The Historical Perspective of Immigrant Families: How They Are Currently Politicized and Its Impact

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Historical Perspective of Immigrant Families: How They Are Currently Politicized and Its Impact The Historical Perspective Of Immigrant Families: How They Are Currently Politicized And Its Impact Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Larsen, Lauren Elisabeth Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 16:50:45 Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/632727 THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES: HOW THEY ARE CURRENTLY POLITICIZED AND ITS IMPACT By LAUREN ELISABETH LARSEN ____________________ A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelors degree With Honors in Family Studies & Human Development THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA M A Y 2 0 1 9 Approved by: ____________________________ Dr. Richard N. Wood Department of Family & Consumer Science THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES 2 Abstract This thesis discusses the United States’ immigration policy in relation to family. Family reunification has been the backbone of U.S. immigration for centuries, however this doesn’t mean that policy makers have been concerned about the well-being of immigrant families. Immigrant families have become a pawn in politics, leaving this vulnerable population dehumanized while seeking out a better life. The first section explains family-based immigration in the U.S. The second section contains a historical timeline from 1790-2018, focusing on twelve acts that impacted family and children historically. The third section explains three interrelated components that constitute the negative politicizing of immigrant families: demonization, objectification, and fear. The fourth section contains a description of how immigrant families are negatively impacted by current, inhumane policies. The closing section contains the author’s conclusions. Connected to these findings, future research may be able to advocate for an improved immigration and naturalization system in the U.S. so immigrant families are not politicized as they currently are. Keywords: family, historical timeline, immigration, politicization THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES 3 The Historical Perspective of Immigrant Families: How they are Currently Politicized and its Impact In the United States, immigrants account for 14% of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, as cited in Conner & Budiman, 2019). Due to the sheer number of immigrants present, U.S. immigration policy has had a profound impact on immigrant families. At times, policies were racist, with the intention of restricting undesirable races that many people in power believed would negatively impact America. Eventually, immense activism efforts would result in policy that prioritized family reunification. However, the reason behind prioritizing families was not because the government had a moral commitment or desire to reunify them. “Though family unity may be a professed goal and central value in American immigration policy, these pronouncements have not meant that immigrant families themselves are valued” (Lee, 2013, p. 111). Families were often used as a pawn, and once they arrived in America they faced many problems (Kandel, 2018). The Trump administration has done the unthinkable by separating families at the United States-Mexico border (Kandel, 2019), unconcerned by the negative long- lasting effects this may have. The following thesis is focusing on family-based immigration, its history, the politicization of immigrant families, and the impact on children and families. I: Understanding Family-based Immigration Policy allowing lawful permanent immigration focuses on: family reunification, immigration of persons with needed skills, refugee protection, and country-of-origin diversity (Kandel, 2018, p.1). “Family-based immigration currently makes up two-thirds of all legal permanent immigration” (Kandel, 2018, p. 1). A common way families immigrate to the U.S. is through “chain migration” which defines the process a citizen or foreign-born immigrant who obtained lawful permanent residence (LPR) (another term for obtaining a green card) can THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES 4 sponsor spouses and children (Kandel, 2018, p. 1). The terms “chain migration” and “family reunification” are synonymously used, especially in the media. Chain migration largely contributes to the growth of the immigrant population (Kandel, 2018). This has caused debate on how many LPRs should be awarded annually (Kandel, 2018, p. 1). The Immigration and Nationality Act establishes an annual limit of 675,000 immigrants (Kandel, 2018, p.3). 480,000 are family-sponsored immigrants, 140,000 employment-based preference immigrants, 50,000 diversity visa lottery immigrants (this number has been temporarily reduced 5,000 a year to adjust for numbers allowed through the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act of 1997), and an unlimited number of refugees and asylees (Kandel, 2018, p. 3). Though U.S. immigration policy grants unlimited admission to U.S. citizen’s immediate relatives, the annual level of family preference immigrants must be a minimum of 226,000 (Kandel, 2018, p. 4). “If the number immediate relatives of the U.S. citizens admitted in the previous year falls below 254,000… then family preference immigrants may exceed 226,000 by that amount” (Kandel, 2018, p. 4). In 2016, 86% of foreign-born admission were due to family ties (Department of Homeland Security, as cited in Kandel, 2018, p. 5). The above statistics, it is assumed, were the result of the 2002 Homeland Security Act that