Media and Migration
While migration is a relevant phenomenon in all countries along the so-called Balkan route, many people living in these countries barely get to really meet people on the move. Their perceptions are shaped by what they hear and read from others. Here media plays a crucial role. Media and the way people and issues are presented in the media affect our language, the public discourse and even images we have in our mind.
In general, media can and should play a vital role in a society, to inform and to investigate, to create knowledge and transparency and ultimately accountability. However, if media reporting becomes stereotyping or imbalanced, we see newspapers and other outlets playing a negative and misleading rather than an enlightening role.
We believe knowledge and communication to be the foundation for any societal change to happen. This dossier is a work-in-progress project and offers some data and information on the intersection of media and migration and thereby tries to connect some dots in the region.
Regional
In order to better understand how the much-debated issue of migration and the role of refugees and migrants is being perceived and discussed in the societies in different countries in our region, we started looking more systematically into mainstream media coverage. As Heinrich Böll Foundation and with our regional migration programme, we try to address common challenges within this part of Europe.
