How was language used by the British press to portray the 2015 European migration crisis?

The year 2015 saw an increase in the number of people trying to enter Europe: 1.3 million people applied for asylum in the 28 EU states, Norway and Sweden (Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, 2022). Many of these migrants crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece; others crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy. More than 80% of these migrants fled “persecution, war, famine and personal insecurity”, from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, with less than 1 out of 5 being economic migrants (d’Angelo et al., 2017).

The media play an important role, not only in informing the public of world events, but also in “the public representation of unequal social relations and the play of cultural power” (Cottle, 2000). The British press gave considerable coverage to the 2015 migrant crisis, with notable differences in how it was presented by various newspapers/news sites. Notably, language played a significant role in constructing an image of migrants; and in creating “a sense of who ‘we’ are in relation to who ‘we’ are not, whether as ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’, ‘colonizer’ and ‘colonized’, ‘citizen’ and ‘foreigner’, ‘normal’ and ‘deviant’, ‘friend and ‘foe’, ‘the west’ and ‘the rest’” (Cottle, 2000).

Critical Discourse Analysis is “the way social-power abuse and inequality are enacted, reproduced, legitimated, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context” (van Dijk, 2015). The aim of this essay is to use this form of analysis to examine language used to portray the 2015 migrant crisis in Europe by four news sources: The BBC, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror. Additionally, the essay seeks to investigate whether attitudeswithin each news source changed over the crisis period, and how this was reflected through language.

A total of twelve articles were examined using the following methodology -

Analysis of Referential Strategies

Referential strategies are “approaches to naming individuals or groups of people, through which social memberships – for example, in-groups, out-groups, self and other – are constructed and represented” (Franklin et al., 2005). This essay will record and analyse the referential strategies, “migrant”, “refugee” and “immigrant”, and others as used in the four news sources. It is important to examine referential strategies because journalists have a choice when they decide how to categorise and define those trying to enter the EU, and each term has effects on the portrayal of the subject.

Cautious Language

Cautious language is used to express uncertainty, caution and probability, and it is a useful linguistic tool as it protects journalists’ claims from accusations of misinformation and disinformation. A strong presence of cautious language suggests impartiality; an under-use suggests an over-confident and sensationalist tone.

Sourcing

Sourcing describes sources included in articles (e.g. NGOs, politicians, the British government, migrants). An article’s sources can be revealing: for example, reliable sources suggest reputability and representation of minorities can point to inclusiveness.

Textual Analysis

Textual analysis is the close analysis of texts. There are two ways in which textual analysis can be approached -

• Macro-Textual

Macro-textual analysis can be defined as the larger, overarching themes and aspects of a text, including the structure. This type of analysis will be executed through the inspection of the text’s structure, such as the proportion of the text consisting of quotes and the themes of each paragraph, demonstrated through screenshots with highlighted text.

• Micro-Textual

Micro-textual analysis involves examining the text more closely, at a sentence level, and includes the vocabulary used by the writer (e.g. emotive and loaded language) as well as literary and rhetorical techniques (e.g. metaphors, similes, alliteration etc.).

Two other methods of analysis will be employed, which will provide an organisational framework for the essay -

• Synchronic

Synchronic analysis involves looking at the media at a given point in time. This essay will first examine one article per news source from April 2015 in a synchronic way, using all of the techniques mentioned above.

• Diachronic

Diachronic analysis refers to change in language over time, as exhibited in texts. This essay will examine an additional article per source from September 2015, including a textual analysis and examining referential strategies diachronically, in order to explore the possible change in language used to portray refugees and migrants. These two methodologies were chosen because they explicitly portray changing attitudes of the press towards migrants.

In this essay, two key events were chosen to identify changing attitudes of the British press in 2015.

April 2015: Boat sinking in Lampedusa This boat sinking in 2015 was the “largest loss of life from any incident on the Mediterranean involving refugees and migrants” (Refugees, 2015), and was chosen to capture the British press’ first reactions to large-scale maritime migration into Europe.

