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This book sheds light on how the public engage with, make sense of, and discursively evaluate news media constructions of people from asylum seeking backgrounds. As a case study, the author discusses her recent research combining Critical Discourse Analysis with a cultural studies Audience Reception framework to examine the perspectives of 24 Western Australians who took part in semi-structured interviews. During their interviews, participants were asked open-ended questions about: their general views on people seeking asylum, including Australia's policy responses, their media engagement habits and preferences, and their views concerning how the Australian media represents people seeking asylum. The author compares and contrasts this research with broader interdisciplinary discussion, and the book will therefore appeal to students and scholars of migration, political communication, sociology, audience reception, critical media studies and sociolinguistics.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Asylum seekers in the Australian news media: What do we know so far?.- Chapter 3: Concepts, methods, and ethical considerations.- Chapter 4: 'Open the floodgates': Metaphor as a tool for legitimising Australia's 'invasion' panic.- Chapter 5: 'Nation prepares for war': The discursive securitisation of asylum seekers.- Chapter 6: 'Fight against illegals': Constructing asylum seekers through frames of criminality and illegitimacy.- Chapter 7: 'Taxpayers foot the bill': Scapegoating asylum seekers through 'economic migrants' and 'burden' narratives.- Chapter 8: Conclusion.
About the author
Ashleigh Haw is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
