Can mainstream media be assumed to reflect in a constructive manner upon one of society’s most salient issues – migration? If so, will migration coverage be able to provide a pertinent representation of the particular preoccupations and circumstances that come into play in each country? Moreover, do election campaigns influence media treatment of this sensitive, highly politicised subject?

Questions such as these prompted the EJC and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) to start an experimental, data-driven research project. With the cooperation of journalism schools and media research institutions in the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, France, and Germany, and with expert advice from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the project took snapshots of migration press coverage within a four-week period, in close proximity to national and regional elections in the respective countries. Articles were statistically analysed for their framing of migration and for their implicit or explicit opinion on the subject. The resulting insights were presented to an international audience at the UNAOC’s Global Forum 2013 in Vienna.

The project was co-financed by the Open Society Fund to Counter Xenophobia. The findings can be read here: http://mediapusher.eu/unaoc/unaoc.ejc.study.summary.2013.pdf