The media diversity report excluded NITV, but we tell Indigenous stories everyday
This week's 'Who gets to tell Australian stories?' report highlighted the stark lack of Indigenous and non-European representation in TV networks. But, by excluding NITV, the report missed a big part of the picture, explains Rhanna Collins. As she sets out, NITV was "providing opportunities for Aboriginal media professionals far before diversity quotas were popular and certainly much earlier than Black Lives Matter has been trending in your social media feeds".
A report released on Monday titled Who Gets To Tell Australian Stories? analysed 81 news programs over two weeks in June 2019 to review how diversity was reflected on Australian TV. It equated to approximately 19,000 news and current affairs items broadcast across free-to-air television.
The report categorised the presenters, reporters and commentators who presented the news across the FTA networks, and concluded there was little to no Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation available on our screens.
But that’s not quite the full picture.
The NITV crew at the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory last year
Notably, the report did not include the national Indigenous broadcaster, NITV, in its analysis. NITV is available to all Australians free-to-air as part of the SBS network, but it was the only free-to-air news service to not be captured in this review.
I lead the team that produces and presents NITV’s news and current affairs programs – NITV News, Living Black, Nula and The Point – and that brings news to audiences everyday.
Everyday, we ensure there is Indigenous representation on screen.
Everyday, we make editorial decisions and produce news from an Indigenous perspective.
While we don’t have the nightly audience of the mainstream channels, as an Indigenous team dedicated to ensuring our communities are seen and heard on Australian TV, we play a significant role in the Australian news landscape.
A report like this provides an important platform to highlight where we need to do better as an industry, and why representation is so important. Despite not being reflected as a part of the news landscape within it, it’s clear now is the time for greater recognition of the vital role of Indigenous media in Australia.
The Indigenous media sector is rich and diverse with unique access and Indigenous authorship. It is a sector in which we can tell our own stories on our terms.
NITV was born out of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. One of the 339 recommendations handed down in 1991 was for our communities to have a trusted source of news made by, for and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A place where our stories could be told with Indigenous authorship and primacy of our voices and perspectives.
Our programs are fronted by Indigenous hosts and the NITV newsroom has an all-Indigenous editorial team. It is a team that shapes the narrative of the stories we tell for our communities every day. Our most recent addition to the editorial team, Arrernte woman Lindy Kerin joins Karla Grant (Arrernte), Jack Latimore (Birpai), Jodan Perry (Worimi & Wiradjuri), Natalie Ahmat (Mudburra and Wagadagum), Julie Nimmo (Wiradjuri) and myself (Palawa) as an all Indigenous editorial team leading the black stories you need to know to begin to understand the diversity of experiences in this country for all Australians.
And on screen, it’s also people like Rachael Hocking (Warlpiri), John Paul-Janke (Wuthathi and Murray Islander), Rae Johnston (Wiradjuri), Ryan Liddle (Arrernte), Shahni Wellington (Jerrinja), Douglas Smith (Wirangu and Mirning), Keira Jenkins (Gamilaroi/Gomeroi) and Mikele Syron (Birpai) representing these stories and issues on-air on NITV, and also across SBS.
Not only does our roster of Indigenous journalists tell stories for our communities right across the country, our service is a gift to all Australians to understand our world and the pressing issues affecting our mob.
NITV has emerged as a unique voice in the Australian media landscape, launching on Foxtel in 2007. We have been available free to air since 2012 as part of SBS, available in 97% of Australian homes. Today, we reach around 2.2 million Australians every month. We also reach a wider audience with programs simulcast or available to watch again on SBS channels, and NITV presenters seen across the network. Our channel manager also now sits on the SBS executive leadership team, as SBS’s first director of Indigenous content. NITV has invested in our newsroom to ensure we can continue providing opportunities for Aboriginal media professionals, far before diversity quotas were popular and certainly much earlier than Black Lives Matter has been trending in your social media feeds.
Back in June, it was our coverage of how the Black Lives Matter movement resonates with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the situation in Australia, which prompted media giant Netflix to tell its subscribers to switch off for the night, and tune into NITV to watch our current affairs program, The Point, instead.
.@Netflix ✊🏾 pic.twitter.com/ezpeczbQsC
— NITV (@NITV) June 3, 2020
Many Aboriginal journalists right across mainstream media have had their first taste of journalism in our newsroom or spent a stint delivering to NITV News or Living Black.
To name a few – Brooke Boney, Dan Bourchier, Laura Murphy-Oates, Ella Archibald Binge and many, many more recognisable names you see right across the media industry, providing critical representation of our people and our stories across the sector.
In our country’s history there have been too many occasions where our voices have been silenced or omitted. Aboriginal voices make a valuable contribution – to our communities and all Australians. I invite you to switch on NITV and hear them for yourself.
Rhanna Collins is a proud Palawa woman and is the acting head of Indigenous news and current affairs at NITV
topics
media diversity
Media Diversity Australia
NITV
Rhanna Collins
SBS
Who gets to tell Australian stories?
How could any report on the subject of Australia’s national media possibly exclude NITV?
This report was even titled “Who gets to tell Australian stories?”
What are the various stories and films, news reports, and documentaries produced, procured, and screened daily on NITV, if they not in the main Australian and Australasian stories?
SBS also takes great care to cover not only Australian stories, but international stories of Australian relevance and interest, including a range of foreign language news and movies of interest to many Australians, but specifically to various groups of Australians with non-English speaking backgrounds.
This is not “Fake News,” it’s Selective News, the question I would ask is why?
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I think it’s fair to assume NITV was deliberately left out of this report as it would’ve blown away their predetermined desire for their virtue signalling publicity stunt. The people behind this report should hang their heads in shame.
PS. NITV news and current affairs shows (and many others as well) are fantastic.
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These sorts of fluffy reports about who gets to tell what stories are disingenuous.
Indigenous people in Australia make up around 2% of the population.
Last night or on any given night NITV is lucky to get 0.2% audience nationally. Most shows according to Oztam don’t even register a single viewer….
It is an inconvenient fact for the Aboriginal Industry as Billions of dollars are on the line each year for all the government funded programs that get dreamed up but I would contend most people in Australia really are not interested in indigenous focussed stories or as the numbers show an indigenous focussed channel.
The reality is Television is a business and as medium commercial TV which SBS falls into, is in the fight of it’s life to survive against bigger platforms like Netflix and Disney+. It reflects the majority of Australians and serves up what the majority want to watch and can’t afford to be be carrying token channels that don’t reach anyone forever. To save money these resources should be merged back into SBS or the ABC or moved onto streaming platforms like iView.
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Reality check is one thing but if being excluded because of race would this not be discrimination? Everyone deserves a chance; we need all channels. Let us just say that SBS, ABC and NIVT should be supported equally like any other channel.
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Reality check is one thing but if being excluded because of race would this not be discrimination? Everyone deserves a chance; we need all channels. Let us just say that SBS, ABC and NIVT should be supported equally like any other channel.
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Do you mean funded by advertising and not tax payer money? In which case NITV would likely go off the air yesterday due to it’s low reach.
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NITV is the only meaningful connection many Australians have to the beauty and strength of the 60,000 yr old culture that keeps this country strong.
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SBS was doing a good job in its attempt at diversity and inclusiveness. ABC used to be intelligent and believable. NITV is now swept to the sidelines, beyond fringe. Mainstream media…I don’t even touch it nowadays. Can NITV be mainstream? I believe it is a yes. But it will need a long term strategic focus. It will need to make giant leaps taken in little steps were it not to be subverted and dragged back to the starting line.
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