British newspapers’ stance towards the Syrian refugee crisis: An appraisal model study

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Tavassoli ◽  
Alireza Jalilifar ◽  
Peter RR White

This study investigates the representations of the Syrian refugee crisis in commentary articles published in two British newspapers with different political orientations, The Guardian and The Telegraph. The study draws on the appraisal model as a linguistic tool to analyse the attitudinal language of the articles indicative of the stances adopted by the newspapers. Such stances have the potential to position the readers to positively view the refugees and accept them into their homeland labelled as the welcoming stance, or otherwise reject them labelled as unwelcoming. The selected 20 articles belong to September 2015 and March 2016, the beginning and end of a 6-month period during which important policy changes were made by the leading countries in the wake of 2015 terrorist attacks. The findings indicate that the left-leaning The Guardian adopts a dominantly welcoming stance towards the Syrian refugees and consistently maintains this welcoming stance after 6 months of chaos across Europe. The right-leaning The Telegraph, however, shows a more unwelcoming stance and becomes even more unwelcoming after 6 months.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Amal Riyadh Kitishat ◽  
Murad Al Kayed ◽  
Mohammad Al-Ajalein

The present study employs corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to investigate the attitudes of Jordanian news towards the Syrian refugee crisis. The corpus of the research, which consists of 10140 articles (Word types: 103170 and Word tokens: 1956589), were taken from the Petra news agency between 2016 and 2018. Antconc Tools Version 3.4.4w was used to analyze the data. The study used corpus statistical tools of collocates and concordance. Collocates tool used to create a list of 200 collocates associated with the words: /lad3iʔ/ ‘refugee’, /lad3iʔi:n/ ‘refugees’, /su:ri:/ ‘Syrian’, and /su:ryi:n/ ‘Syrians’. These collocates were organized into two thematic categories: ‘services and resources’ and ‘Jordanians and Syrians’. The study used a concordance tool to unveil the attitudes of newspapers towards the Syrian refugee crisis. The findings of the study showed that Jordanians see Syrians as “brothers” and “guests”. However, Jordanian newspapers overstated the negative effect of Syrian refugees on the Jordanian economy, education, healthcare, etc. Jordanians were frustrated because Syrians compete with them on their resources and governmental services.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-297
Author(s):  
Gregory Perreault ◽  
Newly Paul

This paper examines how religious news organizations in the UK covered the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe. Using narrative framing theory, this paper examines all coverage from 2015 and 2016 published in bbc Religion (a part of bbc News), The Muslim News, and Christian Today to examine shared and disparate narratives regarding Syrian refugees migrating to the UK. Four major frames emerged from our analysis of the media coverage in religious and mainstream publications: a humanizing frame, saviour frame, dehumanizing frame, and, redemption frame. The publications differed in their use of these frames as well as the use of sources, news values, and tone of coverage. We discuss each of these frames as well as the implications of the differing coverage.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vappu Tyyskä ◽  
Jenna Blower ◽  
Samantha DeBoer ◽  
Shunya Kawai ◽  
Ashley Walcott

This paper offers a critical analysis of Canadian media content (The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, Huffington Post, CBC, and CTV), from September 2015 to April 2016, of the coverage of the Canadian resettlement effort of Syrian refugees, including representation of the refugees and the Canadian government and public. The analysis is informed by theories of orientalism, neocolonialism, neoliberalism, and feminism.


Author(s):  
Mounir Nasri

This paper argues that positive online media coverage of Syrian refugees arriving in Canada, and the welcoming culture of Canadian society, have both influenced positive settlement and integration outcomes for Syrian refugees. It also provides a better understanding of Canada’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis and shows how the process of resettlement becomes stronger when local community members and citizens are involved. These arguments are demonstrated firstly by analyzing the relationship between welcoming cultures, positive media coverage, and the perception of refugees. Secondly, the role of media coverage in influencing welcoming cultures in Canada, as well as its role in encouraging community members and ordinary citizens to be involved in national humanitarian projects, is described. Finally, information related to Canada’s welcoming culture and positive media coverage are discussed relative to settlement outcomes, which portrays the strong influence of storytelling and inclusive communities on the success of new immigrants as they rebuild their lives in a new country. The various refugee resettlement programs in Canada are also outlined. The Canadian response to the Syrian refugee crisis has demonstrated to the world a different approach to civic engagement and humanitarian work. This national humanitarian response may be perceived as a major successful project. Nevertheless, it also leaves us with many unanswered questions around the topic, and most importantly, questions about the relationship between politics and power, citizenship, culture, online media and public opinions. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-16
Author(s):  
Matthew deTar

