News coverage of immigration issues in Europe: A content analysis on how international agencies portray immigrants to the world

Student registration number: 4117824

A dissertation submitted to the School of International Development of the University of East Anglia in Part-fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts or Science

September 2011

Word Count: 11, 974

Abstract

This dissertation examines media coverage of immigration issues within Europe in four different international news agencies: Agence France Presse, The and , the three mainstream wire services and Inter Press Service considered an alternative source of information. News agencies as the main providers of international news play a significant role in the agenda setting of the global and national media and deserve, for that reason, special attention. The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the literature about media and migration. It also contributes to research focused on international news agencies and the differences and similarities in their coverage of events. A content analysis that coded the news articles according to nine categories (quantity, length; main destination country mentioned; immigrant's region of origin; topic; frame behind the news; represented voices; writing style and tone) is the research technique carried out by this thesis. Clear differences were found in the kind of coverage about immigration issues provided by the mainstream news agencies and the alternative one, with length, sourcing practices, frames to tell the stories and topic, among the main distinctions.

Table of contents:

Introduction 1

CHPATER ONE: The immigration phenomenon and the role of mass media 3

1.1 About the migration phenomenon in Europe 3

1.2. Why do mass media play a significant role in society and in shaping our views of 4 immigrants?

1.3 What are the common representations of immigrants in the media? 6

CHAPTER TWO: International news agencies and their role in the agenda setting 8 phenomenon

2.1 The role of news agencies 8

2.2 What is worth covering? 10

2.3 The four news agencies 11

2.4 Previous research on international news agencies 14

CHAPTER THREE: Research Design and Methodology 17

3.1 Sample 19

CHAPTER FOUR: Analysis and Discussion 20

4.1 Number of stories produced and length of articles 20

4.2 Writing style and tone 22

4.3 Main destination country and Main immigrant's region of origin 23

4.4 Topic and Frame 25

4.5 Represented voices / who speaks? 30

CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusion 31

Bibliography 33

Appendix I 37

Appendix II 41

Introduction

The rise of xenophobia and anti-immigrant trends is a key phenomenon in Europe, home of the six of the top ten countries with the largest foreign-born populations (France, Germany, the Russian Federation, Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom) (World Migration Report, 2010: 115).

There are 214 million international migrants in the world and migration will not stop; it is a constant and dynamic phenomenon (World Migration Report, 2010). Over the next few decades, international migration is likely to transform in scale, reach and complexity, due to different factors such as growing demographic disparities, the effects of environmental change, new global political and economic dynamics, technological revolutions and social networks (World Migration Report, 2010: 3). According to the International Organisation for Migration, if the migrant population continues to increase at the same pace as in the last 20 years, the stock of international migrants worldwide by 2050 could be as high as 405 million (World Migration Report, 2010: 3, 4).

Taking into account these figures, it is clear that the process by which immigrants become accepted into the society is and will be a significant challenge to the destination countries. In this context, mass media can play a very important role in the kind of image that they offer to their audiences, readers and listeners because these images and interpretations help to define the perception of immigrants that the audiences have. International news agencies are particularly important in the setting of the media agenda, and for that reason are key players to be studied. We have seen during the first years of the twenty-first century major changes in the media landscape, digital technologies, and advances of media such as the Internet have driven these developments (Leckner and Facht, 2010). However, while some of these new media outlets and Internet news services produce news of their own, the international coverage still consists of unchanged or barely edited wire services stories (Paterson, 2003).

There are several studies that have examined how media portray the phenomenon of immigration, and also studies that explore how global news agencies cover different issues or events. But I could not find a study that explores the coverage of immigration as it is represented by different international news agencies. Which are the differences between them? Is there any difference in the kind of coverage provided about immigration if we are looking at mainstream news agencies or alternative news agencies? What is the possible explanation for these differences? This research offers an opportunity to contribute to the literature on immigration and media, highlighting a key player in the agenda setting: global wire services.

