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Turning the Tables? Media Constructions of British Asians from Victims to Criminals, 1962–2011

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Book cover Media, Crime and Racism

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture ((PSCMC))

Abstract

This chapter describes and analyses the processes and mechanisms of media-induced campaigns that construct the issues of ‘race’ and immigration as public or social ‘problems’ and ‘threats’ to order. Focusing on a succession of periods marked by distinctive themes connoting race and immigration, we see a dominant media discourse build the presence of visible minorities in British society as constituting ‘problems’ and ‘threats. Although directed at racialized visible minority groups generally, the chapter shows the particular role that British Asians come to play in a transformative drama in which they are at first seen as benign and even victims of injustice, then as coming to represent the greatest threat of all, towards the end of our periods.

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Webster, C. (2018). Turning the Tables? Media Constructions of British Asians from Victims to Criminals, 1962–2011. In: Bhatia, M., Poynting, S., Tufail, W. (eds) Media, Crime and Racism. Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71776-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71776-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71775-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71776-0

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