Media Coverage on the Syrian refugee Crisis BY

Media Coverage on the Syrian refugee Crisis BY: SANDYA MYLVAGANAM

Subtopics 1. How the media depicts the refugees and how that influences the public’s view on the refugees themselves. 2. How is the coverage on the Syrian refugee crisis, would it be better to have more or less? 3. Does covering the background information of the Syrian refugee crisis affect the people’s opinion? Is it even being covered enough to impact the people’s opinion?

“How the media are reporting on Europe’s Refugee Crisis” Written by Joseph Erbentraut who is a senior editor for the Huffington Post and studied journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin. He has been working for the Huffington post for 8 years covering topics from world journalism to food. This article does not provide much background information but it provides an argument for one of my subtopics; the idea of how much coverage by media, in this case European media is pretty informational but too much is being reported. The over coverage of the crisis makes the people seem just as a another statistic. This article also says that the coverage being done should focus more on solutions and the actions of the people assisting the Refugees because the damages of the whole ordeal gets covered more. If these two ideas are more covered in media then the coverage would be worthwhile because it shows that the Crisis is still happening but the public is not just watching and waiting for it to end on its own.

Synthesis For the article “How the media are reporting on Europe’s Refugee Crisis” by Joseph Erbentraut it gives examples of media correctly covering the issue of the Syrian refugee crisis and how Ann Cooper; a journalism professor from Columbia has been analyzing different media posts like NPR and the Washington Post on their coverage of the refugee crisis. This article helps provide support for the subtopic of the amount of coverage done by the media and how that affects the public. It also offers solutions of how the media can influence the public to care more by adding certain ideas that should have been already reported like solutions and what other countries are doing to help the situation. The coverage is said to be pretty great because it covers the Syrian refugee crisis daily but it seems to exclude some important factors that would help further influence the public. Most media outputs are said to exclude the daily struggles of the refugees and spotlight solutions as well as other countries affected by the Syrian refugee crisis like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Cooper and Erbentraut emphasize if media outlets report on these issues revolving around the Syrian refugee crisis more then the public would be more influenced to care about the Refugees. In fact in the article “ Bigotry panic reflected in media coverage of migrant and refugees” by the Katie Nguyen helps support the idea of coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis by saying almost 14 countries that have provided coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis have lacked emotion and in depth reporting on the issue. It agrees that though most media outlets report on the Syrian refugee well, most do not go in depth, show the emotional side of public and even does not cover the possible solutions as much. All these factors contribute to the public’s opinion of the Syrian refugee crisis due to the media’s influence on the public.

“To Prevent Millions Fleeing conflict , we must give peace it’s chance” This article is written by Neal Keny-Guyer he has been the CEO of Mercy Corps since 1994. He is also social entrepreneur. He has a B. A. in public policy and religion from Duke University and a master degree in Public and Private management from Yale University. He is also chairman of the board of the Inter-Action the largest alliance of US based international NGOS. In this article it mostly provides background information regarding the Syrian refugee crisis. It states that almost 65 million people left their past life to get away from the Syrian war’s outcome. It also states that this problem is part of a bigger problem; global conflict which still does not get the attention it needs. It also talks about the past international conflicts the mercy corps have dealt with and how the Syrian refugee crisis is different and needs a different solution. It lastly provides an idea of the solution in the long run is to double the global budget for good peace building and conflict mitigation in crisis response.