This dissertation will begin by providing background information on current immigration facts in Europe. Then, an overview of the previous research on media and migration as well as on the kind of coverage produced by international news agencies is presented. Methodologically, a content analysis is adopted in order to contrast and contribute to the literature reviewed in previous chapters. The discussion of the research that follows examines how four international news agencies, Agence France Presse (AFP), The Associated Press (AP), Reuters and Inter Press Service (IPS), portray immigration issues in Europe. In particular, a total of nine variables, quantity, length, topic, tone, principle destination country mentioned, Immigrant's region of origin, frame behind the article, represented voices and writing style, are described. The findings reveal clear differences in the kind of coverage provided by the global wire services, with a homogenous production about immigration by coverage of the mainstream wire services, and a more critical approach offered by the alternative .

CHPATER ONE The immigration phenomenon and the role of mass media

1.1 About the migration phenomenon in Europe

In order to set the context of this thesis I will present some key facts about migration in Europe that will throw light on the current situations and trends. An estimated 72.6 million migrants in 2010 lived in Europe and Central Asia a figure 5.1 million higher than the migrant stock in 2005. One in three of all international migrants in the world live in Europe and migrants represent 8.7 per cent of the total European population (UNDESA, 2009, in the World Migration Report, 2010: 183). Net international migration rates have increased across Europe in the period 2005–2010, compared to the previous decade. In addition, while the picture varies within different sub regions, the majority of Western and Central European countries have witnessed an increase in net immigration, with Cyprus, Luxemburg, Spain, Iceland and Ireland being the most affected countries (World Migration Report, 2010: 183). Moreover, according to Kahanec and Zimmermann, as a result of the EU enlargement in 2004, it was predicted that between 2 and 8 per cent of the population of new Member States1 would move to the old Member States2 in the long run (2009).

What is more, due to the global economic crisis, many EU Member States have experienced a sharp increase in unemployment rates, motivating governments to introduce measures to protect their domestic labour markets. As many scholars point out, an unfavourable economic situation make people more likely to turn against foreigners or immigrants because they believe that these groups can threaten economic security (Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart, 2007; Corrigan, 2009). This sentiment then could be translated into support for anti-immigrant parties. This is exactly the situation in Europe nowadays where, a vast number of European democracies witnessed electoral success of right-wing-immigrant parties (Norris, 2005; Eatwell and Mudde, 2004; Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart, 2007). Furthermore, migrant welfare dependency remains a divisive political issue (Corrigan, 2009). Many liberal democratic states have adopted a position in which they need

1 Including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. EU10 includes also Cyprus and Malta. 2 The old member states (EU15) in the context of these enlargements include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, , Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

to be seen as being ‘tough’ on immigration and crime (Vukov, 2003: 339). In this context, mass media could play a significant role in fostering an accurate or on the other hand, unbalanced image of immigrants. It doesn't matter if we are talking about skilled workers or illegal migrants, in both cases the media can influence the perception that the public has of foreigners as a general group. If migrant population continues to increase, as the International Organization for Migration claims, then the process by which immigrants become accepted into the societies is a significant challenge for the receiver countries, and in this regard, media play and will play a mayor role.

Migrants to Europe are often perceived as being culturally different from the dominant nationality, bringing with them other religions that are new to most of Western Europe (McLaren, 2003). Beginning well before the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and several “European governments have pronounced multiculturalism to be a ‘failure’ and opted for more aggressive means of integrating immigrants into their societies” (Triadafilopoulos, 2011: 861). Multiculturalism is then openly questioned.

1.2. Why do mass media play a significant role in society and in shaping our views of immigrants?

Having discussed the migration landscape in Europe nowadays, I now move to consider how media can play a major part in our understanding of “others” and in shaping public discourse. Since news media are “cultural products”, that construct our “social reality”, they play a significant role in shaping our perceptions of things and events (Cisneros, 2008:573). As Hawk argues, “The media hold responsibility for the interpretation of the events they report, and their interpretations in turn, define the understanding of events by readers and viewers” (1992:3). Our views of the world are shaped by our predominant source of information: the Mass Media (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996: 59). As Susan Moeller observes, “The media decide what in the world is worth covering. They introduce us to our global neighbours. And the way in which they do so influences our concern for those 'others'” (1999: 320). Who are those 'others' depends on what the media decide to highlight: which countries, whose interests and which events. How these 'others' are portrayed depends on how the media decide to tell the story. As Frederick Shiff points out, “Despite some disagreement then, scholars have repeatedly found that international coverage is geographically biased, skewed, homogeneous, concentrated and consonant, and most researchers have found that geographically there are consistent newsmakers, privileged news location, hot spots and invisible areas” (1996:7). For example, Scott carried out a study in 2009 to evaluate the international content in television, radio and online news in the UK, where he found that:

“The main UK news stories have a strong tendency to cover the same, relatively narrow, international agenda in terms of topics, countries and original stories. They also adopt a similar treatment and use of pictures to report the biggest international stories. In the two weeks of this study, 53% of all international coverage on the main UK news bulletins concerned just three countries (USA, Australia and Israel)” (2009: 11).

Apart from this idea of homogeneity in relation to how media tell us the stories of those 'others', it is interesting to take into account the work of Tuen A. van Dijk regarding ethnic minorities and racism. The author illustrates how public discourse circulates through the news media and thereby reproduces and “reformulates” social norms that enable discrimination and ethnic prejudice (Van Dijk 1991: 7). As the author points out, the media play a significant role in the acquisition and uses of opinions about minority groups. Moreover, mass media provide an “ideological framework” for the interpretation of ethnic events (1991: 7). Media coverage is then an important variable in research on public opinion toward immigration.

What is more, as McCombs points out, the media serve as a bridge between “the world outside and the pictures in our heads” (2004: 21). News media portrayals of different issues have an agenda- setting effect which determines that the issues highlighted most in the news become most important in the minds of news audiences (Branton and Dunaway, 2008). Furthermore, the way in which the media frames issues influences our understanding and evaluation of those issues (Abrajano and Singh, 2008); they teach us what to think about what is going on in the world. Iyengar's work in this area provides a comprehensive test of the agenda setting hypothesis: ‘‘those problems that receive prominent attention on the national news become the problems the viewing public regards as the nation’s most important’’ (1991:16). This is the case of immigration, media representations shape public opinion of immigrants, affect policy debate and can even influence immigration law (Bauder, 2008). As Dunaway et al. suggest, agenda-setting theory is used to “motivate hypotheses about how media coverage of immigration influences public perceptions of its importance” (2010: 359). If there are lots of newspaper articles, TV reports or radio shows dedicated to immigration then public awareness about this issue will increase and immigration will be considered a very important topic. Additionally, the manner in which immigration is framed will influence public opinion on the topic.

It is however important to highlight that as McCombs argues, “the news media help to achieve

consensus, and they do not alone determine what that consensus will be” (1997:437). There are of course limitations on the ability of the news media to influence the public agenda. If an issue does not resonate with the public, it will not appear on the public agenda. Furthermore, critics of the idea of agenda-setting have affirmed that public and media alike are just responding to their surrounding environment (McCombs, 2004). However, as Walter Lippmann introduced back in 1922, there is a difference between the actual environment and the “pseudo-environment”, that is to say, the view of the world that exists in our minds. Our behaviour, he argues, is a response to this “pseudo- environment” created in part by the media (in McCombs, 2004: 21).

Furthermore, the agenda-setting process is deeply related to the framing theory because the latter refers to the way in which issues are discussed and presented in the media (Abrajano and Singh, 2008). Media organizations can make some aspects of an issue more salient than others and in doing so, emphasise only some facets, point of views or sources of information of an event. As Richard Vincent points out, “framing concerns the choices journalists make when reporting stories that affect the acceptance of one meaning over another in a news presentation” (2006: 7). Framing essentially involves selection and salience. This dissertation is guided by the main assumption that the way information is presented and framed by the media, help the audience to build an image of the world and in this case an image of immigration. It is not the purpose of this research to assume that audiences read the texts uncritically, but to emphasise that media discourses do guide the audiences perception about which are the important topics to think about and what we should think about them.

1.3 What are the common representations of immigrants in the media?

A literature review on how different media portray immigrants is at this stage helpful in order to identify the most salient aspects already determined by previous scholars. While there was little research available on how international news agencies represent immigration issues, many studies were found how news about immigrants is framed in different media and different countries. Hence, these studies will serve as the basis and starting point in order to establish which are the main frames used or common topics involved when speaking about migration.

