The Capability ‘To Be Secure’: Media Coverage of African Asylum Seekers During Covid-19 in Israel

Abstract

The health and economic consequences of Covid-19 have not affected the different groups in society equally, particularly the weakest communities, chief among them asylum seekers who have been hit the hardest. This study focuses on the Israeli media’s role during this crisis, and whether they have advocated or hindered African asylum seekers capability ‘to be secure’. This capability is the most important in the capabilities approach, as it advocates not only quality of life but also life itself. The study reveals mixed results as the Israeli media both hinders and advocates for asylum seekers’ security during the Covid-19 pandemic. By mapping out the themes of the media coverage, this study serves as a roadmap for policymakers and media organizations for the improvement of asylum seekers’ security through mass media coverage. Furthermore, this study contributes to the debate regarding the role media should play in society, especially regarding asylum seekers in their time of need.

The Refugee Issue in the Greek, German, and British Press During the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Second, we showed that the media outlets in our sample scarcely referred to refugees, when reported on Covid-19. Refugees constitute one of the most vulnerable population groups, facing disproportionate hardships when it comes to access to healthcare (Shomron, 2021). Yet, the epidemiological developments or other health aspects related to local populations seem to overshadow the situation of refugees, whose position seemed to be further marginalised by the low media salience.…”

“…Meanwhile, when an infectious disease emerges, not everyone is affected the same way, and Covid-19 is not an exception (Edmonds & Flahault, 2021). Social inequality and exclusion have been exacerbated, while the most marginalised and vulnerable populations in society have faced disproportionate hardships when it comes to access to healthcare (Shomron, 2021).…”

“…In fact, a recent study demonstrates that the references of Turkish news media are largely scarce during the pandemic (Yücel, 2021). In Israel, there are references talking of a dichotomy between migrants as a threat to security and migrants in danger (Shomron, 2021). Media outlets identify the challenges they face, but they also symbolically annihilate them, representing migrants and refugees as diseases carriers and spreaders that do not adhere to health protocols and regulations.…”

The aesthetic turn in border studies: Visual geographies of power, contestation and subversion

“…Geographers are starting to explore emerging bordering processes by investigating which spatial (and at times racialised) imaginaries COVID‐era maps convey, as well as how these are incorporated in popular mappings and with what implications in terms of bordering practices (Pase et al., 2021). Research is also addressing how media coverage of asylum seekers is reinforcing or subverting borders in healthcare (Shomron, 2021), although more extensive studies on the visual dimensions of the pandemic are needed. While before COVID visuals of migrant crossings dominated newspapers and often spread xenophobic political attitudes, the pandemic's intensified injustices in amplifying forced immobility – illustrated by protracted refugee detention and encampment – present one of many avenues for visually engaging with COVID‐era borderings, as recently done by contributions in borderlands studies (Brunet‐Jailly & Carpenter, 2020) and in line with growing interest in the intersections between visuality and migration (Nikielska‐Sekula & Amandine, 2021).…”

Politics, economy and society in the coverage of COVID-19 by elite newspapers in US, UK, China and Brazil: a text mining approach

“…In Nigeria, vaccine development received moderate media attention, with concise stories and the predominance of official sources [Asogwa, 2021]. A number of other studies have focused on media coverage of the pandemic on specific topics, such as immigration [Shomron, 2021], the economy [Atri, Kouki & imen Gallali, 2021], tourism [H. Chen, Huang & Li, 2020], childhood [Katz & Cohen, 2021], old age [Morgan, Wiles, Williams & Gott, 2021] and health workers [Lynch, Evans, Ice & Costa, 2021]. The present study extends this approach by analyzing the full coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, without restricting it to a specific theme, over a considerably longer period (most studies focus on the initial months of the pandemic, while we analyzed a full year), and in a cross-national perspective.…”