The media’s coverage of ‘Closing the Gap’ in Australian education

Article

Heffernan, Troy A. and Maxwell, Jacinta. 2020. "The media’s coverage of ‘Closing the Gap’ in Australian education." Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education. 41 (6), pp. 926-939. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2019.1592365
Article Title

The media’s coverage of ‘Closing the Gap’ in Australian education

ERA Journal ID34674
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsHeffernan, Troy A. (Author) and Maxwell, Jacinta (Author)
Journal TitleDiscourse: studies in the cultural politics of education
Journal Citation41 (6), pp. 926-939
Year2020
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
ISSN0159-6306
1469-3739
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2019.1592365
Web Address (URL)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2019.1592365
Abstract

Since 2007, ‘Closing the Gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people has been an ambition of Australian state and federal governments in areas including education, employment, and health. This paper examines media responses to government policies aimed at closing the achievement gap in schools. The paper analyses print and online newspaper articles in national and capital city/state-based newspapers that reported on the implementation and success of Closing the Gap policies in Australia’s schools. The paper argues that media narratives are often based on NAPLAN results, data sourced from the MySchool website, or newspaper-created metrics that support their own narrative. This paper highlights the narratives being purported to readers via the selective nature of newspaper data, and subsequently how these narratives attempt to influence the public discourse.

KeywordsClosing the gap, MySchool, NAPLAN, media, Australia, media text analysis
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020470107. Media studies
390499. Specialist studies in education not elsewhere classified
390402. Education assessment and evaluation
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Byline AffiliationsFaculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts
School of Linguistics, Adult and Specialist Education
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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