scholarly journals Beyond the ‘refugee crisis’: How the UK news media represent asylum seekers across national boundaries

2020 ◽  
pp. 174804852091323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenda Cooper ◽  
Lindsey Blumell ◽  
Mel Bunce

Migration is one of the most pressing, divisive issues in global politics today, and media play a crucial role in how communities understand and respond. This study examines how UK newspapers ( n =  974) and popular news websites ( n =  1044) reported on asylum seekers throughout 2017. It contributes to previous literature in two important ways. First, by examining the ‘new normal’ of daily news coverage in the wake of the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Second, by looking at how asylum seekers from different regions are represented. The content analysis finds significant variations in how asylum seekers are reported, including terminology use and topics they are associated with. The article also identifies important commonalities in how all asylum seekers are represented – most notably, the dominance of political elites as sources across all media content. It argues that Entman’s ‘cascade network model’ can help to explain this, with elites in one country able to influence transnational reports.

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Maurer ◽  
Jörg Haßler ◽  
Simon Kruschinski ◽  
Pablo Jost

Abstract This study compares the balance of newspaper and television news coverage about migration in two countries that were differently affected by the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015 in terms of the geopolitical involvement and numbers of migrants being admitted. Based on a broad consensus among political elites, Germany left its borders open and received about one million migrants mainly from Syria during 2015. In contrast, the conservative British government was heavily attacked by oppositional parties for closing Britain’s borders and, thus, restricting immigration. These different initial situations led to remarkable differences between the news coverage in both countries. In line with news value theory, German media outlets reported much more on migration than did their British counterparts. In line with indexing theory, German news coverage consonantly reflected the consensual view of German political elites, while British news media reported along their general editorial lines.


2020 ◽  
pp. 001139212094638
Author(s):  
Man Xu

The media play a key role in informing public opinion during refugee crises. Representations of refugees in the media shape public understanding of what a ‘refugee’ is and policy decisions over who to include or to exclude. Although extensive literature has examined representations of refugees in news media, few systematic comparative investigations look at discourses across types of immigration countries. In this article, the author compares news coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis in Canada and the UK, to consider how media discourse is affected by a nation’s historical relationship with and current policies of immigration. The author follows existing literature in arguing that the dominant discourses in the newspapers racialize refugees through a ‘victim–pariah’ couplet, and further argues that this shared model of racialized representation serves the particular nation-building projects and asylum regimes in the two countries. In addition, a comparison between coverage in newspapers that represent divergent political orientations shows that news stories that attempt to ‘give voice’ to refugees are more prevalent in the more left-leaning newspapers in both countries. Nonetheless, these attempts to ‘re-humanize’ refugees do not invalidate the Orientalist image of refugees as passive victims without agency and history.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-413
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Ugolini ◽  
Dario Fanara

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the social role of European journalists as they cover the issue of terrorism, which is a potential threat to European society itself. For this purpose, the paper presents the results of a qualitative media content analysis related to the news coverage of the aftermath of three major terrorist attacks. Specifically, the research focuses on the values involved in the coverage of the event rather than on the strict report of what happened. The authors observe that both liberal/‘trustee’ and polarized pluralist/‘advocacy’ models engender a double paradox concerning the interest of citizens in being informed or being protected by news media. Nonetheless, the liberal value of responsibility emerges as fundamental, in order to face and resolve this paradox.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Bithell

SummaryThe media offers opportunities for psychiatrists to communicate with a wide and varied audience, thereby influencing the views of the public and policy makers on mental health issues. There are many different types of media outlet, including daily news media, documentary makers, specialist media, features and comment, and new media. The Science Media Centre is an independent press office that aims to help ensure that the views of scientists, clinicians and researchers are heard in the UK national news media when their area of expertise hits the headlines. In the news media, journalists work to tight time frames and often focus on sensational and controversial topics, presenting challenges for those wanting to engage. For experts to work effectively with the news media it helps to understand more about the way the media works and how to develop necessary skills. Psychiatrists who do work successfully with the media can help ensure that the public receive accurate information about mental health problems, and gain an appreciation of the importance of research in the field and a better understanding of the role of the psychiatrist.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 2028-2049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris J Vargo ◽  
Lei Guo ◽  
Michelle A Amazeen

