Media Representation Of Migrants And Refugees

Perception and representation of newcomers and immigrants The topic of migration has become particularly contentious in national and international debates. Media have a discernable impact on overall societal attitudes towards this phenomenon. Polls show time and again that immigration is one of the most important issues occupying people’s minds. This book examines the dynamic interplay between media representations of migrants and refugees on the one hand and the governmental and societal (re)actions to these on the other. Largely focusing on Belgium and Sweden, this collection of interdisciplinary research essays attempts to unravel the determinants of people’s preferences regarding migration policy, expectations towards newcomers, and economic, humanitarian and cultural concerns about immigration’s effect on the majority population’s life. Whilst migrants and refugees remain voiceless and highly underrepresented in the legacy media, this volume allows their voices to be heard. Contributors: Leen d’Haenens (KU Leuven), Willem Joris (KU Leuven), Paul Puschmann (KU Leuven/Radboud University Nijmegen), Ebba Sundin (Halmstad University), David De Coninck (KU Leuven), Rozane De Cock (KU Leuven), Valériane Mistiaen (Université libre de Bruxelles), Lutgard Lams (KU Leuven), Stefan Mertens (KU Leuven), Olivier Standaert (UC Louvain), Hanne Vandenberghe (KU Leuven), Koen Matthijs (KU Leuven), Kevin Smets (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Jacinthe Mazzocchetti (UC Louvain), Lorraine Gerstmans (UC Louvain), Lien Mostmans (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), and François Heinderyckx (Université libre de Bruxelles) Ebook available in Open Access. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content). With thanks to the funding provided by Belspo (Belgian Science Policy Office), as part of the framework programme BRAIN-be (Belgian Research Action Through Interdisciplinary Networks), contract nr BR/165/A4/IM2MEDIATE.

Media have played an important role in framing the public debate on the “refugee crisis” that peaked in autumn of 2015. This report examines the narratives developed by print media in eight European countries and how they contributed to the public perception of the “crisis”, shifting from careful tolerance over the summer, to an outpouring of solidarity and humanitarianism in September 2015, and to a securitisation of the debate and a narrative of fear in November 2015. Overall, there has been limited opportunity in mainstream media coverage for refugees and migrants to give their views on events, and little attention paid to the individuals’ plight or the global and historical context of their displacement. Refugees and migrants are often portrayed as an undistinguishable group of anonymous and unskilled outsiders who are either vulnerable or dangerous. The dissemination of biased or ill-founded information contributes to perpetuating stereotypes and creating an unfavourable environment not only for the reception of refugees but also for the longer-term perspectives of societal integration.

The global narrative surrounding migrants, refugees, and people on the move is often fraught with biases, misunderstandings, and misrepresentations. While crucial for informing public opinion, media coverage can inadvertently perpetuate stereotypes, fuel discrimination, and distort realities. This leads to a climate where migrants and refugees are often misunderstood, marginalized, and even targeted with hate speech. Such narratives hinder efforts for inclusive societies and contribute to the polarization of public debates on migration. Media Representation of Migrants and Refugees offers a comprehensive solution by bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives to examine and challenge prevailing media narratives critically. By inviting scholars and practitioners from diverse fields such as Social Sciences, Humanities, Media, Communications, and Government, the book aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between media representations and the lived experiences of migrants. This book is a vital resource for academics, researchers, policymakers, and media professionals seeking to understand and address the challenges of media representation in the context of migration.

Using examples from a range of countries, this book illustrates how the media intervenes to affect the reception migrants receive, and how it stimulates prospective migrants to move.

Migration in the 21st century is one of the pre-eminent issues of our present historical moment, a phenomenon that has acquired new urgency with accelerating climate change, civil wars, and growing economic scarcities. Refugees and Migrants in Film, Art and Media consists of eleven essays that explore how artists have imaginatively engaged with this monumental human drama, examining a range of alternative modes of representation that provide striking new takes on the experiences of these precarious populations. Covering prominent art works by Ai Weiwei and Richard Mosse, and extending the spectrum of representation to refugee film workshops on the island of Lesvos as well as virtual reality installations of Alejandro G. Iñárritu and others, the chapters included here focus on the power of aesthetic engagement to illuminate the stories of refugees and migrants in ways that overturn journalistic clichés.

