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Audience responses to migration stories: Voices of African migrants (International Media Support and University of Leicester, 2018)

This report was commissioned to examine the nature and quality of media stories produced by journalists supported by the Voices of African Migrants pilot programme (see http://migrantvoices.org/), managed by International Media Support (IMS), in four migration ‘Hubs’ in Africa, and explored how local audiences interpreted and responded to those stories. It used content analysis, interviews and focus group discussions.

The research findings show that most stories used human interest frames and foregrounded migrant experiences. The migrants’ main contributions to the stories were to provide a human face to hardships and suffering. Meanwhile, NGOs were included to provide facts, statements of general causes of migrations, statistics, and a sense of scale. Government statements were used to provide a comment on policies and solutions. Most articles were supportive in their sentiments to the plight of migrants.

Participants in the focus groups (especially migrants themselves) recognised that migrant voices were missing from mainstream media reporting on migration, that reporting on migration tends to be negative, and that there are pressing issues relating to migration that need to be discussed in the public sphere.

Focus group participants generally responded with empathy and understanding in response to stories about the hardships migrants face. Some stories provoked a distancing or disruption to understanding, especially when an aspect of the story did not match their prior tacit or cultural knowledge about migration. A small number of stories deeply moved focus group participants.

The report unpacks how an emphasis on ‘voice’ in this context can inadvertently lead to an underinterrogation of systemic and structural issues by individualising, and in some cases, perpetuating a representation of migrants as helpless victims.

Click here for full report.

Register now: Beyond Visual Stereotypes: A Symposium on Media and the Middle East (27 April, Norwich, UK)

This symposium on media representations and the Middle East will be filled with talks, workshops, and panel discussions and will end with a screening of Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly (2009). Moving beyond visual stereotypes, organisers invite attendees to join them in thinking about and challenging media representations.

A more detailed programme will follow but registration is now open.

Click here to register.

What role can drama play in conflict? A radio drama for Syria, qualitative research findings (BBC Media Action Brief, 2018)

Since 2011, Syrians have been living through a war and the challenges that prolonged conflict entails. Those who have fled overseas – often as refugees – and those who have remained in the country have lost family members and their homes, lack access to education and health facilities, and are living with the daily threat of violence. In such a context, ethnic and religious divides have intensified and armed groups have been increasingly recruiting young people in Syria and neighbouring countries.

Against this backdrop, between 2015 and 2017, BBC Media Action produced and broadcast 150 episodes of the thrice-weekly radio drama Hay el Matar (Airport District ). Funded by the European Commission as part of a broader project aiming to help build an open and inclusive society in conflict-ridden Syria, the classic soap opera aired on BBC Arabic radio and online and was accompanied by a weekly discussion programme. Set in a fictional Damascus suburb, Hay el Matar followed the daily lives of residents and featured love affairs, family feuds and tragedies. Each episode was scripted by a team of Syrian writers and touched on a different issue relevant to life in Syria (e.g. the ongoing civil war, migration, violence and radicalisation, economic insecurity and child or forced marriage).

Click here for full brief.

ICTs for Feminist Movement Building: Activist Toolkit (Just Associates, the Association for Progressive Communications and Women’sNet, 2015)

This toolkit draws on the experience and contexts of women activists in southern Africa and beyond. The toolkit aims to assist activists to think through their communication strategies in a way that supports movement building. It offers a practical guide to writing a communication strategy and reviews a number of tools (ICTs) and technology-related campaigns which can be used in organising work.

The toolkit is also about feminist practice and how to use tools and communicate in ways that are democratic, make women’s voices stronger and louder whilst challenging stereotypes and discriminatory social norms. The authors hope it will assist activists in making creative, safe and sustainable choices in using ICTs in communication strategies and consider:

  • experiment and be creative in the way you communicate
  • think about how communications can help to build movements for social justice
  • develop a feminist communication strategy for your organisation that amplifies women’s voices and supports them to tell their own stories
  • think about which ICTs to use and when
  • adopt a feminist approach to your use and understanding of ICTs
  • communicate in ways that challenge gender stereotypes
  • think through safety and security concerns that women activists face when using technology
  • understand how power works in design, governance and access to ICTs and challenge inequality in our world
  • design a workshop for your organisation on ICTs and communications.

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