'There’s no media for refugees': Information and communication in camps on the Thai-Burma border

Abstract

This article uses the example of camps on the Thai-Burma border to highlight the exclusion of refugees from the common world and subsequent omission of their voices from news coverage. Moreover, the article argues that this exclusion weakens the supposed protection offered to refugees by impeding the media in its role as protector and promoter of human rights. While there has been considerable literature examining the reporting of humanitarian crises to a global audience, in contrast there has been little in the way of research-and practice-concerning strategies to effectively communicate with refugees affected by such crises. Fieldwork conducted in three of nine official Thai-Burma border camps involved interviews with 81 participants, including refugees, humanitarian practitioners and journalists. Participant accounts show that a range of factors inhibit the production of news media coverage relevant to refugees interned in the Thai-Burma border camps, thereby preventing refugees from accessing vital information and voicing in common public space their experiences of violence, corruption and discrimination. A handful of exiled media groups provide poorly funded exceptions.

Media, communication technologies and forced migration: Promises and pitfalls of an emerging research field

“…Analysing in 2013 the media uses in two Rwandan camps, Kiziba and Nyabiheke, sheltering mainly refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ullamaija Kivikuru (2013) noted that these ‘live totally outside mediated communication in the world’, except for the access they had to the BBC Kinyarwanda, which constituted then one of their main sources of information (p. 36). During the course of her ethnographic fieldwork in refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border in 2013, Victoria Jack (2017) came to the same conclusion: radio was, for camp residents, ‘by far the most accessible medium’ (p. 133).…”

Physical immobility and virtual mobility: Mediating everyday life from a Karen refugee camp in Thailand

“…Before 2008, the camp authorities controlled the refugee and camp image. In the article, ‘There's no media for refugees’, Jack (2017) describes Mae La and other camps along the border as landscapes devoid of media, where she observes ‘the exclusion of refugees from the common world and subsequent omission of their voices from news coverage’ (Jack, 2017: 127). Elsewhere (Hill, 2022c), I argue that Facebook has afforded those with access to new media devices, such as smartphones and tablets and the internet, a space to articulate their daily lives.…”

Comunicación y ciudadanía de refugiados venezolanos en centros de acogida en la frontera Brasil-Venezuela

“…Aunque la literatura del área de comunicación y migración señale la relevancia y los desafíos de la producción y del consumo mediático por y para migrantes, pocas investigaciones se enfocan en el contexto de los campos centros de detenciones, de acogida o de albergues para refugiados. Los estudios que exploran el consumo y la producción de noticias en esos espacios han destacado la escasez de acceso regular y confiable a fuentes mediáticas, por parte de los refugiados, y de la necesidad de invertir en proyectos que mitiguen la desinformación (JACK, 2017). Seuferling (2019) ofrece una perspectiva histórica sobre cómo las prácticas digitales premediáticas de refugiados en campos alemanes, entre 1945 y 2000, respondían a las restricciones espaciales de esos lugares.…”