'Othered' by the 'Other'

In Robert Ferguson’s chapter, “Otherness, Eurocentrism and the representation of ‘race’ in Representing ‘Race’: Ideology, Identity and the Media, I draw my discussion from a particular quote I agree with. In the reading, Ferguson reviews Mikhail Bakhtin’s work concerning the relationship between the making of meaning and the category of the ‘Other’. From what I have learnt in media, there are three specific types of readings or interpretations of a media message: one, the preferred meaning which is usually embedded in the text by the producers, second, the negotiated meaning and thirdly the oppositional reading in which the preferred meaning is discarded. However, according to Ferguson, “In many debates about representations of ‘race’, the concept of the ‘Other’ is used as a means of imposing rather than negotiating meaning through dialogue. As we shall see, this has meant that the concept of the ‘Other’ has become an ideological signifier of considerable discursive power” (68). In other words, the concept of the ‘Other’ is imposed rather than negotiated. Such concepts are imposed by the dominant culture – white culture. Thus, conceptions of ‘Otherness’ arise due to certain characteristics which differ from the norm. In other words, certain traits of the minority groups – such as blacks or Pacific Islanders and Maori – that are not necessarily resembled in white people result in Othering. It’s not only who is being represented and how they are being represented, but also who are they represented in relation to?
For example, the ‘Z is for New Zealand’ television commercial - campaigning the rebranding of Shell stations all over the country – interestingly addresses issues with ‘Othering’ in the New Zealand (NZ) context. The change in the name or this new brand, in my opinion, is one way used to provide a clearer definition of New Zealand’s sense of national identity. To some extent, NZ can be considered a multicultural nation which I consider to be a very unique attribute of NZ culture and national identity. In the ad, both the minority (Pacific Islanders and Maori) and majority (White NZers) are represented in a positive way. For example, the minority groups are characterised as productive and a significant contributor to the campaigning of the new ‘Zed’ stations. However, there seems to be a negative stereotype of other ethnic groups by the ad. For example, Indians were not represented at all and Asians were represented by a negative stereotype. Arguably, NZ could be considered a very multi-cultural nation which is something I consider to be very unique about NZ. However, in the commercial Asians are portrayed as the enemies to the NZ economy and perhaps pose a threat to the NZ national identity. As a result, the Asians are ‘Othered’ from NZ society in this ad. Thus, replacing one negative stereotype with a more positive stereotype perhaps doesn’t often fix the issue with race, but may lead to another negative stereotype or ‘Othering’ of another minority group – therefore in a sense Asians were Othered by the ‘Other’ in this ad.