How has Latvian Media Framed Migration Problems?

1. Anda Rožukalne, Ilva Skulte Faculty of Communication Riga Stradins University, How has Latvian Media Framed Migration Problems?

2. Panel: Communication, Disinformation, and the Media Corner (450 Serra Mall, Building 200): 030

3. How has Latvian Media Framed Migration Problems: Argumentation, Discourses, Visual Representation, Media Strategies of Intolerance Justification and Explanation? Media content research was carried out within the project “Development of a responsible, diverse and high-quality journalism in Latvian national and regional media, encouraging third world country citizen integration in Latvia” financed by the EU Asylum, migration and integration fund. Team: Sergejs Kruks, Alnis Stakle, Agita Lūse

4. Framing “Framing essentially involves selection and salience. To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.” Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Cambridge, MA, US: Harvard University Press. Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of communication, 43(4), 51-58.

5. most salient… creating stories

6. Frame and Reflection Frameas a schemeofinterpretationconsistingof • problem definition, • causal interpretation, • moral evaluation, • treatment recommendation Reflectionasa wayofthinkingandreasoning Sensemakingas a process ofbringingtogetherofexistingsocialcognitiveframesandframesofmediarepresentation (basedonproductionroutinesandideologies) Berinsky, A.J., Kinder, D.R. MakingSenseofIssuesThroughMediaFrames: UnderstandingtheKosovoCrisis. – JournalofPolitics. Vol. 68, No.3., 2006, pp. 440 – 456

7. Making Sense in Discourse Sense Making via Emotion and Cognition Sense Making via Sociocultural Context Sense Making via Logics of Media Production Sense Making and Politics

8. …ourown … fearidentity Published by Latvijas Avīze (Source:LETA), 22.09.2015 http://www.la.lv/kozlovskis-pirmie-begli-latvija-varetu-ierasties-ziema/

9. Background of the research project • Although migration has been on media agenda in various countries for decades, in 2015, as the European Union experienced refugee crisis, issues of asylum seekers, refugees, current processes of migration was a new topic on the Latvian media agenda. • Since 2004, when Latvia joined the EU, migration issues mostly referred to inhabitant emigration to more prosperous EU countries.

10. Background of the research project • Paradoxically, during the period of most heated media discussions and public protests, there were no refugees of the EU quota scheme. • First two families from Syria and Eritrea, six people in total, arrived in Latvia on February 5, 2016. • In 2016, 207 people were transferred to Latvia. However, by autumn of 2016, most accommodated refugees had left Latvia because of the small financial support (256 EUR per month).

11. Research design • Data comes from analysis of 860 publications of Latvian media both in the Latvian and Russian language.

12. Research design • The period for research data acquisition was July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016. • Data for the research was selected on media web pages by keywords: migration, migrants, asylum seekers, refugees. • Depending on the number of articles in each medium, selection differed: either all articles were examined, or each 10th article.

13. Research design • Content analysis category system included migration representation (topics, information sources, number of sources, genres), • framinganalysis (text subject, location mentioned, compatibility of the title to its content, migrant characterising words), • discourseanalysis (types of discourse, attitude towards intolerance, types of argumentation, argumentation topoi, argumentation for intolerance explanation or justification).

14. Figure 1. Main topic of media story. Topics, N=878; stories, N=856.

15. Headlines, genres, and denomination of migrants in media stories • Most headlines are relevant to the content – 78%; some cover only one aspect of the article – 21%. • An insignificant amount of publication headlines is not relevant to the content – 2%. • In the news agency Leta (95%) and radio channels’ (94%) publications almost all headlines match the content. • The least compatibility was observed in newspapers (58%) and TV (70%).

16. Figure 3. The structure of the words used to describe migrants and migration

17. Genres of publications • Migration was most reflected on the news (71%) and commentaries (11%); 7% of the publications were reportages, 7% interviews, 1% - vox populi, 2% - unidentifiable genre. • The greatest genre diversity was observed in the newspaper Latvijas Avīze, in which alongside news migration has been reflected in interviews, commentaries, analytic articles.

18. Other aspects of media stories: place, level of individualisation • Latvian media mostly focus on migration related to Latvia (47%) and EU countries (39%). • Few publications mention migration encouraging conflicting places (3%) • 9% - several regions are mentioned, • 2% - other countries outside conflict regions and EU borders. • Latvian media speak about migrants as a group – 91%, 6% of the articles mention asylum seekers as individuals, 3% mention them both as a group and as individuals.

22. Arguments used in publications • To clarify this question we have applied historical discourse analysis methodology used to study the rhetoric of racism and antisemitism (Reisigl & Wodak, 2001).

