Link to Asylum in the Media from Media and Politics Group of the PSA

The Media and Politics Group of the Political Studies Association is linking to my blog on Facebook. In the spirit of reciprocation and mutual puffery here is a link to their homepage on the PSA site.

http://www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/mpg/mpg.asp

And now it's real...

So, I now have the beginnings of some content for the blog - a growing list of really great links, plus several news feeds from some of my favourite sources on asylum and refugee issues. The feed from Phillipe Legrain (author of Immigrants Your Country Needs Them, 2006 is concerned with immigration more generally rather than asylum and refugee issues. It's necessary in my view though, to engage with the broader network of ideas which surround and construct asylum discourse in order to properly explore it, so I feel quite justified in including this. Legrain's interventions are often really interesting and they tend to generate political debate.

The blog is now also now linked to my Facebook profile and because of this, a few people have let me know that they've noticed it...which means that this blogging Asylum in the Media business suddenly feels a bit more real! Asylum in the Media has the beginnings of 'a public'...admittedly it's actually just my friends so far... but then it's quality, and not necessarily quantity that counts... and it is very early doors after all.

Right, that's quite enough introversion and shameless self-aggrandising. Next post soon to follow - hopefully including a bit more substance and a bit less of the patter.

First asylum in the media blog

So, this is it, my first blog on asylum in the media. Right now, I'm intending to use this site to collect my observations about media stories which either feature asylum seekers and refugees, or which I consider important to the formation of wider issues that surround them. I've begun to construct a collection of links and resources that I think are interesting or useful. I'm envisaging the blog as a place for commentating on contemporary media and political discourses of asylum, but also for highlighting existing and new research. I'll also be thinking about some of the different ways in which asylum discourse and contemporary forms of racism more generally might be productively explored, and potentially developing new ideas for research.

If anyone actually finds my blog and has the inclination to respond to any of my posts, then that would be great!