Theories of “margins” understand this topic in numerous different senses. From margin as insignificance, to law as defining its own outside, to the periphery of states, to the temporal logic of nations, to the limits of the self, margins come in a number of physical and conceptual forms. This essay explores how different senses of “margin” overlap in Europe's relationship with Turkey during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis. Focusing specifically on Brexit and a 2016 agreement between the European Union and Turkey regarding Syrian refugees, the essay maps the fluid construction of Turkey as a variety of margins.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174804852110066
Author(s):  
Aziz Douai ◽  
Mehmet F Bastug ◽  
Davut Akca

The article investigates news coverage and media framing of the Syrian refugee debate as a public opinion issue in US local news in 2015. The sheer number of refugees created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis as millions of civilians settled in neighboring countries, and a significant number of them embarked on a perilous journey to seek refuge in European countries. The political response to the Syrian refugee crisis was divided, but public attitudes shifted after the terrorist attacks on Paris in November 2015 with calls for more restrictive immigration policies and smaller refugee quotas. In the US, GOP leaders demanded “extreme vetting” and “screening” of refugees and many opposed resettling the modest number of refugees the Obama administration promised to let in. The study analyzes local news coverage variation across the States that welcomed, not welcomed or did not commit to accepting Syrian refugees at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016. The findings of the study demonstrate that the editorial framing of the Syrian refugee crisis downplayed the global responsibility and international commitment of the US, highlighted the administrative costs and framed them as security threats. The implications of these frames are discussed.


Author(s):  
Laurence Cros

Between 2015 and 2017, Canada welcomed 49, 810 Syrian refugees, thus meeting the electoral promise made by Liberal candidate Justin Trudeau in the wake of the emotional shock provoked by the photo of drowned toddler Alan Kurdi. Media the world over presented the Canadian initiative as an example that should guide and inspire other countries. This chapter examines Canada’s Syrian refugee resettlement plan to determine whether or not it can serve as an effective blueprint to improve global refugee crises. It combined a rigorous screening process, private sponsoring to build support and defray state costs, and citizen participation on immigration processes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thouraya Zheni

The aim of the present paper is examining the mental representations activated by semantic networks in media discourse. It studies the cognitive frames that are mentally constructed and activated about illegal immigrants, in general, and Syrian refugees in particular. Any word class can evoke frames, but to limit the scope of analysis, Fairclough's socio-cultural approach is implemented to work out the experiential, relational and expressive values of only nouns and adjectives in media discourse. The corpus consists of articles released by The Guardian newspaper during and after the Syrian refugee crisis between 2015 and 2019. The results of the research show that cognitive frames are used to enhance the stereotypical categorizations of refugees as dislocated, uprooted and oppressed communities. This paper focuses on the mental mapping of such disadvantaged people and how they are categorized and presented in media discourse. It also analyses nouns and adjectives as generators or builders of cognitive frames in the human mind via discourse. This study is original because it relates semantic networks, mental lexicon and cognitive frames to analyze media discourse.


Author(s):  
Zahid Shahab Ahmed

Following the Arab Spring, the Middle East is in chaos with ongoing wars in Yemen and Syria. There are millions of Syrians seeking refuge in neighboring countries like Turkey and Lebanon, and in European countries like Greece, Hungary, and Germany. Nonetheless, the largest proportion of Syrian refugees in hosted by neighboring countries needing continuous support of the international community. As the issue of Syrian refugees is transnational, there is a need to look for multilateral options for dealing with the crisis. Thus, the role of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) becomes crucial. Irrespective of being labelled as a ‘talk fest', there is no denying of the fact that OIC has significant potential for tackling grave challenges facing the Muslim world. The problems range from extremism and radicalization to poverty and illiteracy. Now there is the emergent challenge of refugees from the Middle Eastern crisis. This paper evaluates the role of OIC with reference to the Syrian refugee crisis in the Middle East and beyond.


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