established two requirements of the Office of Immigration and Statistics. The first is to “collect and disseminate to Congress and the public data and information useful in evaluating the social, economic, environmental, and demographic impact of immigrations laws” (Homeland Security, 2019, para. 1). The second is “to establish standards of reliability and validity for immigration statistics collected by the Department’s operational Components” (Homeland Security, 2019, para. 1). THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES 5 Through the INA, lawful permanent residents from any country are to make up 7% of the annual limit of both family preference and employment-based preference immigration (Kandel, 2018, p. 5). There is a maximum number of visas available to immigrants based on their country of origin, however this does not guarantee all will be dispersed (Kandel, 2018, p. 5). Ultimately, the main issue is the number of immigrants eligible for a visa is much greater than the annual visa limit. What follows describes the problems immigrants face such as; supply-demand imbalance, impetus to violate immigration laws, and aging out of legal status categories. First, there is a supply-demand imbalance for U.S. lawful permanent residence, with the number petitioning for LPR status surpassing the number that can be admitted by law. A “visa queue” occurs where those who have been approved for a visa, wait for availability due to the admission limits (Kandel, 2018, p. 13). In November 2017, the U.S. Department of State determined there were 3.95 million family-preference immigrant applications (as cited in Kandel, 2018, p. 13). “Countries with relatively large LPR such as Mexico and China, increase visa waiting times substantially” (Kandel, 2018, p. 13). In February 2018, “LPR petitions filed under 1st family preference category (unmarried children of U.S. citizens) on or before March 15, 2011, were being processed close to seven years later for most countries” (Kandel, 2018, p. 15). This process receives criticism due to its lack of family reunification in a timely-manner and can cause immigrants to break the law (Kandel, 2018). Because obtaining a visa can take years, current U.S. immigration policy makes promises it cannot deliver. When temporary visas expire, immigrants are faced the difficult decision to “over-stay their welcome” or to enter the U.S. illegally (Kandel, 2018, p. 17). An additional problem is that individuals may age out of legal status categories. THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES 6 Aging-out denotes that the individual is no longer eligible for a benefit due to their age. This most commonly impacts children. In family-based immigration, children of U.S. citizens versus children of LPRs do not receive the same privileges. Children of citizens are protected due to the Child Status Protection Act of 2002. This means that their age will be “frozen” as what it was when they filed an immigration petition (Kandel, 2018, p. 18). If a family preference LPR ages-out, they would need to be sponsored by a family member (Kandel, 2018, p. 18). This is discussed further in the historical section of this paper. In both the 1981 Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy and the 1995 U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, family unification was regarded as the primary goal of U.S. immigration policy. Interestingly, due to the policy creating false hope for immigration for millions, both considered reconfiguring family-based categories (Kandel, 2018). At the 1995 U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, a suggested limitation was that family-based preference should only include spouses and minor unmarried children (Kandel, 2018, p. 21). It has been argued that it is not the obligation
Recommended publications
  • Well, Actually
    CHAPTER 5 WELL, ACTUALLY Cyber Sexism and Racism within Online Settings and the Enabling Discourse of E-Libertarianism INTRODUCTION Since its inception, the Internet has been hailed as a great equalizer, promoter of progress and democracy with unlimited potential and reach. What propels this mythology is the concept of the Internet as a neutral site, where identity is irrelevant other than the persona one chooses to create and share. Social life on the Internet is presented as an idealized, random collection of atomized individuals who happen to come together to interact over shared interests, with collectivity stopping there. Of course, this mythology has always been attractive to a certain segment of the population, who has always been able to utilize the Internet and shape society as they wished: Straight white men, often considered the default Internet user, see the Internet as a neutral tool because it conforms so exactly to their expectations, everyone else had to make adjustments and look for loopholes in order to use the Internet in the way they wanted. (Poland, 2016, p. 213) Indeed, for the women and minorities who are constantly harassed on the Internet, they are met with the dismissive (if not hostile) attitude that this is the price to pay for having the nerve to disrupt the “wide, open cyberspaces” that they are violating because of their unwillingness to no longer let racism, sexism, and homophobia go unnoticed. This can take the form of name calling, threats, and a blurring of online and offline stalking and violence. Far from being a neutral, idealized space, what the Internet reveals is “a story of how the deepest prejudices in a society can take purchase in new settings due to technology” which has been in the process of “transforming not only online spaces but real lives and potentially even the trajectory of our politics” for some time now (Beauchamp, 2019, para.
