British Media Coverage of

mixed migration in the

Mediterranean
Laura Bartley - Independent Study Project 2016
8600 words
Table of Contents

Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………..

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………
Background ………………………………………………………………………
Migration terminology
Aims and Research Questions……………………………………………………

Chapter 1: Theory ………………………………………………………………………

The power of media framing and world politics…………….…………………....
Manufacturing consent and the CNN effect ……………………………………..
Images and international politics…………………………………………….

Chapter 2: Research Methods ..…………………………………………………………

Chapter 3: Results ………………………………………………………………………..

The Guardian ……………………………………………………………………..
The Times ………………………………………………………………………...
The Daily Mail ……………………………………………………………………
Parliamentary Debates …………………………………………………………….

Chapter 4: Discussion and Conclusion ………………………………………………….

Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………...

Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………….

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 Abstract

The present study sets out to analyse the media and political discourse relating to mixed
migration in the Mediterranean in the autumn of 2015. The aim is to understand the role
media pressure has on shaping political and foreign policy decisions in periods of
humanitarian crisis, and thereby will use the current ‘Syrian refugee crisis’ to examine the
current applicability of the CNN effect. By applying Robinson’s Policy-Media Interaction
Model to three major British print media publications, the study focuses on how asylum
seekers and refugees (as well as the issues of asylum and migration) are framed in British
newspapers and parliamentary debates. The paper further employs the use of content analysis
to investigate the media and parliamentary response before and after the publication of the
photo of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi to see what effect, if any, the media played in framing
the decision-making process. The results show that there was a dramatic shift in the language
used by both the newspapers and political elite following the widespread publication of Aylan
Kurdi’s story and photos. However the study finds that there was no ‘CNN effect’ due to the
strong policy certainty espoused by the British government and also because of the increased
prevalence of legal/bureaucratic descriptors which move away from the normative
humanitarian descriptors previously dominant in the 1990s. Rather the findings point to a
‘indexing’ of the media discourse to the debates which took place in parliament in September
2015.

2
 Introduction

International migration and issues surrounding refugees or asylum seekers can be seen as
defining characteristics of the 21st century in the era of globalisation. In 2015, European news
reports and political debate were dominated by the issue of refugees and asylum seekers.
According to the UNHCR and the EU Commission, the number of displaced people in 2015
reached 60 million which surpassed the amount of those fleeing conflict for the first time
since the Second World War (UNHCR 2015; EU Commission 2015). With most refugees
originating from Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea, the Migration Policy Institute has called this
mass occurrence of forced migration the “Largest Humanitarian Crisis since WWII”
(UNHCR 2015) and the UN heralding it as the worst refugee crisis since Rwanda (BBC
2013). Certain forms of discourse and framings have emerged through the reporting of this
issue, for instance the current phenomenon of mixed migration in the Mediterranean has
become framed as a “crisis.”1 Furthermore, as the media forms an important part in
constructing the various frames which affect the public’s knowledge and attitude towards
certain issues, and it can therefore affect policy responses (Louw 2005, p. 8).

Migration Terminology
There is a growing tendency within the news media and political discourse to conflate
distinctive migration terms with each other. The correct use of terminology is important as the
categorisation of individuals as either migrants, asylum seekers and refugees can affect how
these people are perceived and treated (Phillips 2014). For instance it is generally accepted
that the use of ‘illegal migrant’ or ‘illegal immigrant’ are unacceptable in reference to
individuals in any forum of discussion, and that ‘irregular’ or ‘undocumented’ should be used
instead (PICUM 2009). This growing consensus was echoed by Malmstrom, member of the
European Commission responsible for Home Affairs (2010) who stated: “And let me be clear
about my vocabulary too: illegal migrants do not exist. People may come to the EU and might
be required to use irregular ways…but no human being is illegal.”
However recently, the mixed terminology employed in both media and political
discourse often uses the terms interchangeably, but while these words may appear to have the
same meaning they often confer different nuanced opinions (Goodman and Speer 2007). For

1
​The choice of referring to the events as either a “refugee crisis” or “migrant crisis” adds another frame to this
representation.
3
instance, migration as a term is quite broad as it includes various different types of movement
(for example human, forced, voluntary, regular). Individuals who decide to move countries
for a better life refers to ‘voluntary migration’ whereas those who are forced to leave refers to
‘forced migration’ (Peoples and Vaughan-Williams 2010, p 170). Within the category of
‘forced migration’ there is the nuance between internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have
been forcibly displaced from their homes within their country of residence and refugees who
are forced to flee to another (usually neighbouring) country. The definition of “refugee” as
defined by the United Nations in 1951 is a person who
“owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is
outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is
unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having
a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a
result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to
it.” (OHCHR.org, 2016)

However an ‘asylum seeker’ is an individual who claims to be fleeing persecution but whose
refugee status has not yet been evaluated (UNHCR.org 2016). If a country proceeds to
recognise the claim for protection, an asylum seeker is given official refugee status (ibid).
According to Kushner (2003, p. 265) the growing use of the term ‘asylum seeker’ as a
synonym for ‘refugee’ can be interpreted as undermining the legal rights that protect refugees
arguing that “the strategy the most Western receiving societies have adopted to oppose the
entry of refugees has been to reclassify them as something else.”
Therefore due to the interchangeable use of the aforementioned terms and the
negative/positive frames they can promote, ‘mixed migration’ has become the most
appropriate and neutral term for describing the various migration flows currently occurring in
the Mediterranean (UNHCR 2007). This term accounts for the “complex population
movements including refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants and other migrants” (IOM
2004, p. 42). This is the term which shall, when possible, be employed when referring the the
migration flows occurring in the Mediterranean. However it is important to clarify the power
of language in the introduction before proceeding to analyse the language used in the press
and political arena.

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Aims and Research Questions
The study at hand will analyse new articles on the issue of Syrian refugees in three major
British print newspapers; The Guardian,​ ​The Times and ​The Sun in order to compare the
content with the political discourse in Westminster. The aim is to establish general patterns in
the representations and framing of Syrian refugees over two distinct time phases. By doing so
it is also the aim to ascertain how powerful a role the news media has in shaping the
immediate political discourse and whether in the post 9/11 political context, the ‘CNN effect’
theory is still applicable (i.e. is the media independent from political influence and does it act
as a powerful constraint).
This study will thereby provide an answer to the question “has the media coverage of
the Syrian crisis (specifically reports relating to Syrian refugees) influenced the political
elites’ framing of the issue, and if so how?” In order to answer this sufficiently, the study will
specifically focus on how the British news media discourse on Syrian refugees shifted
following the publication of photos of toddler Aylan Kurdi on 3rd September 2015 - and
determine whether this shift was replicated in the political elite’s framing of the issue in the
immediate aftermath. Moreover this question will be answered by looking at the following
sub-questions:
● How were Syrian refugees in Europe and internationally, represented in the British
media and parliament before 3rd September?
● How did this representation change following the coverage of Aylan Kurdi’s death?
● Was the shift in news media framing replicated in the political discourse?

