Conceptualizing (re)worked narratives of the American Family: From the American Dream to American decay in 'new' television
American television family dramas have long functioned for broadcast networks as a metaphoric framework to affirm the values of the American Dream. Since the 1990s, American cable television providers have challenged this long-held practice. Originally scripted programming, complete with large budgets, auteur freedom and not reliant on advertising revenue, delivered to audiences (re)worked family dramas that exposed the myth of the American Dream. It is suggested that in this shift, audiences were exposed to narratives of American decay predicated on a failing social, economic and political system. Evidence for this shift is examined in an analysis of six family dramas produced between 1997 and 2013. The aim of this analysis is to interrogate shifts as indicative of a new television landscape.
In Their Voice: Experiences of Australia's Mandatory Detention Policies
The Australian Government's approach to asylum seekers since the Australian Labor Party introduced mandatory detention in 1992 has been increasingly harsh and punitive. Legally, asylum seekers are dealt with under the 1958 Migration Act, which incorporates Australia's obligations as a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Since the influx of Asian asylum seekers in the 1970s the Act has been systematically politicised. One example of this is that the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs no longer accepts the group determination process of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) whereby whole groups found to be persecuted could claim asylum. Instead the Department requires asylum seekers to prove individually their claims for asylum. The politicised approach coupled with indefinite mandatory detention means Australian refugee laws and practices are a tool of deterrence and punishment.
Reviewing Labor's Internal Reviews 1966-2010: 'Looking forward, looking backwards'
Since 1966, and usually while in Opposition, the Australia Labor Party (ALP) has engaged in internal reviews. Often led by a former parliamentary leader, they seek to find solutions to crushing election defeats or to the electoral discontent the Party finds itself in. Driven by the pragmatic need to be in government (which according to Roberto Michels is the aim of every mass political party), Labor's reviews drew on the language of renewal, reform, democratisation and modernisation to posit a soon return to government. Rarely did the enumerable recommendations lead to genuine reform, particularly when it came to membership participation. Generally, the outcomes were focused on public perceptions that the Party had heeded the message from disgruntled voters, had changed its ways (policy, leadership or both), had reformed and was thus again worthy again of electoral support. With perhaps the exception of the first national review held in 1966, at no point do Labor Party reviews genuinely engage in internal reforms that would dismantle the oligarchy: often the key concern expressed in Labor Party member submissions to the ongoing but benign internal reviews.
Election 2013 results and the future: Experts respond - Immigration
Australia has elected a Coalition government. So what will this mean for key policy areas? Our experts take a closer look at what's in store for business, the economy, the environment, the National Broadband Network, health, social policy, immigration, science and education.
Australia and Asia - Refugee Practices and Policies
The demise of the old European empires and the rise of the modem nation state meant that masses of people were displaced by the new boundaries and new principles of the nation state. Mass migration, forced or voluntary-a consequence of the nationalist or ethnic makeup of many new states-created the modern refugee. Refugees are people who have been forced to leave their homelands because of a well-founded fear of persecution or a threat to their survival or that of their immediate families. International laws were developed to protect those not protected by their own governments or who came under threat because of the actions and policies of their own governments. The conviction that the international community has a duty to protect refugees was recognised by the League of Nations. When the United Nations replaced the League in 1945 it accepted the collective obligation of states to take responsibility for those fleeing persecution or danger. Accordingly, the UN General Assembly in 1946 adopted a resolution that laid the foundations for international refugee protection laws.
Western Media and Indonesian Politics: Gender, Religion and Democracy - How the Western Media Report Indonesian Politics
This book examines how the Western print media, in three countries, reported the political rise of former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in the late 1990s. Megawati is the first-born daughter of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno (1945-1966). Achmed Sukarno, along with Mohommad Hatta, led the nationalist independence movement against Dutch colonisation. Megawati was formerly the Chair of the Indonesian Democratic Party ('Partai Demokrasi Indonesia', PDI) before leading the breakaway party, the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle ('Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan', PDI-P). She had been a member of the national parliament, People's Representative Council ('Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat', DPR) since 1987. Between 1987 and 1993, Megawati was a relatively quiet political figure in Indonesian politics, often absent from national debates and described as an unlikely candidate to become President. In 1996, Megawati was removed from the Chair of the PDI and banned from contesting elections in Indonesia. In the lead up to the turbulent period of 1998-1999 (particularly from 1996 onwards) Megawati, as Sukarno's daughter, appeared to symbolise the incongruous nature of President Suharto (1966-1998) and his New Order government. When Suharto was forced to resign in May 1998, Megawati was reasonably well positioned to assume the Presidency. However, a series of parliamentary machinations led to the election of Abdurrahman Wahid (1999-2001), the leader of 'Nahdlatul Ulama' (NU) and the founder of the National Awakening Party ('Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa', PKB) as President. Megawati was elected Vice President. Following the impeachment of President Wahid in July 2001, Megawati was appointed President of Indonesia by the People's Consultative Assembly ('Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat', MPR).
