Transcript Asylum Seekers, Refugees and the Media - MiM

Asylum Seekers, Refugees
and the Media
By Jackie Beavan
Media strategies
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Use of emotive and
stereotyping language
Negative
representation
Suppression of asylum
seeker voice
Repetition of media
myths
Emotive and stereotyping
language
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Flood
Tide
Swamp
Invasion
Bogus
Illegal
Floods etc.
£2 billion bill for flood of asylum seekers
(Telegraph 1.3.03)
 The human flood we can’t control
(Telegraph 3.9.01)
 A wave of asylum seekers could be settling
in the Bridgend area
(Glamorgan Gazette 21.9.00)
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Negative representation
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Criminal
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Diseased
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Greedy
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Unworthy
Criminal
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Asylum seekers steal the Queen’s birds for
barbecues
(Sun 4.7.03)
“Police swooped on a group of East
Europeans and caught them red-handed
about to cook a pair of royal swans in a
park in Beckton, East London …. Hundreds
of the graceful creatures have been killed”
Criminal
Daily Star
21.8.03
Criminal and greedy!
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"Many of the bogus asylum seekers flooding
into Britain are cheats and criminals. . .Look
at the Nistor family. These Romanian gypsies
have been given a four-bedroom detached
house free, plus £230 a month. . .The decent
English family next door are moving because
the Nistors are too noisy and filthy to endure
any longer."
The Sunday People, March 5, 2000
Diseased
We live in fear of foreigners bringing death to
our land... But... it is not by allowing in
terrorists that the Government's policy of
mass immigration, especially from the Third
World, will claim most lives. It is through
letting in too many germs.'
Mail on Sunday 26.1.03
Asylum seekers spreading AIDS across Britain
Daily Express 6.8.04
Suppression of asylum seeker
voice
Opposing views given centre stage
 Little exploration of asylum seekers’ stories
 Of all articles on refugee/asylum seekers
issues in a Welsh study , only 2% had a
quote from a refugee/AS
(Welcome or over-reaction: Refugees and
asylum seekers in the Welsh media 2001)
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Repetition of media myths
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Britain number 1 magnet
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Asylum seekers as terrorists
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Asylum seekers get more than UK residents
So what’s new?
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"'The way stateless Jews from Germany are
pouring in from every port of this country is
becoming an outrage . . .' In these words,
Mr Herbert Metcalfe, the Old Street
magistrate, yesterday referred to the number
of aliens entering the country through the
'back door' - a problem to which the Daily
Mail has repeatedly pointed."
Daily Mail, August 20, 1938
So what’s new?
The fact has to be recognised
that Christians generally do
not take kindly to the Jewish
race . . . Not a few
Englishmen regard Jews
with a vague unfriendly
toleration not far removed
from dislike. . .and share. .
.the wonder expressed in the
lines 'How Odd of God to
Choose The Jews'."
East Anglian Daily Times,
March 2, 1934