How the media covers migration in different countries along the “Balkan route”

A crucial factor in shaping public narratives and opinions on refugees and migrants is the media. In order to better understand public perceptions and discourses along the so-called Balkan route, we commissioned three studies looking into the language and visuals used to report about migration and people on the move in different countries, namely Turkey, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia.

Despite differences, representations of people on the move are everywhere generalised, stripping them of their human traits and perceiving them as masses or numbers. The focus is more on national rather than human security, while various categories, such as children, women, LGBTQI+, or different nationalities, are often underrepresented. Most of the times the floor is not given to the people on the move themselves but instead others speak for and about them.

Based on these three e-papers we commissioned the organisation Media and Migration Association (MMA) to create three short videos that summarise the main findings of each study. This one is the compilation of all three aforementioned videos.

You can also watch the videos separately for each country:

The video for Turkey: https://youtu.be/fVd-EHGhzJc

The video for Greece: https://youtu.be/nzVnQ2ywQXg

The video for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia: https://youtu.be/sFASUoRWsA4