This seminar is organised by the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing.

Migration remains high on policy and public agendas across Europe. The political implications of human mobility manifest themselves in many ways, including through shifts in voting patterns and policy responses to perceived ‘crises’. This talk considers mass media both as important venues of public and political debate about migration and as potential sources of information that shape how people perceive the issue. First, it draws upon linguistic analysis of over 200,000 articles mentioning migration-related terms in nine UK national newspapers between 1997-2015. Then, it links this analysis to levels of concern about migration among the British public, revealing that mentioning either sociocultural aspects or the scale and pace of migration is correlated with higher levels of public concern. The talk concludes with discussion about the role of information in shaping public perceptions about migration given political polarisation and expanding forms of digital communication.

All welcome. Registration not required. Coffee and cake after the seminar.
For more information please see: www.ageing.ox.ac.uk

About the speaker

Will Allen is a Research Officer at COMPAS, working with the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. His main research focuses on British media representations of migration, as well as how these interact with public perceptions of immigrants and migration policy change in the UK. Since 2011 he has helped the Observatory to understand how UK national newspapers have covered migration issues and specific migrant groups.