scholarly journals No government mouthpieces: Changes in the framing of the “migration crisis” in German news and infotainment media

Author(s):  
Dennis Lichtenstein

This study investigates the German media’s framing of the 2015–2016 “migration crisis” and their support and criticism of the initial open-door policy. A standardized content analysis examines changes in media frames following the key event of assaults on New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2015. It is analyzed how changes in coverage differed between public broadcasting news and infotainment formats (talk and satirical shows) and how they were related to governmental communication. The findings contradict ideas of a state-conforming and uniform coverage of the “migration crisis.” Media coverage did not parallel the governmental switch from support for the open-door policy to ambivalence after the NYE incidents but challenged governmental communication with critical counter frames. Regarding support for the open-door policy, the news media showed some parallels to the government’s frames; however, the infotainment media deviated in their frame agenda from the news media and thus contributed to diversity in media discourse.

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-226
Author(s):  
Soner Tauscher

Avrupa ülkelerinin alışık olduğu düzenli işçi göçü ve kontrollü sığınmacı alımı Suriye iç savaşının üst düzeye ulaştığı 2013/2014 yılından itibaren önemli bir değişim göstermektedir. Avrupa Birliği, kuruluşundan bu yana en yoğun mülteci göçüyle karşılaşmaktadır. Yaşanan bu kontrolsüz ve zorunlu göçe Avrupa toplumları ve devletleri hazırlıksız yakalanmıştır. Mülteci krizini ekonomik olarak fırsata çevirmek isteyen Almanya ise göçmenler için 2015 yazından itibaren açık kapı politikası uygulamaya başlamıştır. Ancak uygulanan açık kapı politikası Alman toplumunun azımsanmayacak bir kesiminde mültecilere ve Müslümanlara yönelik ağır ve şiddetli bir karşı kampanya ortaya çıkardı. Mülteciler ve Müslümanlar aşırı sağ toplumsal hareketlerin gösterilerinde “tecavüzcü”, “işgalci”, “kriminal dolandırıcılar” vb. sıfatlar ile birlikte anılmakta, medya da bu söylemlerin taşıyıcılığını yaparak kamusallaşmasını sağlamaktadır. Böylece aşırı sağı desteklemeyen, apolitik, ya da sığınmacılara karşı hoşgörülü davranan toplum kesimlerinde kamuoyu oluşturularak sığınmacı ve göçmenlere karşı olumsuz algı gündemde tutulmakta, politik olanın merkezine yerleştirilmektedir. Bu çalışmada öncelikle göçmenlere karşı aşırı sağ toplumsal hareketlerin oluşturduğu olumsuz söylemin McCombs ve Shaw’un Gündem Belirleme Kuramı (Agenda Setting Function) bağlamında medya tarafından siyasetin merkezine nasıl oturtulduğu tartışılacaktır. Ayrıca gündemde tutulan mültecilere yönelik olumsuz söylemin gerçeği yansıtıp yansıtmadığı, göçmenlerin ve sığınmacıların biyolojik Almanlardan daha çok suça meyilli olup olmadığı oluşturulan soyut söylemlerden ziyade Almanya İçişleri Bakanlığı’nın yıllık olarak yayınladığı Emniyet Suç İstatistikleri temel alınarak incelenecektir.ABSTRACT IN ENGLISHFar right movements in Germany and evaluation of media discourse of criminal immigrant in the light of official documentsFlows of regular worker migration and regular asylum seekers, of whom European countries are familiar, have significantly changed since 2013/2014 when the civil war of Syria reached its peak. The European Union face probably the most intensive refugee migration since its establishment. European societies and states have not been prepared for this uncontrolled and compulsory immigration. Germany seem to want to turn the refugee crisis into an economic opportunity as evident in their open door policy since the summer of 2015. However, implementation of open-door policy has led a substantial part of German society to a strong campaign against the refugees and Muslims. Refugees and Muslims are referred to as “rapists”, “invaders”, “criminal fraudsters”, and so on in demonstrations of far right movements and media has helped disseminating these discourses. Hence, this manipulated and hateful discourse tries to gain support from the segment of society wh normally does not support far right and often apolitical, or tolerant towards asylum seekers. In this study, the ways in which the negative discourse of far right social movements against immigrants is brought to the centre of the political agenda by media is analysed using the agenda setting framework by McCombs and Shaw. Then, the claims that immigrants are involved in crime, or they are prone to be criminals are analysed and contrasted with the data obtained from the annual Crime and Safety Reports of the German Ministry of the Interior.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 519-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeheng Pan ◽  
Michaël Opgenhaffen ◽  
Baldwin Van Gorp