    [Show full text]
  • MOTION to DISMISS V
    1 HONORABLE BRIAN MCDONALD Department 48 2 Noted for Consideration: April 27, 2020 Without Oral Argument 3 4 5 6 7 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF KING 8 WASHINGTON LEAGUE FOR INCREASED 9 TRANSPARENCY AND ETHICS, a NO. 20-2-07428-4 SEA Washington non-profit corporation, 10 Plaintiff, 11 FOX DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS v. 12 FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS GROUP, FOX 13 NEWS CORPORATION, RUPERT MURDOCH, AT&T TV, COMCAST, 14 Defendants. 15 16 INTRODUCTION & RELIEF REQUESTED 17 Plaintiff WASHLITE seeks a judicial gag order against Fox News for airing supposedly 18 “deceptive” commentary about the Coronavirus outbreak and our nation’s response to it. But the 19 only deception here is in the Complaint. Fox’s opinion hosts have never described the Coronavirus 20 as a “hoax” or a “conspiracy,” but instead used those terms to comment on efforts to exploit the 21 pandemic for political points. Regardless, the claims here are frivolous because the statements at 22 issue are core political speech on matters of public concern. The First Amendment does not permit 23 censoring this type of speech based on the theory that it is “false” or “outrageous.” Nor does the law 24 of the State of Washington. The Complaint therefore should be dismissed as a matter of law. 25 MOTION TO DISMISS - 1 LAW OFFICES HARRIGAN LEYH FARMER & THOMSEN LLP 999 THIRD AVENUE, SUITE 4400 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98104 TEL (206) 623-1700 FAX (206) 623-8717 1 STATEMENT OF FACTS 2 The country has been gripped by an intense public debate about the novel Coronavirus 3 outbreak.
    [Show full text]
  • Media Effects and Marginalized Ideas: Relationships Among Media Consumption and Support for Black Lives Matter
    International Journal of Communication 13(2019), 4287–4305 1932–8036/20190005 Media Effects and Marginalized Ideas: Relationships Among Media Consumption and Support for Black Lives Matter DANIELLE KILGO Indiana University, USA RACHEL R. MOURÃO Michigan State University, USA Building on research analyses of Black Lives Matter media portrayals, this inquiry uses a two-wave panel survey to examine the effects news coverage has on the evaluation of the core ideas from the Black Lives Matter social movement agenda. Results show that conservative media use increases negative evaluations; models suggest this relationship works as a multidirectional feedback loop. Mainstream and liberal media consumptions do not lead to more positive views about Black Lives Matter’s core ideas. Keywords: media effects, partisan media, conflict, news audiences, Black Lives Matter The 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, was the catalyst that launched a brewing protest movement into the international spotlight. Police officer Darren Wilson shot the unarmed teenager multiple times in the middle of a neighborhood street. Initial protests aimed at finding justice for Brown turned violent quickly and were subsequently met with a militarized police force (e.g., Brown, 2014). Local protests continued in Ferguson while the jury deliberated Wilson’s possible indictment. However, in November 2014, Wilson was not indicted, and the decision refueled national protests. Brown’s death was one of many in 2014, and news media paid attention to the reoccurrence of similar scenarios, as well as the associated protests. These demonstrations were part of the growing, decentralized Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Protests echoed demands for justice for Black men, women, and children killed by excessive use of force, for police policy reformation, and for the acknowledgment of oppression against Blacks and other marginalized communities.
