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Warning: this man kills. She is in her early 20s, Maori, unemployed, and likely to drive an early model on a Waikato highway.
Those were the details reported in a story on the cover of the Waikato Times on April 13, 1999, translating police statistics to describe the “classic Waikato fatal crash driver.”
“The statistics reveal a disturbing trend involving young Maori who, according to the police, have little regard for others on the road,” the story goes.
But a more detailed analysis of the figures showed the opposite of what history reported to readers 20 years ago. Maori were a minority when it came to those involved in accidents, while the employed ranked higher than the unemployed. Readers were also more likely to be hit by a drowsy driver.
Dr. Armon Tamatea, Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato, said the content of the story and its images walk a fine line between “profiling, stereotyping and propaganda.”
“For me, it encompasses all three.”
Tamatea was a clinical psychologist who worked in the court system for a decade before moving to the academy about eight years ago.
He was asked to criticize history as part of Our truth, Tā Mātou Pono, a Things project that investigates his history of racism.
“Clearly the headline is alarmist, the warning is in capital letters saying: This man kills,” said Tamatea.
“These are very heavy and emotional words, although the story is a strip on the side, the fact that it is on the cover shows that it was given serious weight.
“The image itself is a visualization of an ethnic stereotype.
“It has a generic composition of a young Maori being paired with a damaged vehicle, which reinforces that association between Maori and dangerousness, Maori and recklessness, Maori and harm, Maori and harm.”
Supplied
Dr. Armon Tamatea, the media has a role to play in translating complicated reports into balanced stories, stories that readers can understand and trust.
Figures shared in the story said that Maori made up 27.4 percent of Waikato’s population, and young Maori were the drivers in 28.5 percent of fatal accidents.
The story did not say who made up 71.5 percent of the people who drove in fatal accidents.
Tamatea said the statistics gave readers an “incomplete picture.”
“I’m thinking about what’s missing here, for example, it also says that drivers are likely to be unemployed, 24 percent, which means 76 percent are employed, so they would be the riskiest group.
“So that would suggest that this is a minority, in the risk group category, that history is highlighting.”
Tamatea said that at the end of the story was the “critical message” from the police, pointing to driver fatigue as a major factor in fatal car accidents.
“If that was the message that the police wanted to convey, it is actually something you can stand up for without touching on race, gender or social status.
“It’s about human fatigue and awareness, that seems to be what the police argue at the end of the story, a change in driver behavior is needed.
In a correction published on April 15, 1999, the newspaper said the profile of a young Maori as the main offender was incorrect, but even so, unemployed young Maori were overrepresented in fatal car accident statistics.
KELLY HODEL / THINGS
Nanaia Mahuta believes that many of the stories published in the Waikato Times did not balance out during the settlement period in 1995.
Venetia Sherson was editor of the Waikato Times from 1997 to 2003 and after reflecting on the story, he described it as “a surprise.”
“Each of the statistics used was interesting, but putting them together to paint a stereotypical portrait of a Maori man would have been something that would have offended me and a lot of people.
“I don’t remember the story of that day, but I think we can say that it was a police report that boiled down to something that people would understand.
“And what happened was the worst possible representation of that story.”
Sherson had co-written two books in the last three years. One was about domestic violence and the other about homelessness, both of which had a high representation of Maori.
She said that each had illuminated the influence media coverage had on public perceptions and the role the media could play in changing those perceptions.
Sherson used an anecdote about Sam Hogg, a Maori man living homeless in Hamilton, as an example.
When he died in 2018, Sherson asked the Waikato Times write an obituary for him.
“I set up the obituary section when I was an editor, it was for people who had given back to the community.
“Homeless people are considered insignificant, apart from offending the sensibilities of people on the street.
“So a story about Sam was really a significant move to adjust the lens of looking at people, as people, not just us and them.
“Often in the media we talk about Maori MPs, Maori businessmen, Maori rebels, but we tend not to talk about Pākehā as something separate.
“That is still happening and must change.”
Johnson Witehira / Stuff
Stuff apologized to the Maori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa, after an internal audit determined that he had been racist.
Sherson said the challenge for journalists and news curators is to “be disruptive” and not always follow the “old ways” of writing a story.
Think about who is missing from a story, ask the right questions. If you don’t fully understand, ask for an explanation and take time to understand.
“Take this opportunity to do things differently, bring cover stories that might not have been a traditional cover story in the past.”
Sherson applauded the changes Things I was doing through Our Truth, Our Truth.
“This is really thoughtful, about looking at yourself, what you’ve done, where you are now and where you are going, that’s a strategy that everyone can understand.”
