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Colonial Coverage

Media Reporting of a Bicultural Health Research Partnership

jrankine{at}actrix.co.nz

Tim McCreanor

University of Aucklandt.mccreanor{at}auckland.ac.nz

Discursive and content analyses of media coverage of a 1998 Aotearoa/New Zealand partnership research project on the genetics of inherited stomach cancer show a decided preference for stories that depict the discoveries as the achievement of only one research partner, a genetics research team at Otago University. The coverage downplayed the major contribution of the genealogical research carried out by indigenous Maori researchers for families affected by the cancer. This contribution was included in a news release from the research funding agency, the Health Research Council of New Zealand. Through an array of discursive constructions and omissions, the media stories obscure the role of the Maori researchers in initiating and contributing to the genetics research and applying the findings of the overall project. We argue that what has been lost here is an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate a major Maori contribution to international scientific advance and the health of people. Instead the media delivered another example of marginalizing colonial coverage of Maori achievement, denigrating existing work and potentially discouraging other such cutting-edge collaborative health research.

Key Words: colonialism • discursive analysis • genetics • indigenous research • Maori • marginalization • media • partnership • racism • representation • science

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