Kyle Hopewell

Paper 1

3/9/17

They Arent Even from Here!: Framing and Agenda Setting Of Refugees in Australia

The number of refugees increases every day due to the conflicts that are taking place in

countries in the Middle East such as Syria and Iraq. With an increase in refugees, countries are

starting to not only alter their refugee policies, but the treatment of these people is worsening as

well. Nations that are taking on the burden of these refugees include The United States, many

nations in Europe, and Australia. With the increasing number of refugees seeking asylum, the

number of news stories and coverage has increased as well. Depending on the nation, the

message in these stories differ. From welcoming these distressed people to questioning whether

these incoming refugees will put the safety of people in jeopardy. Analyzing news coverage and

the frame that is being used makes it easier to see which side of the spectrum these countries fall

on. The country of Australia, a nation that over the past decade has welcomed an increasing

number in refugees of fifteen to twenty thousand, has recently taken a more negative stance on

welcoming these people. Based on the amount of academic research, Australia seems to be the

most discussed and covered due to the extremity of the situation that the refugees are faced with.

Analyzing the framing methods being used by the news and the agenda that is being set by the

government will help to discover why Australia has taken such a staunch stance against refugees

coming into their country.

 This is a photo that shows several refugees coming to Australia on a boat illegally.

Independent Australia, 2012

Before getting into the media of Australia and the image of refugees that is being created

by them, it is essential to understand refugee life in Australia. To start, Australia grants around

13,750 humanitarian visas each year, of which 6000 are for refugees resettled through the United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (Cooper, Lenette, Olejniczak, Smedly,

2016). With approximately 20% of those being Muslim (Zannettino, 2012). To put this in

context, the United States let in nearly 85,000 refugees, but also has a cap of 100,000 per year for

admission to the nation. As for the refugees of Australia, they are sent to one of three islands

outside the countrys main land for processing: the Pacific island nation of Nauru, Christmas

Island and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea (BBC, 2016). On these islands the people are

housed in tents with inadequate hygiene services, food that is often found with bugs in it, and

poor treatment. On top of the issues of health, it is also found that female refugees are being

assaulted at a higher rate due to the lack of language skills to seek assistance, and lack of

knowledge of the country (Zannettino, 2012). The camps are run by the military due to the

government passing Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB). OSB gives the military of Australia

governing powers over the areas where the refugees are processed, which the government of

New Guinea (where one of the sites is located) determined to be illegal, due to the people being

processed in other nations. The issues with Australias refugee laws have gotten so out of hand
that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been urged to investigate the nation (Hamilton,

2017). Other matters being investigated by the ICC include African drug lords and others who

have committed crimes against humanity.

Picture of protestors calling for the closures of the illegal refugee holding sites Manus

and Nauru.

New York Times, 2016.

Now that there is a basic understanding of what refugees go through to enter the nation,

its time to delve into the media. Australia has seen an increase in the number of stories that

report on the discontent of having refugees coming into their country (Cooper et. al, 2015). Over

the past decade, these stories have taken a negative stance on the issue of these displaced people

on a national scale. The people of Australia rely heavily on the national news, and in turn, the

framing that is used by the national news. The coverage of refugees being negative has led to

many people believing that these people are going to be harmful to their well-being. The media

coverage of Iraqi refugees in 2006 lead to them being dehumanized and neglected by those who

lived in the communities in which these refugees were sent (Johnson, Markovic, and Vasey,

2009). An article published by The Daily Telegraph, located in Sydney, Australia covered a
situation in which a refugee was found dead off the side of a cliff and the Muslim refugees held a

peaceful protest over how the situation was handled by the guards on site. The headline of the

article clearly states the papers perspective on the situation; Deportee Crimals on Violent

Rampage. The article written by Daniel Meers, 2015 which states that the island has become a

site for deporting criminal refugees rather than those who show up illegally, however there are

people who arent criminals on the island. The situation described as volatile says that tensions

were high and guards were in a standoff with those in the camp and the employees who werent

extracted for their safety. This article is an example of how the media has framed those who

arent native Australians have been treated and how they are viewed by the national media. Most

of the articles about refugees published in Australia focus on the refugees not focusing on the

fact that they are escaping persecution and death. Using a thematic frame, it allows for the media

to demonize the group rather than allowing the people of Australia to see these refugees as

people who need help.

Political cartoon mocking the treatment of the Refugee Council of Australia and the cut of

government funding which has aided in the situation.

 Simon Kneebone, 2014.

