[1] New Media and Communication Department, School of Communication, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul 34480, Turkey; yasmin.aldamen@ihu.edu.tr https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0808-5235
Abstract
The Syrian refugee crisis has been ongoing since 2011, with millions of people being forced to flee their homes due to the devastating war. This has resulted in one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time, with many refugees seeking a better life and safety in other countries. The issue of the Syrian refugee crisis has been a widely debated topic in media and politics, but the focus on the representation of Syrian refugee women in various media outlets is a concerning issue. Syrian refugee women have suffered from several social challenges in the host countries, including negative portrayals, stereotyping, and frames in the media. Not only do these negative portrayals perpetuate stereotypes, but they also marginalize an already vulnerable group, overlook the unique challenges and contributions of Syrian refugee women in the host communities, and contribute to the symbolic annihilation of Syrian refugee women. The media play a role in informing the public about what and how to think about a particular issue through the way or frame in which it is presented. This media framing process plays a significant role in presenting populist governments, symbolic elites, and a media agenda that aims to cultivate public opinion with certain ideas and impressions. Based on the theoretical understanding of media framing theory, this study presents how Syrian refugee women see their image represented in the media. A quantitative approach was used to collect the data by conducting focus group discussions with a number of Syrian refugees. The findings showed that there was a common insight among the participants that Syrian refugee women are framed negatively in a collective representation of humiliation and dehumanization. The participants see that the media representations of Syrian refugee women have often been reductive and stigmatizing in certain frames. Furthermore, their image in the media is not normalized or presented in a positive way that shows that every woman has an individual story. However, they see that the Syrian refugee woman’s image is stigmatized in certain frames related to gender-based issues. Thus, this stigmatization is cultivated by repeated negative frames, mainly victimization and demonization ones.
Keywords: Syrian refugee women, migration, Syrian crisis, SGBV, media framing, stigmatization, victimization, demonization, symbolic annihilation, negative representation, cultivation theory.
References
Acim, R. (2017). Focus: Refugees’ experiences: Underage Syrian refugee girls at an impasse. Journal of Identity & Migration Studies, 11(2), 121- 135.
Aldamen, Y. (2017). The Role of Print and Electronic Media in the Defense of Human Rights: A Jordanian Perspective. Jordan Journal of Social Sciences 10.https://doi.org/10.12816/0040694
Aldamen, Y. (2023a). Can a Negative Representation of Refugees in Social Media Lead to Compassion Fatigue? An Analysis of the Perspectives of a Sample of Syrian Refugees in Jordan and Turkey. Journalism and Media, 4(1), 90–104. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia4010007
Aldamen, Y. (2023b). Xenophobia and Hate Speech towards Refugees on Social Media: Reinforcing Causes, Negative Effects, Defense and Response Mechanisms against That Speech. Societies, 13(4), 83.https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13040083
Aldamen, Y. (2023c). Understanding Social Media Dependency, and Uses and Gratifications as a Communication System in the Migration Era: Syrian Refugees in Host Countries as a Case Study. Social Sciences 12: 322. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12060322
Aldamen, Y. (2023d). Refugee Journalist Phenomenon as a Consequence of Migration and Refugee Crises: The Role of Social Media in Transferring Refugees Role from Has Been Affected to Has Affected. Studies in Media and Communication 11: 358–70. https://doi.org/10.11114/smc.v11i6.6202
Aldamen, Y., and Hacimic, E. (2023). Positive Determinism of Twitter Usage Development in Crisis Communication: Rescue and Relief Efforts after the 6 February 2023 Earthquake in Türkiye as a Case Study. Social Sciences 12: 436.https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12080436
Alhayek, K. (2014). Double marginalization: The invisibility of Syrian refugee women’s perspectives in mainstream online activism and global media. Feminist Media Studies, 14(4), 696-700. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.935205
Amores, J. J., Arcila-Calderón, C., & González-de-Garay, B. (2020). The gendered representation of refugees using visual frames in the main western European media. Gender Issues, 37(4), 291-314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-020-09248-1
Bansak, K., Hainmueller, J., & Hangartner, D. (2016). How economic, humanitarian, and religious concerns shape European attitudes toward asylum seekers. Science, 354(6309), 217-222. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aag2147
Castles, S., & Miller, M. J. (2009). The age of migration. Guilford Press.