Synthesis The article “ To prevent millions fleeing conflict, we must give peace it’s chance” by Neal- Keny Guyer helps support the idea of providing background information on the Syrian refugee crisis so that the people understand what the Refugee crisis in Syria really is and how well that information is truly getting covered. The background information provided was that 65 million people have fled Syria due to the War crisis. It also gives past reference to crises in Guatemala and the savage civil war in Central African Republic. This article also includes solutions for each crisis the Mercy corps solved and exclaims that the solution for the Syrian refugee crisis is to focus more on coverage of the idea that there are solutions available and it is are very different from the past crisis solutions because there are so many more people involved in this crisis. This is said also in “How can NGO’s keep Syria’s refugees in the news? ” where it focuses on the background information of the refugees and solutions that have worked for past refugee crisis like the one in Iraq. This article covers how the refugees used to live before the war and how they currently live now. It provides that almost 20 people are living in one bedroom apartments. There is about 4 million refugees displaced outside of Syria. There are 1. 8 million in Lebanon. Turkey has taken 1. 7 million people, while Jordan is sheltering 627, 000 refugees. Both articles focus on the coverage already done and how the media should actually narrow their reports to focus more on this idea and the refugees themselves.

“What I learned about photographing Syrian Refugees” This was written by David Gross; a photojournalist of over thirty years. His photography has specialized in war, human rights, abuse, disasters and environmental changes. He has also been a software developer, graphic designer and one who specializes in cutting edge multimedia coverage for common good advocacy projects. This article provides argumentative ideas towards the amount of the coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis. This author actually did his own media post where it was all pictures of Syrian refugees and puts emphasis on the idea that coverage is being done yet nothing is going towards the refugees, they still need shelter, education, food and security. The UN refugee agency currently reports that 49 % is underfunded after three to four years of this Syrian civil war. This shows that the coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis is not enough, because it is still existing as a problem.

Synthesis In “ What I learned about the media after photographing Syrian refugees “ by David Gross he provides the argument of coverage of the refugee crisis, in fact it seems he calls for more coverage to action because the Syrian refugees have not gotten much from the current media coverage. He emphasizes to have more coverage so then something positive would happened towards the Syrian refugee crisis. This author’s goal of taking pictures than writing about the Syrian refugee crisis was to have a shift of sympathy to empathy hopefully being able to influence the public in a way, due to the lack of the coverage of this crisis. Contrary to that belief in “ How the media are reporting on Europe’s refugee crisis" by Joseph Erbentraut of thinking that the media outlets are reporting either a good amount or too much on the Syrian refugee crisis. But both express that the media coverage is not sufficient because it does not cover the whole situation by not exploring the solutions, going in depth of the refugee’s struggles or even be covered enough to make an effect on the refugee’s status of living. The media needs to find the balance between covering the issue enough and efficiently so that the public’s opinion will be based on the whole idea of the situation, not only parts of it.

“The role of the media in Europe’s refugee crisis” This story is written by Lauren Pascu who has completed her masters degree in international relations. She has talked about feminism, equal rights as well as anything related to technology. She also takes part in research and professional communications of the ambassador program at Glasgow city marketing bureau. This article supports the argument of how the media depicts the refugees and how that depiction affects the public’s opinion. This article gives examples of how different media outputs in Europe express the same events happening in the Syrian Refugee crisis but are described differently. This article does not give much background information but provides examples of how the media from different areas vary, when describing the refugees.

Synthesis In “The Role of the Media in Europe’s Refugee Crisis” Lauren Pascu expresses that some media reports from The Daily Mail, The Sun and The Daily Mirror describe refugees in a dehumanizing way, thus affecting the public’s view on the refugees. These media outputs describe refugees as migrants; this has a completely different meaning as to the word refugee does. The word migrant is defined as those who choose to move not because of a direct threat of persecution or death but mainly to improve their lives by finding work, or in some cases for education, family reunion, or other reasons. Here the media has depicted the refugees incorrectly and thus the care for them decreases as the public understands the difference between the words. The idea of the refugees not being depicted correctly is also supported by “Watchdog Slams U. S. Media for Coverage of Refugee Crisis, Immigration” as said by Lisa de Bode when a media watchdog group criticized media outlets for letting coverage of the refugee crisis be twisted with wrong information by right wing populists in the recent presidential debates. Media outlets were said to cover too much of candidates Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants and refugees without fact checking his words. One example of this was that Trump kept saying that Mexicans are rapists and Muslims are terrorists without actually providing facts, yet the media kept reporting on that This helps support the idea that if the media continues to share new reports that are incorrect either through facts or connotation depicted in the media then the public will be influenced by what the media continuously says even though it might be wrong information.

