Middle Eastern Migration Through the Eyes of Czech Press

Abstract

The following thesis analyzes the coverage of Middle Eastern and African migration by two major Czech newspapers, Blesk and MF Dnes. The articles which were analyzed were published during February 2017, 85 in total. They reported on Middle Eastern or African migration to Europe, as well as immigration and asylum policy within the EU. The analysis focused on what topics were covered in the articles, what sources were used to draw the information from, what location the articles covered and how they framed the issue in terms of causes, effects and solutions. The analysis found that politics was the most frequently covered topic which was prevalent in about a third of all articles. Politics was followed by crime committed by refugees and migrants and the theme of humanitarian aid and support for refugees. Both newspapers relied heavily on other news media (notably the Czech Press Agency) which were featured as sources in over three quarters of all articles. Political sources were the second most common, being featured in about 60% of all articles. iDNES featured NGOs, experts and refugees significantly more than Blesk, providing a wider range of sources. While Blesk was very much focused on the Czech Republic which was covered in over 40% of its articles, iDNES showed a larger focus on what is happening abroad. While the Czech Republic (along with Germany) was still covered the most (in 19% of all articles), it wasn't as frequent as in Blesk. Most of the articles didn't cover the causes of migration and if they did, they didn't do so in an extensive fashion. In iDNES, the causes were covered more frequently than in Blesk. In both of the papers, the causes were mostly identified as external, that is to say migration was mostly attributed to war, poverty and persecution. The majority of the articles of both newspapers covered negative sociocultural effects of migration (most frequently crime and human suffering). Only one article in each newspaper focused on the positive effects Middle Eastern and African migration had on the host country. Both of these articles were focused on economic benefits. Most articles mentioned some sort of proposed or executed solution. These solutions were quite balanced in terms of being humane (aiming to improve the refugees' and migrants' conditions) or restrictive (aiming to limit migration).