Bocskor, Á. (2018). Anti-Immigration Discourses in Hungary during the ‘Crisis’ Year: The Orbán Government’s ‘National Consultation’ Campaign of 2015. Sociology, 52, 551–568. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038518762081
Cap, P. (2006). Legitimization in Political Discourse: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective on the Modern US War Rhetoric; Cambridge Scholars Press: Cambridge, UK.
Cervi, L., Tejedor, S., & Alencar Dornelles, M. (2020). When Populists Govern the Country: Strategies of Legitimization of Anti-Immigration Policies in Salvini’s Italy. Sustainability, 12(23), 10225. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310225
Chouliaraki, L., & Stolic, T. (2017). Rethinking media responsibility in the refugee ‘crisis’: A visual typology of European news. Media, Culture & Society, 39(8), 1162-1177.https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717726163
Civila, S., Romero-Rodríguez, L. M., & Civila, A. (2020). The demonization of Islam through social media: A case study of# StopIslam in Instagram. Publications, 8(4), 52. https://doi.org/10. 3390/publications8040052
Entman, R. M. (1989). How the media affect what people think: An information processing approach. The Journal of Politics, 51(2), 347- 370. https://doi.org/10.2307/2131346
Esses, V. M., Veenvliet, S., Hodson, G., & Mihic, L. (2008). Justice, morality, and the dehumanization of refugees. Social Justice Research, 21(1), 4-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-007-0058-4
Fernández-Villanueva, C., Revilla-Castro, J. C., Domínguez-Bilbao, R., Gimeno-Jiménez, L., & Almagro, A. (2009). Gender differences in the representation of violence on Spanish television: Should women be more violent? Sex Roles, 61(1), 85-100. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s11199-009-9613-9
Gerbner, G. (1972). Violence in television drama: Trends and symbolic functions. In G. A. Comstock, & E. A. Rubenstein (Eds.), Television and social behavior. Media Content and Control.
Gerbner, G., & Gross, L. (1976). Living with television: The violence profile. Journal of Communication, 26(2), 172-194. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1976.tb01397.x
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Harvard University Press.
Haider, A. S., Olimy, S. S., & Al-Abbas, L. S. (2021). Media coverage of Syrian female refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. SAGE Open, 11(1), 2158244021994811. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244021994811
Heidenreich, T., Lind, F., Eberl, J. M., & Boomgaarden, H. G. (2019). Media framing dynamics of the ‘European refugee crisis’: A comparative topic modelling approach. Journal of Refugee Studies, 32(Special_Issue_1), i172-i182.
Kaye, R. (1994). Defining the agenda: British refugee policy and the role of parties. Journal of Refugee Studies, 7(2-3), 144-159. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/7.2-3.144
Klein, H., & Shiffman, K. S. (2009). Underrepresentation and symbolic annihilation of socially disenfranchised groups (“out groups”) in animated cartoons. Howard Journal of Communications, 20(1), 55-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170802665208
Krzyżanowski, M. (2018). Discursive Shifts in Ethno-Nationalist Politics: On Politicisation and Mediatisation of the ‘Refugee Crisis’ in Poland. J. Immigr. Refug. Stud. 16.https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2017.1317897
Krzyżanowski, M.; Triandafyllidou, A.; Wodak, R. (2018). The Mediatization and the Politicization of the “Refugee Crisis” in Europe. J. Immigr. Refug. Stud. 16, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2017.1353189
Gray, H., & Franck, A. K. (2019). Refugees as/at risk: The gendered and racialized underpinnings of securitization in British media narratives. Security Dialogue, 50(3), 275-291.
Gurrieri, L. (2021). Patriarchal marketing and the symbolic annihilation of women, Journal of Marketing Management, 37:3-4, 364-370 https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2020.1826179
Lasswell, H. D. (1927). Propaganda Technique in the World War. New York: Peter Smith. (First published in 1927. Reprinted, 1938).
