AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN REPRESENTATION OF REFUGEES IN MEDIA
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Authors: Lale Dundar
Keywords: refugees, media, discourse, representation
Abstract: Following the internal conflict in Syria, 6 million people have been displaced and 4.8 million people took refuge in neighbouring countries. Turkey, one of those neighbouring countries, opened its doors to over 3.5 million Syrians, becoming the country hosting the most asylum-seekers among the world. Starting from 2011, refugees have been the subject of various media coverage. There has been a significant amount of research studied the media coverage of refugees. Most of them found out that there is a negative coverage of refugees. According to the most of studies, refugees are predominantly represented by negative references such as “victim”, “dangerous stranger”, “criminal”, “potential criminal”and “burden”. This study examines the representation of the Syrian refugees in the media through a television program called “Everything is Real” and examines how the rhetoric generated by the relevant television program is built. The mentioned TV Program was the first TV program in Turkey, dedicated to refugees. The program was broadcasted in 10 episodes in Haberturk TV, one of the national news channels. This study reviewed the texts of 10 episodes and analyzed how refugees were represented in the program. As a result of the content analysis, it is revealed that the “Everything is Real” program is the first and only program for Syrian refugees and that it constructs a discourse different from the general approach of the media. It was found that the program developed an alternative discourse and portrayed refugees as a value or success story instead of a burden or a potential criminal.