Research into Individuals of African Heritage in Australia

Abstract

In pursuing research that aims to capture how media representations facilitate ideologies, how individuals consume these representations, and the role these representations play on the formation of particular identities, requires research that is inclusive of the observed group. As well as how the group perceives and utilizes these aspects as part of their everyday lives. The core themes of this book are in the research of media representations, media consumption and identity production and regulation. These four themes can be regarded as a sequential chain of events or moments. As stated in the introductory chapters, the core emphasis of this research is obtaining first hand perspectives of how the dominant discourse surrounding Africans in Australia impacts their private and public selves. It is therefore pivotal to breakdown this dense analysis into sections that would prove useful in the analysis of such cultural phenomena. The first point of call would be analyzing how Africans are represented in Australian media. What dominant cultural narratives are present in these representations? What space is afforded to this migrant group? What sort of societal perceptions and expectations are presented to the audience? Conversely, how do the African immigrants consume the media and representations of themselves? This type of analysis will form a more integrative study that presents the participants as the main focus of the study. The research seeks to provide new knowledge on how immigrants create and negotiate diasporic identities, how these are influenced by their representation in the media as well as how they are perceived socially.