Refugee Got Talent Case Study

1. How have you found yourself reading media representations differently after what you have learned in the unit? Are you more aware of how an event is covered across the media and in what ways have you found your reactions have changed to the event taking place (eg: marriage equality, immigration, reconciliation, etc.).

Through the chapter analyzing media representation, I have learned to question the language and graphics used in the media instead of just taking them in as it is very passively. For example, most of the media coverage of the illegal immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in news only show their downside and how pitiful they are. After seeing the news feature of the ‘Refugee Got Talent’ by Al Jazeera, I came to realize that
I haven’t quite grasped the concepts of identity like how the media affects identity and how national identity is constructed through the media.

6. Have you changed your views and attitudes about any issues since completing this unit? What has been the biggest influence on this change? If not, what is an issue you feel the unit might have tried to contested or opposed your views on, but did not change?
Yes, the topics in the unit have definitely helped changed my views on people of other races than my own race. I grew up in an environment where a lot of people of my own race, which in Chinese, will have some prejudice or essentialist thinking about other races or people. For example, Malays are lazy, Ibans are drunkards, immigrant laborers likes to steal and we have to be careful of them, black people are bad guys, they do drugs and only think about taking advantages of young local girls. These essentialist and prejudicial views that was imprinted unto me since young had have impacted me to have a certain degree of bias towards these races. However, learning this unit about the topic on essentialism, stereotyping, prejudice and othering had helped me a lot in shedding of my stereotypes and prejudices towards these