The hypotheses explored in this study are; firstly that there will be evidence of the pluralist
model of media having significant influence on political elite - and thus we can expect a
significant overlap in how the issue of migration is framed within the media and the
parliament. In this case we should find that any change in the media reporting and framing
will be echoed shortly after in political rhetoric, as seen below in diagram H1:

Alternatively, the data results could illustrate that in fact the media has little to no influence
over political rhetoric or policy, as seen in diagram H2:

5
Another hypothesis is that the political orientation of the newspapers will correspond to the
political orientation of politicians (e.g. right-wing newspapers will frame an issue in a similar
manner to the right-wing parties), therefore in this case we should see cross over between the
representation of mixed migration in The Times and the speeches of the Conservative party
members.

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 Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework

As Western politics has become increasingly filtered to the mass public through various forms
of news outlets, it thus becomes important to question and understand the role which this
‘media pervasiveness’ has on foreign policy formulation (Hoge 1994, p. 136; Louw 2005). In
light of the aim of this study, that is to analyse whether news media coverage of humanitarian
crises prompts an altered government response, a theoretical framework based on the
influence of the media on political processes is useful. Following the framework outlined by
Robinson (2002), who develops upon and bridges the divide between earlier ‘elite’ versus
‘pluralist’ debates, the Policy-Media interaction model provides a good basis for measuring
and understanding the impact of news media on the political process. Additionally this study
will also combine the above with theories relating to the power of visual images in politics
(visuals in interaction with the written articles and political debate).

1.1 The power of media framing and world politics

Since the late 1970s, technological developments have led to the creation of the 24-hour news
cycle and a constant stream of real-time news (Robinson 2002, p.7). Whilst the media within
democratic states are generally expected to facilitate the objective discussion of pertinent
issues in the wider public sphere, many also see them as acting as a ‘watchdog’ against the
government (Louw 2005, p 261). This growing symbiosis between the media and politics is
often referred to as the ‘media-isation’ of foreign policy and Western politics more generally
(Nimmo and Combs 1990, p. 18; Louw 2005, p.1). Moreover, recent literature has highlighted
the continued importance of the press in shaping European political discourse surrounding
immigration (Boswell 2012; Caviedes 2011).
Yet when discussing the power of media framing, it is important to note that the media
is not the only cause or factor of influence, but rather that much of its significance lies in its
agenda-setting role. As put by Cohen (1963, p. 13) “the press may not be successful much of
the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling reader what to
think about.” Therefore, media can cause policymakers to pay attention to a particular issue
on the public agenda, but it may not be as successful at impacting the response policymakers
have to these issues. However this concept is expanded on by Van Dijk (1991, p. 246) who
argues that the news media in relation to migration lays out the parameters of understanding

7
and speaking about the issue, saying that media “not only set the agenda for public discussion
… but, more important, they strongly suggest how the readers should think and talk about
[those issues].” However in an era of new online media which threatens to replace the old
print media, some doubt the impact of the agenda-setting role of media with consumers
selecting and controlling their own personalised news (Althaus and Tewksbury 2002, p. 199).
Yet Althaus and Tewksbury found that “print readers modify their agendas differently than do
online readers” (p. 196) and with 68% of adults age 15+ in Great Britain reading a print
newspaper each month, print newspapers evidently still hold a great agenda-setting power
(National Readership Survey 2016). This is emphasised by the fact that print media also tends
to be much more partisan and specifically cater towards a political orientation or agenda
(Robinson 2012, p. 173).
The concept of ‘framing’ provides another useful entry point to identifying the
political preferences (or biases) present within news media articles and also political speeches
(Robinson 2012, p. 145). Although the exact definition of ‘framing’ is contested, the heavily
cited work of Entman (1993, p. 52) refers to a way of ascribing importance to certain aspects
of a narrative which “promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral
evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation.” Notably however Gitlin (1980, p.7) widens
this definition to include visual images by stating that frames are “persistent patterns of
cognition, interpretation, and presentation, of selection, emphasis, and exclusion, by which
symbol-handlers routinely organise discourse, whether verbal or visual.” Therefore the
concept of framing is significant as it provides a method of understanding how information
(textual or visual) is orientated in order to favour or promote a particular interpretation of that
information (Robinson 2002, p. 137). This concept of framing is important as often news
media and politicians do not ‘objectively’ represent humanitarian crises, but instead promote
a specific understanding by describing crises through either ​‘support’ ​and ​‘distance’ f​ raming,
or alternatively ‘​empathy’ and ‘​critical’ f​ raming (Robinson 2002, p. 25-29). For example
Preston (1996, p. 112) describes that “the template of of ‘distance’ can be laid over the
subject matter of diplomacy or politics; dispassionate documentation as a reporting style…
and an emphasis on the complicated or difficult.” In contrast to this sometimes the media will
represent an international humanitarian crisis or issues with a “template of proximity” which
highlights the “geographic and societal closeness” the particular conflict in a way that frames

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the issue as a ‘human interest’ frame which “encourages empathy and also clarity” (ibid, p.
112, cited in Robinson 2002).

1.2 Manufacturing Consent or the CNN effect?

However within the literature there has been a lack of consensus over how powerful an
influence the media has, for example Carruthers (2000, p. 7) says that while “most agree that
television coverage of foreign events has some impact on policy-making. The dispute is over
when, why and to what degree.” Consequently, some academics attribute a great deal of
power to the media, with Cohen (1994, p. 9) asserting that the media is able to “move and
shake governments”, whereas others from the ‘manufacturing consent’ school of thought
claim that the media remains deferent to the government elites (Hallin 1986; Chomsky and
Herman 1988; Bennett 1990).
Robinson’s (2002) ​Policy-Media Interaction Model a​ ttempts to bridge the divide
between the elite v pluralist arguments by incorporating variables such as political
uncertainty. The logic is that when there is government uncertainty and “elite dissensus”
media and public opinion can have a greater influence on policy formulation (Robinson 2012,
p. 180). Yet if the elites are united, the media usually help them ‘manufacture consent’ and
thus have little influence on policy formulation (Louw 2002, p. 259). Shaw (1996, p. 181)
also widens the concept of uncertainty stating that a “loss of policy certainty” following the
end of the Cold War potentially “opened up a particular window for the media.” Table 1
below provides a synthesis of the argument put forth by Robinson (2000):

Table 1. The Policy-Media Interaction Model

Government Source of News Media Policy-Media
Policy Line Influence Coverage Relationship

Media Uncertain Media Critical, empathising Without clear

Influence and ‘media hype’ policy
argument/stance,
government is open
to critical coverage.
Government forced
into action or else
PR failure.

