The Heroes and the Helpless: Conflicting Media Images of Refugees From Burma

After a protest against Burma's military government exploded into bloody violence on August 8, 1988, some political dissidents applied for refugee status through the United Nations. Since 1990, nearly 6,000 members of Myanmar's ethnic groups settled in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The project's overarching question asks: How have photojournalists covered the lives of the Burmese? An archive of photographs published from 1992 through 2012 by Fort Wayne's The Journal Gazette was used for this qualitative analysis. Three major themes emerged: refugees as “freedom fighters,” Aung San Suu Kyi as “superhero,” and Burmese as helpless victims lacking agency. With mounting tensions concerning refugees arriving into Europe, this examination is important because media images may play a role in welcoming and integrating refugees into new communities.     

Role regulation and normative expectations: the discursive erasure of Middle Eastern forced migrants in U.S. news outlets

ABSTRACT

This thematic analysis of 510 news articles – spanning the leftist-rightist ideological spectrum – examines media rhetoric surrounding President Trump’s 27 January 2017 Executive Order (EO) 13769 barring immigrants and refugees from U.S. resettlement. In this article, I examine how both liberal and conservative news media rhetoric reinforce respectability politics that create a hierarchy of victimhood for those affected by the EO. Interrogating U.S. civil society’s discursive construction of the forced migrant, I expose expectations for appropriate roles for these communities seeking asylum, though these roles are often veiled by normative U.S. mythology. As this analysis illustrates, the news media articles’ discursive erasure of Syrian, Iranian, Sudanese, Iraqi, Libyan, Somali, and Yemeni immigrants and refugees elide forced migrant self-representation and neglect the political/historical reasons for fleeing from their nations of origin.     

“Everyone Deserves a Smartphone?”: Understanding the Media’s Legitimation of Mobile Technology Use by Syrian Refugees

This study investigates English-speaking media’s legitimation of smartphone uses by Syrian refugees to explore how “otherness” is negotiated through technologies. Qualitatively examining the media coverage of the Syrian refugees’ use of smartphones between early 2015 and early 2017, we identified rhetorical devices and narrative strategies. The findings indicated a gradual shift in mediated legitimation strategies. In this process, two major themes emerged: (1) strategies to legitimate uses of technology and (2) demystifying refugees. The first theme identified that media articles focused on refugees’ instrumental uses of smartphones over the emotional uses as a legitimation strategy, utilizing metaphors and referencing third parties. The second theme showed media coverage further debunked conflation over poverty and precarity while negotiating otherness. Over time, the media coverage started to fall into the “humanitarian imaginary” of refugees by keeping them at the margins as people who need aid, largely limiting their legitimated mobile phone use to pragmatic uses. The findings contribute to understanding how media coverage can shape the way people make sense of the refugee population at a moment in time of technological appropriation amid ongoing political crises.     

Contesting European Solidarity During the “Refugee Crisis”: A Comparative Investigation of Media Claims in Denmark,Germany, Greece and Italy

The migration crisis of 2015 and 2016 was a litmus test for EU solidarity, when increasing numbers of newly arriving refugees fueled its public contestation. Our overall assumption is that the “refugee crisis” contributed to a solidarity gap between inclusive liberal-cosmopolitan and exclusive communitarian attitudes in the EU. We investigate this assumption by contrasting positions regarding solidarity with refugees among state and societal actors. We base our analysis on a fresh dataset of solidarity claims in the largest print newspapers in Denmark, Germany, Greece and Italy for the period of August 2015 – April 2016 coded in the TransSOL project. These four countries were affected differently by the “crisis” and differently attractive for refugees and asylum-seekers as arrival, destination or transit countries. Results suggest a solidarity gap between state actors and societal actors and a higher degree of solidarity contestation in countries with state actors strongly promoting exclusive notions of solidarity. Results speak to the discussion about media representations of migration as well as the contestation of solidarity as a fundamental value.     

Visual Framing of the Early Weeks of the U.S.-Led Invasion of Iraq: Applying the Master War Narrative to Electronic and Print Images

A content analysis of 1,822 images from U.S. mainstream media—network and cable television news outlets, news Web sites, newspapers, and news magazines—revealed that the visual framing of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 shifted from conflict to human interest. During the campaign's first 5 weeks, 5 distinct scenarios—shock and awe, conquering troops, hero, victory, and control—often coalesced around iconic images and supported a “master war narrative” identified by other scholars. These visual frames reflected a government-promoted patriotic perspective seen in media content at the outset of previous U.S. wars, from the Civil War through the Gulf War.     