The government of Australia has more control over the media when it comes to what is

published about refugees and the policies that are being used to increase regulations. The

government vets who from the media has access to the public refugee forums; while also having

a hand in what the media is publishing in regards to these forums and on the current state of

asylum-seeking people in Australia. With the government having the say about what is published

on this issue, it makes it difficult for people to truly know what is right or wrong. The

government controlling who is in these meetings, and what is written shows what agenda the

government is trying to set: an anti-refugee agenda. Both levels of agenda setting are being used

in the case of refugee coverage in Australian media. In an article by Yoni Bashan of the Daily

Telegraph in Sydney, Australia; attribute agenda setting is used to describe a man, Farhad Quami,

who came from Afghanistan after his school was bombed by Soviets, killing both his friends and

later his family. By 14 hed already come to the attention of authorities with a bag snatch

attempt on an elderly woman in Parramatta. A spree of armed robberies would follow (Bashan,

2016). The article titled Warlord: One mans journey from refugee to Sydney supervillain

covers the life of Quami, however the article only features the death he experienced in

Afghanistan followed by an analysis of his criminal record. This article is just one example of

how news media in Australia expresses its agenda of being against refugees. Another example of

agenda setting, the dislike of refugees, and more importantly a fear of Islam can be found in the

front-page article Islam Must Change, which can be found in the Melbourne-centered Herald

Sun. The article not only highlights the opinion of Andrew Hastie, a former member of the SAS

(Special Air Service), the premier British Special Forces unit, which has a regiment in Australia.

Hastie was quoted multiple times throughout the article citing his experiences overseas in
Afghanistan in which he was a part of three combat tours. The main issue with this is comparing

refugees to radical Islamic terrorists. But more on that later. At the bottom of the article there are

quotes from average citizens of Australia, ranging from needing to take violent action against the

Muslims to saying that the religion hasnt changed since the Crusades which has led to these acts

of violence. (Whinnet, 2015). Following the article being published, there was an Islamic refugee

by the name Aladdin Sisalem who said that the article was published as a way to combat the

increase in refugees. Sisalem stated that the article cited a hatred against Islam, which in turn

shows a hatred towards all Muslims. Sisalem argued that there is no religion without those to

practice it and this article was being used as a tactic to further the divide between Australian

natives and Islamic refugees (Hall, 2016). The Herald Sun then printed a release saying that they

will not rescind their article and stand by the message they were sending. There were no legal

reproductions that followed a Victorian Civil and Administrative Trial. VCAT holds consumer

claims and acts as an open-forum for disputes.

A content analysis done by a group of scholars focuses on the relationship between the

reporting on refugees done by the national and regional news coverage of refugees.

Despite the dominant national negative framing of refugees and asylum seekers through

ideas of illegitimacy, threat and dehumanization, local newspapers coverage of refugee

and asylum seeker residents tends to be humanizing, focusing on the future, particularly

integration through training and work and emphasizing personal histories. (Cooper et. al,

2015).

The fact that the regional news has tended to show a more positive outlook on these refugees

goes to show that the government has had a hand in developing the stories that are being

published due to the evidence that these newspapers are being read more. (Cooper et. al, 2015).
Picture of protesters in Australia requesting fair treatment of refugees and welcoming them to the

nation that is compiled of mostly immigrants.

Al Jazeera, 2014.

Evidence found in articles published in Australia, and in academic sources researching

the outlook of refugees published in newspapers along with the overall coverage and treatment of

these people proves that framing and agenda setting are being used to manipulate the opinions of

the public. The government influencing the media into reporting negatively when compared to

the regional media outlets has changed the national perception of refugees and has led to

violence and mistreatment of those who were displaced. If there was a way to salvage the

relationship between the refugees and the people of Australia it would have to start with the

media making a stand and reporting more positively as a whole.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28189608

Bashan, Y. (2016, December 3). Warlord: One Man's Journey from Refugee to Sydney

Supervillain. Retrieved March 7, 2017, from

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/special-features/in-depth/refugee-who-became-a-

super-villain/news-story/8cdcd93320d57f62b060a57a3737c7da

Cooper, S., Lennette, C., Olenjniczak, E., & Smedley, C. (2016). Media Coverage of refugees

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david-and-goliath-fight-to-news-corp-20160602-gpa1ag.html

Hamilton, R. (2017, February 23). Australias Refugee Policy Is A Crime Against Humanity.

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policy-may-be-officially-a-crime-against-humanity/

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Meers, D. (2015, November 9). Christmas Island: Deportee criminals on violent rampage.

Retrieved March 8, 2017, from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/christmas-

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Whinnett, E. (2015, November 29). Islam must change: War hero MP Andrew Hastie leads

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