TRANS Nr. 17: 8.2. - Greg Chester and A. Neelameghan: Comparing news media in disseminating critical indigenous information

Greg Chester (Leech Lake Tribal College, Cass Lake, MN, USA) and
Arashanipalai Neelameghan (UNESCO/PGI Paris, France) [BIO]

The knowledge and communications revolutions brought on by personal computers and the Internet have opened a low cost direct communication between many marginalized and Indigenous groups with the people other Indigenous communities and of the technologically advanced communities. These new communications systems have enabled Indigenous people to exchange information unfiltered and unadulterated with other peoples. Furthermore, with prompt feedback, they can determine if their messages have been received and the impacts of their messages. This has provided an avenue to circumvent a news media that seldom carries their major stories.

This paper summarizes the results of a survey and follow-up analysis of the news media coverage of major Indigenous news stories and compares the results to the use of the Internet to distribute those stories.

The purpose of the study summarized in this paper is to determine the frequency with which the news media present major Indigenous stories to rural people. We will focus on Indigenous nation's stories in the United States, Canada, and Mexico that are of world local, national, and international signifigance. This study is to determine if the media are informing the local people and their leaders about major Indigenous issues so that rural people can make informed decisions that may impact Indigenous people and their nations.

The general population has a great influence on the local, state, and national policy and legislation that often impacts the Native populations. Therefore, the general populace and their leaders need to receive essential information regarding the Indigenous nations. This information will enable them to make more informed decisions. These may have a more positive impact with the Indigenous populations. Or, at the least, they will be aware of the Indigenous people and may consider the impact of their decisions upon them, also may consider consulting with Indigenous councils if their decisions may impact the Indigenous communities.

One role of the media is to provide essential information to help parties achieve resolutions to their problems and, when necessary, make it easier for other neutral parties to step in and help facilitate resolutions. When people have the facts they can generally discuss and work on solutions. Jefferson cautioned that "whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government" (Padover, 1939, p. 88).

The authors sought to determine if the local media provided the people of the Bemidji/Cass Lake area with this information. The data was gathered by a survey, personal interviews and examinations of the stories covered in the media's digital archives. Each news purveyor received a survey. This portion of the Mississippi River headwaters region is largely a rural farming and forested area. There are over 20,000 Indigenous people living within sixty miles of Bemidji and thereby comprise a significant part of the population of 90,000. Most non-Indigenous people are descendants of immigrants from Germany, Scandinavia, Ireland, France, Eastern Europe, and Italy. There are perhaps one hundred African American people and about three hundred Asian or Asian American people in the area. Many people of these two latter groups are students at the local university.

The governance systems in the area are elective, representative democracies to include city, town, county, state, and federal systems for the United States and local councils and elective business committees for each of the reservations. Each is responsible for often overlapping geographic jurisdictions.

2. Distributing crucial information about indigenous peoples to rural communities

It became glaringly apparent in the 1970s that the US media often either failed to cover or inadequately covered major Indigenous news events. This realization came from comments expressed by exasperated Indigenous leaders, US citizens, and personal observations (Personal Conversations, Oren Lyons, John Mohawk, Mike Meyers, Bonnie Thornton, Kay Wood 1975-78). An example of this void became apparent when 165 Indigenous people participated in the 1977 Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples of the Americas at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. While the larger news media gave limited coverage, the rural media gave little or no coverage. None of the newspapers, radio, or television stations in the Watertown, NY area and throughout rural northern New York mentioned the event even when there were large Indigenous populations in the area.

A wider search disclosed brief articles about the Geneva Conference in a few papers in the larger cities in New York State to include the New York Times. It was as if the Indigenous people lived on another planet. While the Indigenous nations’ historic UN conference in Geneva was covered extensively throughout Europe, it was almost blacked out in the nation states in the Americas of many of the Indigenous representatives. The void of coverage extended to the Fourth Russell Tribunal held in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1980 where Indigenous nations presented 14 cases citing abuses by nation states.

Today the local news media who serve the rural Mississippi Headwaters area are covering more local Indigenous issues than they did twenty years ago. Yet, they seldom cover major issues of a national or international nature. If the major news media will not cover these newsworthy Indigenous issues then how can Indigenous people transmit their stories to the general populations of the nation states within which they live?

