The Representation of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in British newspapers during the Balkan conflict (1999) and the British general election (2005).

KhosraviNik, Majid (2009) The Representation of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in British newspapers during the Balkan conflict (1999) and the British general election (2005). Discourse and Society, 20 (4). pp. 477-498. ISSN 1460-3624

Abstract

This article is a CDA investigation into the representation of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants during two major events: the Balkan conflict in 1999 and the British general election in 2005 as reflected in British newspapers. The article is part of a larger project on the representation of these groups of people between 1996 and 2006 in British newspapers. The study shows that while there are major similarities in the micro-linguistic categories used in representations of these groups in these two periods, e.g. the metaphors, the overall communicated messages are not similar and the macro-structural contexts behind the processes of interpretation of these discourses play a determining role in transferring certain `meanings'. The research also shows that while newspapers have different strategies in their representations due to their political standpoints, in some important ways they all contribute to a similar construction of these people.