Shifting the refugee narrative? An automated frame analysis of Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis.

Author(s): Esther Greussing, Hajo Boomgaarden
Abstract: In 2015, Europe faced the arrival of over 1.25 million refugees fleeing from war-affected countries. The public mainly learned about this issue through domestic media. Through the use of computer-assisted content analysis, this study identifies the most dominant frames employed in the coverage of refugee and asylum issues between January 2015 and January 2016 in six Austrian newspapers (N = 10,606), particularly focusing on potential differences between quality and tabloid media, and on frame variations over time. The findings reveal that, apart from administrative aspects of coping with the arrivals, established narratives of security threat and economisation are most prominent. Humanitarianism frames and background information on the refugees’ situation are provided to a lesser extent. During the most intense phases of the crisis, the framing patterns of tabloid and quality media become highly similar. Media coverage broadens to multiple prominent frames as issue salience sharply increases, and then ‘crystallises’ into a more narrow set. In sum, the results confirm a predominance of stereotyped interpretations of refugee and asylum issues, and thus persisting journalistic routines in both, tabloid and quality media, even in times of a major political and humanitarian crisis.
Organisation(s): Department of Communication
Journal: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Volume: 43
Pages: 1749-1774
No. of pages: 26
ISSN: 1369-183X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1282813
Publication date: 02-2017
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 508005 Journalism
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Demography, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Portal url: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/92d636d6-7acc-4f20-8b32-574a50430b16