Migration, Metaphor and Myth in Media Representations: The Ideological Dichotomy of “Them” and “Us”

Abstract

By focussing on the dichotomized metaphorical strategy and myth creation, this study aims to analyze how the U.S. and the European Union (EU) media respond to the entrenched metaphor of migration and refugee "crisis". In this respect, the U.S. and the EU media sources covering the time period from 2015 to 2016 were collected and analyzed in the theoretical framework of conceptual metaphor theory and critical metaphor analysis. By applying the metaphor identification procedure, it has been determined that most of the media narratives contribute to further developing the central bias of migration by means of metaphorical delegitimization that is discursively construed through the binary opposition between "them" and "us." The metaphorical representation has been grouped into two kinds of ideologically represented story lines: (a) the myth of dehumanization, realized through the metaphors of Objects and Commodities; and (b) the myth of moral authority, realized through the metaphors of Natural Phenomena, Crime, and Terrorism. The findings have shown that most of the media narratives both delegitimize and stigmatize the status of a migrant by deeper entrenching the "outsider" stereotype and, therefore, create the general feelings of instability and intolerance within the EU.

Refugee artists and memories of displacement: a visual semiotics analysis

“…Therefore, although there has been 'a shift from a humanitarian discourse of pity to a post humanitarian discourse of irony' (Chouliaraki, 2012, 13), both paradigms cannot resolve the ambivalence of refugee representations on the media, or even aknowledge the agency of refugees as individuals with their own will, wishes and personalities. This insolvability perpetuates and reinforces the media representations of refugees either as voiceless objects of humanitarian intervention or as dangerous threats as well as the ideological dichotomy of 'us' versus 'them' (Arcimaviciene and Baglama, 2018): in any case, this has an influence on the formation, redefinition and representation of refugees and their cultural identity.…”

The 2017 Rohingya Crisis: A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Representation in The Daily Star

“…News media appear to differ in coverage when RAS are differently conceptualized, depending on geographical, political, or historical considerations [14], [31], [33]. A significant relationship has been found between media representations and public attitudes about RAS [23], [34], [35].…”

One Hundred Years of Migration Discourse in The Times: A Discourse-Historical Word Vector Space Approach to the Construction of Meaning

“…Media also play an agenda-setting role, for instance, in discussing migration in the context of welfare, economy, or security (Buchanan et al, 2003;Moses, 2006, p. 137-43;Eberl et al, 2018). Multiple studies, for instance, have demonstrated how American and European media have framed migrants in a negative way, either by emphasizing the dichotomy of "us" vs. "them" or by creating an urgency of crisis (Cottle, 2000;Cisneros, 2008;Arcimaviciene and Baglama, 2018;Eberl et al, 2018;Viola and Musolff, 2019). Similarly, with reference to the UK migration debate, it has been argued that "the media are active agents in developing immigration policy" (Threadgold, 2009).…”