Daily Mail is a right wing tabloid newspaper founded in 1896. Tabloid newspapers such as the Daily Mail are typically aimed at a working class audience as it's got a more simplistic layout and the language is also pretty simple. They usually include topics such as sport and celebrity gossip however this newspaper front page is a bit more serious and not as light-hearted like they sometimes are.
Paul Gilroy's theory mainly talks about the idea that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era and also about the idea that ‘civilisationism' constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on notions of otherness. I believe that this Daily Mail front page reinforces Gilroy's ideas.
Paul Gilroy's theory is applied to analyse representations. This magazine represents migrants and the topic of immigration. The use of the possessive pronoun 'our' sets up a binary opposition based on notions of otherness. It suggests it's us vs them and perhaps that they aren't welcome onto our streets as they belong to Britain only. This interpretation can be supported by Stuart Hall who says that stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power, as subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or ‘other’. There is another binary opposition in this of Britain vs Calais, The migrants are coming from Calais and Britain are trying to stop them. The fact that Britain could have the power to send these people away shows that there is an inequality of power which constructs the migrants as 'other', Paul Gilroy would also support this.
Furthermore, the use of the word 'swarm' and the fact the then Prime Minister David Cameron was likening them to insects suggests an almost infestation of these people. He says that ethnic minorities are often shown as dehumanised and this would definitely support that point. This approach helps us to understand why the migrants are represented in this way, perhaps the newspaper wants to make them feel powerless especially as a binary opposition of us vs them has been constructed. Maybe the newspaper wants the audience to agree with them and be on their side about the issue. The words 'crisis' and 'chaos' may also support this. It suggests that this is something that is getting out of hand and needs to be controlled.
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