Abstract
Serving as the introduction to the special issue on ‘Migrant narratives’, this article proposes a multi-perspectival and multi-stakeholder analysis of how migration is narrated in the media in the last decade. This research agenda is developed by focussing on groups of actors that are commonly studied in isolation from each other: (1) migrants, (2) media professionals such as journalists and spokespersons from humanitarian organizations, (3) governments and corporations and (4) artists and activists. We take a relational approach to recognize how media power is articulated alongside a spectrum of more top-down and more bottom-up perspectives, through specific formats, genres and styles within and against larger frameworks of governmentality. Taken together, the poetics and politics of migrant narratives demand attention respectively for how stakeholders variously aesthetically present and politically represent migration. The opportunities, challenges, problems and commitments observed among the four groups of actors also provide the means to rethink our practice and responsibilities as media and migration scholars contributing to decentring media technologies and re-humanizing migrants.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 679-697 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | European Journal of Cultural Studies |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This special issue on ?migrant narratives? is dedicated to everyone who seeks to narrate migration differently, for a more socially just world. The issue consists of a selection of papers presented at the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) Diaspora, Migration and the Media (DMM) section conference which took place on 2 and 3 November 2017 at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain. The theme of the conference was ?Migration and communication flows: rethinking borders, conflict and identity through the digital?. Irati Igirreazkuenaga was the local conference organizer, and we are highly appreciative of the members of the Journalism Department and the Gureiker research group who collaborated in organizing the conference. We are grateful to Joke Hermes and the European Journal of Cultural Studies for supporting us and accommodating this special issue. A word of thanks to the contributors for collaborating with us, the book reviewers and the authors of the reviewed books for joining in Q&As and for the peer reviewers who offered engaged feedback. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: Koen Leurs was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Veni grant ?Young connected migrants. Comparing digital practices of young asylum seekers and expatriates in the Netherlands?, project reference 275-45-007 (2016?2019), and Melis Mevsimler was supported by the ERC (European Research Council) consolidator grant ?Digital Crossings in Europe: Gender, Diaspora and Belonging? (CONNECTINGEUROPE), grant number 647737.
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: Koen Leurs was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Veni grant ‘Young connected migrants. Comparing digital practices of young asylum seekers and expatriates in the Netherlands’, project reference 275-45-007 (2016–2019), and Melis Mevsimler was supported by the ERC (European Research Council) consolidator grant ‘Digital Crossings in Europe: Gender, Diaspora and Belonging’ (CONNECTINGEUROPE), grant number 647737.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.