Today's story provides a handy guide to the dark arts of the press
It is a truth universally acknowledged that migrants get a rough ride in the British press. But how do they do it?
Today’s Daily Mail provides a crash course in the dark arts of demonising migrants. Here are some of the basics:
1. Do not refer to migrants as people.
It is of the first importance that these people not be seen as human. Instead, use words like ‘figures’, ‘numbers’, ‘influx’ – or indeed, ‘migrant’, which simply means a person who moves from one place to another.
2. Use numbers instead of words where possible.
Words can be slippery. To avoid breaking step 1, use numbers like 18,000, as in today’s story. This helps creates the idea of migration as a pest control problem, or a force of nature, rather than a man-made crisis that involves human lives.
3. Use the language of crime.
Discuss migrants as you would criminals. Some examples from today’s story are ‘sneak’, ‘evade’, ‘targeting’ and ‘caught’. These are bad people doing a bad thing. They deserve to be punished. (Add a scary picture of dark-skinned people if you can.)
4. Do not quote people who care about migrants.
Pick your sources with care. Organisations which worry about the safety of migrants should not be quoted if possible (as they are not in today’s story). This might cause readers to see another side of the story, learn about its context and the causes of migration, hear ideas for solutions, and even empathise with the migrants themselves. Instead, seek quotes from police, tough-guy politicians, truck drivers, British tourists, and so on.
5. Do not speak to migrants.
This may be the most important step. Under no circumstances should you interview the people trying to reach Britain. Asking about their experiences and motivations, or just about their family or their favourite food, could risk readers seeing them as human, and should be avoided at all costs. This includes the cost of good stories or honest journalism.
There are other steps, and not all of these are kept all the time. Reports of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean has broken through the usual filters as a regrettable anomaly. Generally though, some adherence to the above will ensure you write about migrants correctly.
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
Read more:
Daily Mail says Syrian refugees turn Greek holiday town into ‘disgusting hellhole’
Daily Express blames Greek economic crisis on EU and immigration
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39 Responses to “Daily Mail’s 5 step guide to demonising migrants”
Torybushhug
play the man not the ball, arf! Daily, everyone from Zoe Williams to Owen Jones casts Tories as baby eating nazis that love nothing better than kicking the poor and the disabled. Classic lefty filtering.
I notice you employed the usual lefty tactic of twisting what I said into a binary choice, wealth hoarding or living in a shoebox’ yawn. The point we make is very wealthy hoarders such as Ben, Coogan and all the others could give away a very meaningful chunk of wealth, downsize to a modest home and still have a couple of million in the Bank. None of them do, Brand, Fry, Totsbig all greedy charlatans thAt virtue signal not by deed but by word. Pathetic.
Torybushhug
You claim to represent hope, but what is hope without personal leadership by example?
Why do very wealthy Cambridge lefty academics not give thier massive wealth away? Not all of it, but say 70%. Hope is no use to those that would like to share that wealth, much of it from pension wealth by way of nasty share dividends made off the backs of workers.
Why don’t you all shop around not on a best value basis, but on the basis of how well people are paid? Why do you people seek out lower charging builders and gardeners? Why not appoint them on the basis of how well thier family lives in relation to what you pay them?
Why do you seek out lowest insurance or air fares, do these firms pay the workers well?
All your hope and wordy Saintly broth amounts to nothing more than a charade to make you feel better about yourself and fool others into painting you semi Saintly.
When you all take meaningful action I will join you. Protesting and shouting is cheap and risk free. Ending your ISA and pension so as not to profit from workers is hard. Paying your gardener a decent wage so she might enjoy the same holidays as you, now that means something, nut like Ben and all the other snake oilers lefties entrench wealth in thier family not in outsiders.
Interalia
What are British people? People who arrived here form Uganda in the 1970s because Idy Armin ethnically cleansed them? People who arrived from the West Indies in the 50s and 60s because Britain asked them to come because we were short of labour. Do you mean the French, the Angles, Saxons, Romans etc etc? The left cares about everybody and doesn’t give a stuff about stupid labels. We’re all human, all one of a kind and worthy of love and respect.
Interalia
A sweeping generalisation as such people often give generously to charity. The notion that they should give all their wealth away and chant in the street homeless dressed in a loin cloth is a typical right wing trick. Clearly people have to live as best they can in a capitalist system while their lives are ruled by such outmoded concepts as tax and the profit motive. The question in the meantime is of degree – how much income should be distributed to avoid beggars dying in the street. Clearly you moral system allows the poor nothing. I will enjoy watching you squeeze yourself through the eye of a needle.
Alan Whitfield
I think you’ll find they just care about human beings, they are tolerant of people and respectful of human life regardless of the nation they were born into.