Shifting the refugee narrative? An automated frame analysis of Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis

TLDR

In 2015, Europe received over 1.25 million refugees from war‑torn countries, a crisis that the public primarily learned about through domestic media. The study aims to identify the dominant frames used in Austrian newspaper coverage of refugee and asylum issues from January 2015 to January 2016, comparing quality and tabloid outlets and temporal variations. Using computer‑assisted content analysis, the authors examined 10,606 articles from six Austrian newspapers to map frame usage. The analysis shows that security‑threat and economic frames dominated coverage, humanitarian and background frames were less frequent, and during peak crisis periods tabloid and quality outlets converged, with framing broadening then narrowing, confirming persistent stereotyped journalistic routines.

Abstract

In 2015, Europe faced the arrival of over 1.25 million refugees fleeing from war-affected countries. The public mainly learned about this issue through domestic media. Through the use of computer-assisted content analysis, this study identifies the most dominant frames employed in the coverage of refugee and asylum issues between January 2015 and January 2016 in six Austrian newspapers (N = 10,606), particularly focusing on potential differences between quality and tabloid media, and on frame variations over time. The findings reveal that, apart from administrative aspects of coping with the arrivals, established narratives of security threat and economisation are most prominent. Humanitarianism frames and background information on the refugees’ situation are provided to a lesser extent. During the most intense phases of the crisis, the framing patterns of tabloid and quality media become highly similar. Media coverage broadens to multiple prominent frames as issue salience sharply increases, and then ‘crystallises’ into a more narrow set. In sum, the results confirm a predominance of stereotyped interpretations of refugee and asylum issues, and thus persisting journalistic routines in both, tabloid and quality media, even in times of a major political and humanitarian crisis.