Brader et al. examine for example, whether and how elite discourse shapes mass opinion and action on immigration policy in the . In order to do that, they analyse three characteristics of media discourse: “emphasis on costs and benefits, ethnic identity cues, and portrayal of immigrants as low- or high-skilled workers” (2008: 961). The authors assume that immigration as a political

issue generates conflict between groups, “citizens versus non citizens, English speakers versus foreign language speakers, whites versus non whites” (2008: 960). Their results show that, while news emphasizing the costs of immigration boosts the perception that immigration is harmful, “ethnic cues strongly condition emotional reactions to this news” (2008: 975) They suggest then that there are different kind of immigrants, Latinos, Europeans, Africans, and each of them evoke different sentiments and degrees of acceptance.

Similarly, the political debate about immigration has often been associated with the migrant's intentions to make use of the “generous Western welfare state” (Corrigan, 2009: 416). The perception is that immigrants compete with the members of the receiving society for the limited resources. In this regard, Esses et al. discuss the role of perceived competition for resources in determining negative attitudes toward immigrants in North America. They argue that despite ideals about multiculturalism, openness and acceptance, immigrants are seen as posing threats to the receiving countries. These threats could be “material” since they jeopardise their welfare system or “symbolic” in terms of social identity (2001: 390). The authors also highlight that negative attitudes toward immigrants would be especially prevalent when the economic situation in a country is poor or declining (2001).

In the same way, Bauder examines media coverage of immigration in the context of the development and conception of the Canadian 2002 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The paper performs “a topoi analysis on a data set of 490 articles published in five prominent Canadian English-language daily newspapers that address aspects of immigration law” (2008: 289). He observes that immigration debate can be related to different kind of arguments; the economic argument that portrays immigrants as competitors for economic resources; the humanitarian argument that captures a compassion sentiment toward immigrants by the receiving society, and the argument related to danger which links immigration with crime, threat to national security and social problems (Bauder, 2008). His results reveal that danger is the most frequent and a relatively consistent theme associated with immigration in media coverage.

In a similar manner, as David Cisneros suggests, scholars have identified discursive connections between the rhetoric of immigration and representations of other human problems such as crime, war, invasion, danger and threat (2008). The author identifies another metaphor found in the news media coverage in which immigrants are portrayed as “pollutants” (2008:569). Positive contributions of immigrants are often ignored in light of their image as “toxic substances polluting the country” (2008: 592). As it was discussed previously, media representations can affect attitudes

towards migrants, create anxieties and fears, as well as promote or discourage support for immigration (Bauder, 2008). Different “ways of seeing” immigration issues can play an active role in obtaining public support or opposition against immigration and can serve to legitimise or discredit immigration policy law (Bauder, 2008: 291). As Brader, et al. suggest, the expectation is that public opinion about immigration depends at least in part on what citizens read or hear in the news, so if media highlight costs rather than benefits of immigration, then greater opposition will be stimulated (2008).

The literature and evidence reviewed above suggest that economic considerations are important variables in the debate of immigration in the media. The image of immigrants as criminals or “pollutants” of the society are also another recurrent portrayal in the news. This chapter has summed-up an important part of the framework of this thesis: a description of the situation of immigration in Europe and secondly, a discussion about the role that mass media play in shaping our views of others, in this case of immigrants. The significance of the media agenda-setting phenomenon and its importance to define the “picture in our heads” was also part of this chapter. Finally, a literature review of previous research on how different media outlets portray immigrants and immigration was exposed. The latter is directly connected to our next section, which explores the special case of international news agencies as main providers of content worldwide and as main players in the agenda setting phenomenon.

CHAPTER TWO International news agencies and their role in the agenda setting phenomenon

2.1 The role of news agencies

This chapter will look at the role of news agencies in the agenda setting phenomenon and will present the four news agencies to be studied and compared. A literature review of previous research on the kind of coverage provided by news agencies and the differences already appreciated by other scholars will also be a part of this chapter. In doing so, I will illustrate the significance of news agencies in the agenda-setting phenomenon and the particular dimensions of their coverage that are important for identifying the key differences between them.