No Media Certain Government Indexed to official With clear policy

9
 Influence policy agenda (Bennett argument/stance,
1990) government sets
news agenda. If
elite dissensus some
critical coverage
may occur.
Source: adapted from Robinson 2000, p. 615

1.3 Images and international politics

“Photographs have the kind of authority over imagination today, which the printed word
had yesterday, and the spoken word before that. They seem utterly real.”
(Lippmann 1922, p. 90)

Photographs accompanying news articles that report on crises have the ability to emotionally
engage the reader and in some cases influence public opinion on the specific crisis (Neumann
and Fahmy 2012). Often photographs are able to frame the crisis or news story in a way
which enables the readers to make sense of the news even without reading the related article
(Fahmy 2005). According to Domke ​et al (2002) an article which contains an illustrative
image appears to be more significant and attention-worthy than an article without any
accompanying image. Furthermore owing to the fact that images are easier to recall than text
articles, they can result in promoting a particular perspective or frame over another (Zillmann
et al. 1999). For example the selection of photos which humanise victims of a tragedy tend to
elicit emotional responses in the reader such as promoting feelings of guilt and loss
(Schwalbe and Dougherty 2015; Fahmy 2005). News images often “linger in the public’s
memory for the duration of the crisis,” but when a photograph is particularly shocking or
horrifying “a decisive moment is identified, and the essence of that story is crystallized into a
compelling news icon.” (Moeller, 1999, p. 48).
The Vietnam War is often pointed to as the event which changed how media was able
to impact policy formulation (Robinson 2012, p.173). President Nixon himself acknowledged
the effect the ‘first televised war’ had on shaping public opinion and thus foreign policy :

“More than ever before television showed the terrible human suffering and
sacrifice of war … the result was a serious demoralization of the home
front, raising the question whether America would ever again be able to

10
 fight an enemy abroad with unity and strength of purpose at home.” (1978
p. 350, cited in Robinson 2012)

One of the most iconic images in photojournalism is the famous “Accidental Napalm” photo
captured by Nick Ut in 1972 depicting the nine-year-old Kim Phuc running away from a
napalm attack and is seen to be emblematic of the changing the public attitude towards US
involvement in Vietnam (Jack 2015). As described by Hariman and Lucaites (2003, p. 90)
the power of the this photo lay in the simplicity and the emotions it prompts in the viewer:
“The little girl is naked, running right towards you, crying out. The burns
themselves are not visible, and it is her pain–more precisely, her
communicating the pain she feels–that is the central feature of the picture.”

It is this framing of a news story as a ‘human interest frame’ that “brings a human face or an
emotional angle to the presentation of an event, issue or problem” (Semetko and Valkenburg
2000, p. 95). Therefore the media induces an emotional reaction in the mass public and
mobilises ‘moral outcries’ which results in the public demanding the government to take
action and ‘do something’ (Louw 2005, p. 262).

Aylan Kurdi - the power of imagery during the ‘refugee crisis’

"The horrific consequences of Syria's civil war were dramatised last week in
the harrowing picture of a little boy lying lifeless on a Turkish shore. The
horror of that image has done more than move public sentiment. It has
shamed policymakers into considering the humanitarian catastrophe that is
the predictable outcome of inaction."
The Times 2015, 7 September, p. 33

In a similar manner, the publication of the photograph of three-year-old Aylan2 Kurdi was
immediately declared to be iconic, an image which would seismically alter perceptions and
attitudes towards mixed migration in the Mediterranean (Jack 2015). Aylan’s body was
discovered at 5.30am on the 2nd September 2015 washed up on a beach close to Bodrum,
Turkey (Vis and Goriunova 2015, p. 19). It was later reported that the Syrian family of Aylan
had tried to cross the Mediterranean from Turkey to Kos, Greece on an inflatable boat which
capsized and led to the drowning of Aylan, his brother and his mother. Several images

2
“Aylan” is used here despite the fact that his name is Alan, however as this was the name
that the image was circulated and identified with, this paper will choose to use Aylan for
consistency purposes.
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captured by photojournalist Nilüfer Demir soon circulated on social media and the following
day in newspapers, however it was the image of the Turkish police officer carrying the
lifeless body of Aylan which was more often reprinted on the front pages of the papers on 3rd
September as opposed to the more graphic photo of Aylan laying face down in the surf (ibid,
p. 27).3 In fact, The Independent was the only major British newspaper to print the photo of
Aylan alone. It is significant to note the fact that there was not just one iconic photo of the
toddler on the beach but rather multiple photos which emerged, each illustrating a different
narrative. Nonetheless the content of the photos were particularly shocking and powerful due
to the simplicity and authenticity of the images. As put by Moeller (1999, p. 36)
“Didactic images can overload the senses. A single child at risk commands
our attention and prompts our action. But one child, and then another, and
another and on and on and on is too much. A crowd of people in danger is
faceless. Numbers alone can numb.”

The fact that it was just Aylan in the photo and not a collective of refugees made it easier for
the viewer to identify and empathise with the tragedy of the situation. The visual simplicity of
Aylan’s image is what led to its widespread circulation and the range of emotional responses
it prompted. One of the everyday factors which elicited an emotional response from the public
is highlighted by Procter and Yamada-Rice (2015, p, 58) who point to the discussion of his
“little shoes” on social media and beyond. His shoes became “a visual symbol of his
helplessness, his need for protection” (ibid, p. 59) and a tangible way of parents to draw
personal connections between what they had previously thought of as being ‘other’.
However within a few days, some news media had already begun to reframe Aylan’s
narrative with questions being raised over the legitimacy of his family’s refugee status or
whether the family (and the father in particular) were instead opportunistic ‘economic
migrants.’ For instance, eight days following the discovery of Aylan’s body, a Times article
argued that: “Even the family of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose drowned body provoked
this mass outpouring of publicly proclaimed compassion, weren't desperate to reach sanctuary
at all. They had already been living in safety for three years in Turkey” (Phillips 2015). This
could mean that the photo induced an emotional response in the inital aftermath, however that
they failed to have a longterm effect on the discourse of refugees and asylum seekers.

3
​See appendix for photos
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Chapter 2: Research Methods

The research method I will use in this study will be a mixed-method methodology employing
both quantitative and qualitative content analysis. As put by Graber (2003, p.140) “many
broad and definitive judgments about the substantive content of mass media are still made
without actual content analyses of these media.” Therefore it is the purpose of this study to
look at the empirical evidence in light of the theoretical elements already discussed above.

