Media Representations of Diasporic Cultures and the Impact on Audiences

Refugees, coronavirus and the politics of representation in the Spanish press

“…Some Spanish local governments (Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia) offered to host refugees after that event, but disputes over refugee quotas in the European Union (EU) caused a delay in the process that resulted in very few refugees finally arriving in Spain. 5 The Spanish press started reporting on the immigration flow to the country in the middle 1980s, parallel to the accession of Spain to the European Commission (EC) and its status as the Southern border, combining two types of representation of migrants: as victims, or as a threat, and always as Others (Retis, 2006;Rodrigo-Alsina, Pineda, & García-Jiménez, 2019). Although the main ports of entry for immigrants in the territory have always been international airports or land borders, the media focused on the dramatic Mediterranean Sea crossing, with daily news on how many had reached the coasts.…”

“…By using metaphors referring to runaway nature, water or disease, and military vocabulary, immigration is presented as a great destabilising factor (Musolff, 2017). This way the media tend to associate immigrants with the social problems that cause greater concern, such as the economic crisis, unemployment, access to housing, criminality, poverty, ghetto formation, urban deterioration; in short, with the problems of social coexistence (Retis, 2006;Rodrigo-Alsina et al, 2019).…”

“…The qualitative content analysis reveals four types of media representations of migration and refuge. Two of them are reasonably usual: the immigrant as a threat or as a victim (Martínez Lirola, 2013;Retis, 2006;Rodrigo-Alsina et al, 2019), although COVID-19 introduced nuances to these types of representations. The other two are quite new: the immigrant as necessary and the immigrant as an active agent.…”