The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Refugees? Imagined Refugeehood(s) in the Media Coverage of the Migration Crisis
This text is an attempt to analyze a particular, normative aspect of the media narrative about refugees during the recent migration crisis in Europe. It looks at the substantive semantic distance between the ‘good’ or ‘real’ refugees presented in some media outlets and the definition of a refugee un...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Oradea, Research Centre on Identity and Migration Studies-RCIMI
2016-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Identity and Migration Studies |
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| Online Access: | http://www.e-migration.ro/jims/Vol10_No2_2016/JIMS_Vol10_No2_2016_pp23_33_SZCZEPANIK.pdf |
| _version_ | 1828499619651256320 |
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| author | Marta SZCZEPANIK |
| author_facet | Marta SZCZEPANIK |
| author_sort | Marta SZCZEPANIK |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This text is an attempt to analyze a particular, normative aspect of the media narrative about refugees during the recent migration crisis in Europe. It looks at the substantive semantic distance between the ‘good’ or ‘real’ refugees presented in some media outlets and the definition of a refugee under international law. This difference is later explained by a particular kind of exposure to the events of the refugee crisis – a ‘mediated experience’, and by the existence of a normative ‘refugee archetype’. I look at images representing refugees through the lenses of John B. Thompson’s (1995) concept of opposition between lived and mediated experience – the figures of ‘bad’ and ‘good’ refugees are seen as belonging to the order of mediated experience, therefore, as argued by Thomson, impersonal and dispersed in time and space. Finally, I refer to the Malkki’s (1996) concept of a refugee as a ‘universal humanitarian subject’ – an apolitical and de-historicized figure, reduced to the role of aid beneficiary which serves me to explain the ambiguity of representations of refugees and their dependence on political interests. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T13:27:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-16e1a2c6d1ac436bbcaa52c547b5e90f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1843-5610 1843-5610 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T13:27:45Z |
| publishDate | 2016-11-01 |
| publisher | University of Oradea, Research Centre on Identity and Migration Studies-RCIMI |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Identity and Migration Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-16e1a2c6d1ac436bbcaa52c547b5e90f2022-12-22T01:05:26ZengUniversity of Oradea, Research Centre on Identity and Migration Studies-RCIMIJournal of Identity and Migration Studies1843-56101843-56102016-11-011022333The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Refugees? Imagined Refugeehood(s) in the Media Coverage of the Migration CrisisMarta SZCZEPANIK0Polish Academy of SciencesThis text is an attempt to analyze a particular, normative aspect of the media narrative about refugees during the recent migration crisis in Europe. It looks at the substantive semantic distance between the ‘good’ or ‘real’ refugees presented in some media outlets and the definition of a refugee under international law. This difference is later explained by a particular kind of exposure to the events of the refugee crisis – a ‘mediated experience’, and by the existence of a normative ‘refugee archetype’. I look at images representing refugees through the lenses of John B. Thompson’s (1995) concept of opposition between lived and mediated experience – the figures of ‘bad’ and ‘good’ refugees are seen as belonging to the order of mediated experience, therefore, as argued by Thomson, impersonal and dispersed in time and space. Finally, I refer to the Malkki’s (1996) concept of a refugee as a ‘universal humanitarian subject’ – an apolitical and de-historicized figure, reduced to the role of aid beneficiary which serves me to explain the ambiguity of representations of refugees and their dependence on political interests.http://www.e-migration.ro/jims/Vol10_No2_2016/JIMS_Vol10_No2_2016_pp23_33_SZCZEPANIK.pdfmedia narrativemigration crisis in Europerefugees’ crisis |
| spellingShingle | Marta SZCZEPANIK The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Refugees? Imagined Refugeehood(s) in the Media Coverage of the Migration Crisis Journal of Identity and Migration Studies media narrative migration crisis in Europe refugees’ crisis |
| title | The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Refugees? Imagined Refugeehood(s) in the Media Coverage of the Migration Crisis |
| title_full | The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Refugees? Imagined Refugeehood(s) in the Media Coverage of the Migration Crisis |
| title_fullStr | The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Refugees? Imagined Refugeehood(s) in the Media Coverage of the Migration Crisis |
| title_full_unstemmed | The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Refugees? Imagined Refugeehood(s) in the Media Coverage of the Migration Crisis |
| title_short | The ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Refugees? Imagined Refugeehood(s) in the Media Coverage of the Migration Crisis |
| title_sort | good and bad refugees imagined refugeehood s in the media coverage of the migration crisis |
| topic | media narrative migration crisis in Europe refugees’ crisis |
| url | http://www.e-migration.ro/jims/Vol10_No2_2016/JIMS_Vol10_No2_2016_pp23_33_SZCZEPANIK.pdf |
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