Framing immigration in online media and television news in crisis-stricken Cyprus

Abstract

© 2015, University of Nicosia. All rights reserved. Immigration is an issue of contestation across Europe. Since the 1990s, the retreat of multiculturalism has resulted in pressures exerted on immigrants to conform and integrate. The strengthening of anti-immigrant stances has intensified after the economic recession that has deteriorated standards of living for large populations and has increased the competition between social groups for public resources. Linguistic labels that evoke judgments have real consequences, as citizen attitudes depend on the labels attributed to immigrants in the public discourse. This study1 employs framing analysis of online articles and television news stories about third-country immigrants that appeared in the Cypriot media in 2013, when the consequences of the financial crisis were most strongly felt by the Cypriot population. The findings reveal the explicit discursive and sourcing mechanisms by which immigration is constructed as a problem and immigrants are ‘othered’ in the media discourse. The study concludes with a discussion of possible remedies deemed appropriate in the context of Cyprus.