English / Media Studies • Years 10-13 • Ready to teach

Media Literacy: Analysing Māori Representation

Help ākonga critique how Māori are represented in news, film, television, advertising, and online media, then build responses that value mana, authenticity, and responsible storytelling in Aotearoa.

Teaching use

Media literacy lesson, English critical response, or senior social inquiry discussion starter.

Best for

Years 10-13 English, Media Studies, Social Sciences, and critical literacy contexts.

Prep level

Low to medium. The core lesson is here already; you can optionally swap in a current local media text.

Next step

Adapt the discussion guide in Te Wānanga, then save your class version for reuse in My Kete.

Use this lesson as a starting point

This page is free to teach as-is. If you want a class-specific worksheet, a debate version, or a more senior analytical writing task, Te Wānanga can adapt the lesson while keeping the Māori representation lens explicit and classroom-ready.

  • Swap in a local news story, film clip, ad, or social media example.
  • Turn the discussion into an essay, speech, seminar, or panel task.
  • Save different year-level versions in My Kete for future teaching.
Adapt this in Te Wānanga Open My Kete Compare paid workflow options

Teacher planning snapshot

  • Duration: 2 to 3 lessons of 50 to 60 minutes, depending on whether students complete a written response.
  • Grouping: Whole-class framing, small-group analysis, then independent or paired response writing.
  • Prep: Choose one media text to anchor the lesson or use the teacher prompts below to let students compare multiple texts.
  • Pedagogy: Move from noticing representation patterns to interrogating power, audience, and voice. Keep the lens on who gets to speak and who is being spoken about.
🕒 Flexible 2-3 lesson sequence 👥 Discussion + analysis + response writing

Resources provided here

  • Core analysis questions for any selected media text
  • Discussion protocol and group role prompts
  • Response scaffold for paragraph, article, or speech writing
  • Assessment rubric and quick peer-check tool
  • Linked curriculum companion page for planning and reporting

If the lesson refers to a discussion frame, response scaffold, or criteria, it is included on the page so kaiako can use the lesson immediately.

Ngā Whāinga Ako / Learning Intentions

  • We are learning to analyse how Māori are represented in different media texts.
  • We are learning to identify stereotypes, omissions, and power relationships in media messages.
  • We are learning to create a critical response that values authenticity, mana, and responsible storytelling.

Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria

  • I can explain how a media text positions Māori people, stories, or perspectives.
  • I can support my analysis with details from the chosen text.
  • I can suggest how representation could be made more accurate, fair, or culturally grounded.

Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment

This lesson should be taught with curriculum links made explicit. Use the companion curriculum page to identify where the lesson supports English, Media Studies-style analysis, and critical citizenship work in Te Mataiaho.

📚 English 🎥 Media analysis 🤝 Identity, culture, and power
Open curriculum companion Explore wider curriculum coverage

Why Māori representation matters

Media does not simply reflect the world; it helps shape the stories people believe about who holds power, who is visible, and whose voice counts. In Aotearoa, that means media representation of Māori cannot be treated as neutral. It connects to histories of colonisation, stereotyping, resistance, and cultural resurgence.

This lesson helps ākonga ask sharper questions: Who made this text? Who benefits from the way Māori are shown? Whose worldview is centred? What would more responsible and mana-enhancing representation look like?

Core analysis questions

  • Who created this media text, and whose perspective is centred?
  • What words, images, music, or editing choices shape the audience response?
  • Are Māori people represented as full, complex people or reduced to a stereotype or symbol?
  • Whose authority is recognised: Māori voice, institutional voice, or outside interpretation?
  • What is missing from the story that would change how we understand it?

Suggested lesson sequence

  1. Hook: Show or describe a chosen media text and ask students to note their first impressions of who is centred and why.
  2. Unpack representation: Introduce the idea that media constructs meaning and can reinforce or challenge dominant stories.
  3. Small-group analysis: Students use the analysis frame below on one or more texts.
  4. Share and compare: Groups report patterns they noticed across language, imagery, perspective, and power.
  5. Critical response: Students write or present a response recommending how the text could represent Māori more responsibly.