“ Watchdog slams U. S media for coverage of refugee crisis, immigration” This article was written by Lisa de Bode; a U. S reporter as well as a European reporter that has reported on the refugee crisis, foreign fighters in Syria and the Paris Terror. She currently writes for the Aljazeera American column in Europe. She has been working here as a staff journalist for the past three years. Her work has been submitted in the world post journal and even CNN. com. This is an argumentative source that provides support towards how the refugees are depicted through the media and how that affects the public’s view or opinion on the refugees. It gives examples of how public figures have said things without fact checking and media just go ahead and report the supposed facts. This article expresses that media has a big influence on the public and an even bigger one , if the information is wrong yet interesting, then a wrong opinion would form and then the refugees would be wrongly judged. This article is about a media watchdog that watches over media to see if it is reporting the actual truth calling out mostly U. S. new outlets about continuously reporting Trump’s allegations without checking if it is true and trusting the source from which it came from.

Synthesis From the Aljazeera America the “watchdog slams U. S media for coverage of refugee crisis, immigration” by Lisa De Bode helps criticize how some U. S. media covered information of the crisis wrong yet rather than fixing what one source had said, they repeatedly enforcing the incorrect statements because one public figure expressed it. This shows the influence the people have from any media source and from the public figures inserted in to our lives and that when wrong information is presented to the public multiple times, and reiterated, the public have no choice but to believe the media and the public figure, whether factually wrong or not. In “ the British media coverage of refugee and migrant crisis is the most polarized and aggressive in Europe” by Michael Berry it also expresses that not only U. S. but some European media as well have incorrect facts and connotations about the refugees like calling them migrants and illegal immigrants, words that dehumanize and distance the public from the refugees or having political influence. In fact in Swedish newspapers there is a 51% influence from government or public figures and in German newspapers there is a 79. 6% influence from government or public figures in news reports revolving around the Syrian refugee crisis. This statistic shows that no matter where the media reports on the same issue, there will be some influence that could sway the public’s opinion in a different direction than rightfully intended. The media uses public figures, wrong connotation and the reiteration of false suggestions to sway the public’s opinion in the opposite direction of how they might feel, and the public are most often swayed because the persuasion from all three factors combined is very daunting.

“ Bigotry panic reflected in media coverage of migrants and refugees” This article is written by Katie Nguyen a Thomson Reuters Foundation correspondent, where she joined in 1999 as a Reuters graduate trainee. She also covered the rebellion in Africa for 5 years. As well as the deployment of French peace keepers in the Ivory Coast and even the riot post the Ethiopian elections. So she has a lot of experience dealing with crises around the world. This article argues the idea of how the coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis is actually lacking resources and journalist because the coverage of the crisis is not enough. It expresses that not only European and American media outlets but new outlets ranging from Brazil to Bulgaria have politicians negatively stereotyping the refugees in order to adhere to the public’s inner thoughts and doubts when talking about Syrian refugees. It also does again not cover the fully story.

Synthesis In “ Bigotry panic reflected in media coverage of migrants of refugees” by Katie Nguyen she exclaims that media around the world covering the Syrian refugee crisis are all excluding certain information and letting politicians influence what the news report says as it goes to the public. The public are then persuaded by the media involuntarily persuaded by the politicians, thus gaining the public’s support for their election or their own selfish views. In fact a study of recent media coverage shows for the number of countries currently reporting on the Syrian refugee crisis 14 countries media sources have excluded valuable information and been influenced by politicians. This is the same effect in “How the media are reporting on Europe’s refugee crisis” by Josh Erbentraut. In both sources they express that the media coverage of the media is mostly sufficient but not efficient or worthy to actually believe because of the amount of outside influence from the government, politicians and right winged parties on the reports. This affects the public’s opinion on the Syrian refugee crisis very much so because so many powerful voices with their influence, control the thoughts of the public on a issue the public has the right to voice their own true opinion of. With the media then taking in the influence from higher up and outer sources then the public unknowingly concedes to the politicians views and suddenly forget their own views judging the situation completely wrong, with no real evidence that is unbiased or influenced by politicians.

