Representation of children asylum seekers in Australian media
In reading the two news articles ‘Greens leader visits Pontville Detention Centre’ (Tasmanian Times, 2013) and ‘School children band together to send a message of welcome to asylum seekers (The Mercury 2013) the Australian media misrepresent children asylum seekers. Through a range of language features, texts in the media that are supposed to inform tend to create a narrow representation of their harsh reality and position readers to value equality for children.
In one news article ‘Greens leader visits Pontville Detention Centre’ (Tasmanian Times, 2013), language has been used to persuade readers to be against asylum seekers. The text shows readers that children in detention facilities are being under privileged in the media because they give society and authorities the impression that they are not welcome in our country. This writing places readers to value equality for innocent children in detention facilities, and shows that Australian media choose to ignore children immigrants in a professional aspect because their status isn’t seen highly in society and assume readers won’t want to hear about it.
A different news article from The Mercury, ‘School children band together to send message of welcome to asylum seekers’ (The Mercury, 2013) also puts forward a similar message as ‘Greens leader visits Pontville Detention Centre’. The representation of young asylum seekers in Australian media is that they don’t get the same chance of life as others do outside of detention centres. This article shows a school raising money to buy dictionaries for the children in Pontville so they can have an equal chance at receiving an education. The article quotes that year 6 students from St Mary’s in Hobart “displayed signs reading welcome in different languages” to the young migrants. This shows readers that children and schools are ready to welcome asylum seekers into our state and education system but people in the media represent them as vulnerable people.
The use of language in both news articles show readers that the media represent children as people who are not supposed to be in Australia and therefore shouldn’t receive the same things others outside detentions do. The lack of equality that is given in these texts shows that children asylum seekers in the media are generally represented as inferior to others in society outside of detention facilities.
References:
Tasmanian Times (2013) ‘Greens leader visits Pontville Detention Centre’ (online). Available from http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/pr-article/greens-leader-visits-pontville-detention-centre/
The Mercury (2013) ‘school children band together to send a message of welcome to asylum seekers’ (online). Available from http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/school-children-band-together-to-send-message-of-welcome-to-asylum-seekers/story-fnj4f7k1-1226709315196
Great blog post! The issue of Asylum Seekers in Australia is a often debated topic. The media often portray Asylum seekers as invasive, and position the viewer to represent a narrow image of people who intrude our country, and do nothing but cause a negative impact. For me personally, it outrages me that Australia can be a country that boasts on it’s diverse culture, yet accuse people from other countries that seek refuge on our land to be ‘intruding’. According to Cambridge Dictionary Online (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/asylum-seeker), Asylum Seekers are defined as; ‘someone who leaves their own country for their safety, often for political reasons or because of war, and who travels to another country hoping that the government will protect them and allow them to live there’. This definition is not always known by the Australian public, as they are often misinterpreted with the use of media headlines and hyperbole used in texts to add entertaining value to the piece. I personally believe that the public deserves to know and understand the true meaning of Asylum Seekers so that they can no longer be looked down upon, for simply wanting a better life.