ABSTRACT

Despite its long history of resettling refugees, Australia's acceptance of asylum seekers continues to attract considerable debate and division. This is exacerbated by news coverage that constructs people seeking asylum along a “threat” versus “victim” binary. As most Australians lack direct experience with people from asylum seeking backgrounds, media discourse plays a pivotal role in societal understandings of the issue. This paper discusses research combining Critical Discourse Analysis with a cultural studies Audience Reception epistemology to examine how 24 Western Australians respond to news representations of asylum seekers. Participants drew upon their own perspectives when discussing Australian coverage, highlighting the importance of accounting for audiences' ideological positioning when examining their perspectives on news discourse. While some accepted dominant constructions of asylum seekers as a “threat” and argued that the “victim” narrative is emotionally manipulative, others rejected both tropes, positing that the former legitimises asylum seekers' exclusion while the latter portrays them as deficient and agentless. These findings are discussed with consideration of their implications - in both a practice and scholarly context—demonstrating the value of applying critical discourse methods in audience reception research.

摘要

尽管澳大利亚在重新安置难民方面有着悠久的历史，但澳大利亚对寻求庇护者的接纳继续引起相当大的争论和分歧。新闻报道加剧了这种情况，新闻报道将人们按照“威胁”与“受害者”二元对立来寻求庇护。由于大多数澳大利亚人缺乏与来自寻求庇护背景的人打交道的直接经验，因此媒体话语在社会对该问题的理解中发挥着关键作用。本文讨论了将批判性话语分析与文化研究受众接受认识论相结合的研究，以检验 24 名西澳大利亚人如何回应寻求庇护者的新闻陈述。与会者在讨论澳大利亚的报道时借鉴了自己的观点，强调了考虑观众的重要性 在检查他们对新闻话语的观点时的意识形态定位。虽然一些人认为寻求庇护者的主导结构是一种“威胁”，并认为“受害者”的叙述在情感上具有操纵性，但其他人则反对这两种比喻，认为前者使寻求庇护者的排斥合法化，而后者将他们描绘成有缺陷和无能为力的人。讨论这些发现时考虑了它们在实践和学术背景下的影响，证明了在受众接受研究中应用批判性话语方法的价值。排斥而后者将他们描绘成有缺陷和无能为力的人。讨论这些发现时考虑了它们在实践和学术背景下的影响，证明了在受众接受研究中应用批判性话语方法的价值。排斥而后者将他们描绘成有缺陷和无能为力的人。讨论这些发现时考虑了它们在实践和学术背景下的影响，证明了在受众接受研究中应用批判性话语方法的价值。