Representations of Polish Migrants in British Media from the Perspective of “Moral Panic” Theory

• Main Author: Alicja Portas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Polish Association for the Study of English 2018-06-01
• Series: Polish Journal of English Studies
• Subjects: stereotypes; moral panic; polish migrant; uk; british media; representation
• Online Access: http://pjes.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/PJES-4.1-6-Portas.pdf

The purpose of this article is to present the prevalent media representations of the Polish immigrants to the UK. Since the EU Accession on May 8, 2004, conservative British media adopted a relatively negative attitude towards the new European migrants, in particular the Poles. This study aims to verify and nuance this assumption. It reviews the theories applicable to anti-Polish moral panic, stereotyped portrayals of Eastern Europeans and the social impacts of media narratives. The first case study offers an analysis of the documentary The Poles are Coming! directed by Tim Samuels in order to explore stereotypes and devices of (mis)representation employed. The second case study traces the evolution of representations of Poles in Britain in selected texts from the British newspaper The Guardian. A content analysis is combined with a discourse analysis of the articles to investigate to what extent negative framing and labelling are employed in the British media coverage of the migrants.