    [Show full text]
  • A Newsletter for Conservative Republicans CANDIDATES
    A Newsletter for Conservative Republicans FLYING HIGH…AND DIGGING AND BORING TO KEEP BREVARD COUNTY RED AND GET CONSERVATIVES ELECTED Editor and Publisher: Stuart Gorin Designer and Assistant Publisher: Frank Montelione Number 104 July 2018 CANDIDATES ATTEND BREVARD REPUBLICAN PICNIC FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK: Nearly 800 Brevard County, Florida residents attended the MY TWO CENTS biannual picnic organized by the Brevard Republican By Stuart Gorin Executive Committee (BREC) and the Council of Clubs in It’s an inconvenient truth that while the left Melbourne on July 8, listening to dozens of candidates for a and its media allies are calling President variety of offices, visiting their campaign tables plus those set Trump “a cruel, heartless monster” and up by Republican clubs in the county, voting in an unofficial other harsh labels for jailing illegals who straw poll, and enjoying music and a BBQ luncheon. cross our borders, this is a policy straight out of the Obama administration. Democrats know this of course but are just playing politics as usual – pulling any trick they can to try to derail the president’s agenda. -0- Stanford University sophomore John David Rice-Cameron is president of the College Republicans and helped organize a “Make Stanford Great Again” event on campus. He also serves as activism director for the statewide California College Republicans. Irony of ironies, his mother is none other than onetime Obama administration official Susan Rice – she of the infamous “Benghazi due to a video” fame. While the event was open to anyone, BREC Chairman Rick -0- Lacey said about 90 percent of the attendees were registered Alleged “comedian” Michelle Wolf now says that abortion Republicans.
    [Show full text]
  • Antisemitism in MPA Classrooms and Beyond
    Journal of Public Affairs Education ISSN: 1523-6803 (Print) 2328-9643 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/upae20 Talking about antisemitism in MPA classrooms and beyond Jamie Levine Daniel, Rachel Fyall & Jodi Benenson To cite this article: Jamie Levine Daniel, Rachel Fyall & Jodi Benenson (2019): Talking about antisemitism in MPA classrooms and beyond, Journal of Public Affairs Education, DOI: 10.1080/15236803.2019.1646581 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15236803.2019.1646581 View supplementary material Published online: 13 Aug 2019. Submit your article to this journal View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=upae20 JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDUCATION https://doi.org/10.1080/15236803.2019.1646581 Talking about antisemitism in MPA classrooms and beyond Jamie Levine Daniel a, Rachel Fyall b, and Jodi Benenson c aIndiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; bUniversity of Washington; cUniversity of Nebraska at Omaha ABSTRACT KEYWORDS On October 27, 2018, a gunman killed eleven people attending Antisemitism; Jews; cultural Shabbat services in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. competency; administrative For many – both Jews and non-Jews – this tragedy served as evil; trust a wake-up call about the persistence of antisemitism in the United States today. MPA curricula and public affairs research have rarely addressed contemporary antisemitism, yet we argue for including conversations about antisemitism in MPA class- rooms. This article serves as a resource for the public affairs teaching community so our colleagues can feel prepared and empowered to address antisemitism in their classrooms.
    [Show full text]
  • How Rupert Murdoch's Empire of Influence Remade The
    HOW RUPERT MURDOCH’S EMPIRE OF INFLUENCE REMADE THE WORLD Part 1: Imperial Reach Murdoch And His Children Have Toppled Governments On Two Continents And Destabilized The Most Important Democracy On Earth. What Do They Want? By Jonathan Mahler And Jim Rutenberg 3rd April 2019 1. ‘I LOVE ALL OF MY CHILDREN’ Rupert Murdoch was lying on the floor of his cabin, unable to move. It was January 2018, and Murdoch and his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, were spending the holidays cruising the Caribbean on his elder son Lachlan’s yacht. Lachlan had personally overseen the design of the 140-foot sloop — named Sarissa after a long and especially dangerous spear used by the armies of ancient Macedonia — ensuring that it would be suitable for family vacations while also remaining competitive in superyacht regattas. The cockpit could be transformed into a swimming pool. The ceiling in the children’s cabin became an illuminated facsimile of the nighttime sky, with separate switches for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. A detachable board for practicing rock climbing, a passion of Lachlan’s, could be set up on the deck. But it was not the easiest environment for an 86-year-old man to negotiate. Murdoch tripped on his way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Murdoch had fallen a couple of other times in recent years, once on the stairs while exiting a stage, another time on a carpet in a San Francisco hotel. The family prevented word from getting out on both occasions, but the incidents were concerning. This one seemed far more serious.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Climate “Deflection Campaign” Discussed in This Book.66 I Was Sure the New York Times Would Publish It, but It Did Not
