Back Christopher D. Tulloch and Elida Høeg publish an article in the Journal of Communication Inquiry

Christopher D. Tulloch and Elida Høeg publish an article in the Journal of Communication Inquiry

19.12.2018

 

CritiCC’s member Christopher D. Tulloch and MA Media Power and Difference’s graduate Elida Høeg have recently published a paper in the Journal of Communication InquiryThe paper is titled “Sinking Strangers: Media Representations of Climate Refugees on the BBC and Al Jazeera”.

Abstract:

This study seeks to investigate the media representations of climate refugees in two global media outlets: The BBC and Al Jazeera. An exhaustive sample of the online coverage from 2000 until 2017 has been gathered and examined through a content analysis guided by framing theory and multimodal critical discourse analysis. After reviewing the 29 news stories, this article finds that climate refugees are framed in four ways: as victims, security threats, activists, and abstractions. In both media outlets, climate refugees are aggregated, collectivized, and made generic—and their situation is deagentialized. 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. Al Jazeera quotes more climate refugees in their journalistic coverage, and this allows the reader to understand and empathize. However, both media outlets tend to represent climate refugees as “third world others”: as sinking strangers.

Keywords: environmental globalization, environmental justice, frame theory, representation, international communication

Multimedia

Categories:

SDG - Sustainable Development Goals:

Els ODS a la UPF

Contact