Putting Our Own People First: The Content and Effects of Online Right-wing Populist Discourse Surrounding the European Refugee Crisis

The 2015 refugee crisis has sparked heated polarized debates throughout the globe. Yet, to date, we know too little about the discursive framing of the refugee crisis by various actors on online media, and the effect of right-wing populist messages on stereotypical images of refugees. The extensive qualitative content analysis reported in this paper (Study 1, N = 1,784) shows that the framing of populist politicians and citizens overlap in the problem definitions. However, citizens attribute more responsibility to refugees themselves and perceive that the native people are relatively deprived. Traditional news media are more divided. Overall, tabloid media define refugees as a problem, and broadsheet media frame them as victim. The second experimental study (N = 277) demonstrates that messages that blame immigrants for increasing crime rates activate negative stereotypical images of migrants among people with stronger perceptions of relative deprivation. These messages have the opposite effect among citizens with weaker perceptions of relative deprivation. These findings provide important insights into the political consequences of anti-immigration framing. Online media discourse is generally one-sided, and exposure to anti-immigration messages may polarize the electorate in opposing camps.     

Narrowmobilization and Tea Party Activism: A Study of Right-Leaning Alternative Media

Past research concerning the theoretical framework of Resistance Performance (RP) has been based on observations of liberal organizations and activists. In the following essay, we engage in a qualitative content analysis of alternative media utilized by conservative “Tea Party” activists to build on the concept of RP. Overall, we discovered that the dominant theme found in much of the content focuses on “purity,” which is considerably different from past RP research that found broad themes of “human rights,” “democracy,” “be the media,” and “principles of unity” embedded within liberal alternative media content. We conclude that the theme of “purity” gives rise to narrowmobilization, which constructs very focused protest communities within right-leaning politics.     

Using Buttons to Better Manage Online Presence: How One Academic Institution Harnessed the Power of Flair

This article provides a case study of how the University of Nebraska College of Law and Schmid Law Library use “buttons” to manage Law College faculty members’ and librarians’ online presence. Since Google is the primary search engine used to find information, it is important that librarians and libraries assist Web site visitors in finding relevant information about faculty members at an academic institution. Easily identifiable buttons allow visitors to navigate to faculty scholarship in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Digital Commons, SSRN Web site, or both, in an academic service such as lessons from the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction and in social software sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. The case study includes (1) how the project was implemented, (2) the feedback and results of a survey, and (3) an analysis of Web site statistics, clicks, and links data gathered via Google Analytics. This project was a partnership between the Law College Communications Department, Law College Administration, and the Law Library, involving law faculty, staff, and librarians. The buttons project was considered a successful venture by participating faculty members; it also provided an opportunity for face-to-face conversation between faculty members and librarians about digital scholarship and social media in the academic environment.     

TweetStorm in #ferguson: How News Organizations Framed Dominant Authority,Anti-Authority,and Political Figures in a Restive Community

After Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot African American teen Michael Brown in August 2014, rioters unleashed their anger on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. Using content analysis and framing theory, this study analyzed how news organizations covered events in Ferguson on Twitter over the course of a month immediately following the shooting. Protesters were framed as troublemakers; but community leaders were not framed as “rabble-rousers.” Journalists continued to rely on official sources more than alternate sources in spite of criticism of law enforcement and other political elites, but nearly 10% of the coded tweets that relied on official sources included some element of skepticism. Tweets from cable news outlets did not show partisan bias in any significant amount; and traditional legacy news media sources utilized the Twitter platform enhancements—such as article links, photos, links to other content, or hashtags—more than their new digital media counterparts. As Twitter launched #ferguson into the national consciousness, it is quite plausible that the framing of the tweets by news agencies may have molded perceptions of larger issues about the racial health of the nation, established policies of law enforcement, and the challenge of elected leaders to resolve explosive domestic problems.     