    CHAPTER 5 Put a Price on It. Or Not. The stock market is roaring and planet Earth is wailing. —STEVEN MAGEE AS MY FRIEND BILL MCKIBBEN LIKES TO POINT OUT, THE FOSSIL fuel industry has been granted the greatest market subsidy ever: the privilege to dump its waste products into the atmosphere at no charge.1 That’s an unfair advantage over climate-friendly renewable energy in the playing field that is the global energy marketplace. We need mechanisms that force polluters to pay for the climate damage done by their product—fossil fuels—tilting the advantage to those forms of energy that aren’t destroying our planetary home. Such mechanisms can take the form of tradable emissions permits, also known as cap and trade. In this policy, government allocates or sells a limited number of permits to pollute, and the polluters can buy and sell these permits. This strategy limits pollution by providing economic incentives for polluters to reduce emissions. Another policy is a carbon tax, wherein a tax is levied at the point of sale on the carbon content of fuels or any other product yielding greenhouse emissions. Additionally, carbon credits can be granted for activities that take carbon out of the atmosphere and bury or store it, thus offsetting carbon emissions. Fossil fuel interests and right-wing anti-regulation plutocrats have fought tooth and nail against any legislation aimed at pricing carbon emissions, for this would diminish their profits. In 2009, they torpedoed a carbon-pricing bill in the United States and similar legislation in Australia and elsewhere.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Broadcasting Network
    Appendix: Christian Broadcasting Network Appendix: Christian Broadcasting Network CBN has a broad range of media properties Other evangelical and right-wing media sources rely on CBN The Christian Post LifeSiteNews American Family Association The Stream Christianity Today PJ Media Fox News CBN is a major platform for anti-LGBTQ groups Alliance Defending Freedom Family Research Council Liberty Counsel American College of Pediatricians CBN.com’s content uses anti-LGBTQ language CBN’s social media accounts have millions of followers and earn high engagement Facebook Twitter Instagram CBN has a broad range of media properties CBN has a wide network of properties to disseminate video and written online content, television, radio, and other types of programming. Notable properties include: ● The 700 Club: The 700 Club is a live TV program that has aired on weekdays since ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 1966. CBN founder Pat Robertson is the show’s most well-known host, but the program is also co-hosted by Terry Meeuwsen, Gordon Robertson, and Wendy Griffith. In addition to playing on Trinity Broadcasting Network cable, Family Net satellite, and ​ ​ Freeform, the show is also broadcast on CBN News Channel. The 700 Club has aligned ​ ​ ​ with President Donald Trump and regularly traffics in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ● CBN News Channel: CBN debuted its CBN News Channel, which it described as “the ​ ​ ​ first 24-hour Christian television news channel,” in October 2018 in 15 TV markets and for online streaming. The channel features several TV programs, including NewsWatch, ​ ​ ​ ​ Christian World News, Faith Nation, and Jerusalem Dateline. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ● CBN.com’s news section: CBN.com’s news section also features clips from CBN ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ News’ TV programs.
    [Show full text]
  • August 31, 2017
    August 31, 2017 Volume 97 Number 03 THE DUQUESNE DUKE www.duqsm.com PROUDLY SERVING OUR CAMPUS SINCE 1925 Towers SGA hosts ‘Check’ing out student clubs book loan residents program placed in temporary RAYMOND ARKE news editor rooms Purchasing textbooks is often one of every college student’s least KAYE BURNET favorite activities. They tend to be staff writer expensive and often little used. However, Duquesne’s Student Unlike most Duquesne Towers res- Government Association (SGA) is idents, Cody Collins has a double sink offering students a better option. in his room. The SGA’s textbook loan pro- “It definitely wasn’t what I ex- gram offers students the opportu- pected [when I moved in],” he said nity to borrow their books for free with a laugh. from Gumberg Library. The li- Collins, a Duquesne football brary has a variety of books avail- player and graduate student in able for students, many of which the business school, is temporarily cover the Common Core classes. living in a kitchenette on the fifth Christie Kliewer, outreach and floor of the Duquesne Towers Liv- communications librarian at ing Learning Center. Gumberg, said that the collection “Honestly, I’m just happy to be contains 19 titles with “more on here [at Duquesne],” Collins said. “I the way.” She said that students can’t really complain.” can find the books by asking a li- Collins, who completed his un- brary employee at the 4th Floor dergraduate degree at Marshall Uni- Circulation desk. versity, was a late addition to the Kliewer believes the loan program Duquesne football team roster this is important for students since it fits year.