Increasingly individuals can access a wide range of media sources, from television news to local and national newspapers, from cable news programmes to the Internet and specialized news sources (Abrajano and Singh, 2008). But despite these choices, international news agencies continue to play a vital role in the definition of the volume and content of the information around the world.

News agencies, as the main providers of international news, play a key role in determining what international stories other media choose to carry (Paterson, 2005 in Skinner et al. :153), and as such, they are the main actors in what is defined as the “nature, volume and direction of information that flows across the globe” (Rauch, 2003: 87). Traditionally, news agencies report news and sell news to other media. They are “wholesalers” (Boyd-Barret, 1996, in Sreberny-Mohammadi et al, 1997: 13), their strength lies in their ability to process masses of news, so their role in the agenda setting of the global and national media is very important. More than 80% of the material in newspapers and other media worldwide emanates from global news agencies based in four of the world’s major capitals in the West (Hachten, 1993:165, in Horvit, 2010:73). Newspapers, television channels, online media are usually not strong on international news as they cannot afford to have correspondents abroad (Wu, 2000). Therefore, in order to bring international stories to their media outlets, they rely on news agencies.

The debate around the importance of news agencies in the agenda-setting phenomenon as well as in the way news were framed, reached a crucial point during the 1970s and 1980s, with the campaign for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). It was a call to eliminate global media imbalances between North and South and for plurality of channels and information. Western monopoly of global news services was criticized because it was argued that it served only

the needs of the developed nations (Herman and Mc.Chesney, 1997). However, the problem was not only the amount of information available but also the type of information available (Nordenstreng, in Yadava, 1984: 30). In this context, global news agencies were held responsible for the kind of image and information that Western governments and investors had of the developing world, they could “boost or undermine a nation's construction of national image, with economic as well as political consequences” (Boyd-Barret, 1996, in Sreberny-Mohammadi et al, 1997: 132). As Rauch explains, the dominant worldwide services for more than 100 years were the “Big Four”, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, and Agence France Presse. They “were rooted in the perspectives, assumptions, and interests of their individual journalists, management, and home nations in the developed North” (2003: 88). In place of the four giant agencies there are now only three: AP, AFP and Reuters (Boyd-Barrett, 2011).

We have seen during the first years of the twenty-first century major changes in the media landscape. Digital technologies and advances of media such as the Internet have driven these developments (Leckner and Facht, 2010). However, it could be argued that international news agencies still play a significant role for most of the traditional media (television, newspaper, radio) and even for the content available in the Internet. As Paterson argues, global information conglomerates AP and Reuters dominate Internet news, “(...) the news product and news perspectives of major wire services are reproduced directly and indirectly in the web content of cyber-news providers, often despite claims of editorial independence” (2003: 1). While some of these Internet news services produce news of their own, the international coverage still consists of unchanged or barely edited wire services stories (Paterson, 2003; Galtung and Vincent, 1992, in Rauch, 2003). Paterson carried out a study in which he analysed the internet news content covering the first six months of 2001, and sixteen internet news providers which are dominant in the US and UK. Comparisons were made between international news agencies stories (Reuters and AP) and the stories published by these sixteen sources (on the web). The author found that web portals such as “Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, and AOL show hardly any mediation of news agency content, with their text duplicating news agency text for an average of 85% of the content studied (Paterson, 2003: 8). In this respect, it is important to take into account that other media outlets legitimate their content decisions through the brand association generated by global news agencies. The latter are often well-known and positive perceived, so to follow their agendas is to assure that they are covering the “right” news of the day (Paterson, in Skinner et al. 2005).

2.2 What is worth covering?

The world we see, read and hear about in the news “is a product of both news values and the global system of news gathering and distribution” (Wu, 2000: 111). International news agencies, as it was previously suggested, play a major role in the gathering and distribution of news as well as in the agenda setting of the media. The next question should be then, how do international news agencies decide what is worth covering and how events come to be defined as news in the first place?

