Influence Of Social Media During The European Migration Crisis

It is a common view that social media play an essential role in the formation of public opinion. By analysing and covering everyday life issues, media generate the future main concerns of the citizens, which results in a consequential impact on public opinion. Since 2015, media scrutinize the European migration crisis, giving insight to the host countries concerns, as they struggle to handle irregular immigration. The media coverage of the crisis also characterizes refugees and immigrants as either vulnerable or dangerous outsiders. Therefore, my thesis question is: “To what extent did media shape public opinion during the European migration crisis? ”. This paper aims to examine the media coverage of the European migration crisis as well as the influence of media on public opinion regarding International immigration.

Media and European migration crisis

Europe's migration crisis: this article will be useful for my first paragraph as it explains the development of a humanitarian and a political crisis within the European Union. It also focuses on key events of the crisis such as the drowning of boats carrying migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

Terms that are used by media

Media used labels such as “migrant”, “refugee” and “immigrant” in order to describe the people trying to enter the European Union. Press coverage of the refugee and migrant crisis in the EU: A content analysis of five European countries: the present researchers have shown that the use of terms varied by country. For instance, Germany and Sweden employed more “asylum seeker”. By contrast, the dominant term in Italy and the UK was “migrant”. This analysis will come in handy here, as it shows that there is a battle over the words used to describe migrants, which thus sways public opinion.

Prevalence of different themes in coverage

In terms of the range of themes in coverage there were some clear differences over time. Media coverage of the “refugee crisis”: A cross-European perspective. Council of Europe: this article will help me answer this third section as through the description of media coverage of several key events during the crisis such the November Paris attacks, it explains why at first humanitarian themes was coded as a main theme in coverage, and then how discussions of refugees as a cultural threat, threat to community cohesion and national security emerged.

Explanations that are offered

The most cited explanation for migrations flows was people fleeing wars. Press coverage of the refugee and migrant crisis in the EU: A content analysis of five European countries: gives further reasons of why people were trying to enter Europe and it also claims that explanations differ between countries.

Solutions to the migration crisis

According to Poushter, J. (2016), Europeans “overwhelmingly believe” that the European Union is struggling to handle the crisis. Thus, solutions must be found. Press coverage of the refugee and migrant crisis in the EU: A content analysis of five European countries: this study is convenient to answer this section as it illustrates numerous solutions to the migration crisis present in coverage, such as the provision of more aid to migrants for example.

Public attitudes, policy makers and migrants themselves

UN Global Pulse, “Understanding Movement and Perceptions of Migrants and Refugees with Social Media,” 2017: this article studies the xenophobic Tweets of host communities towards the displaced populations, which therefore portrays one impact of media reports on public attitudes and actions. · Kosho, J. (2016). Media Influence on Public Opinion Attitudes Toward the Migration Crisis: “news media take advantage of an existing uncertainty and unease around immigration”, which “can serve for support for the extreme political platforms”

Impacts of media reports on political discourse

Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a person responsible for or involved in formulating policies”, policymakers in this case, have a prominent role in solving the migration crisis by introducing efficient policies for the host countries and migrants. · Kosho, J. (2016): policymakers must determine how many immigrants are admitted each year, if immigrants represent a threat to members of the host nations, if they are legitimate in their demands and work on the types of aid to be provided to the displaced populations.