On migration:
Journalists fail to tell full story
'Moving Stories,' a report on international media coverage of
migration in 2015 concludes that "journalists often fail to tell the
full story and routinely fall into propaganda traps laid by
politicians."
The 100-page in-depth report examines the quality of media coverage
on migration in the European Union and 14 other countries. Led by Aidan
White, the Director of the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN), it came out
a day ahead of the International Migrants Day (18).
"Around the world, media coverage is often politically led with
journalists following an agenda dominated by loose language and talk of
invasion and swarms," said White. "But at other moments, the story is
laced with humanity, empathy and a focus on the suffering of those
involved."
Migration reporting faces the same issues worldwide. Sensationalism
has largely dominated reporting in almost all countries, where
politicians responded with panic and bigotry to the millions of migrants
passing through.
In the US, its Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump who has
driven the explosive debate on migration, leading to heated, often
racists, debates lacking any context. In Turkey, the public migration
debate has been very limited due to governmental controls on the media,
despite the country being one of the biggest receivers of migrants from
Syria and Iraq.
Despite these national differences, the general conclusions on
migration coverage have been surprisingly similar:
• Journalism is under pressure from a weakening media economy
• Political bias and opportunism drive the news agenda
• Dangerous hate-speech is still wide-spread
• Migrants and refugees are stereotyped and socially excluded.
"Coping with high-profile politicians' hate speech is one of biggest
challenges for journalists," says Tom Law, Communications Officer of the
EJN, emphasizing the importance of putting outrageous comments into
context.
Many newsrooms struggle with a lack of editorial resources in the
newsrooms. "Humanitarian stories that deserve our attention often go
uncovered because there is no photographer or journalist on the ground
to tell the story," says Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian
Refugee Council, suggesting that media institutions should perhaps start
dividing the coverage of migration stories, just as the European
countries share responsibility in coping with the influx of migration.
The report includes recommendations and links to help newsrooms
improve their migration coverage, such as appointing specialist
reporters, providing specific training to journalists on migration and
hate-speech, increasing diversity in newsrooms and intensifying
collaboration with NGOs, refugee and migrant groups.
Considering that migration is likely to remain the biggest topic on
the news agenda in 2016, there should be much room in the newsrooms for
debating migrations issues and airtime and space for the publication of
such stories.
- Ethical Journalism Network
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