23. Arguments used in publications • Arguments are statements used to convince or persuade people about the correctness of an opinion. • Basically arguments are grouped in two categories. • Rational arguments are premised on logic and sure facts, examples, testimonies or generally accepted information. • Plausible arguments are statements which ‘appear to be true in a normal type of situation that is familiar both to the participants and the onlookers’ (Walton 2006:71). Following Douglas Walton we call them plausible rather than fallacious arguments because in some cases they might be accepted as sound statements producing a sought persuasive effect (for example, in health care campaigns).

24. Arguments used in publications • Examples of plausible arguments are appeal to expert opinion, argument from popular opinion, from analogy, from commitments, from ignorance, ad hominem arguments. • In this content analysis argument from analogy was treated as a distinct subcategory because we presumed that historical events, cultural characteristics would be extrapolated to current and future events.

25. Arguments used in publications • Dominant in the media are rational arguments – 60% (except for PBK and Vesti). • Emotional (probability) argumentation takes up a significant space in LETA, NRA, TV3, Apollo and PBK stories. • Mixed argumentation is most frequently found in Vesti publications and LR1 news programmes. • Analogic arguments are most used by LA, as well as Tvnet.lv and PBK

26. Types of arguments, N=836

27. Argumentation topoi • To support a desired conclusion the authors provide specific conclusion rules or topoi that connect the arguments with the claim. • Topoi point at the place where the conclusion is to be drawn from. • In other words topoi are the contexts in which the audience is expected to make sense of the mentioned arguments.

28. Argumentation topoi (N=1414) in publications (N=816), percent of publications articulating the respective topos.

29. Argumentation topoi • The topos of burdening dominates. If the refugees burden the state or institutions, the burden is to be removed – this is the message’s logic. Appeal to remove the burden is addressed to politicians who decide on admission quotas. • Burdening topos frames the domestic political rivalry suggesting the audience a simple conclusion: ‘some politicians are unwilling to remove the burden we have warned them about’. • Danger is the second most popular topos discrediting the admission (21%), especially it is pronounced in Latvian-language portals Apollo.lv, TVnet.lv, Russian-language TV channel PBK and newspaper Vesti (55, 46, 40, 38% respectively).

30. Discourse type, percent of publications, N=832

31. Editorial office’s attitude to intolerance, N=632

32. Intolerance mitigation strategies • We have found the mitigation strategies in almost half of the sampled articles, audio and audiovisual reports. • At the beginning of the research, we assumed that, given the popularity of the idea of cultural nationalism in Latvia, the incompatibility of cultures would be among the most popular mitigation strategies. • Nevertheless, the occurrence of the topoi pointed at the concerns with the issues of economy, while the dominating mitigation strategy turned out to be the political elite’s incompetence resolving the refugee crisis (41%).

33. Intolerance mitigation strategies, N=674

34. Intolerance mitigation strategies • The result can be explained by the fact that the sampled media framed the refugee crisis as the political contestation of admission quotas and Latvian politicians’ failure to stand for the country’s interests in the European Commission. • Threshold of tolerance (‘there are phenomena we cannot accept’) was mentioned in 17% of all mitigation strategies use. Incompatibility of ideologies, religions, cultures, mentalities was referred to in 16% of the cases. • Lack of information about others and ghettoization (‘refugees will create closed groups rather than integrate in our society’) were the least frequent mitigation strategies (13% and 8%).

35. Intolerance mitigation strategies • The mitigation strategies were found in 79% of the sampled publications. • Despite the large occurrence of intolerant and exclusive discourse, this indicator can be treated as a positive trend. • The information sources are aware that intolerance is a negative value; striving to excuse themselves, they shed all responsibility on the domestic political elite. • Invincible “objective” and “inherited” obstacles – like culture, religion and the concomitant threshold of tolerance – were called in 32% of mitigation strategies.

36. Profiles of and differences between media:An example: printed press Corpusoftextsanalysed: Timeperiod: 01.07.2015.to 31.06.2016. DIENA N=103 LATVIJAS AVIZE (LA) N=103 NEATKARIGA RITA AVIZE (NRA) N=97 Accessedbyinternetarchives

37. Framing by selection of topic: problem definition Politicalissuesinthecentre (admissionquotas, realationshipswithin EU, Latvianpolitics): DIENA (57,8%), LA (29,4%) NRA (26%). Attention to refugees(rasism, tolerance, intolerance anddiversity) LA 23,5%, NRA – 18,8%, DIENĀ – 13,7%. Help to refugeesNRA – 16,7% , LA – 10,8% DIENA – 9,8% Antisocialbehaviorandcrime– LA (14,7%), NRA (8,3%), DIENA (3,9%) Process ofescapingDIENA (5.9%), NRA (5,2%), LA (4,9%), Economicalanddemographicaspects - DIENA (5.9%), NRA (6.3%), LA (2.9%), Clashofcivilisations - NRA (10,4%) DIENA (1%) LA (2%)

