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Mario de la Fuente

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How would you descrbe the role of the mass media in our perceptions about inmigration?

In modern societies we all have an opinion about inmigrants, people who come to our countries to find a better future, but most of the times these opinions are full of prejudices and biases. I'd like to know if you think these prejudices are a consequence of the mass media discourse we hear and read everyday.

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    Marek Kasiak 200+

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    HostTED TranslatorAssociate
    Feb 19 2011: According to constructivists, culture shapes identity, that significantly impacts our goals, aims and interests. By such, it influences our perceptions of politics, of civic life of nations, of society. The role of pop-media in this process cannot be denied. TV-series, Hollywood blockbusters, newsreels, radio broadcasts and even games, play crucial part in opinion-making process. By presenting particular topic in specific way, they creates notions and archetypes. By doing so – the way society perceives the world issues, amongst them the issue of immigration.

    As regarding the problem of description of immigration in media, I believe there is no better example than British TV, that is creating an image of bad Muslim immigration. In aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7 bombings, according to recent pools ran in UK, most of news coverage is focused on security/threat issues (‘The British Media and Muslim Representation: The Ideology of Democratization’). It's not hard to find that while describing these issues, media are focussed on Islamic terrorism, Muslim extremism, etc. By giving so big attention to such issues, there emerges direct link between threat and disturbances and Muslim society - thus immigration becomes affected.

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