    [Show full text]
  • Placing Media in Conservative Culture
    Placing Media in Conservative Culture Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins UT Austin New Agendas Conference April 2018 Abstract Republican voters often see politics as an ideological battle between liberalism and conservatism, but do not necessarily share the policy agenda of their elected leadership. Linking right-leaning citizens with elite political goals, the conservative movement created a multimedia infrastructure to communicate with the Republican electoral base and counteract mainstream institutions. Republican elites, activists, and voters now rely on conservative media, even sometimes empowering Fox News Channel, talk radio, and conservative websites over party leaders. This media environment set the stage for the rise of Donald Trump, who consciously shaped his messages to appeal to voters based on conservative media concerns and styles. 2 Introduction Beginning in the spring of 2011, real estate developer and reality television host Donald Trump began to appear weekly on the Fox News Channel morning television program Fox and Friends during a segment called “Monday Mornings with Trump.” Trump used this regular platform on conservative media’s most influential outlet— which ended only when he announced his presidential candidacy four years later—to pontificate on current events, practicing his appeals to Republican base voters and earning credentials as a conservative in good standing. Trump proceeded to ride his newfound popularity with conservative viewers to capture the Republican presidential nomination and the White House despite a lack of enthusiastic support from most conventional party leaders. Fox News has not only continued to serve as a welcome source of reliably favorable publicity for Trump during an otherwise tempestuous administration, but has also begun to function as an important instigator of presidential action.
    [Show full text]
  • Participatory Propaganda Model 1
    A PARTICIPATORY PROPAGANDA MODEL 1 Participatory Propaganda: The Engagement of Audiences in the Spread of Persuasive Communications Alicia Wanless Michael Berk Director of Strategic Communications, Visiting Research Fellow, SecDev Foundation Centre for Cyber Security and International [email protected] Relations Studies, University of Florence [email protected] Paper presented at the "Social Media & Social Order, Culture Conflict 2.0" conference organized by Cultural Conflict 2.0 and sponsored by the Research Council of Norway on 1 December 2017, Oslo. To be published as part of the conference proceedings in 2018. A PARTICIPATORY PROPAGANDA MODEL 2 Abstract Existing research on aspects of propaganda in a digital age tend to focus on isolated techniques or phenomena, such as fake news, trolls, memes, or botnets. Providing invaluable insight on the evolving human-technology interaction in creating new formats of persuasive messaging, these studies lend to an enriched understanding of modern propaganda methods. At the same time, the true effects and magnitude of successful influencing of large audiences in the digital age can only be understood if target audiences are perceived not only as ‘objects’ of influence, but as ‘subjects’ of persuasive communications as well. Drawing from vast available research, as well as original social network and content analyses conducted during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, this paper presents a new, qualitatively enhanced, model of modern propaganda – “participatory propaganda” - and discusses its effects on modern democratic societies. Keywords: propaganda, Facebook, social network analysis, content analysis, politics A PARTICIPATORY PROPAGANDA MODEL 3 Participatory Propaganda: The Engagement of Audiences in the Spread of Persuasive Communications Rapidly evolving information communications technologies (ICTs) have drastically altered the ways individuals engage in the public information domain, including news ways of becoming subjected to external influencing.
    [Show full text]
  • Trump Base DA
    Notes The Base DA — by Dana Randall, Director of Debate at Carrollton Sacred Heart. General Argument The Base DA is a “politics disadvantage” — it’s about the political consequences of the plan. This DA argues that there is a core group of Trump supporters, known as his “base,” who support the president primarily because of his stance on immigration. This base consists of people who are worried about economic competition with immigrants (they took our jobs), people who have safety/security concerns about immigration (build the wall), and people who oppose immigration for other reasons like nationalism/xenophobia. The disad argues that while Trump is/has become very unpopular with a lot of people because of other policy actions (tax cuts, Paris withdrawal, environmental deregulation etc) the base is primarily (or exclusively) concerned about immigration policy and thus these other issues have not “thumped” the disad. The link relies on characterizing the affirmative as “soft” on immigration, which is straightforward but slightly different for each case: • Open Borders — the easiest to argue the link. This aff removes ALL immigration restrictions, so links like “DACA” or “chain migration” obviously apply as does any other link. This case would trigger all of the base anxieties about immigration. • High Skilled Immigrants — while traditional, pro-business segments of the GOP would be in favor of high skilled immigration the base generally views any such policy as job competition. This is why Trump recently made H1-B visa applications far more cumbersome. • Refugees — since Trump recently had sessions change refugee policy, this affirmative can be cast as a “flip flop”, which is when a politician changes their stance on something.
    [Show full text]