2.1 Analysis Method

The study will perform a content analysis of the coverage of the Syrian humanitarian crisis in
three major British publications (The Guardian, The Times and The Sun) during the three
week period before and after the release of Aylan Kurdi’s photo and story. The chosen
broadsheets and tabloid cover the political spectrum with the Guardian categorised as
centre-left, the Times as centre-right and The Sun as right. According to Gabrielatos and
Baker (2008, p. 9) the print media is “an excellent source of data for the examination of the
construction of refugees and asylum seekers…[because of the power] over selection, extent,
frequency, and nature of their reporting.”

Newspaper Type Political Bias Monthly Number of Total Word

Print Articles Count
readership4
(in 000s)

The Times Broadsheet Centre-right 4442 136 ~ 108,119

The 4059 303 ~ 365,738

Broadsheet Centre-left
Guardian

The Sun Tabloid Right 11,210 139 ~ 61,877

Total 578 ~ 535,734

Similarly, an analysis parliament debates (The House of Lords and the House of Commons)
to see whether conflicting or polarising discourses arose within the political arena will be

4
​http://www.nrs.co.uk/downloads/padd-files/pdf/nrs_padd_jan_15_dec_15_newsbrands.pdf
13
conducted in order to ascertain whether a relationship exists between media and political
discourse.

2.2 Sampling

The sampling is divided over two phases in relation to the publication of Aylan Kurdi’s photo
on 3rd September. The first phase runs from 12th August - 2nd September 2015 in order to
gain an insight into the media discourse before the photo and story of Aylan is released. For
the newspapers selected within the outlined timeframe, the data corpus was gathered on Nexis
UK by searching articles containing the key terms “Refugee*” or “Asylum seek*” with three
or more mentions and contained any mention of “Syria*”, which across the three newspapers
garnered 578 article results (excluding online and duplicates). These articles will be used in
the quantitative analysis whilst the number will be reduced to around 24 of the highest
relevance (8 for each paper, 4 in Phase One and 4 in Phase Two) for qualitative analysis. This
includes not only news pieces, but editorials, opinion columns and letters to the editor. The
articles in this dataset discuss Syrian refugees in the UK but also coverage which relates to
international mixed migration more generally as it was occurring in the Mediterranean in the
late summer and autumn of 2015. This differs from many of the previous academic studies
which tend to focus of the media representation of refugees arriving or in the host country
(Gale 2004, El Refaie 2001).
With regards to the sample data used from the parliamentary debates, as the the House
of Lords and Houses of Commons broke for recess in July 2015 and only returned on 7th
September, phase one runs from 6th - 22nd July 2015 and phase two running from 7th
September until 17th September 2015. The data corpus for this set was collected from the
online archive ‘Hansard’ which contains a record of debates on oral and written questions in
both Houses of British government.

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 Chapter 3: Results

This section analyses each newspaper and the parliamentary debates separately, this is done in
order to appreciate the subtle differences in how events were represented in each forum. In
all cases, the same keywords are compared in both Phase One and Phase Two, so to see what
changes occurred within the discourse and if this indicates a wider trend. Significantly, Table
1. illustrates clearly the increase in articles published across all the newspapers following
Aylan’s image on 3rd September. Therefore in order to account for this increase in the data,
the percentage difference relative to the percentage of coverage is employed so as to ascertain
whether terms increased or decreased in Phase Two of the study (noting that Phase Two
contained 84% of the overall media coverage). For example a common trend was that the use
of the word refugee increased in every newspaper and in the parliament, even when
accounting for the increase in coverage that took place following the 3rd September 2015.

Table 1. Number of articles published before and after Aylan Kurdi’s image

3.1 The Times

The results found by conducting qualitative analysis on the eight most highly relevant articles
for The Times showed that shortly following the initial sympathy towards Aylan and more
generally the plight of the Syrian refugees as a collective, there was an emergence of a
‘refugee claimants are disingenuous and bogus’ frame. Even in the generally empathetic and
compassionately written article from the UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie-Pitt and

15
former Bosnia-Herzegovina refugee Arminka Helic, stresses the important difference between
so-called ‘genuine refugees’ saying that “we should be conscious of the distinction between
economic migrants, who are trying to escape extreme poverty, and refugees who are fleeing
an immediate threat to their lives.” This highlights the presence of framing the refugees as
either ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’, a theme which was also previously found in the research
of Esses ​et al​ (2013). Furthermore, a week following the publication of Aylan’s photo,
Phillips (2015) questions the validity of the general public's sympathy towards his family’s
plight and the legitimacy of their refugee claim, stating that “even the family of three-year-old
Aylan Kurdi, whose drowned body provoked this mass outpouring of publicly proclaimed
compassion, weren't desperate to reach sanctuary at all. They had already been living in safety
for three years in Turkey.” This theme of ‘bogus refugees’ was found in three of the articles
published in Phase Two, and is significant as it indicates how the centre-right element of The
Times balances supporting the ‘legitimate’ Syrian refugees whilst maintaining the paper’s
(and their readers’) traditional attitudes on immigration.
Additionally another theme which emerges across the articles is that often refugees
and asylum seekers are portrayed as a uniform and impersonal mass, with only two of the
articles including a quote directly from a refugee (Smith 2015; Charter 2015). Yet even these
articles frequently refer to refugees in numerical and passive terms (verbs used are actions
upon them, not actions done by refugees), for example: “Nearly 1,200 migrants were also
reportedly ​rescued ​by the Italian navy”; “More than 1,050 people were ​rescued”​ and “ships
carrying 4​ ,300 migrants” (Charter 2015, emphasis added). These phrases serve to quantify
(and in some cases dehumanise) the refugees and asylum seekers as such an anonymous mass
does not provide insight on the personal tragedies of individual refugees.
Many articles makes use of dramatic metaphors as a means of describing the flow of
mixed migration. These metaphors draw on natural phenomenons and biblical language and
often have the effect of making the amount of people seem out of control and an existential
threat to the culture of Europe. For example one of the articles points to the idea that “Britain
and Europe can accommodate this ​flood o​ f people is delusional” and continues with this
frame describing incoming refugees and asylum seekers as “an enormous and unprecedented
movement of peoples from the developing to the developed world which threatens to engulf
Europe,” (Phillips 2015, emphasis added). Another two articles contained similar language
referring to “columns of refugees marching across European borders” (Jolie-Pitt and Helic

16
2015) and an “exodus of people desperate to escape terror, conflict and poverty” (Charter
2015).
There is an interesting reference to the fact of distinguishing between the different
religions of the incoming refugees and asylum seekers, and how an influx of Muslims into
Europe may change the “cultural balance of the country forever” according to Phillips. Her
editorial piece continues to lament how the British government is “shunning Christian
refugees from Islamist terror while opening their borders to hundreds of thousands of
Muslims.” A similar idea is found in another article which promotes the idea that the EU
“regain control of our external borders” or else the “the future of Schengen, the sense of order
in Europe and the common European spirit” is at stake of being lost (Waterfield 2015).
It is clear that there is less of a conflation of the terms migrant and refugee following
the photo of Aylan Kurdi, with the use of ‘refugee’ increasing by 7% while the use of
‘migrant’ decreases by 9%. Furthermore there is a large decrease in the use of the word
illegal, down 12% following the release of Aylan’s photo.