Climate negotiations have increasingly resonated with global governance and world power relations. However, media studies of climate change have paid relatively less attention to media frames of the problem solving. This study addresses this issue by examining the media coverage of COP21 from three countries that have considerable influence on climate politics: the United Kingdom, the United States, and China. By applying an inductive frame analysis, the study identified 10 media frames embedded in the discussions on climate negotiations. A deductive analysis further assessed the prevalence of these frames. The findings suggest that the frames were significantly influenced by the values of the established and emerging powers in the international policy area. The British and American media upheld the underlying norms that have long underpinned the existing Western-led order, while Chinese media coverage manifested a rising power in need of world recognition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-154
Author(s):  
Tatiana Riabova ◽  
Oleg Riabov

The article deals with the Russian media coverage of sexual assaults against women during the 2016 New Year's Eve celebrations in Cologne. The authors examine it in the frame of discourse of “Gayropa” that represents the EU via changes in gender order of the West European societies. The pro-Kremlin media coverage of the “Rape of Europe” contributes to positioning Russia in the world, maintaining power legitimacy in the country, and supporting gender order in Russian society. The media discourse treats it as an evidence of decline of the European civilization.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Jarvis ◽  
Stuart Macdonald ◽  
Andrew Whiting

AbstractThis article explores original empirical findings from a research project investigating representations of cyberterrorism in the international news media. Drawing on a sample of 535 items published by 31 outlets between 2008 and 2013, it focuses on four questions. First, how individuated a presence is cyberterrorism given within news media coverage? Second, how significant a threat is cyberterrorism deemed to pose? Third, how is the identity of ‘cyberterrorists’ portrayed? And, fourth, who or what is identified as the referent – that which is threatened – within this coverage? The article argues that constructions of specificity, status, and scale play an important, yet hitherto under-explored, role within articulations of concern about the threat posed by cyberterrorism. Moreover, unpacking news coverage of cyberterrorism in this way leads to a more variegated picture than that of the vague and hyperbolic media discourse often identified by critics. The article concludes by pointing to several promising future research agendas to build on this work.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla A. Santos ◽  
Scott Tainsky ◽  
K. Alexander Schmidt ◽  
Changsup Shim

To date, scholarly attention to mixed martial arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization has been limited. This study sought to address this gap in literature by focusing on the news media’s framing of public officials’ discourse concerning MMA. In so doing, the study addressed the entanglement of news media, sport, and contemporary political maneuvering. Overall, findings suggest two dominant media frames: leveraging of sociopolitical capital to protect societal values and leveraging of sociopolitical capital to advocate for legislation. Specifically, the authors propose that news media have framed and reframed MMA as a succession of moral threats and reassurances that are given voice by public officials in the name of protecting the citizenry.


2020 ◽  
pp. 026732312097872
Author(s):  
Nanna Alida G Fredheim

The media are central arenas for actors challenging government practice, as those who succeed in publicly defining issues can influence public perceptions and policy outcomes. Taking into account the widespread civic participation in health media coverage, this study explores actor influence on the media framing of a contentious health policy issue, before and after a policy change. By means of media texts analysis, it analyses the relation between actor frames and the dominant media frames on the issue of priority setting of innovative pharmaceuticals. While confirming that actors vary in their ability to influence the media, the findings contend traditional conceptions that representation equates media influence and shed light on factors that affect frame influence.


