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Thursday, November 10
1 4 : 3 0 – 1 6 : 0 0
CDE05
Communicating the Refugee Crisis: The Security/HumanitarianismNexus 1
M. Georgiou
1
1
London School of Economics and Political Science, Media and Communications, London, United Kingdom
This panel examines the security/humanitarianismnexus that defines the management of the current‘refugee crisis’in Europe and explores the dis/continu‑
ities this nexus generates anew in the communicative spaces of European democracies. Grounded on the tenuous articulation of two historical imperatives,
the care towards vulnerable 'others' and the protection of 'our own' citizens, these dis/continuities are, at once, juridical (universal human rights versus
national sovereignty), military (rescue versus expulsion), political (open versus close state borders and services), and moral (hospitality versus self-protec‑
tion). The focus of this panel falls on the critical exploration of the ways in which these dilemmas of European governance appear within the communica‑
tive spaces of European nation-states, on two dimensions: the dimension of media representation and the dimension of the communication architecture
of the border that includes/excludes the actors directly involved – refugees and migrants but also locals societies receiving them.We bring those two critical
elements of Europe’s communication architecture in dialogue and consider their continuities and oppositions. One of these dimensions is represented in
mainstream European press and focuses on the ways the European press narrates ‘the crisis’ across different countries (Zaborowski for a cross-European
analysis of the media; Horvath, Schweizer, Stolic, and Vico for a Balkan-focussed comparison). The second dimension focuses on the experience and voice
of a range of actors involved in ‘the crisis’, especially those often spoken about in the media but only rarely heard speaking. We thus examine communica‑
tion architectures that involve refugees and volunteers and other actors at Europe’s borderlands (Georgiou; Horsti), but also narrations of the journey and
the border among young refugees who have crossed it and reached EU’s heartland (Leurs). The aim of this dual approach is to understand and reflect upon
how humanitarian securitisation informs and potentially shapes public debates on citizenship, rights and democracy; but also how it organises the very
infrastructure of collective imaginaries around voice, belonging and recognition. Prof Peter Dahlgren (University of Lund) will act as respondent to the panel
and its approach, especially by raising questions about the role of media and communications at times of polarisation and conflicting claims to hospitality,
responsibility, security, and national sovereignty in Europe.
PN 101
Narratives of Pity, Narratives of Violence: European Media Representations of ‘The Refugee Crisis’
R. Zaborowski
1
1
London School of Economics and Political Science, Media and Communications, London, United Kingdom
While the so-called European ‘refugee crisis’ has been covered extensively by mainstream press, the tone of that coverage varied across regions, periods
of time and editorial lines. As printed press remains a powerful force shaping the political and social discourse, a detailed investigation of patterns and
differences of narrating the crisis is crucial to the understanding of both the wider implications and specific contexts. With that in mind, we analyse a body
of articles from twenty mainstream newspapers in eight countries, and we look at the European press comparatively across time and place to understand
the ways ‘the refugee crisis’is mediated and portrayed. The comparative frame is crucial to grasp the crisis coverage as a dynamic, multifaceted process. We
engage with questions of narratives changing over time and emphasizing different aspects of the situation. In this, we argue, the concept of ‘the border’
emerges as fluid, discursive and strongly political. Specifically, we look at the issues of voice to argue that a key aspect of these representations is whose
accounts are emphasized and whose are denied in the coverage of the events. In our analysis, we therefore distinguish between different types of actors and
calls for action in the newspaper articles, and we uncover values attributed to those actors and actions. We identify four different classifications (economic,
cultural, geopolitical and moral) of definitions concerning ‘causes’ and ‘consequences’ of the crisis, and among the latter we identify positive or negative
frames. The narratives related to these causes and consequences are thus centred on the presence or absence of calls for action (active – passive frame) and
the type of narrative (humanitarian – militarisation frame). We argue that while the mainstream press narratives of the refugee crises can be positioned
within this two-dimensional theoretical framework, certain narratives are more prevalent in specific media outlets, regions and periods of time. We discuss
these patterns also to raise questions about larger implications of themes and voices absent from the mainstream picture despite a (superficial) plurality
of representations.
PN 102
Humanitarianism vs. Security Alongside the Balkan Route. How Serbia, Hungary and Germany Perceive the Stream of Migrants
G. Horvath
1
, C. Schweizer
1
, T. Stolic
1
, S. Vico
2
1
London School of Economics and Political Science, Media and Communications, London, United Kingdom
2
Goldsmiths, Media and Communications, London, United Kingdom
When reaching the borderland in South-Eastern Europe, many migrants continue their journey via the so called “Balkan route” towards Germany or other
destinations. The countries alongside and at the end of this route therefore witness a considerable number of people traveling, noticing also the shape and
condition these refugees are in. Being confronted with this ambiguous situation, the general public in each country is constantly re-evaluating its collective
standpoint in relation to these migrants, taking into account both the migrants’ situation and the interests of the country. In this paper, we address this
public evaluation processes from the perspective of three countries located at different points alongside the Balkan route: Serbia, Hungary and Germany.
We analyse how the stream of migrants is depicted in two of their broadsheet papers – a right wing and a left wing oriented one. The nexus that is brought
forward in this panel – humanitarianism vs. security – is also used as a binary here. We argue that even though all three countries witness the same
stream of migration, their evaluation differs considerably and changes over time. In particular, the struggle over this binary can be observed in two ways:
On the one hand by the way people travelling along the Balkan route are represented, and by the emphasis given to the question whether they might be
“illegitimate”refugees. On the other hand, it can be tackled by analysing the measures that are suggested for taking action. The most powerful symbol for