Are these Indigenous stories of major general concern broadcast to a large part of the population? Who are they reaching? Via what vehicle is reaching the people? And lastly, what is the most effective way for researchers to reach a particular target audience?

The study area is largely rural area wherein the largest city, Bemidji, consists of about 12,000 people. Fifteen percent of their people are Indigenous. The rural non-Indigenous population is about seventy thousand. There are three Ojibwe reservations within forty five miles of the city. Their combined populations are at least 20,000 people.

The Indigenous people comprise greater than 22% of the population of the region. With this large nearby Indigenous population all US residents would be wise to know about the major issues that are impacting their Indigenous neighbors. We can ask: Does their media provide this information and at what frequency? What media provide it?

The following are the main providers of local, national and international news in the Mississippi River headwaters region of north central Minnesota: The Bemidji Pioneer (daily newspaper), WCCO (statewide commercial television), Lakeland Public Television, LPTV (statewide publicly supported television and evening news), Minnesota Public Radio, MPR (state, national, and international news and information), and Community Radio, KAXE (local, state, national, and international news). A few people receive the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press daily newspapers from the larger cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota respectively. These two are larger papers that give greater coverage to national and international issues than the other news sources cited.

Several Native American newspapers also provide local, state, and national Indigenous news with some international Indigenous issues. The Debahjimon covers local Leech Lake Reservation issues. The Ojibwe News, Circle, and Indian Country Today cover national and international Indigenous issues. These four Native American newspapers were begun largely to fill the void of Indigenous information in the mainstream media. They are weekly or monthly journals. Indigenous Americans are their primary audience along with a few non-native people. They provide a great deal of valuable information to the Native American populace, but reach only a tiny fraction of the general population.

The World Wide Web provides an alternative avenue of communication. It can dispense essential news on Indigenous issues to a large and widely dispersed slice of the nation state and global populations. The Internet appears to be a more efficient means to reach a wide area, but generally fewer people than the news media. Because the computer user usually contacts targeted audiences it may be difficult to reach new people outside the established network. It can reach an individual or group of people, with a lot of information regarding an issue. It is particularly impacting the younger segments of the population who have grown up with computers. Telephone has been too expensive and clumsy to reach large audiences quickly. Dr. A. Neelameghan will address the impact of cell phones in his paper.

Field, in analyzing the growth of communication between Indigenous nations and nation state leaders, wrote that Deskaheh of the Cayuga Nation had traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to speak before the League of Nations in 1923. While many Europeans heard his message in behalf of the Haudenossaunee and their allies, it was largely ignored by the media in the western hemisphere (Field 1986, p. 1).

With the founding of the United Nations following World War II, the Indigenous nations had new hope that they would be heard. Following the Red Power movement of the sixties and seventies, the traditional elders of the Hopi Nation and the Haudenossaunee set their sights on speaking before the United Nations. They wanted the nation states to hear their messages. They were not only interested in the survival and sovereignty of their nations but the health of the planet and the survival of the human race. They said that there cannot be world peace until all the races have a voice in the world councils (1980 Thomas Banyaca, 1981 Oren Lyons).

Field in 1986, regarding meetings of Indigenous representatives with leaders of some nation states and the United Nations, wrote, “In the past ten years communication between native peoples has exploded. The increasingly unstable world economy and rapid information dissemination systems have contributed to a common understanding of the economic, political and social forces affecting native peoples on six continents” (Field 1986, p. 1).

Following the demise of the Akwesane Notes, Jose Barriero set out to fill in the void when he published Akwekon and Native Americas journals, which provided intellectuals with a wide range of detailed information on global Indigenous issues. While he filled a major void very effectively, he was not able sustain it economically.

The Indigenous Peoples Network (IPN) was organized during this time and setup an extensive computer network to share their information and coordinate their activities. They also reached out to others sharing their unique perspectives. As Barreiro stated about IPN's future, “It lies in IPN's ability to articulate indigenous cases, to achieve recognition of a world view distinct from the West, distinct from the 'left' and the 'right'. We are learning from each other, IPN is just opening up the channels” (Field 1986, p.1).

