Trust and Distrust
Representation of the Haitian Community in a Digital Newspaper in Chile
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Francisca Greene
This research analyzes the journalistic coverage of the phenomenon of Haitian immigration in the Chilean digital medium Emol.com from January 2014 to October 2018. In a first stage, quantitative data is collected to answer the question about what is driving the modernization of the immigration law: the political agenda or the media agenda. Through the counting and analysis of sources, and internal organization of publication, quantitative data are collected with the purpose of performing an analysis of descriptive content. In a second stage, the qualitative strategy is used, based on the technique of critical discourse analysis research, with the purpose of knowing which social representation is disseminated by Emol.com about Haitian immigrants in Chile. It is concluded that the increase of Haitians in Chile modified the political and media agenda from the year 2016 to the present, making it a priority and influencing public opinion. Emol.com, through its publications, shows that Chilean elites have spread their discourse around the issue of migration, framed in national security, especially towards the Haitian population. Citizen sources are not visible in this political and social debate. This journalistic discourse tends to privilege only one look at the phenomenon. The media point of view that this online medium provides, during the period studied, is framed in prejudices and negative stereotypes towards the Haitian community.
Anxiety Release as a Gratification by the Consumption of Moral Panic Narratives
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zsolt Szabolcsi
Although, neither the theory nor the phenomenon of moral panic originated in Hungary, its innovative contemporary usage can certainly turn it into a Hungaricum. Originally, moral panics meant to be structural phenomena, in which each actor follows their own interest and, as a result, a moral panic phenomenon unfolds. In the most recent Hungarian implementation, however, moral panic is centrally organized through the appropriated media machinery that communicates elements of moral panic in a structured and organized manner. The subsequent effect is the mobilization of fear and anxiety by the communication of moral panic frames on migration. Thus, political unification and mobilization can be achieved in order to uphold electoral support. This centralized communication strategy can be identified in the use of words in the articles of online news portals in Hungary. This study examines the framing strategies of ten online news portals in Hungary by analysing the use of words and their co-occurrence within articles, in relation to migration. The examined period of the analysis is from January, 2015, when the migration campaign started, until April, 2018, when the national election was carried out. The data is built up from the most commonly used words within articles of the examined online news portals. The analysis shows that the use of words and their co-occurrence reflect the framing strategy of online news portals and their orientation to a centralized media machinery communicating moral panic narratives. Moral panic, instead of a structural phenomenon, function as a centralized political tool in Hungary.
Assessment of Nigerian Newspapers' Reportage of Violence Against Children: Case Study of Daily Sun and Punch National Newspapers
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Adeline Onyenonachi Nkwam Uwaoma
Despite the adoption and implementation of the child rights act in Nigeria, violence against children seems to be on a steady increase. Violence against children is considered as those acts by other persons especially adults that undermine and threaten the healthy life and existence of children or those that violet their rights as humans. This study analyses the frequency, length, prominence level, direction, and sources of information reported on violence against children in select national daily newspapers. It then provides information on the role of the newspapers in Nigeria in the fight against child violence and public awareness of the impact of violence against children on the development of the nation and the attempts to curtail such violence. The composite week sampling technique was used. As such 168 editions of Daily Sun and Punch newspapers published from January to December of 2016 were selected. Data were collected using code sheet and analyzed via content analysis. The result showed that the frequency of the newspapers’ reportage of violence against children in Nigeria was low. Again, it was found that the length or space given to reports on violence against children was inadequate, the direction of the few reports on violence against children was in favour of the course or fight against child violence and these newspapers gave no prominence to reports on violence against children. Finally, it was found that a major source of news about violence against children was through journalists; government and individual sources provided only minimal information.
Media Manufactures Identities - Analysis of Veiled Muslim Women Studying in Western Australia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jyoti Keshwani
Media has a pervasive and relentless impact on people in creating fear for Muslims and of Muslims. This research investigates the experiences of a group of fourteen veiled Muslim women from six countries studying in four Western Australian universities. It considers racism around being visible Muslims and how they respond to media (mis)representation of their culture and their identities against the backdrop of Islamophobia. The research employs the methodology of critical ethnography drawing on key theoretical ideas of ‘nomadic subjectivity’ (Braidotti, 2011), identity and agency from the tradition of post-structuralism and post-colonial theory. The research employed focus group discussions where the arts-based method, i.e. drawing was used in phase one of the data collection and phase two semi-structured interviews and participant observations were used. This paper highlights the risks of media which creates an image of dangerously divisive stereotypes. These stereotypes and generalisations magnify differences and disregard the fear felt by the Muslims. The stories conveyed through drawings and semi-structured interviews reveal increasing stigmatisation of Muslim women and their depiction as backward, helpless victims of their culture. The analysis shows that mass media is playing an essential role in reinforcing the social reproduction of a stereotyped image and thus misinforming communities and creating and perpetuating an Islamophobic perception.