Mast, J., and Hanegreefs, S. (2015). When news media turn to citizen-generated images of war: Transparency and graphicness in the visual coverage of the Syrian conflict. Digital Journalism 3: 594–614. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2015.1034527
McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(2), 176-187. https://doi.org/10.1086/267990
McCombs, M., & Reynolds, A. (2009). How the news shapes our civic agenda. In J. Bryant, & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects (pp. 17-32). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203877111-7
Merskin, D. (1998). Sending up signals: A survey of Native American media use and representation in the mass media. Howard Journal of Communications, 9, 333-345. https://doi.org/10.1080/106461798246943
Mishra, D. (2016). Role of social networking sites on gender violence. International Journal of Advanced Information Science and Technology, 5(11), 8-62.
Mohammad, R., & Aldamen, Y. )2023(. Media dependency, uses and gratifications, and knowledge gap in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of Afghanistan and Turkey. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies 13: e202324. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/13097
Narli, N., Ozascilar, M., & Turkan Ipek, I. Z. (2020). Turkish daily press framing and representation of Syrian women refugees and gender- based problems: Implications for social integration. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 18(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 15562948.2018.1557311
Norocel, O.C. (2010). Romania is a family and it needs a strict father: Conceptual metaphors at work in radical right populist discourses. Natl. Pap. , 38, 705–721. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2010.498465
Özdemir, Ö. (2015). UK national print media coverage of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against refugee women in Syrian refugee camps. Syria Studies, 7(4), 53-72.
Paik, H., & Comstock, G. (1994). The effects of television violence on antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis.Communication Research, 21, 516-546. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365094021004004
Roggeband, C., & Vliegenthart, R. (2007). Divergent framing: The public debate on migration in the Dutch Parliament and media, 1995-2004. West European Politics, 30(3), 524-548. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/01402380701276352
Shehabat, A. (2012). The social media cyber-war: the unfolding events in the Syrian revolution 2011. Global Media Journal: Australian Edition, 6(2).
Shrum, L. J., Wyler Jr, R. S., & O’Guinn, T. C. (1998). The effects of television consumption on social perceptions: The use of priming procedures to investigate psychological processes. Journal of Consumer Research, 24, 447-458. https://doi.org/10.1086/209520
Signorielli, N., & Morgan, M. (1990). Cultivation analysis: New directions in media effects research. SAGE.
Singer, M. I., Slovak, K., Frierson, T., & York, P. (1998). Viewing preferences, symptoms of psychological trauma, and violent behaviors among children who watch television. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 1041-1048. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583- 199810000-00014
Tuchman, G. (1978). The symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media. In G. Tuchman, A. K. Daniels, & J. Benet (Eds.), Hearth and home: Images of women in the mass media (pp. 3-38). Oxford University Press.
UNFPA. (2013). Regional situation report on Syria crisis, issue No. 10, period covered: 15 July-15 August 2013. United Nations Populations Fund. http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/regional- situation- report-syria-crisis-issue-no-10
UNFPA. (2015). Reporting on gender-based violence in Syria crisis: A journalist’s handbook. United Nations Populations Fund https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/UNFPA%20Journalsits%27s%20Handbook%20Small%5B6%5D.pdf
UNHCR. (2003). Sexual and gender-based violence against refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons. UN Refugee Agency. https://www.unhcr.org/media/sexual-and-gender-based- violence-against- refugees-returnees-and-internally-displaced- persons
UNHCR. (2016). SGBV Prevention and Response – Training Package. https://www.unhcr.org/media/sgbv- prevention-and-response-training-package
UNHCR. (2017). Fact sheet: Turkey. UN Refugee Agency. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/57333
UNHCR. (2018). Syria regional refugee response. UN Refugee Agency. http://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/syria
UNHCR. (2020). SGBV. UN Refugee Agency. UNHCR. (2020). SGBV. UN Refugee Agency. http://www.unhcr.org/ sexual-and-gender-based-violence.html
Van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Elite discourse and racism (Vol. 6). Sage.
Van Gorp, B. (2005). Where is the frame? Victims and intruders in the Belgian press coverage of the asylum issue. European Journal of Communication, 20(4), 484-507. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323105058253
Wazzan, A., & Aldamen. Y. (2023). “How University Students Evaluate the Role of Social Media in Political Polarization: Perspectives of a Sample of Turkish Undergraduate and Graduate Students” Journalism and Media 4, no. 4: 1001-1020. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia4040064
Wodak, R. (2015). The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean; Sage: Los Angeles, CA, USA.