A series of bomb blasts that targeted a number of Assyrian churches in Baghdad and Mosul last year were reported in the Australian media and seemed to hint at the complexity of Iraq’s cosmopolitan society. This paper seeks to compare and contrast the representation of these events in four of Australia’s leading newspapers (The Australian, The Courier-Mail, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald) by using a multi-methodological approach. The analysis reveals that Australian print coverage falls short of detailing the complexities of Iraq’s cosmopolitan society and therefore engenders an Orientalist (Said, 1978) discourse that constructs the Assyrians as powerless and anonymous victims.
History
Event
Sites of Cosmopolitanism Conference (2005 : Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland)
Pagination
1 - 16
Publisher
Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, Griffith University
Location
Brisbane, Queensland
Place of publication
Nathan, Qld.
Start date
2009-07-06
End date
2009-07-08
Language
eng
Notes
Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright owner.
Publication classification
E1.1 Full written paper - refereed
Copyright notice
2005, Griffith University
Editor/Contributor(s)
I Woodward, D Ellison
Title of proceedings
Sites of Cosmopolitanism Conference, Brisbane, July 6-8 2005, Griffith University : conference papers