Seeking Refuge: Asylum Seekers and Politics in a Globalising World
The tragedy facing refugees is man made at all levels. People do not easily leave their homes, communities, friends, relatives, and often the familiarity of their first language, culture and religion. Yet the extreme circumstances which cause refugees to do so are not 'natural' events-earthquakes, floods or droughts. In the most immediate sense we can blame local elites, dictators or ethnic hatreds for these millions of personal tragedies which make up the refugee 'crisis'. But they are more than that. The behaviours of these elites and dictators and the revival or acceleration of ethnic hatred are not purely the result of local conjunctions. There is far too much similarity across many tragedies-from Rwanda to Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Sri Lanka-for that to be an adequate explanation. They are a product of a world system in which 'zones of instability' are a predictable result of the workings of a market system, now more aggressive and unforgiving than ever.
Six Feet Under: A Gothic Reading in Liminality, Death and Grief
Death is no longer considered a social taboo. News coverage reports death on a daily basis. Literature, art, film, and television have a long history of portraying death. Disciplines ranging from anthropology, sociology and social welfare conceptualise death at an individual and community level in terms of ritual and power. Yet, how death and grief are performed is still largely shaped by social conventions. The critically-acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under (2001-2005) uses Gothic tropes to challenge many of the social conventions that shape how individuals perform death and grief. Set in a Los Angeles funeral home run by the Fisher family, death is voiced by the episodic dead, while the complexities of grief are voiced by the families who come to the funeral home to arrange burial services. The Fishers themselves experience death and grief in the pilot episode. At each turn, normative understandings of how death and grief are performed are challenged. While there are conventional Gothic tropes evident in Six Feet Under, notably the dead occupying liminal spaces, it is via a California Gothic trope that the fragility of the American middle class family and its precarious existence in the dystopian American suburb is explored, underpinning the discursive power of the series.
Mandatory Detention: Twenty Years of Inhumane Public Policy
Yesterday, May 6th, marked the 20th anniversary of Australia's policy of mandatory detention. The policy has eroded Australia's standing as a good middle power global human rights actor. More precisely, the inclusion of children within the mandatory detention regime has bought national and international condemnation. Mandatory detention legislation was first introduced in Australia in 1992. Legislation was amended in 1994 to reinforce indefinite detention. The Labor government's policy ensured that all asylum seekers arriving in Australia without prior authorisation could be detained for unspecified and prolonged periods of time. Amnesty International has consistently argued that prolonged mandatory detention causes untold psychological damage to detainees, especially for children. Of the estimated 200 million asylum seekers who crossed international borders in 2010, approximately one quarter were children. Australia is the only country in the world with a policy of mandatory detention of children. Greece, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa and the US do detain children in immigration facilities, however in these countries child detention is not the first resort but the last resort.
Reporting Megawati's bid for the Indonesian presidency: Framing and social realities
This paper examines the relationship between episodic framing and the construction and maintenance of social realities in English-language reporting about Indonesian politics during the nation's transition to democracy in 1998 and 1999. It evaluates framing in terms of context and frequency across 478 Australian, American and British newspaper reports primarily about PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of former president Sukarno. How Megawati was framed in the English-language news media provides theoretical and empirical links between episodic framing and its function in shaping social realities. Findings indicate that an overreliance on episodic framing led to a lack of critical journalism in relation to Megawati's agency and value to democratic Indonesia in the PostSuharto period, and constructed influential narratives that privileged Megawati over her adversaries.