How ACA Depicts Asylum Seekers

Channel Nine's A Current Affair is not known for unbiased or balanced reporting, yet they are one of Australia's most watched current affairs programs (ACMA 2012, p.12). To the casual viewer it seems they are vilifying asylum seekers by representing this minority group in a skewed way. I decided to conduct some research to see if this is true, or merely the view of those who don't watch the program.

The focus is upon three stories: Asylum seeker heaven aired on 24th October 2011, Would you house a boat person? aired 3rd May 2012, and Asylum hostel aired 11th Dec 2012. These three episodes have been chosen because they all depict asylum seekers that are being community processed. Through an analysis of the language, imagery, and music used in these stories the essay will demonstrate how A Current Affair makes choices in editing to effect the viewer's opinion and understanding of who asylum seekers are as a group.

Visually, each of these three stories depicts asylum seekers in two main ways: on boats and in detention centres. The table below shows the number of instances for each of these images against instances where asylum seekers are shown out in the community. For the sake of this essay, detention centre images are exterior shots that contain people. Images of detention centres without people and interior shots are not included. Likewise, images of asylum seekers in the community are external only.

Considering that the premise for each report is the standards of community processing, it is unusual how rarely these circumstances are depicted. The recurring images of boats and detention centres work together thematically to depict asylum seekers as criminals. The images of people on boats are seen as the crime, the images of people behind bars or barbed wire fences shows the punishment. This formula is repeated throughout each report: crime, punishment, crime, and punishment. Only Asylum hostel shows asylum seekers in the greater community, but often from a distance and with their faces either blurred or obstructed. When the reporter talks to three asylum seeker men on the street their faces are shown, and it is revealed they are going to the bank. This information works to implicitly reinforce the report's argument that asylum seekers are earning lots of money for doing nothing.

In the few instances where the face of an asylum seeker was shown, they are depicted laughing, smiling, and waving. These images placed in the context of a serious news report, with ominous background music, works to promote the idea that asylum seekers do not find the situation serious, but amusing. This alienates asylum seekers as a group from the reporters and viewers who view the topic as quite austere. Such methods of demarcation in media are known as "othering" (Saxton 2003, McKay et al. 2011) and in this case they work to maintain a break between 'us' Australians, or at least viewers of A Current Affair, and 'them' the asylum seekers. 

In the opening lines to Would you house a boat person? host Tracy Grimshaw states, "she's the proud Aussie mum willing to open her heart, and her home, to asylum seekers. Hilary McVeigh has put her hand up to host refugees" while the story headline uses the term 'boat people'. Here, A Current Affair inappropriately interchanges words leading the viewer to believe that a refugee, boat person, and an asylum seeker are all the same. Terms used across the three reports include: one-time detainees, illegal entries, boat people, refugees, detainees, and asylum seekers. As Peter Mares states of similar media reports, "this failure to distinguish between asylum seekers, refugees, and unauthorised migrants means that all are brushed with the same tar of distrust and illegitimacy and ultimately results in patently nonsensical constructions" (2002, p.73). There has already been much debate and several Press Council adjudications about the language used in media coverage of asylum seekers (Anonymous 2009, p.36, McKay et al. 2011, p.611). This resulted in new advisory guidelines being issued on what language is appropriate when covering asylum seekers (Australian Press Council 2004). It would be difficult to argue that A Current Affair remains unaware of this discourse around language, yet the language used in these reports undoubtedly causes misunderstanding.

Seemingly random members of the public are given ample airtime in each of the reports. Both Asylum hostel and Would you house a boat person? contain vox pops. In Asylum seeker heaven the main interviewee is identified as a neighbour of the detention centre. This interview imbibes many prevalent themes of soft news media as listed by Matthew Baum (2002, p.15) such as "us vs. them", human impact, economic, and injustice. This choice to use a publicly unknown person's opinions as a main source of information within the report suggests that A Current Affair are not intending to inform or educate their viewers. Instead it seems their motives are to have their viewers emote and identify with the interviewee and her opinions. There is no way for the viewer to determine if what the interviewee says is true as she is speaking of personal views and experiences. Furthermore she has no public persona on the line if she is incorrect and is not highly accountable for her statements. 

The most important language of these reports is that which is left out; the voice of asylum seekers. Reporters and interviewees all inform the viewer of the opinions, wants, and intentions of asylum seekers but at no point are asylum seekers themselves given a chance to speak. The closest is in Asylum hostel when the reporter asks a group of people if they are on bridging visas and if they are going to the bank. If a conversation evolved it is edited out. All that is shown is the reporter's question and a brief answer with a quick cut to the next image. As Cottle puts it, "mainstream media are in fact capable of producing representations that give voice to the voiceless and identity to image" (2007, p.34) but in these examples it seems A Current Affair opted out of such a representation. 

The overall message of these reports is to warn viewers of the danger posed by the outsider, the uninvited foreigner. The overwhelming amount of boat people and detention centre images linked with the lack of an asylum seeker voice effectively work together to produce an 'othering' effect that depicts asylum seekers as criminals. The brightly coloured, bold fonts and ominous musical score give the reports a foreboding feel which can emote fear and work to promote the idea of asylum seekers being a threat or danger to the viewer. Through choosing this combination of elements A Current Affair is clearly aiming to reflect a bias and unbalanced viewpoint of this minority group.

References

ACMA 2012, 'Community attitudes to the presentation of factual material and viewpoints in commercial television current affairs programs', full report, <http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311852>

Anonymous 2009, 'Press council ruling on refugees', The Australian, 17 Aug 2009, p.36.

Asylum hostel 2012, A Current Affair [online video], Ninemsn.com.au, 11th December 2012, <http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8578488>

Asylum seeker heaven 2011, A Current Affair [online video], Ninemsn.com.au, 24th October 2011, <http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/investigations/8364756/asylum-seeker-heaven>

Australian Press Council 2004, 'Asylum seekers', 'illegal immigrants' and entry without a visa', Standards of Practice, Advisory Guidelines, 12 Mar 2012, <http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/asylum-seekers/?LocatorGroupID=662&LocatorFormID=677&FromSearch=1>

Baum, M. 2002, 'Sex, lies, and war: how soft news brings foreign policy to the inattentive public', The American Political Science Review, vol.96, no.1, pp.91-109.

Cottle, S. 2007, 'Mediatised recognition and the other', Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, no.123, pp.34-48.

Mares, P. 2002, 'Reporting Australia's asylum seeker "crisis"', Media Asia, vol.29, no.2, pp. 71-76.

McKay, F. Thomas, S. & Blood, R. 2011, 'Any one of these boat people could be a terrorist for all we know!' Media representations and public perceptions of 'boat people' arrivals in Australia, Journalism, vol.12, no. 5, pp.607-626.

Saxton, A. 2003, 'I certainly don't want people like that here': the discursive construction of 'asylum seekers', Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, no.109, pp.109-120.

Would you house a boat person? 2012, A Current Affair [online video], Ninemsn.com.au, 3rd May 2012, <http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article/8461574/would-you-house-a-boat-person>