Arabic-speaking young people, the police and the media

Michael Kennedy

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

Abstract

At roughly the same time as Jenny Brockie's (1992) documentary, Cop it Sweet, was produced and aired on ABC TV, the Blackburn Royal Commission and an investigation into the murder of Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester was also taking place. In each of theses cases ethnic prejudice is involved - albeit from different directions. Ethnic prjudice, in fact, dominated proceedings, from the media's account to the way in which the general public came to perceive the issues. The media prejudice against minority groups has already been examined in this book in Scott Poynting's Ethnicising criminality and criminalising ethnicity and will also be examined again in Fernando de Freitas' Changing images: Bankstown Youth Media Project, Antonio Castillo & Martin Hirst's Look both ways and Tanja Dreher's Cabramatta news talk. However, what I want to consider here is the way in which journalists often interact closely with the centralised power base of the criminal justice hierarchy and how this can have a large influence both on the public perception of minority groups and, indeed on, criminal justice itself. I want to consider in particular how the gap between the management at the top and the workers at the bottom of the hierarchical structure in the police service, combined with the top-down policy process in the criminal justice system as well as the discriminatory complaints process both internally and externally in the police service, has a ripple effect which frustrates and marginalises both the police on the beat and their young Arabic-speaking 'adversaries' as part of the same process.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Other Sydney: Communities, Identities and Inequalities in Western Sydney
EditorsJock Collins, Scott Poynting
Place of PublicationAltona, Vic.
PublisherCommon Ground Publishing
Pages79-105
Number of pages27
ISBN (Print)1863350179
Publication statusPublished - 2000

Keywords

  • mass media
  • public opinion
  • mass media and criminal justice
  • minorities
  • police

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