“ How can NGO’s keep Syria’s refugees in the news” Written by Jo Harrison, a communications advisor for Action. Aid Arab Region Initiative and Palestine, she is also a freelance television journalist for several UK based broadcasters. She used to work as a media officer in the Gaza Strip as well. This article provides some background context on the Syrian refugee crisis. For example this refugee crisis is by far the worst one ever since World War II. But it mostly gives argumentative context covering the focus and true coverage of the background information effecting the public. This article also talks about how the media does not focus on the suffering of the people and sometime forgoes important facts like some families are living in one bedroom with 20 people or that Syrians are actually tired of expressing their grief and sadness to so many media outlets, when much is not getting done.

Synthesis In “ How can NGOs keep Syria’s refugees in the news” by Jo Harrison, she gives some background information on the Syrian refugees and it is not covered very well because the public does not know that their resources that the refugees left with from Syria, after three years are running out. The background information continuously focuses on the suffering of the people and leaves out the possible solutions that worked for past refugee crises. When focusing only on the negative ideas of the whole crisis and only on the damage done to Syria rather than the people involved, the people will be only interested in what the media focuses on. In fact this article focuses on one person out the millions suffering, Mohamed who was a former breadwinner, now has no job, can not provide for his family and so he became depressed and suicidal. If the media focused on how the refugees felt or how this war affected them rather than continuously focusing on the past damage done then would the people begin to care about the actual people involved in this horrific dilemma. Yet in “To Prevent Millions Fleeing conflict, We must give peace it’s chance” by Neal Keny- Guyer it focuses on the background information but more on peace and possibility for change in the future regarding global conflict. Both resources provide background information of the Syrian refugee crisis but one focuses on the damage while the other focuses on solutions and peace inspired ideas. These both influence the public in different ways, where one influences the public to think this crisis is a lost cause while the other makes it seem like there is hope for this very sad crisis to finally end after almost 5 years.

“British media coverage of refugee and migrant is the most polarized and aggressive in Europe” This was written by Dr. Mike Berry and he has a unique interest in how the media coverage impacts the public knowledge and understanding economic, social and political issues as well. He graduated from the Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies department at Cardiff University. He has appeared on BBC radio and even had articles published in New Statesman and the Conversation. This helps address the argument of the subtopic of how the media reports on certain topics and how it affects the people’s perspective or opinion of the idea. One example of this was that the British and Italian media outlets when describing the refugees refer to them as migrants, while other countries like Germany and Sweden refer to them as refugee or asylum seekers. The problem with using the word migrant to describe people in dire need of help mean they are traveling towards ones country for work, but in reality they need homes, healthcare and love.

Synthesis As expressed in “ British media coverage of refugee and migrant crisis is the most polarized and aggressive in Europe” by Mike Berry the article focuses on how out of most European countries the British are the ones that reduce the refugees to less than human by describing them differently and letting big governmental influences input their ideas in to the public viewed news. In fact in the Daily Mirror with the right winged press kept pushing for anti- refugee ideas and describing the refugees as migrants. This is reflected just as prominent in both “How the Media are reporting on Europe’s Refugee crisis” by Joseph Erbentraut and “Watchdog slams U. S. Media for Coverage of refugee Crisis, immigration” by Lisa de Bode because both say that the coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis is not sufficient because it is influenced by bias and politicians thus not being effective towards the public. All three sources call out the media on how their influence whether due to wrong word usage or political influence affects the public’s view on the refugees and the crisis that follows.