Immigration rose to 330,000 migrants arriving into the UK in one year. Of course, the story made big news headlines and many newspapers, websites and politicians took an opportunity to discuss the new statistics.
Read the following three articles focusing on the news:
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34071492 (BBC news online)
- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/27/net-migration-predicted-to-hit-record-level (The Guardian newspaper online)
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3212572/Net-immigration-smashes-previous-record-hit-330-000-Cameron-s-pledge-cap-numbers-arriving-left-tatters.html (Daily Mail newspaper online)
Consider the different writers of the articles - you may want to use the internet or ask teachers/parents to gain an idea of what these news outlets general political learning is and what their stance on immigration might be.
Do you think the outlets' political stance affects their handling of the figures?
Do they portray the news in a positive, negative or neutral light?
Compare the language used in the different articles - is it trying to persuade the reader to think about the figures in a certain way?
Are any of the articles unfair? Do they encourage anti-immigrant sentiments in the UK?
Challenge: use the internet to find another news story on a similar topic - new figures are often released! Who is the author? How is their view portrayed? Is it biased?
