Smuggling Zebras for Lunch: Media framing of asylum seekers in the Irish print media.

Abstract

In this paper we offer a critical account of Irish print media coverage of recent immigration. Using data from the year 2002 we consider how both broadsheet and tabloid print media have sought to explain the issues surrounding asylum seekers. Our analysis suggests that five key media frames are in evidence within Irish media discourse. Asylum seekers are represented as ‘‘an economic threat’’; ‘‘a threat to national and local integrity’; ‘a criminal element’; ‘a contaminant’ and as ‘illegal aliens’. This analysis of media constructions of asylum seekers is presented in the context of our interest in the media’s role in the formation of public opinion and the growing levels of racism in Irish society.