Framing of Africans’ Migration to Europe by Selected News Media the Untold Truth and Need for Media and Information Literacy

Chidinma Onwubere

Chidinma Onwubere

Keywords: Migration, Africa, Crises, Europe, News Media, Media Literacy

Abstract

International migration from countries in sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and the United States has grown dramatically since 2010. It particularly generated a huge media interest, when it reached its peak in 2015 and 2016 because of the frequent mishaps associated with the process and the crises it generated in Europe. The local and international news media are hitherto dotted with various perspectives of stories on migration, especially from Africa, which is described as big a story. This paper examines the framing of these stories by selected news media in Europe, especially the migrant’s major destination countries: Spain, Italy, and Greece and news media in African countries with high number of migrants to Europe: Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya in 2015 and 2016 the peak of the migration crises in Europe. Using content analysis, the study found that the media in Europe had more negative frames and presented the African Migrants as a threat to the host communities while the African media framed African Migrants as victims, trapped in a helpless situation. The study concludes that media would continue to frame issues irrespective of where they occur and perspectives would always be centred on one form or stereotype or the other. It recommends that the media should rise above stereotype and present narratives and frames that would address a challenge than worsen it. This underscores the need for Media and Information Literacy that provide citizens with competencies for critiquing information before use, for enhanced life expectancies.

Copyright Notice:

The Articles published in this Journal are published under license and is subject to copyright, reserved by the Centre of Excellence in Migration and Global Studies, National Open University of Nigeria. All works (including texts, images, graphs, tables, diagrams, photographs and statistical data) may be used for non-commercial purpose, citing appropriately the original work.