Rubbing Salt in the Wounds - A study of media, power and immigration

Master's Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Social Work, grade: 1,3, Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin AS, language: English, abstract: Abstract
This thesis involves a multi-disciplinary study of the relationship between media, power and immigration in the UK. The initial goal is to establish the major themes and issues that should potentially play strong roles in the mass media reportage of asylum and immigration. This is achieved through an analysis of the UK's refugee intake compared to other countries in the world, the demographic effect of immigration in the UK and the situations in the major refugee sending countries. A historical research into both the domestic immigration policies of UK politicians and the contemporary strategies of
globalisation is used to ascertain the very different themes and issues of asylum and immigration that reflect the agenda of the UK political elite. Using Herman and Chomsky's US "Propaganda Model" as a theoretical template, the UK's mass media is structurally analysed to ascertain its potential subservience to domestic elite interests.
Having discovered that fundamental institutional similarities exist between the US and the UK media, a content analysis is performed on three British newspapers to test the predictions of Herman and Chomsky's media model. The results of this case study reveal strongly that asylum/immigration themes useful to the UK political elites are highly visible despite their lack of statistical relevance, whereas fundamental issues damaging to this group are minimised or ignored. This work therefore concludes that the UK mainstream media is flawed as a conduit of information concerning asylum and immigration issues due to its lack of structural independence from the agenda of the political elite. The thesis closes with an overview of organisations attempting to challenge these flaws.