A Report on the Media and the Immigration Debate

Analyzes media coverage of immigration since 1980 and how industry practices and new media have conditioned the public to associate immigration with illegality, crisis, controversy, and government failure, causing a stalemate in the policy debate

Hepatitis B vaccination in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Objectives: To evaluate the responsiveness of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) to hepatitis B vaccination and to determine the most useful vaccination schedule. Methods: 39 children with JIA were enrolled in the study; all were in remission and negative to serological testing for hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg). The control group consisted of 41 healthy children. There were two different vaccination schedules: group I was vaccinated at 0, 1, and 3 months; group II was vaccinated at 0, 1, and 6 months. Positive responsiveness to the vaccine was defined as an anti-hepatitis B antibody titre above 10 mIU/ml. Results: All the children except one with systemic JIA developed an antibody response. None of the JIA patients experienced a flare up or clinical deterioration related to the vaccination. The antibody levels in children with JIA were significantly lower than in the healthy controls. Comparison of the antibody levels between the two vaccination schedules showed no statistical difference in the controls; in the JIA subjects the group II schedule resulted in a trend to a greater response than the group I schedule (p<0.07). Vaccine responsiveness was not influenced by either methotrexate or prednisolone treatment. Conclusions: Children with JIA had an adequate response to hepatitis B vaccination and the response was not affected by immunosuppressive treatment. A vaccination schedule at 0, 1, and 6 months seems to be preferable to 0, 1, and 3 months

Sinking strangers: media representations of climate refugees on the BBC and Al Jazeera

This study seeks to investigate the media representations of climate refugees in two global media outlets: The BBC and Al Jazeera. An exhaustive sample of the online coverage from 2000 until 2017 has been gathered and examined through a content analysis guided by framing theory and multimodal critical discourse analysis. After reviewing the 29 news stories, this article finds that climate refugees are framed in four ways: as victims, security threats, activists, and abstractions. In both media outlets, climate refugees are aggregated, collectivized, and made generic—and their situation is deagentialized. The study concludes that the BBC mainly talks about climate refugees instead of talking to them and that this has an impact on the climate refugees’ depicted agency. Al Jazeera quotes more climate refugees in their journalistic coverage, and this allows the reader to understand and empathize. However, both media outlets tend to represent climate refugees as “third world others”: as sinking strangers