Disasters and indigenous peoples: A critical discourse analysis of the expert news media

Abstract

Attempts to shift the ways disasters have traditionally been managed away from authoritarian, top-down approaches toward more bottom-up and inclusive processes often involve incorporating viewpoints from marginalised and vulnerable groups. Recently as part of this process, there have been calls for greater inclusion of Indigenous peoples in disaster management. In theory, this also suggests a shift in power structures, towards recognising Indigenous peoples as experts in disaster management. However, in popular imagination and policy Indigenous peoples often appear to be caricatured and misrepresented, for instance through tropes of Indigenous peoples as custodians of the environment or especially vulnerable to environmental change. These framings matter because they can result in disaster management policies and practices that do not capture Indigenous peoples’ complex realities. However, these framings have not been analysed in the context of disasters. In this article, we aim to better understand these framings through a critical discourse analysis of how Indigenous peoples in disasters are represented in the expert news media. We identify five discourses, including a dominant one of disasters as natural phenomena to be addressed through humanitarianism and technocratic interventions. Such discourses render Indigenous peoples helpless, depoliticize disasters and are justified by framing governments and NGOs as caring for Indigenous peoples. However, we also identify competing discourses that focus on systems of oppression and self-determination in disaster management. These discourse recognise disasters as political and include discussion of the role of colonialism in disaster creation. As care emerged as a means through which intervention was justified, we conclude by asking questions of who is cared for/about in disasters and how that care is performed.

The Orang Asli in Malaysian Media: An Approach from Transitivity Perspective

“…Similarly, the identifying pattern equates the Orang Asli with their obstacles in obtaining proper education which suggests their subpar academic performance to the mainstream population [60]. On the contrary, the Relational Processes characterise the authorities as being caring and responsible thus presenting them in the positive limelight which corresponds with [15]'s study which found that the authorities were constructed as entities that care for the indigenous communities.…”

“…Therefore, the biased ideological structure as presented by the media further accentuates the public's perception of the government as being tolerant and caring towards the Orang Asli which concomitantly highlights the community's weaknesses and deprivation. Not only that, the polarised construction also suggests the paternalistic attitude of the government in which [15] state that discourse reflecting care by the government implies paternalism. The positive self-representation of the authorities also signifies the numerous opportunities provided to them that result in the domination of their voices [61] leaving limited to no room for the Orang Asli to speak.…”

“…The representation of indigenous communities by the media has received much scholarly attention in the global context whereby different Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approaches have been used to explicate the ideologies and discursive practices in representing these communities. Several existing studies have consistently revealed the discursive practices of the media in constructing the indigenous communities as stereotypical and troublesome [12], primitive [13], emotional and aggressive [14], and paternalistically [15]. Likewise, in the Malaysian context, the Orang Asli as the indigenous peoples of the country have received similar treatment by the local mainstream media which portrays them in a prejudiced and inferior manner [4,16,17,18,19].…”

Interpreting spatial struggles in the historical record: Indigenous urbanism and erasure in 20th-century Mexico

“…Adopted as a methodological approach in geography with roots in both Michel Foucault’s poststructuralism and Marxist critiques of ideology sustaining capitalism, especially in the work of Antonio Gramsci, discourse analysis allows for the interpretation of how “common sense” and “truth” statements about the world become hegemonic, silencing alternative interpretations (Lees, 2004; Waitt, 2021). For this reason, scholars of critical Indigenous studies have also employed discourse analysis in a variety of contemporary contexts (Jackson, 2015; Lowan-Trudeau, 2021; Maton et al, 2022). Essential to discourse analysis is a deep understanding of the social conditions under which ideas are produced and circulated.…”

Glimpsing Indonesia’s Social Media Discourse: What Goes on During the Covid-19 Infodemic

“…For example, Strange (2022) conducted a study where CDA was used to analyze the publicity campaign done by the British government during the lockdown period due to the COVID-19 Pandemic (Strange, 2022). CDA can also be used to analyze information and media coverage relating to disasters, as demonstrated in a study from 2022 where the authors analyzed numerous media sources related to indigenous people and disasters (Mosurska et al, 2022). Further, Fairclough (2023) also states that the objective of Critical Discourse Analysis, in more practical terms, is to describe linguistic processes in social terms, revealing the 'ideological' and 'political investments' of a discourse.…”