Indigenous peoples have their own paradigms that are often very distinct from those of the first, second, and even third world nations. Their perspectives can provide fresh insights that can open up potentially successful avenues to resolve global problems. For example, Oren Lyons, a Faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation, described the wisdom of the Indigenous elders, “I can tell you right now, there are no secretes. There's no mystery. There's only common sense” (Wall & Arden, 1990, p. 66). Lyons then asked,

While key communication goals as described by Field were achieved in the past century, the achievements were significant only in relative terms. They were starting from a major deficit. They may have climbed a great deal inside the hole, but they are still in the hole. For example, while the general news media provides more news about Indigenous people they still avoid many major stories unless they involve blood and violence. This has left a large information gap in the general public, especially in rural areas. This includes areas with large Indigenous populations.

It is often difficult for the Indigenous people to share their messages with urban people and even more so with rural people. There are a variety of reasons for this. Space and time are part of the equation. Listener interest is another. Advertisers are a third. Most local newspapers do not have the space that the New York Times has and, therefore, cannot cover as many stories. Listeners or readers in rural areas are, for the most part, more interested in very local news and not that of “outsiders”. Some advertizers may not like the topic; (Daniel LeClaire, Cass Lake Times, Molly Miron, Bemidji Pioneer).

Commercial media, including the newspapers, radio, and television, have the largest audience. There are two main commercial newspapers in the area of interest, Bemidji Pioneer (daily) and the Cass Lake Times (weekly). The city of Bemidji has a population of about 12,000 and Cass Lake about 850. A few people from the region also read two papers from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer. The Star Tribune was bought out recently by a large corporation that laid off over 100 of its news staff. This may seriously impact local, especially rural coverage. While there are numerous commercial television stations to choose from, one station is the prime source of local and state news, WCCO TV. There are about nine commercial radio stations in the region. A few of these have staff to produce a few local stories. National network feeds are the primary sources of their news.

Two other criteria for commercial United States news are, “If it bleeds it leads” and “News fills the space between ads”. In accord with the first criterion when one uses a thoughtful approach, appealing to the rational and legal foundation of ones' position, the media tend to overlook the story. Blood and violence grab the customer's attention more effectively. This criterion is particularly important in television news wherein visuals play an important part in the stories. Second, advertisements are the bread and butter of most commercial media. They have priority for they are their main source of income. The story may have to be greatly abbreviated to fit it in among the advertisements. If the issue requires significant explanation, it is often left out. This may leave the audience ignorant of the main point of the story. In addition, major advertisers can influence the topics the media cover and the way they cover it. If advertisers threaten to pull their ads when they do not like a story, this can be a strong factor in editing its substance or editing it out entirely.

In the Cass Lake-Bemidji area, the one public television and three public radio stations are playing a progressively greater role as news providers. While the primary source of funding from commercial media is from advertising, the primary source of funding for public stations in the U.S. is from listener donations. The public news and information stations are increasingly becoming the prime source of news for more people each year. They fill in to a degree where the other news outlets leave off. They also provide probing discussions of and commentary on major news issues, events and news makers.

The questions are how often do public media cover Indigenous issues and, if so, how do they cover them? How does their coverage compare with that of the commercial new providers? Public media was in its infancy in 1986 when Field did the study, cited above. Has there been any progress in dispensing information since then and if so is that information reaching people in the rural areas? What impact have public news media had upon the dispensing of news on Indigenous issues?

The Internet is an increasingly popular source of information for many of us, especially the younger generation.

The news purveyors were selected based on whether they serve an area within sixty miles of Bemidji and Cass Lake, MN, USA and reach a significant percent of the residents.

Being major news providers, they are responsible to provide news relevant to and about the peoples in their service area. Among those they serve is the Indigenous community, primarily Ojibwe, which is more than 22% of the population.

Among the newspapers, the Bemidji Pioneer has the largest circulation, followed by the Cass Lake Times and the Ojibwe News. Another paper that was considered, but not included, is the Debahjimon that serves the Leech Lake Reservation. It deals with very local Ojibwe topics.

The public radio stations reach those in the community who want more information and analysis about a topic. The commercial radio and television stations reach the largest segment of the population, including most of the Indigenous people, while the public station reaches a smaller, but more educated portion of the population.

KAXE is a public, community, radio station that serves a special niche. They provide a great deal more information regarding local environmental, political, and cultural issues. They interview some spiritual and artistic Ojibwe people on matters important to both the Ojibwe and non-Indigenous communities.