U.S. federal government CIOs: information technology's new managers— preliminary findings

The Clinger-Cohen Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 (Clinger-Cohen Act) had the potential to change the dynamics of how U.S. federal government agencies view and manage their information technology. The mandated provision for chief information officers (CIOs) was intended to provide agencies with information change agents and technology “watchdogs.” To observe how agencies are reacting to employing CIOs, the author conducted field studies via e-mail with eight agencies to discover the successes and the challenges of this new information initiative. The Clinger-Cohen Act mandated four of the agencies contacted and four were non-mandated. The results of this study depict varying levels of agency compliance and commitment to the Clinger-Cohen Act as it relates to the agency CIO position.     

Looking toward an information base in the 21st Century: The American Community Survey

Communities traditionally have relied on demographic and economic data from the decennial census for key decisions. Those same data are used by Congress and federal agencies to distribute billions of dollars, to administer federal programs, and to evaluate the results of federal policies. As the decade progresses, communities and their financial supports have had no alternative other than to live with the fiction that their areas have not changed since the last census. This article describes the American Community Survey, which the U.S. Census Bureau has designed to provide demographic, economic, and housing information to communities every year instead of every 10 years, providing them with a “video” of changes in their areas, rather than the current decennial “snapshot.”     

DON'T FEED THE TROLLS!

“Trolling” and other negative behaviour on magazine websites is widespread, ranging from subtly provocative behaviour to outright abuse. Publishers have sought to develop lively online communities, with high levels of user-generated content. Methods of building sites have developed quickly, but methods of managing them have lagged behind. Some publishers have then felt overwhelmed by the size and behaviour of the communities they have created. This paper considers the reasons behind trolling and the tools digital editors have developed to manage their communities, taking up the role of Zygmunt Bauman's gardeners in what they sometimes refer to as “walled gardens” within the Internet's wild domains. Interviews were conducted with online editors at the front line of site management at Bauer, Giraffe, IPC, Natmags, RBI and the Times. This article shows how publishers are designing sites that encourage constructive posting, and taking a more active part in site management. Web 2.0 and the spread of broadband, which have made management of fast-growing communities difficult, may themselves bring positive change. As uploading material becomes technically easier, “ordinary” citizens can outnumber those who, lacking social skills or with little regard for social norms, originally made the Internet their natural habitat.     

French and Feminine: Hegemonic Masculinity and the Emasculation of John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Race

French leaders met the September 2002 announcement of preemptive U.S. military action in Iraq with open disapproval. Thereafter, in the build-up to the “Iraq war,” as U.S. military strikes began in 2003 and continued in 2004, France became the target of nationalistic attacks in the United States. Building on this anti-French sentiment, George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign used narratives that cast Frenchness as feminine, assigning “Frenchness” to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry—and thereby characterizing him as unfit for the White House. Specifically, political conservatives sought to strip Kerry of the masculine qualities perceived necessary to serve as president of the United States. Analysis of American political and media discourse from September 2002 to November 2004 shows that the 2004 presidential campaign came to be defined in substantial part by nationalistic and sexist political communications that capitalized upon and reinscribed patterns and norms of hegemonic masculinity while also feminizing and devaluing dissent in times of war.     

The “Problem Patron” Public Libraries Created

Summary

Normal adolescents are generally suspect within public and retail settings in the U.S., thanks in part to relentless negative media coverage of the age group, and to adult fear and misreading of their appearance. These suspicions also occur in public libraries, with occasional justification, but an argument can be made that public libraries have created this problem for themselves through a set of often taken-for-granted service assumptions. This article addresses these assumptions, pointing out how they contribute to the creation of a “problem” class of users, and how they might be changed or adjusted to change the situation.     

Covering the world‐class downtown: Seattle's local media and the politics of urban redevelopment

Local disputes over land use and urban development generate some of the most heated struggles in American politics. Yet the role of local media organizations in covering debates over urban development has been woefully understudied by media scholars. To address this soft spot in the critical media literature, this article offers an investigation of how the local press covered a particularly bitter debate over one urban redevelopment proposal in Seattle during the mid‐1990s. Drawing on Hallin, who predicts that reporters will abandon professional codes of neutrality and balance when they perceive the political field to be unified around a single position, an examination of sourcing patterns in the Seattle case suggests that local reporters cover debates over urban development from a spurious assumption of “consensus”—an assumption that privileges the voices of downtown business leaders and pro‐development public officials. A concluding section offers suggestions for future investigation into the intersection of local media and urban development politics, drawing particularly on Bourdieu's notion of “symbolic capital” to explore how such presumptions of consensus are cultivated, maintained, and contested within the local public sphere.     

