Australian News Narrative on Unauthorised Boat Arrivals During Federal Election Campaigns in 1977, 2001 and 2013
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2019
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In recent years an extensive body of media research has accumulated on the representation of immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker (IRAS) debates in western liberal democracies. This research touches on the work of two structuralists, Propp and Levi-Strauss, to suggest that a grand narrative became instrumental in Australian press coverage of IRAS boat arrivals during the federal election campaigns of 1977, 2001 and 2013. It argues that the news narrative of the βboatβ is fundamentally a sequence of cycles between binary elements recurring over time.
This thesis examines ππ©π¦ ππΊπ₯π―π¦πΊ ππ°π³π―πͺπ―π¨ ππ¦π³π’ππ₯, ππ©π¦ ππΆπ΄π΅π³π’ππͺπ’π― π’π―π₯ ππ©π¦ ππ’πͺππΊ ππ¦ππ¦π¨π³π’π±π© to describe the identical functions of the main characters in the βboatβ news narratives. Such narratives define politicians as the main actors and reproduce their voices as they talk about turning back the boats to reduce problems at sea, the countryβs right to choose, the vulnerability of an open nation, and concerns that criminals and non-genuine refugees are getting on the boats. In a thematic analysis, βForeign Relations Threatsβ recurred as the top core theme. This reflects how the Australian Governments at the time of the three elections considered the βboatβ issue an international and regional problem that relied on offshore solutions.
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