The radio stations reach many people while they enjoy breakfast and while commuting to and from work or traveling in the area. The public radio stations provide not only the greatest quantity but often the most in depth coverage. They also obtain their information from more news sources as compared to the other radio and television stations in the region.

Minnesota Public Radio (KNBJ/KCRB) is a larger state wide public radio network. Some of its news sources are: Morning Edition, All Things Considered, The World, As it Happens, National Native News, Alternative Radio. With the wide variety of sources the headwaters rural populace can better triangulate the information they receive. The public radio stations cover political, social, educational, economic, and environmental topics. The commercial radio stations devote a great deal of coverage to topics classified as “If it bleeds it leads”.

Indigenous communities are often fundamentally different from our technologically advanced societies in this post-industrial or techno-scientific era. Their goals are often different. Many seek to maintain their languages and cultures, as well as their territories and ecosystems, in healthy states, often looking over seven generations into the future before making a decision. Their cultures and long historical attachment to their homelands often inspire a strong, protective bond with their homelands and their ecosystems. Some people and organizations in the technologically advanced societies have attempted to distort or stifle communication between Indigenous peoples and mainstream societies in order to better enable them to extract the Indigenous peoples' resources.

The knowledge and communications revolutions brought on by personal computers and the Internet have opened a low cost line of direct communication avenues between many of these disparate, marginalized Indigenous groups and the mainstream of the technologically advanced communities. These systems provide two way communication enabling Indigenous people to exchange information unfiltered and unadulterated among themselves and with other peoples. Furthermore, with prompt feedback, they can determine if their messages have been received and the impacts of their messages.

The people, organizations, and issues considered in this paper are: The Zapatistas (Maya) of Mexico land struggle, the Mohawk (Kanienkehake) people of the Six Nations Territory of Ontario, Canada land struggle, uranium mining in the Algonquin Territory in Eastern Ontario, mining and land as well as land and mining issues in the territory of the Western Shoshone Nation, the impact of US Mexican and Canadian border issues on Indigenous communities (To Hono O'Odam, Aztec, Ojibwe), and, lastly, the coverage of the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The six topics focus on four regions of interest, the United States, Canada, Mexico and the globe. They all deal with moral and justice issues. They are politically tender issues that the media often prefer to ignore. They deal with broad areas of concern, are ongoing, and there is potential for short and long term injury (physical, economic, and environmental). Land and sovereignty are central. They are of national, nation state, and international nature or impact. There is a power inequity between the parties involved.

The first topic deals with a global issue, the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights. It was chosen because it is essential that the people of all nations be aware that the UN approved it in September 2007 and are bound to follow its terms and principles.

The second deals with the Maya Nation of Mexico and one of their organizations, the Zapatistas. They have been campaigning vigorously for political, human, and land rights since the mid 1990s.

Third, the Mohawk land dispute in southern Ontario, Canada, has been going on for over two years. There have been confrontations that have had the potential of resulting in injury and death. The Canadian federal leaders have not yet entered serious negotiations leading to a mutually agreed to settlement.

Fourth, is the Algonquin blockade of the site of a potential uranium mine planned by the Frontenac Corporation in eastern Ontario, Canada that has beginning in the spring of 2007. Being a potential major source of energy and long term pollution that could impact both the United States and Canada, it is of major concern to the peoples of both nation states.

Fifth, the struggle by the Western Shoshone people of Nevada for their land rights has been on going for over fifty years. It too involves uranium mining, the storage of nuclear waste and the residue of the nuclear tests in the 1950s, as well as their claim to millions of acres of land, which the Shoshone have called home for thousands of years.

Sixth, are US border policies since 911 that impacts Indigenous territories and travel rights. The first is the long term flow of temporary workers and immigrants from Mexico exacerbated by the NAFTA agreement between the US and Mexico. The second is the fear of terrorism and terrorists crossing into the United States from Canada and Mexico. Indigenous nations whose territories span those borders are being greatly inconvenienced by new border policies and the potential of a massive fence while the nation states seldom consult them.

The following Rural Media Survey was distributed to the newspapers, radio, and television stations that service a region within sixty miles of Bemidji and Cass Lake, MN. The results of the surveys, interviews with the news directors, and searches of media news service archives are tallied below. These are then compared to unsolicited Internet traffic, which individuals and organizations have sent to Greg Chester about the six major topics in the past six months.

