Racialized othering : The representation of asylum seekers in news media. O. Guedes Bailey and R. Harindranath Lesson Focus: How do these authors use external sources to build and support their argument? These are the authors research questions: How does journalistic practice contribute to a process of othering of refugees and asylum seekers? What role do the labels such as illegal and bogus play in the politics of immigration control? What are the challenges confronting journalists reporting on asylum seekers in the context of globalization? Structuring a text and building an argument. 1. Look carefully at the organizational structure of the chapter. What are the different parts of the article and what purpose do they serve? Draw a text map. 2. In which section(s) of the chapter, do you find the most references to external sources? 3. What purpose do the authors have for citing an external source? Focus on the references to van Dijk (2000). First, identify the section the reference occurs in. Second, propose a purpose for the authors use of this reference.
Introduction Example of reporting of the Tampa incident in the Australian press. Paradox of poruous borders for globalization of culture, but increased immigration control restricting the mobility of some groups of people. Background How news discourse frames asylum seekers. Defining the term othering. How the news media create an us vs. them mentality. The study and discussion of the study. An analysis of the representation of asylum seekers and refugees in BBC and Channel Four news programs. Conclusion. Journalistic practice needs to reorient its discourse to better take account of the new relationship between the national and the global.
Van Dijk (2000) references 1. (p. 279) Defining a term. With regard to research on television news and asylum seekers, most studies demonstrate the persistence of stereotypes similar to those in the press (Hartmann and Husband 1974; Gordon and Rosenberg 1989: Van Dijk 1991, 2000). Stating a truism or general consensus in the field or topic area and supporting that with reference to the literature. 2. (p. 280) Reporting the study. This research [the author s study reported in the preceding paragraph) suggests that news about refugees is often limited to few events: social problems (housing, employment. welfare); political opinions (politicians commenting on new policies or suggesting solutions); government policy (new laws restricting asylum seekers access); cultural difference (mostly in terms of deviance and criminality): public perception (in general based on misconceptions of welfare support for asylum seekers and refugees and incidents of violence. This list confirms the findings of Van Dijk's (2000) discursive analysis of British newspapers representation of asylum seekers. Overall, one could argue that the conclusions drawn by these studies suggests that there is an 'inferential racism'; at work in the news representation of asylum seekers which can be seen as a form of 'sanitized' racist discourse. Linking your study to the work of another scholar in the field. 3. (p. 282) Discussing the study. The `othering' at the beginning of the news story, along with the term `bogus', however, combine to racially criminalize a group of individuals, while `weaponry' and 'armoury' invoke associations with the guarding of national space from foreign invasion.
This both confirms Saxton's (2003) argument, and supports findings by other studies on television representations of immigrants (Philo and Beanie 1999; Van Dijk 2000), which point out alarming similarities in the ways the media, in the last decade or so, have been `manufacturing' news on immigrants. Strengthening your findings by demonstrating that they build upon the arguments of others. 4. (p. 283) Conclusion. Studies such as Van Dijk (2000) and Saxton (2003) suggest that, despite the coverage of a range of events, both local and international, before and after the events of 11 September 2001, the portrayal of `asylum seekers' is remarkably consistent. Rather than be presented as people who are trying to escape threat, they are, in most cases, represented as the threat. It is a representation based on fear of 'them' as a threat to `our' national security and ways of life. The persistence of such divisive frames contributes to racialized `wedge' politics and to the justification of policies that approve or deny entry into countries on the basis of narrowly defined `national interests'. Introducing a point made by other scholars in order to use it to build your own point.
A Warm Welcome? Scottish and UK media reporting of an asylum-seeker murder. C. Coole. Lesson Focus: Summarizing with a purpose Mollard, C. (2001). Asylum: The truth behind the headlines, UK Poverty Programme of Oxfam GB. Oxford: Oxfam. This is a 19-page report on a study of the quality of press coverage on asylum in Scotland. It is obvious source for Coole who s article reports on press coverage of a specific asylumrelated incident in Scotland. How did Coole use this source? 1. Where is this reference located in the article? 2. What is the overall purpose of this section of the article? 3. What comes before this reference? 4. What comes after? 5. Most of the summary is in Coole s own words, but one section is a direct quote? Why do you think Coole chose to quote this particular section? 6. List the reporting verbs Coole uses in her summary? 7. Is there much variation in their meaning? Why do you think this is so? 8. How does choice of reporting verb reflect the cited author s voice? Mollard (2001) references in Coole s article. pp. 841-842 Conclusions from Mollard s (2001) analysis of Scottish media reporting on asylum seekers showed that the majority of press coverage was negative, or even hostile towards their presence in Scotland. The report states that many articles developed myths surrounding asylum seekers, based on false assumptions about their negative impact on Scottish society (Mollard, 2001: 9). Mollard (2001: 16) claims that the media would then justify and
legitimize these viewpoints by printing readers letters expressing similar opinions on the issue. The key themes that underpinned the framing of the asylum story included: Only a tiny proportion of refugees are genuine, and the rest are ineligible for asylum. Asylum seekers get huge state handouts. Asylum seekers take jobs from local people. Asylum seekers are taking our housing leaving locals homeless. Some asylum seekers are more deserving of support than others. The report concluded:... in the period covered by this report, much treatment of asylum issues in Scotland has been characterised by the use of myths and overtly negative language, the dehumanisation of asylum seekers, racial stereotyping, marginalization of asylum seekers and asylum supporters, and ill-informed journalism. Negative press coverage has been exacerbated by a lack of commitment by the UK government, the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Parliament, and local government to presenting positive information and challenging myths about asylum seekers. (Mollard, 2001: 26) Crucially, this negative press coverage helped shape public attitudes towards asylum seekers. It created a negative climate of opinion in Scotland towards asylum seekers before any had even arrived. This was something none of the newspapers would acknowledge when community tensions came to a head with the murder of Firsat Dag in Sighthill.