Table 2: Word Frequency in Phase One and Two

17
 Phase Two Total % of total mentions Percentage of
in Phase Two difference relative to
coverage (77%)

Refugee 799 955 84% 7%

migrant 366 540 68% -9%

Asylum 61 86 71% -6%

seeker

help 194 225 86% 9%

police 131 174 75% -2%

border 223 322 69% -8%

illegal 26 40 65% -12%

crisis 202 228 89% 12%

3.2 The Guardian

Even before the release of Aylan Kurdi’s photo in early September 2015, the presence of the
voice of different refugees was prominent in the first four articles selected from The
Guardian. These testimonies serve to humanise and transmit the complex stories of Syrian
refugees, for instance one article “Kos migrants: 'They said they'd give us papers, then locked

18
us in like a prison’” describes several refugees’ experience on the Greek island of Kos. The
story of Abu Hamza illustrates the motives behind a refugee’s choice in fleeing war-torn
Syria:
"Today in Damascus there were 50 Katyusha bombs… My wife took my
kids to the swimming pool and then nearby the bombs started falling. So
the people want to go to safety. And the safest place is Europe. We're not
happy about moving about like this, the humiliation we're going
through… I don't know if Europe will be heaven or hell, but I just want a
place for my kids." (Kingsley 2015)

This article as well as transmitting personal stories from the point of view of Syrian refugees,
is critical of the action (or inaction) of the European officials. The journalist points to the
holding of refugees in a Kos stadium for hours on end as “another example of European
officials reacting with sudden, short-term solutions to a phenomenon that their critics believe
requires a more long-term vision.”
A subsequent article published 26th August is also critical of the behaviour of the
European Union saying “it is a matter of shame that an EU member state is putting up fences
to prevent people from Syria and elsewhere seeking legal protection” and further that “Even
Germany's approach is not as enlightened as it seems," as it means getting to Germany
involves a perilous and expensive voyage from Turkey (Finch 2015). Moreover just days
before Aylan Kurdi’s inflatable boat capsized, this article goes on to mention the dangerous
voyage, warning that “too many [refugees] are dying along the way, and for all of them, the
journey is arduous, hazardous and expensive,” (ibid 2015).
Following the printing of Aylan Kurdi’s photo on the front page on 3rd September, the
Guardian articles appears to have turned to placing the ‘refugee crisis’ in its global context.
One article argues that “the reason behind their exodus lies in Syria. The war in Syria is the
worst humanitarian disaster of our time,” (Nougayrède 2015). There is a shift towards looking
beyond the role of the European Union as the writer states that “The UN must step up to the
plate, not just the EU,” (ibid 2015). This recognition of the global aspect of the ‘European
refugee crisis’ is reiterated in several of the letters to the editor (published 7th September)
which describe the crisis as a result of the international community's inaction and absence of
political will to resolve the Syrian civil war. The final article also discusses the intractability
of the current crisis is partly due to the fact that the “international community is struggling to
come up with viable collective responses” (Betts 2015). This opinion piece discusses the

19
problematic issue of describing Syrians who have the ability and finances to “exercise
agency” and move to more stable and prosperous geographic regions as ‘economic migrants’
instead of refugees and highlights that these descriptors are not mutually exclusive; “someone
can be a refugee fleeing persecution and still take the opportunity to seek asylum further
afield,” (ibid 2015).
The articles included for qualitative analysis illustrate a self-awareness of reporting of
issues, for instance the discussion of the how the concept of what is a refugee has evolved
since its legal definition in 1951. Moreover most of the articles do not restrict themselves to
merely reporting the ‘events on the ground’ but rather discuss issues in relation to their
domestic and global context. Much discussion takes place in Phase Two as to the origins of
the ‘Syrian refugee crisis’, with some of the articles pointing to Western inaction and the
United Nations Security Council’s lack of political will to resolve the civil war in Syria.
Similarly to the previous paper, the quantitative data illustrates a decrease of 18% in
the use of the word ‘migrant’ in Phase Two as well as a 4% increase in ‘refugee.’ Also
significantly there is a 9% decrease in the frequency of the word ‘police’, potentially
indicating a move away from associating mixed migration with crime and disorder.

Phase Total % of total Percentage of difference

Two mentions in relative to coverage
Phase Two (84%)

Refugee 3324 3771 88% +4%

migrant 556 842 66% -18%

Asylum 263 306 86% +2%

seeker

help 629 707 89% +5%

police 354 471 75% -9%

border 1119 1246 90% +6%

illegal 56 72 78% -6%

crisis 816 929 88% +4%

20
 3.3 The Sun

The articles which feature in The Sun are the fewest, the shortest and appear to be the most
sensational. In contrast to the other two papers, the Guardian and the Times, the Sun features
no interviews from the refugees. Instead one of the articles focuses on the “generous Brit
expats” who are volunteering to “help desperate migrant children” on the Greek island of Kos
(Royston 2015), the decision to describe the British as “expats” and the largely Syrian refugee
population as ‘migrants’ is an important choice of language due to the negative connotations
often attributed to the term ‘migrants.’ This article continues to frame the “migrants” in Kos
as potential risks to the stability of the economy as an interview with Sam, a British “expat”
highlights as she “fears the crisis could wreck the island's tourism industry - and its economy
- if holidaymakers are put off.”
Similarly to the discourse of the Times, the Sun draws on natural and biblical
metaphors but in a more explicit manner, for instance one article says that “the numbers
flooding towards northern Europe are now at a truly Biblical scale” (New and Dunne 2015).
Moreover this article depicts the inflow of migrants into the Mediterranean region and beyond
as a threat. It points to the uncertainty of exact number of migrants saying that “maybe one
million illegals who have slipped in via Calais or overstayed their visas.” The use of the term
‘illegals’ in relation to refugee and asylum seekers here has the effect of framing this group as
deceiving, dishonest and creates the idea that these people may be linked to criminality. It is
interesting to note then that the use of the term ‘illegal’ or ‘illegals’ decreases by nine percent
in Phase Two, pointing to a shift in the narrative put forth by the Sun following the death of
Aylan Kurdi.
In Phase Two, many of the articles still center on British stories of the ‘refugee crisis’,
as opposed to the refugees’ being giving a platform to voice their own stories (as seen in the
Guardian). For example, there is a news piece on the story of Olympic boxer, Amir Khan who
was emotionally moved to action following the photos of Aylan: "Those pictures broke my
heart. That could have been anyone's child. When I saw that poor boy I knew I had to do
something. I knew I needed to see what was going on for myself." Yet despite the empathetic
emotions apparent in the article, it still almost paradoxically emphasises that “Britain can do
no more” with Amir saying “We have to look after British people first and make sure they
have jobs and are safe before we open our doors.” Again even though there is a much more

