Balancing the quotidian and the political : beyond empathy in Australian multi-platform refugee narratives

This chapter takes as its premise the assumption that in order to effect wider socio-political change on the perception of refugee-related issues in Australia, we need to study existing narratives. Examining such portrayals and viewers’ engagement with them is important because in the absence of wider community interactions with recent refugee arrivals, public opinion on refugee-related issues is largely reliant on impressions gleaned from the media (Wright 2008, 99). There has been considerable discussion in the public domain about strategies of dehumanizing refugees and limiting journalists’ attempts to individualise them, as a means of managing public perception. According to a speech delivered by Paul Power, CEO of the Refugee Council of Australia in 2010, challenging negative media coverage of refugees and acknowledging positive representations are both keys to building accountability and community engagement (2010). It appears that there is an assumption that links media representation with public perception on this issue, and that this assumption has become part of the politics of the way the crisis is playing out in Australia and elsewhere. Therefore, there is a genuine point to examining precisely how media narratives, especially in a cross-platform environment, generate public attitudes to refugees. This is crucial not just for policy-makers and scholars, but also for communicators (including journalists, filmmakers, and film curators and exhibitors) and the wider public.