This paper explores how a German and an English news website, Spiegel online and BBC online, respectively, present some of the actual people behind the term 'refugee': A Syrian family of seven and a lone Syrian man. Both have faced hardships, both have a similar cultural background and both want nothing more than to integrate into German society and "become German".
In 2015, the already tense situation in many Arab countries, chief among them Syria, escalated. While many Syrians had already sought asylum in neighboring states such as Turkey and Jordan since 2011, when the Syrian Civil War first led people to flee their country, the vast refugee population in the neighboring countries eventually forced many to go elsewhere. At first, the refugees’ predicament seemed solved: Many Europeans had a "Refugees Welcome" mentality, welcoming the new arrivals with open arms and hearts.
This changed, however, with more and more people coming to the country and politicians seemingly at a loss on how to organize the situation. The circumstances for the new society members became difficult. They were disliked by many for the sheer fact that they were part of a different culture. A majority of the refugees lived in crowded refugee camps, bored out of their minds, often not allowed to work, out of money since having spent the last of it on the way to Germany. The media also could not decide how to portray refugees: Were they victims, perpetrators? As Chouliaraki put it, the news on the topic of refugees has been "a constant struggle of shifts and turns over the narration of refugees in news journalism".
At a glance
- Qualitative comparison of two articles from BBC and Spiegel online
- Examines headlines, images, text and emotional connotations in refugee reporting
- 12 sources in the bibliography
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
3. Methods
4. Results & Discussion
5. Conclusion
Objectives and Topics
This paper examines how a British and a German news website portray Syrian refugees seeking to adapt to life in Germany. It asks how headlines, images and text interact to create meaning and evoke emotions toward the people portrayed.
- Multimodality in online news discourse
- BBC and Spiegel online reporting on Syrian refugees
- Relationships between headlines, photographs, captions and text
- Positive and negative connotations in news articles
- Emotional responses and representations of refugees
Excerpt from the Book
BBC Article: ”Migrant crisis: A Syrian man’s struggle to become German”
The BBC article ”Migrant crisis: A Syrian man’s struggle to become German” focuses on Sami Farah, a 23-year old Syrian who used to study music therapy, and at the time of the article, in October 2016, works as a dish-washer. The headline uses the words ”crisis” and ”struggle”, which have a negative connotation. This sets the reader up for a story of sadness and diminishment. The images, however, tell a slightly different story: The first image shows Sami with his new-found friends, two Germans he lives with. The text below it reads: ”Sami Farah (center) is building new friendships after 15 months in Berlin”. The image is a triptych, meaning that the focus lies on Sami in the centre, who is slightly isolated from his friends, while two other elements -his friends- are shown from the side and are slightly cut off in the picture. Sami smiles and seems friendly and content. The picture has aesthetic quality, but overall seems natural due to the imperfect quality of the image. Together with the caption, it seems as if Sami has finally found his place in Germany: He went through difficult 15 months, but now he finally found friends and a nice place to live.
The second picture shows Sami at work. The text below the image, ”From music therapy student in Damascus to dish-washer in Berlin” is an inversion of the saying ”from dish-washer to millionaire”. It underlines Sami’s struggle: Rather than underlining that he is now safe and sound in Germany after traveling there via boat and sea, the text goes the other way: Showing that Sami is now ’only’ a dish-washer. This picture shows him slightly off-center, but definitely in the focus of the photography: Like the first picture, this one seems uncontrived. Sami’s back is turned towards the viewer, but he can still be seen. He is focused on his work. The fact that he is content with his job, saying that he can at least pay the bills with his salary, may make him more relatable to a reader.
The third picture shows a number of people queuing in front of a building. The caption reads as follows: ”Asylum seekers have to queue for hours to get the papers they need in Berlin”. While Sami is not (explicitly) part of the image, it is in line with Sami’s experience: ”There were cold weeks when you had to wait outside for eight hours, in a never-ending queue”. The rather bleak environment and the similarly dressed people make for a picture that may evoke feelings of sympathy in the viewer, even if no specific person is the focus point of the picture. Everyone can relate to waiting for something: It’s frustrating, especially when it’s something as important as documents that decide a person’s future in safety or danger.
Chapter Summaries
Introduction: The author introduces the context of Syrian displacement and presents the research questions about how news articles combine different modes to portray refugees.
Theoretical Background: The chapter defines multimodality and discusses how images, writing and other communicative resources contribute to meaning in combination.
Methods: The author explains how two articles were selected and qualitatively compared through their headlines, images, text and positive or negative connotations.
Results & Discussion: The chapter examines the two articles individually and considers their visual and verbal elements in relation to research on news discourse and refugee representation.
Conclusion: The author summarizes the analysis and reflects on the representation of refugees in news media and possible directions for future observation.
Keywords
multimodality, refugee representation, Syrian refugees, online news, BBC, Spiegel online, media discourse, qualitative comparison, headlines, news photography, captions, emotional connotation, Germany
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this paper about?
It examines how multimodal elements in two online news articles contribute to the portrayal of Syrian refugees in Germany.
What are the central topics?
The paper focuses on multimodality, refugee representation, online journalism and the interaction of headlines, images and text.
What is the main research question?
The author asks how headlines, images and text work together to generate meaning and emotions toward the refugees portrayed.
What research method does the author use?
The author conducts a qualitative comparison, examining each article’s headline, text and images separately and together, as well as words with positive or negative connotations.
What does the main analysis cover?
It discusses the BBC article about a Syrian man and the Spiegel online article about a Syrian family, considering their verbal and visual presentation.
Which keywords characterize the work?
Key terms include multimodality, Syrian refugees, online news, media discourse, news photography and qualitative comparison.
Why were these two articles selected?
They were selected because both portray Syrian refugees struggling with life in Germany and are standalone articles that present individual experiences.
How does the paper define a mode?
Drawing on Gunther Kress, it describes a mode as a socially and culturally shaped resource for making meaning, such as writing, images, speech or layout.
Does the supplied document include the appendices?
No. An editorial note states that the appendices were removed because of copyright issues.
- Quote paper
- Michelle Blum (Author), 2018, The Effect of Multimodality on the Portrayal of Refugees on German and English News Sites, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1128285
