Representations of Pasifika New Zealanders in Reality Television: A Police Ten 7 Case Study

Abstract

This research was conducted to better understand the implications of negative portrayals in the media of Brown – in this case, Pasifika or Māori – communities. Its premise is to analyse how fraught relationships between police and Brown New Zealanders are portrayed in the reality crime-based tv show Police Ten 7 and what the implications are of those depictions. It looks at how Pasifika and Māori were treated in the production of a reality-television police show, though as a Pasifika researcher I concentrate on those implications for Pasifika communities.

Six episodes from Police Ten 7 were qualitatively reviewed and a thematic analysis was conducted to contextualise the data. These episodes were chosen purposively to create context and to examine changes, if any, in the show with the introduction of a Brown host. My findings are informed, framed and supported by the critical race theory.

As existing research indicated, Māori and Pasifika people were featured frequently on the show. My findings reiterate this notion; not only were they featured more, they were also portrayed as incompetent, lazy and easily exploited. South Auckland, home to large Brown communities, was depicted in these episodes as a hostile and damaging community for its prevalence of street crime. The episodes disproportionately targeted South Auckland as a hotbed of crime. The research found deploying a Pasifika police officer as host did make a difference, but it was much too late and elements of the show continued to carry negative connotations of Brown communities understood through visual and verbal cues.