Media and Society Essay -- Communication, Aboriginal People, Othering

Media The media is also responsible for some of the stereotypes that resonate among society about Aboriginal people. Hollywood, news and books are all media resources in which Aboriginal people might be presented in negative ways. For example, in many Hollywood movies, Aboriginal peoples are depicted as savage like or illiterate beings who abuse alcohol and women respectively. They are also overrepresented in terms of poor mothering, substance abuse, and seen as lazy in competent people instead of historical trauma victims. Aboriginal men and women are also criminalised in violence and other oppressive situations. Othering Othering is a term that is used to identify people who are different from the mainstream or majority and contributes to the territorial struggles of domination and subordination. The literature shows that othering is a way of marginalising minorities in the health care system. It is something that nurses can do without realising and can be used to identify one’s self from others. Othering someone makes them different than the norm of society or what is expected of the status quo. Raising awareness about othering is important because it can occur on a daily basis without recognition and often have consequences. Othering affects the broader health care structures and needs to be studied in order for modifications to be implemented. The concept of othering has been used in different schools of thought such as feminism and racism. Othering is a means of looking at the inequality of people. According to Bowes (1993) â€Å"Othering can affect health by creating access barriers: Tho se who have had negative experiences in the health system and those who feel unwelcome are less likely to re-enter the health system ... ...er relationships in nursing service delivery. It is about setting up systems which enable the less powerful to genuinely monitor the attitudes and services of the powerful, to comment with safety and ultimately to create useful and positive change which can only be of benefit to nursing and to people we serve† (Ramsden, 1993 as cited in Polaschek, 1998, p. 453). The point of culturally safe practice is not only for nurses to learn but to also discover why or how premeditated biases are formed and then work to change attitudes. Therefore, once insight in gained on postcolonial and socio political chronicles, attitudes should change. This will help to unravel elements of the underlying issues of what constitutes culturally unsafe care. This should be followed by changing nursing policies in health care settings and broader health care structures (Polaschek, 1998).