2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooks DeCillia ◽  
Patrick McCurdy

Public service broadcasting (PSB) across the world is in crisis. This article examines how, if at all, normative academic ideals of public service broadcasting inform discussion about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Canadian news media. The researchers undertook a quantitative (N = 467) and qualitative (n = 29) content analysis of five years of Canadian news media coverage about the CBC published between January 1, 2009, and April 30, 2014. Their systematic analysis of this research found little connection was made between the CBC and discussions of public service values. This study contends that the pre-eminence of neoliberal discourse represents a serious assault to broadcasters with a public service ethos.Partout dans le monde, la radiodiffusion en tant que service public est en crise. Cet article examine comment les idéaux normatifs académiques de la radiodiffusion publique contribuent à alimenter le débat sur la Société Radio-Canada (SRC) dans lesmédias canadiens. Dans le cadre d’une analyse de contenu quantitative (N = 467) et qualitative (n = 29) portant sur cinq années de couverture médiatique canadienne à propos de CBC (1er janvier 2009 au 30 avril 2014), nous avons constaté qu’il y avait peu de relation entre les valeurs de la SRC et celles qui sont liées au service public dans les nouvelles diffusées par les médias canadiens. Cette recherche fait valoir la prééminence dans le débat d’un discours néolibéral qui soulève plusieurs enjeux éthiques quant à son adéquation avec les valeurs liées au service public en tant que tel.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 562-580
Author(s):  
Theng Theng Ong ◽  
Robert M. McKenzie

‘If it bleeds, it leads’, events characterised by fatalities, are likely to attract high levels of media coverage. This study adopts a multidisciplinary approach to investigate public discourses on the MH17 tragedy in Malaysia and the United Kingdom. First, corpus-based discourse analysis was employed to explore the construction of the Malaysian Airlines tragedy MH17 in four selected Malaysian and British newspapers. In addition, an attitudinal study examining 50 Malaysian and 50 UK nationals’ perceptions of the tragedy was conducted. Keywords analysis revealed an overall tendency for the news media to construct the air tragedy through classifications between ‘us’ and ‘others’. Specifically, important ‘Us’ (Malaysian elites) and non-important ‘Other’ (non-Malaysian) in the Malaysian newspapers, versus good ‘Us’ (the West) and evil ‘Others’ (Russia) in the British newspapers. The attitudinal analysis shows, for both the Malaysian and the UK respondents, the most salient associations with the MH17 tragedy related to ‘ conflicts’.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. e0000078
Author(s):  
Marco Zenone ◽  
Jeremy Snyder ◽  
Alessandro Marcon ◽  
Timothy Caulfield

Natural herd immunity, where community-acquired infections in low-risk populations are used to protect high risk populations from infection–has seen high profile support in some quarters, including through the Great Barrington Declaration. However, this approach has been widely criticized as ineffective and misinformed. In this study, we examine media discourse around natural herd immunity in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) to better understand how this approach was promoted. Country-specific news media publications between March 11, 2020 and January 31, 2021 were searched for references to herd immunity. News articles focused on herd immunity and including a stakeholder quote about herd immunity were collected, resulting in 400 UK and 144 US articles. Stakeholder comments were then coded by name, organization, organization type, and concept agreement or disagreement. Government figures and a small but vocal coalition of academics played a central role in promoting natural herd immunity in the news media whereas critics were largely drawn from academia and public health. These groups clashed on whether: natural herd immunity is an appropriate and effective pandemic response; the consequences of a lockdown are worse than those of promoting herd immunity; high-risk populations could be adequately protected; and if healthcare resources would be adequate under a herd immunity strategy. False balance in news media coverage of natural herd immunity as a pandemic response legitimized this approach and potentially undermined more widely accepted mitigation approaches. The ability to protect high risk populations while building herd immunity was a central but poorly supported pillar of this approach. The presentation of herd immunity in news media underscores the need for greater appreciation of potential harm of media representations that contain false balance.


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