| Abstrakt: |
Scholarly work on representations of asylum seekers has tended to focus on highly negative portrayals. Scholars have noted that the mainstream media rarely focus on either the previous circumstances or the welfare of asylum seekers; rather the focus tends to be on the threat asylum seekers, as cultural others, pose to 'us' and/or our generosity in accepting 'them'. For both practical and ideological reasons, asylum seekers or detainees are usually a blank page on which are inscribed the preconceptions and attitudes of various domestic political and civil actors, including journalists and readers/viewers. This paper examines the coverage of the 2014 riots on Manus Island and the murder of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati in two newspapers: The Sydney Morning Herald (a Fairfax Media publication) and The Australian (News Corp Australia). We conclude from this admittedly limited study that the approach undertaken does not always inherently vilify asylum seekers - the 'other'. While themes of Othering, cultural/national identities and racism influence media depictions of asylum seekers, in this instance, depictions of asylum seekers may be more positive, but we note that a representation of asylum seekers as 'victims' may be accompanied by the demonisation of other Others, in this case the residents of Papua New Guinea and Manus Island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
