210. Name: Elida Høeg Title: Sinking Strangers: Media Representations of Climate
Refugees on the BBC and Al Jazeera Institution: Universitat Pompeu Fabra Country: Spain Date: 2017 Language: English Abstract:
This study seeks to investigate the media representations of climate refugees in two global media outlets: The BBC and Al Jazeera news networks. Theoretically, the study draws on framing theory and multimodal critical discourse analysis. An exhaustive sample of the online coverage from 2000 until 2017 has been gathered and examined through content analysis. After reviewing and analyzing the selected 29 news stories that addressed this topic, this study finds that climate refugees are framed by the two outlets in four ways. As victims, as security threats, as activists and finally as abstractions. The findings also showed that, in both outlets, climate refugees have been aggregated, collectivized, made generic, and their situation is de-agentialized. The study concludes that the BBC mainly talks about climate refugees instead of talking to them, and that this has an impact on the climate refugees’ depicted agency. On the other hand, Al Jazeera quotes more climate refugees in their journalistic coverage, and this allows the reader to understand and empathize with therm. However, both media outlets tend to represent climate refugees as “third world others”: as sinking strangers.
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