Shaping the future: Mergers,acquisitions, and the U.S. publishing,communications, and mass media industries, 1990–1995

Between 1990 and 1995, a substantive reconfiguration took place within the publishing, communications, and mass media industries in the United States. These changes were triggered primarily by five pivotal developments: (1) the direct impact of strategic planning theories and practices on a relatively small number of U.S. and foreign media executives; (2) a dramatic technological convergence within the entire communications industry; (3) a quest to gain hegemony over the creation, production, and distribution of electronic and print information and entertainment products and services in the United States and the global marketplace; (4) a sharp increase in media usage and expenditures in the United States; and (5) the impending passage of a massive, revolutionary telecommunications bill. This legislation (the Telecommunications Act of 1996) changed drastically the ground rules created by the Communications Act of 1934, lifted restrictions on the ownership of media properties, allowed media companies to enter formerly forbidden markets, and reduced or eliminated governmental controls over the burgeoning communications business. The deeply etched lines separating “newspapers” from “books” and “magazines”, or “television” from “telephone”, “radio”, “film”, and “video” became hazy, and, in some instances, disappeared. Media scholars and industry experts realized that the communications landscape had to be viewed as a totally interconnected industry, albeit a rather diverse one.     

Human Trafficking in the United States. Part II. Survey of U.S. Government Web Resources for Publications and Data

This second part of a two-part series is a survey of U.S. government web resources on human trafficking in the United States, particularly of the online publications and data included on agencies’ websites. Overall, the goal is to provide an introduction, an overview, and a guide on this topic for library staff to use in their research and instruction services, as well as to benefit new researchers, students, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), social service providers, and others exploring this topic.     

The Delphi Project: Transforming Flemish Libraries Into User-Oriented Points of Information

ABSTRACT

Flemish libraries have historically been praised by visitors and valued by the general public, but since the turn of the century, they have seen a decline in usage. A group of libraries in Flanders believed the role of libraries should be substantially reevaluated. They embarked on the “Delphi Project” to establish methods for libraries to become centers of their local communities by focusing on the information needs of their customers. The emergence of technology supported a shift from libraries as lending institutions to information centers. In addition to a customer service philosophy and training, online tools have helped staff reach library users. An online tool called the “Bronnenwijizer” combines searching the local library catalogue, provincial and state catalogues, and the Internet. The tool also supports the creation of “baskets” for a patron's information needs that can be shared with other staff. Delphi libraries have also used “Infopleinen,” Web-based guides to topics featuring printed media and online sources. Finally, a new online question registration system was developed that fit the new Delphi service philosophy. Over half the libraries in West-Vlaanderen are entitled to call themselves Delphi Libraries, and the philosophy is being disseminated more broadly through the Delphi Project Web site. Due to governmental changes in provincial authority, the future of the project is challenged because coordination among libraries has been critical for the project's success.     

COLLABORATION,CONSENSUS, AND CONFLICT

Wikinews began in November 2004 as a collaborative online journalism project and sister project of Wikipedia, the well-known collaborative online encyclopedia. This article explores how Wikinews members have defined “news” and the ramifications of that definition for how they have been able to produce news collaboratively. One of the defining characteristics of Wikinews is a dedication to the neutral point of view (NPOV) policy, which was adopted from Wikipedia. NPOV serves as a structuring device for defining news, but also conducts a great deal of organizational work and is in turn structured by the discourses and debates of NPOV in stories. Further, a commitment to an organizational culture of consensus and collaboration, although not without handicaps in a news production environment, is a laudable achievement among Wikinews participants and could be a precursor to the way that citizen journalists will become more involved in news production in a sustainable way.     

PERSUASION FROM BELOW?

Guided by the belief that anonymity inevitably breeds the kind of uncivil discourse that hurts their readers, many news organizations have chosen to ban anonymous comments sections on their websites in recent years. Unfortunately, little empirical research has been conducted to assess whether exposure to anonymous comments actually does influence people's attitudes. In this paper, we address this oversight by asking: do anonymous comments posted on a newspaper website shape how internet users feel about the media? Using an online experiment to systematically manipulate exposure to anonymous comments attached to a “hard news” report, we find strong evidence that exposure to non-attributed posts—regardless of their tone—leads internet users to feel more negatively towards specific news organizations and the media in general.