38. Framing by constructing subject of a migrant: problem definition • Subject-group DIENA - 96,1% NRA – 91,8% LA – 90,3% • Subject - individual NRA 7,2% LA - 6,8% DIENĀ 2,9%

39. Framing by title: problem definition Titleismostlyappropriate – butonlylittlemorethanin a halfofcases • 66% in DIENA • 51, 5% NRA • 52, 4% LA Oftenframeoneoftheaspects • 45% LA • 42,3%, NRA • 32% DIENA NRA biggestpercentofnotadequatetitles (3, 1%)

40. Genreandsourceofcausalinterpretation • NEWS aredominatinggenre • DIENA exclusivelydominatedbynews– 85,4% • Biggestdiversityin LATVIJAS AVĪZE: news - 49,5% opinionandanalyticalarticles 17,5% interviews -15,5% reporting 8,7% • NRA Interviewsmorethaninothers - 19,6% biggestnumberofpublicationsincludingpeople’svoice - 4,1% news -64,9%, less analysisandcomments (7,2% ) reports 3,1%

41. Typeofdiscourse (inclusive/exclusive) treatmentrecomendation • DominatedbyEXCLUSIVE TYPE OF DISCOURSE (37, 2%) inclusive (26,7%) non-identifiable (20,7%), mixed (15,4%). • NRA (49,5%, inclusive 26,8%) • LA (35%, inclusive 32%), Exception: DIENA – inclusive (32%), exclusive (26,2%) andmixed (25.2%)

42. Reasons of intolerance: moral justification • Incapabilityofpoliticiansto solveproblems: DIENA (51,5%), LA (29,4%), NRA (21,9%). • Treshholdof tolerance DIENA (23,3%) LA (16,7%) NRA (9,4%) • LackofknowledgeoftheOther LA(18,8%) NRA (16,7%) DIENAS (6,8%) • Lackofresources NRA (22,9%) LA (12, 7%) DIENA (6,8%) • Ideological, religious, culturalorrmentalincompatibility NRA (20,8%) (13,7%) DIENA (11,7%).

43. Type of argumentation • Rationalargumentationmostly DIENA (78,4%) , LA (56,3%), NRA (50,5%) • Plausible NRA (27,8%), LA (16,5%) DIENA (11,8%) • Fromanalogy LA (18, 4%), NRA (8,2 %), DIENA (2%). • Mixed NRA (13,4%), LA (8,7%), DIENĀ (7,8%).

44. Topos of argumentation • Burden DIENA (33%)> NRA (25,8%)> LA (24,3%) • Threadordanger NRA (15,5%)>LA (12,6%)> DIENA (9,7%) • Brightdefinitionsandemotionalexpressions NRA (13,4% )> LA (10,7%)> DIENĀ (5,8%). • Responsibility DIENA (16,5%)> LA (10, 7%)> NRA (9,3%) • Numbers DIENA (9,7%) > NRA (6,2%)> LA – (5,8%) • OTHER TYPES

45. Sense Making through Emotion and Cognition Frames of rational understanding of the problem (seeking political solution delegated to administrative mode as rooted in routine-like experience of Latvian voters) Frames tend also to be built on strong emotional ties and empathy (NRA) Emotion turns to the frame of compassion for ourselves – making strong sense of identity and fear of an optional suffering of «us» in future (caussed by memories of past) Rare attention to causes and refugees themselves

46. Sense Making and Sociocultural Context Financial / Economical crisis (and crisis of welfare state) Historical past and lessons of post WWII (traumas and stories) Globalization and Nationalism (and voices of Endengered Western Civilisation) Crisis of Values (Modern /Postmodern/Traditional) Internet, New Media (Social Media)

47. Sense Making and Media Production Individual profiles of newspapers included in research DIENA – instrumentalist approach, «economy» LA – more in depth analysis, but ideologically tuned NRA – emotional frames as a base for commercial success and political links

48. Sense Making and Politics Reflection and discussion of refugee crisis actually happened focusing on the social and political field in the country Arguments gather accross frames of «them» comming as a burden more then thread Media as critics of politicians and strong push because of emotional «fuel» Media as a showcase for politicians wanting to show up and warm up emotions

49. The visual representation of migration