Describe the research design and your research process.

Order Description

Below we offer an outline for you to understand what the structure of your research report
might look like, which can help you to develop your writing. Variations in format are allowed.
More details will be explained and discussed in project meetings as scheduled in the
Guidelines of Workshops.
Suggested structure
1. Introduction of this project: What is your research question? What is the background and
purpose of the research? Why is it worth studying? Is the research of any theoretical
significance and/or practical implication?
2. Literature review: identification of a relevant body of literature. The document of
Annotated bibliography and additional literature for your project on LMS has offered
very rich information of extant studies in this field. You should select the most relevant
literature based on your research question(s) and present them as an argument rather than
just a simple summary of literature. Think about how the literature can be used as
evidence or supporting materials to back up your argument and develop your analysis. At
least 10 references should be used and listed at the end of your report.
3. Methodology: Describe the research design and your research process. What are the main
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research methods used in your project? How did you identify research sites and research
participants? How did you collect your data? What research ethics are required for your
project and how did you follow them though in the research process? How did you obtain
informed consent of research participants? Youll need at least five references on your
research methods and illustrate in some detail how you conduct the empirical project.
4. Data analysis and findings: How did you analyse your data? What findings have been
produced? How would you explain the findings? Do the results provide evidence to
address your research question(s)? Consider how to present the results and integrate them
in your report.
5. Summary and reflection: Summarise your research process and main findings. Discuss
the contributions and limitations of this project. If you have an opportunity to re-design
this project, would you use the current methods or something different? Why? What did
you learn from the project?

Please read below as it\’s very Important

Introduction to the Project
Your investigation will explore representations of migration policy and migrants in two significant
national newspapers: The Australian and The Age. You will use the Factiva Database to identify a set of newspaper reports during any 3 month period in 2016
regarding REFUGEES. You will then use content or thematic analysis to identify any patterns in
newspaper reports across these three months and/or across the two newspapers. Finally, you will
choose a maximum of 5 articles from the full list of articles in that 3 months to conduct a discourse
analysis that further examines the meanings associated with that group of migrants or policies
associated with that group of migrants.

Annotated Bibliography and Additional Literature

An important part of your project will involve acknowledging and working with (or against) existing
research on the topic. To support this, we provide a set of literature below that you might consider
consulting in order to develop your background knowledge of the topic and to develop your analysis
of the data you collect. The literature has been divided into a series of categories. First, we provide
some general background literature on migration policy in Australia. Second, we provide a short set
of references for each of the 4 types of migrants. You only need to refer to the group relevant to the
type of migrant you have selected, although you are welcome to also explore the other references
for relevant complementary sources. Finally, a small number of sources are offered that provide
some examples of analyses of media representations of migrants and/or migration policy.

Refugees
Bleiker, R, Campbell, D, Hutchison, E & Nicholson, X 2013, The visual dehumanisation of refugees,
Australian Journal of Political Sciences, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 398?416.
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The authors start with a clear argument that in Australia nothing is as politically contested and
emotionally charged as the issue of refugees. The treatment of refugees in Australia is argued to be
dehumanising in its incessant labelling of asylum seekers as boatpeople. The authors believe that
such labelling is a visual framing of ideas that associate refugees with a threat to national
sovereignty and security rather than addressing the associated humanitarian challenges. Their
investigation draws on thematic analysis of the front pages of two tabloid newspapers (The
Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald) for the period December 2001, and October 2009 to
September 2011. These were periods in which the refugee crisis was hotly debated in Australian
politics. The authors argue that refugees are framed as problem groups because ideas of potential
threat have been emphasised over a compassionate humanitarian response. In their analysis, the
authors make no differentiation between refugees and asylum seekers. From the analysis and the
data presented, the theme and discussion of the paper mirrors the issues of asylum seekers, rather
than refugees. Yet despite this conceptual distortion, the media representation of refugees and
asylum seekers receives direct attention.
Casimiro, S, Hancock, P and Northcote, J 2007, Isolation and insecurity: Resettlement issues
among Muslim refugee women in Perth, Western Australia, Australian Journal of Social Issues vol.
42, no. 1, pp. 55?69.
This article reports on research done with refugee women living in Western Australia. It points to
ongoing issues of social acceptance, employment and income security, language learning and
accommodation that continue to make it difficult for these women to settle. While this article does
not provide explicit information about the media representations of refugee women in Australia, it
does provide some information on the challenges they face and the broader social context that
contributes both to their challenges and to the representations of refugees in the media.
Gale, P 2004, The refugee crisis and fear: Populist politics and media discourse, Journal of
Sociology vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 321?340.
Reports on a discourse analysis of representations of refugees and asylum seekers in media outlets
during the 2001 election campaign. Discusses the presentation of refugees and asylum seekers as a
risk to Australian society.
Leach, M 2003, \’Disturbing practices: dehumanizing asylum seekers in the refugee crisis in
Australia, 2001?2002, Refuge, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 25?33.
This article presents an analysis of how refugees were portrayed and represented by the Australian
government and the mainstream media alike during the 2001 refugee crisis in Australian politics. It
explores how cultural differences are used by media and politicians to generate negative
impressions of asylum seekers. The author views the ways in which politicians talk about refugees
and asylum seekers as propaganda, for their own political consumption and goals. The author argues
that the very source of representation emerges from the governing party, which then gets published
and circulated through its official media channels with the apparent objective of stigmatising
minority groups. In order to substantiate this argument, the author reviews and heavily quotes
discourses of key political figures and identifies how the media have presented these to the public. It
is concluded that the 2001 political crisis of asylum seekers prompted an immediate and eminent

Marking Guideline

Followed instructions for the Research Report Guidelines
2. Addressed the theoretical and practical significance of the research question
3. Described research design and research process with appropriate details
4. Used results of data analysis to develop evidence-based arguments
5. Demonstrated cognisance of the ethical issues surrounding the research
6. Demonstrated academic skills in writing and referencing
Relevant Graduate Capabilities Exceeded Met Not Met Note
Inquiry/Research
? Evidence that reading has informed your work
? Summarised relevant research and arguments in a research field
Critical Thinking
? Awareness of own assumptions and those of others
? Evaluated the strengths and limitations of competing theories and methods
Creative Problem Solving
? Applied relevant sociological concepts and methods to the question
? Assessed and produced plausible solutions
Writing
? The writing is clear and coherently structured
? Sources and evidence have been used appropriately
Ethical Behaviour
? Followed research ethics guidelines in applying methods in the research process
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