Narrative production in the media arena
Work Package 3
Months 2-17:
April 2020 – July 2022
Work Package 3 investigates how migration narratives are produced, circulated, and reacted in the media and social media at the local and national levels. To this end, this WP:
- Identifies the main dynamics in the process of narrative-making and assesses the role of stakeholders in the struggle over the control of the public agenda.
- Analyses why some narratives succeed over others and the textual, contextual, and circumstantial factors that enable it.
- Pinpoints the differences in these dynamics and actors between countries characterised by different media systems.
- Assesses the differences between events at the local or national level and between different types of events in terms of stakeholders, dynamics, and mechanisms of rescaling from the local to the national arena.
WP3 conducts a comparative analysis of the six European countries covered by the project: France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. To do so, it identifies three events occurred in each of these countries since 2014, corresponding to three different sub-topics within migration and integration narratives. It then carries out mixed qualitative and quantitative analysis of media and social media content, as well as interviews with relevant national stakeholders.
As a result, seven Working Papers are produced: six of them focusing on each of the countries covered by the study and one adopting a cross-national comparative perspective. A workshop with media and social media platforms is also organised to discuss why some narratives become dominant over others in the (social) media.
Led by: FIERI (Marcello Maneri).
In cooperation with: Sciences Po, CIDOB, CUAS Mainz, UEDIN and TK.
Related publications
This Working Paper compares the production of narratives on migration in the media arena in six different European countries – France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and the UK –, focusing on the ingredients, actors, circumstances, strategies, and infrastructure of narrative success.
Will the Italian right continue a pragmatic mitigation of its initially uncompromising anti-migrationist and sovereignist narrative? Or will it persist in an ambiguous mix of threat frames and utilitarian arguments speaking to the wallet of the electorate? This op-ed by Ferruccio Pastore reflects on the structural constraints faced by Giorgia Meloni’s sovereignist migration narrative after she took power in October 2022.
This Working Paper analyses the main narratives on migration developed in traditional and social media around three different case studies in Germany: the debate over taking in refugees from the Moria camp after a fire in September 2020; a new integration law in 2016; and the terrorist attack in Berlin in December 2016.
This Working Paper analyses the main narratives on migration developed in traditional and social media around three different case studies in France: the terrorist attack on the Nice basilica in 2020; the irregular crossings from Calais to the UK through the Channel Tunnel in 2015; and the burkini controversy in 2016.
This Working Paper analyses the main narratives on migration developed in Hungarian media around two events: a camerawoman who tripped over refugees as they were running away from the police; and a national consultation on immigration and terrorism promoted by the government.
This Working Paper analyses the main narratives on migration developed in traditional and social media around three events in Italy: the Sea Watch 3 landing to Lampedusa in 2019; the debate on ius soli and the reform of the citizenship law in 2017; and the attempted supremacist massacre in Macerata in 2018.
This Working Paper analyses the main narratives on migration developed in traditional and social media around three events in Spain: the Ceuta migration crisis in May 2021; the publication of a poster on unaccompanied minors by the extreme-right party VOX; and the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.
This Working Paper analyses the emergence and dissemination of narratives on migration in the British media and social media, focusing on the coverage of three different events: the Calais ‘migrant crisis’ in the summer of 2015; the ‘Windrush scandal’ in 2018; and the jihadist suicide bombing at Manchester Arena in 2017.
