Invisible or high-risk: Computer-assisted discourse analysis of references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) and issues in a newspaper corpus about diabetes.

Monika Bednarek,Stefan Th Gries

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0234486

Abstract

This article employs computer-assisted methods to analyse references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) and issues in a newspaper corpus about diabetes. The objectives are to identify both the frequency and quality of social representation. The dataset consisted of 694 items from 12 Australian newspapers in a five-year period (2013–2017). The quantitative analysis focused on frequency (raw/normalised) and range (number/percentage of texts). The qualitative analysis focused on the identification of semantic prosody (co-occurrence with negative/positive words and phrases) and on selective social actor analysis. The qualitative analysis also compared choices made by the press to language practices recommended in relevant reporting guidelines. Key results include that references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) or matters appear to be extremely rare. In addition, newspapers’ language choices only partially align with guidelines. References that do occur can be classified into four categories: a) references to [groups of] people and other references to identity; b) names of services, institutions, professions, roles etc; c) non-human nouns related to health; d) non-human nouns related to culture. Qualitative analysis of the word COMMUNITY suggests that newspapers for the most part do recognise the existence of different communities at a national level. However, analysis of all references to [groups of] people shows that the vast majority occur in contexts to do with negativity, therefore having a negative semantic prosody. More specifically, there is a strong association with mentions of a higher risk, likelihood, or incidence of having or developing diabetes (or complications/effects). In sum, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) and issues lack in visibility in Australian diabetes coverage, and are associated with deficit framing, which can be disempowering. To change the discourse would require both an increased visibility as well as changing the deficit lens.

Highlights

Diabetes is a major contributor to the 10–20 year difference in life expectancy [5], a difference that is more generally affected by racism and the ongoing effects of colonisation in Australia which impact negatively on health [6,7,8,9,10]
The alphabetically-sorted Diabetes News Corpus (DNC) word list was consulted to identify any potential references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people(s) and matters–as briefly summarised in [21] and elaborated on here
It can be argued that these words ‘oversimplify the hundreds of nations that exist within Australia’ [1, p. 4], and it is recommended to ‘identify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in as specific a manner as they are comfortable with—i.e. by people/nation or language group.’ [1, p. 4]

Summary

Introduction

It’s important to remember that for many Indigenous people, this is not just a story, a newsgrab, a headline. This piece of advice comes from recently published guidelines, and brings home the message that ‘language matters’. This article heeds this message and focuses on how language is used in Australian national and metropolitan newspapers in a case study on diabetes. Diabetes is a major health problem in Australia, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people [2,3]. Speaking, diabetes is the second leading cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people–compared to seventh for all Australians [4]. Diabetes is a major contributor to the 10–20 year difference in life expectancy [5], a difference that is more generally affected by racism and the ongoing effects of colonisation in Australia which impact negatively on health [6,7,8,9,10]

Methods

Results

Conclusion