[ecrea] New Glasgow Media Group book on media coverage of refugees

The Glasgow Media Group’s latest book, "Bad News for Refugees" 
(http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745334325&;), by Greg Philo, 
Emma Briant and Pauline Donald is a political, economic and 
environmental look at how migrants have been stigmatised in political 
rhetoric and media coverage.


“This is an enormously important book that documents with meticulous 
scholarship the way in which immigrants have been stigmatised by the 
British media. It offers a compelling analysis of what is omitted from 
media accounts, which voices are left unheard, how simplifications and 
stereotypes are generated, and the consequences of this prejudiced 
reporting for immigrant communities who feel themselves to be under 
constant attack.”

Professor James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London


Greg Philo was recently featured in the Guardian, writing about the 
government’s attempt at tackling illegal immigrants with its ‘go home or 
face arrest’ van. He poses us two questions about the matter: “Why are 
the vans crowd-pleasers in the first place? Why is there such hostility 
to illegal immigrants?”


One of several answers: the media.


‘Here, the media is at least partially to blame. Coverage of migration, 
asylum and refugees is often partial, inaccurate and hysterical – as in 
the tone of this headline from the Daily Express: “UK message to 
migrants: you are not wanted” (6 June 2011). Governments do not simply 
respond to such coverage, they also promote it. In 2008, it was reported 
that the Home Office had paid £400,000 to fund the series UK Border 
Force for Sky television.’


He goes on to talk about some startling confessions from anonymous 
journalists:


‘The overwhelming thrust of media coverage, especially in the 
conservative press, has been negative and jumbles together migrants and 
asylum seekers who have the legal right to claim asylum. A journalist 
from the Daily Star described to us these news values: “There is nothing 
better than the Muslim asylum seeker, that’s sort of jackpot I suppose: 
all social ills can be traced to immigrants and asylum seekers flooding 
into this country.” Another from a broadsheet described how young, 
inexperienced reporters would be pressured “to put their conscience 
aside and go and monster an asylum seeker”. The resulting coverage 
becomes part of the everyday language of our society, and when we asked 
our focus group members to think up typical headlines, they readily 
provided us with examples such as “Migrants, how can we cope?”, “Britain 
getting flooded”, “Britain being invaded”, “Free homes”, “Crime rate 
increases: asylum”.’


You can read the article at its original source 
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/08/media-immigrant-go-home-van

He also wrote this letter in the Guardian (13 August) explaining the 
social and economic dynamics which underpin the key movements of people, 
wealth and capital in our world:


‘Two stories illustrate central dynamics of our time – the climate of 
fear generated around migration and the rise in house prices ('Go home' 
campaign denounced by human rights groups, buy to let fuels property 
boom - 
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/aug/09/buy-to-let-house-price-boom-mortgages, 
both 9 August).


The house price rise, especially in London, is caused partly by the 
international movement of money as the wealthy seek to capitalise on 
speculative investment. At the same time those with access to money can 
borrow more and invest in buy-to-let properties, to profit from those 
who must rent. So this system works to move capital to where it will 
make more and to divide those who have it from those who don't. Wealth 
accumulates in fewer hands and and its movement produces rapid, uneven 
developments.


Writ large, that is the story of our world, and the free flow of capital 
is followed inevitably by the flow of labour, as people move from areas 
of forced decline to wherever there is a prospect of work. Employers 
benefit from cheaper labour but the migrants are blamed for displacing 
unskilled workers and competing for scarce resources in housing and health.


To reverse these processes requires economic planning and wealth taxes 
to put accumulated private capital back towards social use; in the UK 
the £4.5 trillion owned by the top 10% could pay off the national debt 
four times or finance re-skilling, infrastructure, green technology and 
much else. It also requires politicians and media to stop blaming the 
migrants, refugees and other victims of the system, and to look instead 
at how to rebuild our world so it is more use to all who have to live in 
it.’

The conclusion which the Group reaches is:


‘In the end the combination of hostile media coverage and “tough” 
government policies is counterproductive. They produce fear, attacks 
upon individuals, depression, anxiety and suicide. Refugees are driven 
underground, and there is little room for serious discussion about the 
huge benefits that migration has actually brought to our country. In the 
redress of such issues, press regulation might help. But the problem is 
deeper in that there is a complex interaction between media accounts, 
government actions and public attitudes. We must go beyond simply 
criticising such coverage and argue for a humane and rational approach 
to the issues of migration, refuge and asylum. We must demand accuracy 
and balance in media reporting, but also humanity in public life and 
political policy and the right of the stigmatised and excluded to be heard’



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