September 2015 - Disruptions to rail and road in Denmark and Germany Many migrants took trains or walked on the E45 motorway to reach Sweden from Germany and Denmark, causing the Danish government to suspend road and rail links with Germany (Denmark blocks motorway, rail links with Germany to stop refugee flow, 2015). This event was chosen to show the press’ attitudes towards disruptions by migrants.

The time frame of April to September 2015 was chosen because it marked a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers to the UK - applications increased by 19% to 29,024 in the year ending September 2015 (National Statistics: Asylum, 2015).

Three newspapers and one news site were chosen for analysis. Three articles have been extracted from each of the subsequent sites -

• The Daily Mail (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html) is a right-leaning (Smith, M., 2017), middle-market tabloid newspaper, owned by the multinational media company, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) (Our History - DMGT, n.d.).
• The Guardian (theguardian.com) is a left-leaning (ibid.) broad-sheet newspaper, owned by the company, Scott Trust Limited (About us | The Guardian, n.d.).
• The Daily Mirror (https://www.mirror.co.uk), also known as The Mirror, is a left-leaning (ibid.) tabloid newspaper, owned by the publisher, Reach plc (About Us - Mirror Online, n.d.).
• BBC Online, the news site, is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation, which is the UK’s national broadcaster (operated by the government) (BBC, n.d.).

Links to articles used for analysis can be found in Appendix 1.

The BBC predominantly utilises “migrant” (eighteen out of nineteen references). This is also the case with The Guardian and the Daily Mail. “Migrant” could be the most general of the terms, with no positive or negative connotations. By using the term “migrant”, these news sources may be rendering asylum seekers more relatable to their target audiences who could have been migrants themselves (e.g. British economic migrants to the European Union). Distance between readers and migrants is thus reduced; the asylum-seekers are humanised. Though, it can beThe BBC predominantly utilises “migrant” (eighteen out of nineteen references). This is also the case with The Guardian and the Daily Mail. “Migrant” could be the most general of the terms, with no positive or negative connotations. By using the term “migrant”, these news sources may be rendering asylum seekers more relatable to their target audiences who could have been migrants themselves (e.g. British economic migrants to the European Union). Distance between readers and migrants is thus reduced; the asylum-seekers are humanised. Though, it can be

The Daily Mail utilises a range of terms when referring to migrants, to appeal to a wide audience of various political stances. In other words, they may believe that they are employing neutrality by not demonstrating an alignment with a single term. One implication of this is there may be confusion among readers as to who the subjects are. A barrier is placed between the audience and the asylum seekers, and it is difficult for the audience to relate and sympathise with the subjects, who are referred to in so many different ways. The Daily Mirror also uses a selection of differing terms, which creates a similar effect.

The Guardian and the BBC utilise the most cautious language. This is a useful tool, which allows sources to reduce the assertiveness of their claims (this is especially important when details of events are still unclear, e.g. if the death toll rises). Subsequently, these two sources alert readers to the possibility of the changes to the facts stated - an indicator of credibility.

The Guardian and the BBC utilise the most cautious language. This is a useful tool, which allows sources to reduce the assertiveness of their claims (this is especially important when details of events are still unclear, e.g. if the death toll rises). Subsequently, these two sources alert readers to the possibility of the changes to the facts stated - an indicator of credibility.

The Guardian and the Daily Mirror notably utilised non-elite sources (migrants and a smuggler) in an attempt to bring “more ‘average’ citizens into the news” (Massey, 1998), a well-known technique used in “civic journalism”. The Guardian, unusually, quoted a smuggler, who are often portrayed as perpetrators in this scenario. This could be an attempt by The Guardian to include all perspectives, and thus provide a nuanced, non-biased outlook on the scenario, which is often portrayed in a more binary way by other sources.

In contrast, the Daily Mail uses very few sources in its article. This could denote unreliability, as the absolute facts stated (see ‘Cautious Language’) are not always supported by evidence from a variety of sources. The sources it does draw on (politicians and governments) are official, legitimate, and provide easily-available quotes, for example from press conferences.

Macro-Textual

The first-half of the article appears objective, factual and statistical, as seen in the image below. Fact-based statements are highlighted in yellow.