21
sympathetic and positive discourse towards Syrian refugees, as with the Times there is the
emergence of a narrative which portrays some migrants as less deserving of aid than others
for example “Near the Croatian border with Slovenia, two buses ferried Syrian families away
after picking them out from Iraqis,” and “some Syrian refugees fear their passports will be
stolen, as migrants from Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan bid to get hold of the documents to
allow for easier asylum applications.” Therefore this raises questions about the authenticity of
the positive depiction of the Syrian refugees when the mixed migration in the Mediterranean
(which the Syrians are part of) is framed negatively.
The Sun is also unique in that two of the eight articles call for decisive military
intervention in Syria by the UK, with the headline “ BLITZ 'EM TO HELL” clearly
illustrating this theme (Willetts 2015). Therefore the Sun puts the refugee crisis into a global
context arguing that ‘Islamic State’ are responsible for causing the “exodus from Syria that
saw toddler Aylan Kurdi, three, washed up on a beach after drowning off Turkey as his
family fled the civil war in their homeland.”
Finally, from the quantitative analysis and word frequency carried out on the Sun
articles, it was the only newspaper which saw a decrease in the word “crisis.”

22
 Phase Two Total % of total Percentage of difference
mentions relative to coverage (89%)
in Phase
Two

Refugee 522 569 92% 3%

migrant 255 305 84% -5%

Asylum seeker 21 28 75% -14%

help 156 168 93% 4%

police 47 55 85% -4%

border 174 187 93% 4%

illegal 8 10 80% -9%

crisis 179 208 86% -3%

3.4 Parliamentary Debates

In Phase One, the debate within the House of Lords contained much discussion about whether
Britain was ‘doing enough’ in order to help the Syrian refugees. The Liberal Democrat Lord
Paddick questioned the unequal distribution of asylum seekers across in the EU in phase one,
on 14th July 2015 saying: “In terms of absorbing the refugees coming across the
Mediterranean, the two weakest economies in Europe are having to absorb all these migrants

23
whereas this country, which has very broad shoulders, accepts hardly any.” This debate also
replicates the ‘moral responsibility and British generosity’ theme seen in the Times and the
Sun throughout both phases of the study. Specific emphasis is placed on the economic support
and overseas humanitarian aid that Britain provide to Syria. For example The Lord Bishop of
Peterborough remarks that the UK has “a noble tradition in this country of welcoming the
persecuted and dispossessed” and the Conservative Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts echoes
this self-congratulatory sentiment saying that the UK has “made a courageous and principled
commitment to spending 0.7% of our GDP on overseas aid.” In contrast, the speeches in the
House of Commons during Phase One reflect the ‘genuine vs dishonest’ refugee frame seen
in the three papers. This distinction is made clear by the Home Secretary, Theresa May in her
outlining of “the action the Government are taking to tackle ​illegal i​ mmigration, particularly
in the light of the current situation in the Mediterranean.”
The strongest trend to emerge following the printing of Aylan’s photos and story was the line
taken by the Conservative government in showing a more empathetic framing of the issue
while remaining firm in their policy line. The Prime Minister spoke about the effect of the
photos on the return of the parliament saying:
“The whole country has been deeply moved by the heart-breaking images
that we have seen over the past few days. It is absolutely right that Britain
should fulfil its moral responsibility to help the refugees, just as we have
done so proudly throughout our history. But in doing so, we must use our
head and our heart.”

Furthermore, on the 9th September, the Secretary of State for International Development,
Justine Greening responded to pressure for Britain to take more action stating that “since day
one of the Syrian crisis, Britain has been at the forefront of the response.” In this speech in the
House of Commons she goes on to add to the theme of ‘We are doing enough’ saying that the
UK has “pledged more than £1 billion to date, the largest ever response from the UK to any
humanitarian crisis” and affirming that “Britain is playing our role” in tackling the Syrian
crisis.
Significantly even just a few days following the Aylan story, there is a widespread,
cross-party distinction between necessary humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees and the less
certain necessity of potential military intervention. The Labour MP Yvonne Cooper
exemplifies this attitude in her speech on the 8th September saying that: “Prime Minister

24
himself has said that acting against ISIL is a challenge for a generation. A response is taking
place in Iraq and Syria at the moment. We wait for the Government to set out any further
proposals that they have, and we will need to look at those in due course.” This distinction
strengthens over the coming weeks to separate completely into different policies and
discourses, firstly humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees and counter-terrorism measures against
ISIL.

Phase Two Total % of total Percentage of difference

mentions in relative to coverage
Phase Two (58%)

Refugee 435 621 70% 12%

migrant 49 165 30% -28%

Asylum 12 34 35% -23%

seeker

help 239 302 79% 21%

police 14 31 45% -13%

border 59 126 47% -11%

illegal 10 45 22% -36%

crisis 141 197 72% 14%

Shortly following the parameters of this study, the Home Secretary Theresa May gave a
speech arguing that for the reduction in the number of immigrants and that migrants located in
Calais are “the wealthiest, fittest and strongest”5 suggesting that they are thus undeserving of
asylum.