These “news values” help to select and frame what is produced as “news”. Stuart Allan observes several factors to define newsworthiness such as conflict, relevance, timeliness, simplification, personalization, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, reference to elite nations, reference to elite persons, cultural specificity and negativity (2010: 73). This criterion is based on the Galtung and Rouge model established in 1965 which, as Judy McGregor points out, has not been critically challenged since it was written (2002). However, Allan highlights that these news values are always changing over time and are inflected differently from one news organization to the next. Similarly, Hoskins and O'Loughlin suggest that the characteristic of a given medium can affect the news values that operate in that environment (2007). Is this the case of international news agencies? Are they different kind of media organisations with different characteristics?

In this respect, it is interesting to mention the work of Shoemaker and Reese who developed a model of influences to try to explain how media power works within society and to determine which forces set the media's agenda (Reese, 2001: 174). They argue that there are different hierarchies of influences that can shape media content, the individual itself, with his or her attitudes, training and background; the media routines such as rules norms and procedures within the media organisation; the organisation itself, including goals and policies; extra media factors, such as sourcing practices and the power exercised by other institutions, the government and the market; and the ideology, that is to say, how media content is connected with larger social interests. They establish a theoretical framework for analysing media and for classifying which influences, operating together or separately, play a major role in defining media content, and which explanation is most accurate in making sense of a media phenomenon. As Reese explains, in practice the investigator should determine “under which conditions certain factors are most determinative and how they interact with each other” (Reese, 2001: 179).

While, there are a variety of influences on media content, this thesis will suggest as a hypothesis that the four news agencies considered, AFP, AP, IPS and Reuters, are all organisations, with

different goals and missions, conceptions of news values, focus and structures, and that these organisational factors along with the sourcing practices define the type of coverage that they offer about immigration to their audiences. The question remains whether there are differences between the three mainstream agencies, AFP, AP and Reuters. Or there is only a clear difference between the mainstream agencies and the alternative agency, IPS? Do they have different criteria to classify what is worth covering? As it was stated previously, international news agencies are key players in the agenda setting phenomenon, that is to say, in our understanding of what is important to think about and what we should think about those issues, therefore their significance in the process of building ideas and images about immigrations and immigrants is unquestionable. The next section will explore the general characteristics of each news agency in order to have a closer look of their differences.

2.3 The four news agencies

There are four news agencies to be taken into account for this research. Three of them Reuters, AP and AFP retain their leading positions as global players, and as Western news providers. The fourth, IPS, is seen as an alternative source of information. Alternative is understood here according to the definition of Couldry and Curran, “(the) media production that challenges, at least implicitly, actual concentrations of media power” (2003: 7).

The Associated Press is an independent non-profit co-operative of daily U.S. Newspapers, with its members including most major U.S dailies. It is the most subscribed source of text, photo and audio news for U.S. newspapers and broadcasters (Boyd-Barret, 1996, in Sreberny-Mohammadi et al, 1997:136). Founded in 1846, and with headquarters in New York, AP has about 3,700 employees who work in more than 300 locations worldwide (AP website, 2011). AP identifies itself as the “essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats” (AP website, 2011). In doing so, they emphasise values such as rapid delivery, global reach and global presence. Its mission is described as being the “essential global news network, providing distinctive news services of the highest quality, reliability, and objectivity with reports that are accurate balanced and informed” (AP website, 2011). In this regard, Hallin points out that: “(...) objectivity helps legitimate the media, (...) The Associated Press is credited with a strong role at the turn of the century in strengthening the objectivity norm. A uniform style helped it sell its product to a diverse set of client papers, which in turn needed to reach a mass and diverse audience for

their mass advertising. Thus, the objectivity routine helps organizations in a number of ways to maximize their audience appeal” (1989:67 in Shoemaker and Reese, 1996: 113).

Moreover, Shoemaker and Reese explain that, because of time constraints, journalists have little time to reflect on whether they have revealed the “truth” in their stories, they need a set of “procedures, or strategies, that if followed will protect them from occupational hazards such as libel suits and reprimands from superiors. These procedures include relying on verifiable facts, setting statements off in quotation marks, including many names in the story to keep the reporter's view out, and presenting supplements for a 'fact'” (1996: 113). It is also interesting to highlight that because newspapers of very different political orientations subscribe to AP, the 'impartiality' that they 'sell' is necessary to conform to its clients need. As Stuart Allan argues, “‘opinions’ were left for the client newspaper to assert to what was appropriate for their 'political stripe'” (2010: 38). In the words of a former head of the AP Washington bureau: “My business is to communicate facts, my instructions do not allow me to make any comment upon the facts which I communicate” (Roshco 1975:31, in Allan, 2010:38).

