to deconstruct and redefine the refugee label for their own ends, creating space for the construction of their own identities in the process.
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    Unbalanced images and inappropriate responses : how three Western newspapers misrepresented the 1992-3 Somalian famine : a thesis presented in [partial] fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Hope, James Nicholas
    There is widespread agreement among media analysts that the media in capitalist societies, such as Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom, present "news" in particular ways which favour certain readings of events over others. Whether this is an explicit or implicit act is open to debate. Regardless, the portrayal of events in the developing world, such as the tragic famine in Somalia in 1992-3, are not quarantined from this process. Consequently, the images of the developing world created in the West by the mainstream media are often highly distorted. This situation has serious ramifications as it is influential in determining the type and extent of development considered appropriate by the West for the developing world, and the assistance and aid provided. If Western understanding of the events and issues in the developing world is based on the one-sided images transmitted by the media, then this knowledge is incomplete and decisions taken on the basis of this knowledge will not meet the needs of the societies concerned. Therefore, it is not surprising that the history of Western aid for the developing world has been one of incompetence, errors and inappropriate responses. This thesis provides a critical insight into how and why the Western media works explicitly to shape the "news" we see by analysing how three newspapers, two from the United Kingdom and one from the United States, presented their coverage of the 1992-3 Somalian famine. This analysis, it is hoped, will deepen the reader's understanding of the role of the media in development matters, will alert the reader to the need to adopt a critical approach to media treatment of these matters and will provide the reader with knowledge and resources to assist in the development of such an approach. The adoption of a critical approach to media stereotyping and manipulation will be beneficial in that it will lead to a better understanding of developing world societies and more meaningful interaction between these societies and the West.