Applying Robinson’s Policy-Media Interaction Model

Following Robinson’s Policy-Media Interaction model of analysing basic level descriptors
and second level descriptors which elicit an empathetic and critical response, this section will
measure the frequency of these terms in order to figure out whether the media influenced the
political discourse and policy. The data is primarily restricted to the period in Phase Two as

5
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/06/theresa-may-speech-new-low-politics-migration
25
this was the window most likely to create a CNN effect and see a shift in discourse, due to the
volume of coverage after the photo of Aylan Kurdi shocked the world.
Firstly it is important to note that according to Robinson (2002 p. 103) the ‘CNN
effect’ occurs where both the basic and secondary level empathy descriptors are more
frequent that the critical descriptors. On analysing the data, the basic level empathy
descriptors are more frequent than the critical ones.6

Table 3. Basic Level Descriptors

Critical Descriptors Empathy Descriptors

Syrian Women

Men Children

Migrant Refugee

Civilians Asylum Seeker

Furthermore, even when analysing the secondary level descriptors the average frequency of
the empathy descriptors was more than the critical ones, albeit by a 1% margin. This increase
in empathetic language should, according to Robinson, win over the hearts of the public and
thus place pressure on the British government to take action (for Robinson this means
humanitarian intervention). However neither the empathy or critical descriptors were
dramatically different in Phase Two, only a 1% increase in critical descriptors and 2% in
empathetic ones. Perhaps this accounts for the lack of ‘CNN effect’ in the British
government’s policy and speeches. This could indicate as indicated by Robinson (2000 p.
615) that the media was actually indexed to the government due to the British government’s
policy certainty.
Alternatively, it could indicate the presence of another descriptor that is not accounted
for in Robinson’s model. According to a study carried out by Werman 2015, there has been
an increased prevalence of legal and bureaucratic rhetoric within both the media and politics
since 9/11. In this adaptation of the Policy-Media Interaction Model, there is less likely to be
a ‘CNN effect’ if the media “focus primarily on the legal aspects of intervention rather than
normative and humanitarian aspects” (Werman 2015, p. 151).

6
​See appendix for data
26
Table 2: Total critical descriptor frequencies in news media with percentage of coverage
from September 3, 2015 to Sept 24, 2015
Critical Total Sept 3 - Percentage of total Difference from
Descriptors Frequency Sept 24 mentions percent of
coverage (84%)

Inaction 14 13 93% +9%

Failed to 44 40 91% +7%

Shame 95 78 82% -2%

Impotence 5 4 80% -4%

Doing nothing 5 4 80% -4%

Average Difference +1​%

Table 3: Total empathy descriptor frequencies in news media with percentage of

coverage from September 3, 2015 to Sept 24, 2015
Empathy Total Sept 3 - Sept Percentage of total Difference from
Descriptors Frequency 24 mentions percent of
coverage (84%)

Tragedy 80 68 85% +1%

Suffering 73 59 81% -3%

Desperate 224 181 81% -3%

Fleeing 352 302 87% +2%

Drowned 155 150 97% +13%

Average Difference +2​%

The below table illustrates the frequency of legal and bureaucratic descriptors in the media
following the photos of Aylan Kurdi. The results show that the legal framing was stronger in
this time period than both the empathy and critical descriptors combined.

27
Table 4: Total legal descriptor frequencies in news media with percentage of coverage
from September 3, 2015 to Sept 24, 2015
Legal/Bureaucra Total Sept 3 - Sept Percentage of Difference from
cy Descriptors Frequency 24 total mentions percent of
coverage (84%)

International 22 20 91% +7%

Law

United 747 659 88% +4%

Nations/UN

Quotas 189 162 86% +2%

European 848 711 84% 0%

International 26 24 92% +8%

Community

Average +4​%
Difference

28
 Chapter 4: Discussion and Conclusion

The aim of this research project was to evaluate whether there was a shift in discourse in
relation to media coverage on mixed migration in the Mediterranean and if this shift was
replicated in the discourse of the political elite. The framework for this was provided by
drawing on the concept of media framing and by utilising the Policy-Media Interaction
model.

The data confirms the hypothesis of the study that there was indeed a shift in the
media and political discourse following the widespread publication of Aylan Kurdi’s tragic
story and photos. However it is less clear as to whether the media caused the shift in
discourse, however the British government did react to the mass emotional outcry from public
indicating the agenda-setting power of the media. Moreover the above graph appears to
illustrate Bennett’s indexing hypothesis (1990), which finds that journalists will follow the
political elites in terms of the news agenda and also the framing of the news issues (Robinson
2012, p. 175). Significantly this graph also shows the great similarity between the discourse
shift which occurred in The Times and the Parliament, with their decreases and increases
corresponding for each key term. This may point to the continuing partisan nature of

29
newspapers in the UK, as the Times has generally been affiliated with the Conservative party
(the government during this period).
The analysis carried out in this research project identified several themes throughout
the media and political elite discourse. One particular theme which resonated and seemed to
gain traction over the course of Phase Two was the binary oppositions created in relation to
refugee and migrant categories. Much conversation occurred around the issue of how to
distinguish between the ‘genuine refugees’ rather than the ‘undeserving economic
opportunists’. As asserted by Malloch and Stanley (2005, p. 55) “in reality, there is little to
distinguish those fleeing persecution and those fleeing poverty (often directly related to civil
war and political turmoil).” However as highlighted by the data there was an overall decrease
in the use of the term migrant and increase in the more positive ‘refugee’, point to a
recognition or acceptance that there should be a more positive representation of refugees and
asylum seekers. Therefore it is clear that while the putting emphasis on the ‘most deserving’
refugees is problematic and common within Phase Two on the study, a shift to a more
positive stance and discourse is evident in the media.
Furthermore there appears to be a decrease in the negative representation of asylum
seeking in both the media and parliamentary debates. However the tendency within the
right-leaning papers to depict the British population and the migrants in opposition to each
other. In phase one there is an evident securitisation of migrants and refugees and this is
unsurprising as according to Huysmans (2006, p. 46) migrants and refugees can often be
depicted and viewed as threats to the culture of the host state as in the news media they are
“portrayed as endangering a collective way of life that defines a community of people.” This
securitisation of migrants and refugees changes in Phase Two, as national security concerns
shift towards the threat of so-called Islamic State. As previously mentioned there is a
widening political distinction created between how to respond to the ‘refugee crisis’ (by
means of humanitarian aid and resettlement of programme refugees) and overcome the
security threats posed by Islamic State in Syria (proposed military intervention). This is
significant as it highlights the absence of the ‘CNN effect’ which usually accompanies the
increased empathetic framing of human suffering. The conditions described by Robinson
(2000) which enabled the humanitarian intervention ‘golden age’ of the 1990s no longer
prevail. Instead we see that government action must be justified in terms of legal and
bureaucratic frame which prove less successful at enabling government action or intervention.

30
Limitations and Future Directions

As this research project was limited to a specific timeframe and a specific European country,
its generalisability limitations could be resolved by a larger comparative study and through
investigating other media forms (for example the impact of social media). Furthermore, it
would be useful to investigate whether the discourse shift that occurred over the course of the
two time frames continued in the subsequent months in both the media and policy
discussions. Additionally, in light of the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 and the
affiliation of one of the attackers as a ‘fake Syrian refugee’, some research has found that the
attitude of Western Europe towards Syrian refugees has changed as a result of this.7

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britons-twice-as-hostile-to-syrian-refugees-than-fr
ench-following-paris-attacks-yougov-finds-a6755821.html
31
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Whether they are fleeing armed conflict or economic deprivation - or both - people will
continue trying to cross borders in search of a decent life, and the global community needs to
address this. ​The Guardian​, September 20, 2015 Sunday, COMMENT IS FREE, 1958 words.

