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Communicative resources and credibility in public discourse on refugees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2019

Laura Smith-Khan
Laura Smith-Khan*
Affiliation:
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Laura Smith-Khan University of Technology SydneyPO Box 123, Broadway Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia[email protected]
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Abstract

This article examines how communicative resources affect the construction of credible texts and identities in a public debate on Australia's treatment of a refugee. It centres on two key written statements—one from the Immigration Minister, and another from a Somali refugee. The analysis is divided into four levels, exploring the parties’ respective linguistic, material, identity, and platform resources, and how these impact their statements’ creation and reception, and their participation in discourse creation more generally. The article finds that there are inequalities on all four resource levels that largely undermine the refugee's ability to present a credible text and identity and challenge mainstream discourse on refugees. The article demonstrates how a multi-level analysis of communicative resources can challenge assumptions about participation and uncover inequalities invisible in the prevailing discourse. (Asylum, Australia, communicative resources, discourse, intercultural communication, media, power, refugee)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , June 2019 , pp. 403 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

*

Research for this article was undertaken as part of a Doctor of Philosophy, conducted at Macquarie University and supported by an Australian Government Research Training Programme Scholarship (formerly APA). I am thankful for the outstanding support and guidance offered by supervisor, Professor Ingrid Piller (Linguistics Department), associate supervisor, Dr Daniel Ghezelbash (Macquarie Law School), and co-members of the Language on the Move research group. I am equally appreciative of the thorough constructive feedback and suggestions of the journal's anonymous reviewers and editorial team.

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