The socio-discursive landscape surrounding the migration debate is characterised by a growing sense of crisis in both personal and collective identities. From this viewpoint, discourses about immigration are also always attempts at reconstructing the threatened ‘home identity’ of the respective host society. It is such attempts at reasserting identity-in-crisis (due to migration) that are the focus of the volume Migration and Media: Discourses about identities in crisis. This four-part book explores the representational strategies used to frame current migration debates as crises of identity, collective and individual. It features fourteen case-studies of varying sets of data including print media texts, TV broadcasts, online forums, politicians’ speeches, legal and administrative texts, and oral narratives, drawn from discourses in a range of languages – Croatian, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Ukrainian – , and it employs different discourse-analytical methods, such as Argumentation and Metaphor Analysis, Gendered Language Studies, Corpus-assisted Semantics and Pragmatics, and Proximization Theory. Such a diverse range of sources, languages, and approaches provides innovative methodological and theoretical analysis on migration and identity which will be of interest to scholars, students, and policy makers working in the fields of migration studies, media studies, identity studies, and social and public policy. As of January 2023, this e-book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched.

This book proposes an interdisciplinary, multicultural and contemporary approach to examining the controversial links between migration and crime. It includes empirical research on migrants and crime to explore the risk and realities of crime and migration, as well as how mass media in different regions of the world has covered violent acts that have involved migrants (as victims or aggressors). The chapters are written by authors from various countries including the UK, Turkey, Slovenia, Iraq, Albania, Chile, the Republic of Moldavia, and Romania, and from different fields of research including: criminology, sociology, political sciences and communication. They bring to light new ideas, new methodologies and results that could be taken and developed further. This volume allows readers to explore the impact of migration on crime.

Digital media have radically altered understandings of racism, so that an issue that has too often been assumed to belong to the past has been thrust into contemporary mainstream debates, news and popular culture. In light of the importance of traditional communications and social media to such events as Brexit in the UK and the Trump Presidency in the US, it is imperative for students of media and public discourse to examine the role played by the media in the generation, circulation and contestation of racist ideas. In Racism and Media, Gavan Titley: Explains why racism is such a complex and contested concept Provides a set of theoretical and analytical tools with which to interrogate how media dynamics and processes impact on racism and anti-racism Demonstrates methods’ application through a wide range of case studies, taking in examples from the UK, US, and several European countries Examines the rise and impact of online and social media racism Analyses questions of freedom of speech and hate speech in relation to racism and media This book is an essential companion for students of media, communications, sociology and cultural studies.

“The main function of traditional media is to provide timely information to the public, but today, traditional media cannot fulfill these expectations with regard to the fluid nature of global migration. New digital media technologies such social media have arisen to fill the void, narrating the lives of migrants in artistic terms that bear the traces of the major social issues of migration. In this critical anthology, contributors examine the intersection of migration, art, and media studies in order to critically analyse the impact of their confluence upon migrant and receiving communities.” Vildan Mahmutoğlu is Associate Professor at Galatasaray University, Istanbul. Her research interests include migration, local cultures, gender, and minorities. Her published book chapters include “A Glimmer of Hope for Mass Media in a Liberal democracy: istanbulrumazinligi.com” and “Global media Entertainment: star search.” Her current research is about gender in diaspora. John Morán González is the J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor of American and English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies. He is author of two monographs and the edit or or c o-editor of thr ee anthologies.” Contents Introduction Vildan Mahmutoğlu and John Moran Gonzalez CHAPTER 1. Representation of Asylum seekers in Science Fiction films: Prawns in District 9 Vildan Mahmutoğlu CHAPTER 2. Border Imagery and Refugee Abjection in Contemporary Visual Art Balca Arda CHAPTER 3. Manifestations of Transfer in the Latest Post-Yugoslav Playwriting and Theatre: Migration, Cultural Mobility and Transculturality Gabriela Abrasowicz CHAPTER 4. Migrants, Identity, and Body Modification in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Media Eric Trinka CHAPTER 5. ‘The new diaspora’ and interactive media campaigns: The case of Romanians migrating to the UK after Brexit Bianca Florentina Cheregi CHAPTER 6. Social Media and ICT Use by refugees, Immigrants and NGOs: A Literature Overview Bilgen Türkay CHAPTER 7. Reproduction of Desire: Overuse of Social Media Among Syrian Refugees and Its Effects on The Future Imagination Barış Öktem

The media inform the public, help political and social actors communicate with each other, influence perceptions of pressing issues, depict topics and people in particular ways, and may shape political views and participation. Given these critical functions that the media play in society, this book asks how the media represent migrants and minorities. What information do the media communicate about them? What are the implications of media coverage for participation in the public sphere? In the past, researchers studying migrants and minorities have rarely engaged in systematic media analysis. This volume advances analytical strategies focused on information, representation, and participation to examine the media, migrants, and minorities, and it offers a set of compelling original analyses of multiple minority groups from countries in Europe, North America, and East Asia, considering both traditional newspapers and new social media. The contributors analyze the framing and type of information that the media provide about particular groups or about issues related to migration and diversity; they examine how the media convey or construct particular depictions of minorities and immigrants, including negative portrayals; and they interrogate whether and how the media provide space for minorities’ participation in a public sphere where they can advance their interests and identities. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.