The results of this study show clearly that the commercial news media have largely maintained the non-coverage policy of the 70s and early 80s regarding major Indigenous news events. The Star Tribune carried only one article on each of two major news events. The Pioneer Press did not cover any of the six issues. Indian Country Today also carried one article each on two events. None of the local newspapers, Bemidji Pioneer and Cass Lake Times, including the Ojibwe News and Circle, covered any of the articles.

The five commercial radio stations in the study covered none of the stories. The greater part of the people, both the general population and Indigenous people, listen to these stations. This leads to a major news void.

On the other hand the public radio stations offer the greatest hope for the future. They have made an end run around the commercial media by providing their listeners with the greatest coverage of these topics. They covered more of the topics and did so more frequently and in greater depth. One of the programs carried by KNBJ, As It Happens, produced in Canada aired some of these stories. The local pubic station KNBJ/KCRB covered these topics 27 times in the six months of the study and one of the topics an additional 13 times dating back to 1996. KAXE, which has been on the air for 26 years, covered the topics 20 times via their national news feeds. The public stations covered the stories a total of 47 times. While this is minimal coverage, it is far greater than the others. They have a small but very loyal and thoughtful audience. Many listeners are active, well-educated, and natural leaders in their communities. There is greater hope for the future generations when their children reach adulthood and gain leadership positions.

The regional television station, WCCO, broadcasts evening news from Minneapolis, MN for the Bemidji region. Mike Caputo, of their news department was unable to find any coverage of the six issues in the survey. Public Television, KAWB and KAWE, provided no coverage of the six major stories.

The Internet provided the greatest number of hits in this study, 246. It greatly outnumbered all of the other information sources combined. It also provided a great deal of in depth information to the recipients. While, these stories reached only a small audience in the area, the recipients can, if they wish, forward the messages to others, whether locally or globally.

The Internet is effective in reaching a small audience while Indigenous peoples need to get their messages to hundreds of millions of people. This will require greater access to the news media. Their stories and messages must ultimately reach a larger audience so that the general public can have the knowledge to relate with Indigenous people and act as a check on their leaders.

In a world where nation states and corporations seek more land and resources, many Indigenous communities are facing increasing pressures and a greater need to reach out to others for help. Beginning with the Zapatistas of Mexico in 1990s, extending to the Western Shoshone of the United States, and the Mohawk Nation of Canada in 2007, we are witnessing a revolution in Indigenous communications that will change not only them and their relationships with the surrounding nation states, but possibly change the thinking of the global community wherein many people are hungry for the Indigenous perspective. Open communication may protect their homelands and enable them to survive and provide many benefits to the global community.

When the majority of the people of a nation state are unaware of the existence of their Indigenous neighbors let alone of their legal relationship to the nation state and its people, problems will develop. In addition ignorance of their their needs, values, and aspirations can lead the leaders and other people of nation states to make decisions or act in ways that are harmful to the Indigenous nations. One of the key ways to help avoid these potential injuries is to maintain communications between the peoples of the Indigenous nations and the nation states. But, how can Indigenous leaders do that when the rural media are largely closed to them on major issues?

For quotation purposes:
Greg Chester and A. Neelameghan: Comparing news media in disseminating critical indigenous information to rural communities in the united states: - In: TRANS. Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften. No. 17/2008. WWW: http://www.inst.at/trans/17Nr/8-2/8-2_chester_neela.htm

	Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften	17. Nr.	Februar 2010

Sektion 8.2.	Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Society: Transformations and Challenges Sektionsleiter \| Section Chairs: Adam Fiser (University of Toronto, Canada) and Philipp Budka (University of Vienna, Austria) Dokumentation \| Documentation \| Documentation

KKBJ Talk Radio-Bji	0	0	0	0	0	0
KB101, KBUN, KZY, Z99-Bji	0	0	0	0	0	0
KNBJ, KCRB Public Radio-Bji/St. PaulAs It Happens	2	2	7	1	1	0
All Things Considered	1	8	1	0	3	1
	3	10	8	1	4	1

Bemidji Pioneer	0	0	0
Cass Lake Times	0	0	0
Ojibwe News/Native American Press	0	0	0
Minneapolis Star Tribune	1	1	0
St. Paul Pioneer	0	0	0
Circle	0	0	0
Indian Country Today	1	0	1