View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Online Research @ Cardiff The State of the Nation: Television News and the Politics of Migration Thesis submitted for the award of PhD Bernhard Gross 28 October 2011 Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies Declaration This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… Statement 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of …………………………(insert MCh, MD, MPhil, PhD etc, as appropriate) Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… Statement 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… Statement 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter- library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… Statement 4: Previously approved bar on access I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter- library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Graduate Development Committee. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… 2 Acknowledgments My parents made this project possible in the first place. Professor Terry Threadgold offered her guidance for quite a few more years than she probably anticipated when she first took on the job of supervising me—it has been greatly appreciated. I am also indebted to her for getting me involved in the Oxfam research project investigating the representation of refugees and asylum seekers. The project gave my research a new and stimulating direction. Thanks are due also to Dr Paul Mason, who jointly supervised some of the early stages of this thesis. There are many people at JOMEC, students I had the chance to teach, my fellow PhD candidates, as well as academic and administrative staff, who in many encounters and conversations have helped me find a way through the corridors of the academy. I am especially grateful to Dr Kerry Moore, Dr Andy Williams and Dr Karin Wahl-Jorgensen for their support. Finally, the patience of my colleagues at the University of the West of England was never taken for granted and deserves to be recognised here. Most of all, though, thank you Zoe for being there all the way! 3 Abstract The State of the Nation investigates discourses of British nationhood by analysing the coverage of migration on UK public service television news bulletins. These bulletins embody discourses of the national on a structural level through their public service remit and their position in the programme schedule. They also evoke the nation in and through their content—in particular in the context of the coverage of migration. The central line of enquiry of this thesis is focussed on the potentially problematic consequences of the interrelation of discourses of migration with discourses of the nation. That this is a question of how they interrelate rather than whether rests on three theoretical assumptions: discourses of nation represent a form of identification; identification is the outcome of encounter with and potentially exclusion of the Other; migration is a discourse of encounter. Two further assumptions relate to the current historical moment and the news coverage under analysis: discourses of the nation have increasingly come under pressure; and yet, public discourses do not fully recognise or even acknowledge this, instead insist on the nation‟s continued unchanged relevance. The key question is: Under what contingencies is migration positioned as an excluded Other in relation to theses imagined community discourses? The thesis relates these issues to wider questions about the possibility for a cosmopolitan ethic. It theorises that certain logics of narrow nationality are a key determinants, but have to be understood as variable rather than as constant. The first two chapters of section 1 develop these key theoretical assumptions as well as some methodological concerns. The third chapter provides some topical context and background for the main data set: material collected during six months of media monitoring in 2006 on three news bulletins with a public service remit. The data is analysed in section 2 across three case studies. The first considers so-called illegal migration in relation to questions of space, attempting to trace the boundaries of the nation. The second moves from the boundary to the inside of the nation and looks at the changing nature of citizenship. The third case study focuses on the conditions under which journalists and migrants encounter each other. 4 Contents Declaration ................................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgments....................................................................................................................................... 3 Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Introduction: The State of the Nation—UK Television News and the Politics of Migration ........ 7 Section 1: From Identification and Mediation to Discourses of Migration and the British Nation ..................................................................................................................................................................... 14 1.1. Identification, Mediation and the Position of PSB Journalism .................................................. 14 From the Other to the National—Processes of Identification .............................................. 15 Mediation, Journalism and the Nation ................................................................................. 28 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 38 1.2. Journalism, the Nation and Migration ............................................................................................ 40 To be British—National identity in a Multinational and Multicultural State ...................... 46 Migration and Territoriality in the Era of Globalisation ...................................................... 49 Debating the Nation—The Role of Journalists and Audience in the Election Debates ....... 52 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 56 1.3. Context chapter: The „Home Office in Chaos‟ Narrative ........................................................... 57 Background: Foreign Prisoners’ Deportation Row/Illegal Immigrants’ Numbers Game ... 58 Putting Pressure on the System ............................................................................................ 59 Channel 4 News ............................................................................................................... 60 BBC 1 News at Ten ......................................................................................................... 61 ITV 1 News at 10.30 ........................................................................................................ 62 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 63 Section 2: From Geographic Knowledge to the Value of Voice ....................................................... 65 2.1. Britain On and Off the Map—Illegal Immigration in the Geographic Imaginary .................. 65 Space and Boundary ............................................................................................................ 66 From Space to the Distant Spectator .................................................................................... 71 Analysis: Illegal Immigration and the Location of Boundary ............................................. 77 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 91 2.2. Nation State or Market Economy?—The „Liberal Paradox‟ of EU Migration ........................ 92 The UK and European Integration ....................................................................................... 94 The UK Media and European Integration .......................................................................... 100 5 The UK and EU Migration—a Liberal Paradox ................................................................ 104 Analysis: Economic Migrants and Economic Citizens ..................................................... 108 The Positioning of the EU in Relation to the UK .......................................................... 109 The Economic Focus of the Coverage in Relation to EU Migration ............................. 111 The Shift from an Economic to a Political Focus .......................................................... 113 Hierarchical Categorisation through the Use of Labels ................................................. 118 British Workers as a Market Citizens ............................................................................ 120 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................