Journalism and Advocacy in Media Events. The role of The Guardian and advocacy groups in the Nauru Files
Advocacy groups campaigning for the rights of asylum seekers currently in the Australian- run offshore detentions in Nauru and Manus Island were confronted with a whole new set of challenges on August 10, 2016. This was the day the Australian version of The Guardian released a series titled the Nauru Files which detailed allegations of abuse against asylum seekers detained on the Pacific Island Nation. This research project explores how these advocacy groups responded to the media event in a digitally networked context. Two corpuses of material are analysed – The Guardian’s media coverage and tweets from advocacy organisations involved with campaigning efforts. A mixed-methods approach is applied – applying both discourse analysis and coding. Media event theory is also explored throughout this project, alongside connective action and advocacy journalism. Ultimately, this project seeks to discover how advocacy groups respond to new media events in a digitally networked context.