Agence France Presse employs today 2000 people worldwide, of which 1250 are journalists. “It has a presence in 165 countries with established bureaux in 110, while the other 50 are covered by part-time correspondents or stringers” (Bielsa, 2008: 359). Its headquarters are in , France. AFP produces 5000 stories per day in six languages, 20 television news reports, up to 3,000 photographs and 80 still and interactive graphics (AFP website, 2011). The French government has provided AFP with the necessary economic backing, over 40% of its income is dependant on subscriptions from government agencies (Boyd-Barrett, 2011:91), in this respect it is the only one among the other news agencies considered in this study, that has the backing of the government. According to its website, AFP’s mission is to get accurate, clear and fast news, “AFP’s in-depth reporting ensures complete coverage of general news from around the world” (AFP website, 2011). Additionally the agency claims, “AFP journalists handle international news as it happens, swiftly and accurately, using the best and most reliable sources”. As Shoemaker and Reese claim, sources play a key role in media content because journalists can't include in their news reports what they don't know (1996). Moreover, sources can influence the way events are presented to the audiences, “by providing the content within which all other information is evaluated” (1996: 178). In short, AFP claims to cover events as soon as they happen, in an accurate way and by using the most reliable sources.

Reuters possesses 2400 editorial staff, its headquarters is in New York but it has 197 bureaux worldwide, which serve approximately 130 countries, publishing daily over eight million words in twenty languages (Bielsa, 2008). Reuters’ transformation has come about not “from its expanding global networks and from diversification of its media services but from the development of new technologies of data- processing for the transmission of economic information, which became its main profit generating service at the end of the 1960s” (Bielsa, 2008: 360). According to its website, Reuters “is a leading provider of real-time, high-impact, multimedia news and information services”, moreover the agency claims to be “free from national or regional bias, (they) strike a unique balance between informed reporting on the ground and editing with an international perspective”. It is then very important for this agency as it is described on its website, to have a balanced coverage in real time, so again, fast delivery and the presentation of both sides of the events, are among the main characteristics highlighted.

IPS Inter Press Service News Agency, a non-profit co-operative consortium that serves as a core activity of the IPS International Association was founded in 1964 as a response to the concerns of the NWICO, which highlighted the imbalances in international reporting (Rauch, 2003). With its headquarters in and regional offices in North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia, IPS identifies itself as the “news agency of civil society” (IPS website, 2011). Its basic service is in Spanish and English, but offers select story translations in other languages. IPS' mission as it is described on its website is to “give voice to the voiceless”, foster “understanding and participation around development” and “promoting a new international information order between the South and the North” (IPS website, 2011). As Rauch points out, “The news agency (IPS) can be understood as a form of resistance that questions not only the way knowledge – in this case news- circulates and functions but also how social identities are constructed” (2003: 90). As Boyd-Barret argues, IPS poses a serious challenge to the dominant Western news order and has also acquired significant credibility (Boyd-Barret, 2008: 61). Over the years IPS has acquired authority and expertise as “the world’s leading provider on information about global issues and the largest purveyor of news about the developing nations” (Giffard, 1998; 1). However, the emphasis on the pro-development agenda and the aim of balancing the flow of information, have raised doubts on the objectivity and accuracy of its coverage. This has been seen by some media organizations or institutions as incompatible with the values and practices of Western journalism (Rauch, 2003). Nevertheless, as Ogan and Rush argue, IPS production has been found critical and balanced, challenging the perception that news generated in the developing countries is “biased” (Ogan and Rush, 1985 in Rauch, 2003).

The four news agencies have different goals and mission as media organisations, and it is clear that the only agency that differentiates itself in this regard is IPS, stressing values such as “giving voice to the voiceless” or the goal of assuring a better flow of information between the North and the South. Nothing is said about speed, objectivity, or accuracy, the most mentioned qualities in the mainstream agencies. Could these organisational differences be translated into different kind of coverage about immigration? Will the stories be framed in a different way? Will they use different sources? The next section will look at previous research on the kind of content produced by international news agencies, in order to establish the main differences that scholars have already found.