In the second-half of the article, more opinionated language is used (highlighted in green). The article claims, “the deaths prompted fresh calls for Europe to reinstate full-scale search-and-rescue operations”, which is an unclear sentence that does not reveal whom these calls are from. Perhaps this is the opinion of The Guardian - yet the reader may believe this is factual due to the prevalence of indisputable facts previously stated.

The position of the quotes seems to be a deliberate choice. Quotes appear prominently in the first half of the article and are always at the beginning of paragraphs. They are usually preceded by the name of the sources, usually reputable European officials or organisations, followed by their credentials. The reason for this may be to convince the reader of the truthfulness of the information quoted. The quotes themselves often contain sensationalist and opinionated language, for example: “starving, persecuted, wounded, exploited, victims of war”; “thousands die on our shores”; “witnessing a tragedy”; and the use of personification, “Europe cannot look the other way”. Readers may believe the emotive sentiments expressed in the quotations, since they have already been persuaded of the credibility of the sources.

Less reliable sources (highlighted in purple), however, (e.g. “a smuggler”), are included further down in the article. The introduction of the source is embedded within a paragraph, instead of at the beginning, as seen with the reliable sources. The effect of this method of structuring paragraphs is, subconsciously, readers may appreciate the credibility of elite sources more than non-elite sources. As previously mentioned in the ‘sourcing’ section, the use of non-elite sources is a technique in civic journalism that aims to make journalism more democratic and participatory; however, The Guardian limits its application of civic journalism when it conceals non-elite quotes within paragraphs.

These features of language contribute to The Guardian’s overall message: that migrants are innocent and passive victims of an uncontrollable and “tragic” situation. It is likely that the urgent and often panicked tone in the article incites fear in the audience. In addition, the effect ofemotive language can contribute to a common stereotype that migrants are one-dimensional victims, in need of public sympathy. Although it is important that the public become aware of the severity of this “crisis”, the reduction of migrants to victims can be a harmful portrayal, especially when they are not given a voice through interviews. Victimhood is challenging in many ways: for example, it could be argued that “giving voice to migrants as victims relies too heavily on emotional reactions which do not necessarily contribute to a balanced and well-informed public and political debate on migration, nor to good policy making” (Crawley, McMahon and Jones, 2016).

Daily Mail - “‘We are witnessing a genocide caused by European selfishness': Sicilian mayor blasts EU over migrant crisis as hundreds are rescued from yet another overcrowded boat in the Med” (White, 2015)

This article is dominated by sixteen photographs, captioned with emotive statements (e.g. “emergency”, “disaster”, “traumatised”, “exhausted”, “cruel end”). In labelling the photographs with short, punchy nouns (“emergency”, “cruel end”,“miracle”), the Daily Mail is story-telling, sensationalising the event, rather than giving objective information.The extensive use of photographs in this article portrays the plight of the survivors of this boat sinking. Readers are able to ‘put a face to the name’ of the statistics, and thus sympathise. Alarming images capture the attention of prospective readers who have not read the article yet, and are a convenient tool to present the article’s key messages instantly. Readers are hence equipped, not with objective facts about events, but with emotions and sympathy for the ‘victims’ in each scenario. This can be problematic in some ways (as described above in the “Micro-Textual” analysis of The Guardian’s article). Several psychological studies have demonstrated that pictures convey emotional meaning more effectively than words (e.g. Winkielman and Gogolushko, 2018) and pictures can therefore be considered an attempt by the Daily Mail to gain more readership in the increasingly competitive and online world of journalism.

There is a strong presence of emotive and loaded language in this article, which seems to have the aim of instilling a sense of panic in readers. The writer places blame for the crisis on various actors: the EU, its policies, and European leaders, perhaps in an attempt to relieve the negative emotions of readers by assigning responsibility. However, while dramatisation of the migration crisis creates a more compelling story for readers, this perhaps comes at the expense of migrants’ dignity, who are sometimes dehumanised.

Daily Mirror - “Lampedusa migrant boat capsizes: Video of search operation after 900 drowned in latest tragedy” (Webb, 2015)

As can be seen in images below (depicting page 2 and onwards), a large proportion of the article consists of quotes from various sources, highlighted in green (see ‘Sourcing’ section). Approximately 45% of the total world count is direct quotation.