Discussion protocol

Group roles

  • Text analyst: identifies the exact media evidence.
  • Perspective checker: asks whose voice is present or missing.
  • Cultural lens keeper: considers mana, fairness, and context.
  • Reporter: shares the group’s conclusions with the class.

Ready-to-use response frame

  1. Name the text and explain where it came from.
  2. Describe how Māori people, stories, or imagery are represented.
  3. Use at least two pieces of evidence from the text.
  4. Explain what is problematic, powerful, or incomplete about the representation.
  5. Suggest one way the text could be improved or reframed.

Assessment and feedback

Task: Produce a short critical response, article, speech, or slide commentary evaluating one media text’s representation of Māori and recommending how it could be improved.

Criteria Achieved Merit Excellence
Text analysis Identifies some relevant features of the text. Uses clear evidence to explain how representation works. Shows nuanced, well-supported analysis of representation and power.
Cultural and ethical understanding Recognises basic issues of fairness or stereotype. Explains why representation matters in an Aotearoa context. Engages deeply with cultural context, mana, and responsible storytelling.
Response quality Gives a clear opinion. Offers a thoughtful recommendation for improvement. Presents a compelling, well-argued response with practical insight.

Quick peer-check tool

  • The response names a clear media text and context.
  • The analysis uses evidence, not only opinion.
  • The response explains why the representation matters.
  • The recommendation is realistic and culturally aware.

Teach this tomorrow

  • Choose one media text to anchor the lesson and have it ready to display, read, or describe.
  • Print or share the core analysis questions and response frame from this page.
  • Decide whether students will analyse one shared text or compare two texts in groups.
  • Set group roles before the lesson starts so discussion time is spent on analysis, not organisation.

The lesson does not require a bespoke worksheet to work tomorrow. If you can show one text and give students access to the questions and scaffold already on this page, you can run the core sequence immediately.

By the end of lesson one...

  • Students can identify who is centred and who is marginalised in the chosen media text.
  • Each group has gathered concrete evidence about representation, power, and omission.
  • You know which students are ready to write independently and which need another modelled example.
  • The class is set up for a written, oral, or visual critical response in the next session.

Teacher notes and next steps

Use your chosen media text carefully. It should be strong enough to analyse but not so harmful that it retraumatises students or normalises racist framing. Where possible, balance critique with texts that model more authentic Māori voice or authorship.

This lesson leads naturally into units on argument writing, audience and purpose, documentary analysis, political communication, or social justice media campaigns.

Tautoko / Support

  • Use a shorter shared text and complete one section of the frame together first.
  • Provide sentence starters for identifying stereotype, omission, and recommendation.
  • Allow oral discussion notes before students begin writing independently.

Whakawhānui / Extend

  • Compare two texts from different genres or decades.
  • Ask students to rewrite or storyboard a more responsible version of the text.
  • Extend into research on Māori media creators and alternative storytelling models.

Whānau connection

Invite students to discuss with whānau how Māori stories or identities are represented in the media they consume at home. This can help widen the lesson beyond one classroom text and connect critique to everyday media life.

Ready to localise the media text?

Keep the critical lens, but change the source text, response format, or year level for your own class. Te Wānanga and Creation Studio can turn this into a class-specific analysis lesson quickly.

Create a class-specific version Open Creation Studio

🌍 Inclusion & Accessibility

ELL / ESOL support: Pre-teach key vocabulary before the lesson. Provide bilingual glossaries where available. Allow responses in home language as a first step.

Neurodiverse learners: Chunk instructions clearly. Offer choice in how students demonstrate understanding. Use visual supports and structured templates.

Scaffold & extension: Offer scaffold tasks and entry-level supports for students who need them. Extend capable learners with open-ended extension challenges.

🌿 Mātauranga Māori Lens

Te ao Māori frameworks enrich this learning. Whakapapa (relationships and connections), manaakitanga (caring for learners), and tikanga (protocols for learning together) all have relevance to how we approach this content with our ākonga.

Curriculum alignment