Museums, the Media and Refugees

By Katherine Goodnow with introductions by Jack Lohman and Phil Marfleet

Katherine Goodnow is Professor at the Department of Information Scienes and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway.

ISNB 978-1-84545-542-2   -   Published by Berghahn Books, New York – Oxford

Across countries and time, asylum-seekers and refugees have been represented in a variety of ways. In some representations they appear negatively, as dangers threatening to ‘over-run’ a country or a region with ‘floods’ of incompatible strangers. In others, the same people are portrayed positively, with compassion, and pictured as desperately in need of assistance. How these competing perceptions are received has significant consequences for determining public policy, human rights, international agreements, and the realization of cultural diversity, and so it is imperative to understand how these images are perpetuated. To this end, this volume reflects on museum practice and the contexts, stories, and images of asylum- seekers and refugees prevalent in our mass media.