My investigation focused on the media construction of migrants, during the 2015/16 migration crisis, particularly looking at the construction of migrants as either a security threat or a humanitarian concern. I hypothesised that the reporting of a migrant death within a news article would change the focus of security to be for the migrant, rather than securitising against the migrant. However, I found this not always to be the case; instead it was the focus on the individual which aided in the construction of a humanitarian discourse. My research took the form of a discourse analysis, using articles published in 2015 by the BBC, reporting on the migration crisis. 25 articles were chosen to analyse in depth, based on their relevance and a thematic analysis. Using these articles, I used their language and images to investigate the discourses present, exploring how migrants could be perceived as either a humanitarian concern, or a security threat. The predominant discourse was one of security. The presence of a death within the article did not change this discourse; instead, a humanitarian discourse was present in articles which had a focus on the individual and humanised the migrants. It can be argued that neither the humanitarian nor the security discourse is without issue, and so my research raises further questions surrounding the unchallenged nature of these discourses within our society; particularly as they may have concrete consequences for example in migration policy.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/j40c-xx72
Gage, Ella
Faculty of Humanities and Social SciencesDepartment of Social Sciences
Year: 2021
© Gage, Ella All rights reserved.