Butler, P. (2015) Yvette Cooper's refugees quota would require 10-fold rise in UK intake;
Labour leadership candidate's call to accept 10,000 refugees each year could only happen if
local authorities considerably increased their commitment. The Guardian​, September 1, 2015
Tuesday 6:39 PM GMT, WORLD NEWS, 774 words.

Connolly, K. and Nolan, D. (2015) Hungary closes main Budapest station to refugees; Move
follows chaotic scenes after thousands of people were allowed on to trains for Austria and
Germany without visa checks . ​The Guardian​, September 2, 2015 Wednesday, WORLD
NEWS, 1146 words

Finch, T. (2015) Europe needs a radical new approach to migration. How about making it
easier?; Smoothing the way for refugees to come to Europe would require huge political
courage. But it's the only way to avoid a repeat of this summer's tragic scenes. ​The Guardian​,
August 26, 2015 Wednesday, COMMENT IS FREE, 899 words.

Kingsley, P. (2015) Kos migrants: 'They said they'd give us papers, then locked us in like a
prison'; After being held in a stadium on the Greek island, refugees tell of their ordeal - as
immigration officials bemoan Kos mayor's alleged lack of cooperation. ​The Guardian,​
August 15, 2015 Saturday, WORLD NEWS, 1187 words.

Grierson, J. and Watt, N. (2015) David Cameron to unveil UK response to refugee crisis
before parliament; Prime minister to give full details of plans to resettle thousands of
refugees in House of Commons statement. ​The Guardian,​ September 7, 2015 Monday,
WORLD NEWS, 1783 words.

Nougayrède, N. (2015) Syria's exodus isn't a European problem. It's the whole world's; The
UN must play its part and join the EU in tackling this crisis. History shows us it can be done.
The Guardian,​ September 11, 2015 Friday, COMMENT IS FREE, 901 word

Syrian refugee crisis can only be resolved when all concerned shoulder their responsibilities
The Guardian, September 8, 2015 Tuesday, WORLD NEWS, 1295 words, Letters

36
The Times articles for qualitative analysis:
Carassava, A. (2015) Blood will be shed, mayor of Kos says. ​The Times (London)​, August
12, 2015 Wednesday, NEWS; Pg. 8,9, 501 words,

Charter, D. (2015). Bodies of boys on the beach show mortal risk of exodus. ​The Times
(London),​ pp.6, 7, 994 words.

Jolie Pitt, A. and Helic, A. (2015). Don't blame refugees for seeking a better life; Families
fleeing war must be prioritised over economic migrants to get a grip on this crisis. ​The Times
(London),​ pp. 30, 904 words.

Jones, C. (2015) Britain should take 10,000, says Cooper The Times (London)​, September 2,
2015 Wednesday, NEWS; Pg. 7, 515 words,

Phillips, M. (2015). Accepting these migrants is a huge mistake; Britain can't be expected to
take in a flood of displaced people that will alter the cultural balance of the country for ever.
The Times (London),​ pp.31, Editorial, 1091 words.

Smith, H. L. (2015) Kos sinks under desperate tide of migrants ​The Times (London)​, August
13, 2015 Thursday, NEWS; Pg. 28,29, 822 words

The Times (2015) Europe's Challenge; Hundreds of thousands of refugees are risking
everything to enter a European Union that has failed utterly to craft an adequate response The
Times (London),​ August 26, 2015 Wednesday, EDITORIAL; Pg. 27, 1123 words

Waterfield, B. (2015). We're facing destruction, European chief warns; Influx of migrants will
bring chaos to continent ; Migrant deadlock 'putting future of EU under threat'. ​The Times
(London),​ pp. 1,2, 801 words.

The Sun articles for qualitative analysis:

Cotter, N. (2015) Refugees face riot police in Budapest; MIGRANTS CRISIS IN EU The
Sun (England), September 2, 2015 Wednesday, NEWS; Pg. 15, 451 words.

Harvey, O. (2015) Desperate children your £1.5m will help save; INSIDE REFUGEE CAMP
HOME OF SYRIA WAR VICTIMS The Sun (England), September 10, 2015 Thursday,
NEWS; Pg. 22,23, 1227 words.

37
New, T. and Dunn, T. (2015) We didn't cause refugee crisis by going to war... but by not
finishing job; OUR EXPERT'S VIEW ON MIGRANTS The Sun (England), August 26,
2015 Wednesday, NEWS; Pg. 6, 857 words.

Royston, J. (2015) BRITS SAVE KIDS IN KOS MIGRANT HELL The Sun (England),
August 15, 2015 Saturday, NEWS; Pg. 22, 307 words

Willetts, D. (2015) BLITZ 'EM TO HELL; TROOPS STAND B TROOPS STAND BY

TROOPS STAND B TROOPS STAND B CRISIS TO DESTROY I.S. IN SYRIA TO
DESTROY I.S. IN SYRIA ; lCameron is urged to set date for air strikes ; lSmashing terror
state best way to aid refugees The Sun (England), September 7, 2015 Monday, NEWS; Pg.
4,5, 896 words.

Woodhouse, C. (2015) PULL THE TRIGGER; ANGER AT LACK OF MILITARY

ACTION AS MILLIONS FLEE POLL SHOWS BRITS WANT BLITZ ON I.S. TO EASE
REFUGEE CRISIS CAMERON READY TO SHELTER UP TO 15,000 SYRIANS IN
BRITAIN EXCLUSIVE The Sun (England), September 6, 2015 Sunday, NEWS; Pg. 12,13,
572 words.

Safe harbour for refugees The Sun (England), August 18, 2015 Tuesday, NEWS; Pg. 18, 88
words

As Amir offers aid, kids shout 'Thanks Europe'; BOXER'S MISSION TO GREECE AS
MORE REFUGEES DROWN The Sun (England), September 21, 2015 Monday, NEWS; Pg.
20,21, 1222 words.

38
Appendix

Front Covers

39
 Results of word frequency analysis

Critical Phase Phase Two Total % of total Percentage of

Descriptors One Frequency mentions in difference relative to
Phase Two coverage (84%)

Syrian 237 1554 1791 87% 3

Men 486 104 590 18% -66

Migrant 510 228 738 31% -51

Civilian 5 8 13 62% -22

Average -34

40
Empathy Phase Phase Total % of total Percentage of
Descriptors One Two mentions in difference
Phase Two relative to
coverage (84%)

Women 34 150 184 82% -2

Children 92 687 779 88% 4

Refugee 651 4645 5296 88% 4

Asylum seeker 75 345 420 82% -2

Average 1

41