This study examines the agenda-setting power of fake news and fact-checkers who fight them through a computational look at the online mediascape from 2014 to 2016. Although our study confirms that content from fake news websites is increasing, these sites do not exert excessive power. Instead, fake news has an intricately entwined relationship with online partisan media, both responding and setting its issue agenda. In 2016, partisan media appeared to be especially susceptible to the agendas of fake news, perhaps due to the election. Emerging news media are also responsive to the agendas of fake news, but to a lesser degree. Fake news coverage itself is diverging and becoming more autonomous topically. While fact-checkers are autonomous in their selection of issues to cover, they were not influential in determining the agenda of news media overall, and their influence appears to be declining, illustrating the difficulties fact-checkers face in disseminating their corrections.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Colleen Pease

In 1993, Sweden commenced the unprecedented practice of using Language Analysis (LA) as evidence in refugee status determination. Since that time, Western governments trying to cope with the perceived refugee crisis have similarly adopted the tool to corroborate and undermine the nationality claims of asylum seekers crossing borders without identity documents. During this same period, language professionals, lawyers, various news media, and others across the globe have proceeded to fuel international controversy on the subject, largely challenging the linguistic integrity of the tool, while investing less energy addressing the political context of use, as well as the implications for violations of refugee rights. In 2007, Canada reflected prioritized concerns for efficiency when it made public a pilot project to address the value of this language tool in aiding status decision-making. This paper interrogates the Canadian efficiency paradigm through the Australian lens of LA in practice. In exposing the ethical and legal sites of likely disengagement should Canada proceed with implementation, this paper cautions against LA becoming the most recent assault on a Canadian protection regime already under siege.


2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha ◽  
Ronald J. McGauvran

Most research on media in the post-broadcast age of politics focuses on how media affect the public, not on the interinstitutional relationships between the presidency and news media. This study tackles this important topic by studying news coverage of and presidential attention to the issue of income inequality. We use web scraping and text analysis software to build a dataset of weekly news coverage from 1999 through 2013, across traditional and nontraditional media, including newspapers, broadcast and cable television transcripts, and online news websites. The data show that presidential attention to income inequality influences the income inequality news agenda across all sources except network television and affects the tone of newspaper coverage. Presidential influence of tone is especially pronounced on income inequality issues that have an international focus. The implications of this paper are significant not only for understanding how media and the presidency interact in the post-broadcast age but also for the prospects for federal policies that may combat income inequality.


Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110017
Author(s):  
Mats Ekström ◽  
Marianna Patrona ◽  
Joanna Thornborrow

This paper focuses on the moral work of journalism as displayed and enacted in the reporting practices used in news coverage of scandalous talk by right-wing populist (RWP) politicians. Using a qualitative discourse-analytic approach, we analyze a set of cases of journalistic framing of RWP talk recently circulating in Sweden, Greece, France and the UK, and examine ways in which anti-democratic or racist talk is represented within print, online and broadcast news media. We show how the complex dynamics of different kinds of discursive framing of scandalous talk construct boundaries between right and wrong which contribute to processes of normalising populist discourses and agendas. Moreover, we call attention to the challenge that this poses for contemporary journalism both within public service and commercial networks, as reporting on right-wing populism involves a balancing act between disparate constraints and exigencies of journalism.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Colleen Pease

In 1993, Sweden commenced the unprecedented practice of using Language Analysis (LA) as evidence in refugee status determination. Since that time, Western governments trying to cope with the perceived refugee crisis have similarly adopted the tool to corroborate and undermine the nationality claims of asylum seekers crossing borders without identity documents. During this same period, language professionals, lawyers, various news media, and others across the globe have proceeded to fuel international controversy on the subject, largely challenging the linguistic integrity of the tool, while investing less energy addressing the political context of use, as well as the implications for violations of refugee rights. In 2007, Canada reflected prioritized concerns for efficiency when it made public a pilot project to address the value of this language tool in aiding status decision-making. This paper interrogates the Canadian efficiency paradigm through the Australian lens of LA in practice. In exposing the ethical and legal sites of likely disengagement should Canada proceed with implementation, this paper cautions against LA becoming the most recent assault on a Canadian protection regime already under siege.


Author(s):  
Agnese Dāvidsone ◽  
Dagne Galvanovska

This article analyses the perceived importance of various influences on the ways in which Latvian local and national news media (print, online, TV, radio) have reported on migration issues and the process of accepting asylum seekers in Latvia during the last years. Previous studies indicate that the framing in media content depends on a large number of considerations such as general principles of ethical reporting, the established cultures inside media, and – in many cases – the individual perceptions of the “right” and “wrong” of the journalists and editors. The current study applies a qualitative approach drawing on 13 semi-structured interviews with media editors. The data analysis reveal how the perceptions of various individual, procedural and cultural influences intersect with the journalist perceptions of media roles, responsibilities and duties in a democratic society. Based on the results, suggestions are made about the opportunities of lifelong learning training development for journalists. 


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document