2.4 Previous research on international news agencies

Several scholars have already studied the different coverage provided by international news agencies about the same topic. In doing so, they have identified the key differences between them. According to the authors, sourcing practices, topics covered, tone of the information, frames used to present the news, countries from which the stories are produced and length of the articles, were among the main differences.

Jennifer Rauch carried out a study where she compared news coverage by AP and IPS of the Southern Summit of G-77 nations held in Cuba in 2000 (2003). The study concluded that the articles circulated by AP and IPS differed in quality. “While IPS has little impact on structures of global media and poses little challenge to major news agencies, the analysis suggests that IPS coverage demonstrates decentralizing and de-Westernizing tendencies that are absent from AP discourse” (Rauch, 2003:100). Rauch points out that IPS discourse “emphasizes Southern nation's cooperation, achievement and goals, while the AP frames the event in terms of their disunity, neglect, and controversy” (2003: 87). Additionally, the researcher described the themes addressed by IPS in its coverage of the Summit as political, economic, and social rights, health, education, South-South cooperation. Similarly, the G77 group was described as a “cooperative entity” (2003:95). On the other hand, AP articles were focused on leaders, “especially those threatening the US-foreign policy” (Rauch, 2003: 95). The AP texts did not identify the collaborative goals of the Southern Summit but highlighted the United States and controversial leaders as the main actors in its discourse (Rauch, 2003: 96). Furthermore, IPS stories include a range of actors that go beyond the circle of official sources. Some examples are moderate opposition groups within Cuba or the NGO Doctors without Borders (2003). In contrast, AP tends to overlook civil society organizations as news sources for this particular Summit.

In the same way, Richard Vincent carried out a study to examine the various trends in the presentation of news on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) across several news agencies. The minimization of “good” attributes and “praise” while giving greater emphasis to issues of “failure” and instances of rhetorical “denial” additionally demonstrate major differences between how AP and IPS frame the stories (Vincent, 2006:28). He argues that the developing world orientation of IPS could be held responsible for the decision of including more NGO sources and voices. In the same way, the manner in which AP frames its stories, could be seen as following the United State interest, and the interests of its main subscribers; US newspapers (Vincent, 2006).

Likewise, Beverly Horvit conducted a study during 2003 in order to compare the coverage of the Iraq pre-war debate in five news agencies AP, AFP, Xinhua, ITAR-TASS, and IPS). As with the other cases, sourcing practices were found to be key aspects of the differences between the agencies. The Western news agencies examined in the study quoted more Western sources than non-Western sources, but “neither AP or AFP blatantly advanced the viewpoints of their different governments”(Horvit, 2010:80). Nearly 56% of the sources cited by the non-Western agencies were non-Western, compared with 30% in the Western agencies (2010:78). Additionally, the articles written by Inter Press Service and ITAR-TASS presented much more negative information toward the United States than positive and presented significantly more negative coverage than did the two Western agencies (2010). On the other hand, for the Western news agencies, nearly 35% of the information was positive, compared with 34% negative—which one would expect, given the Western concept of objectivity (2010: 79).

Annual analyses of IPS copy undertaken by Anthony Giffard since 1991 have demonstrated more support for the IPS alternative of focussing on events. In these studies the investigator found that two-thirds of IPS articles were situated in developing countries, compared to less than 50 percent of AP reports. In the same way, the actors and sources in IPS reports were twice as likely to be from the South as from the North (1998, in Rauch, 2003). Moreover, a survey conducted in 1993 from the same group of researchers, found that IPS offered significantly more stories on culture, development, the environment, human rights and social issues than those of the AP, whose stories showed more emphasis on crime, the military, politics, and violence (Giffard, 1998, in Rauch, 2003).

To sum up, the authors identify sourcing practices, topic covered, tone of the information, frames used to present the news, countries from which the stories are produced and length of the articles, as

the main differences between international news agencies. These previous studies serve as a starting point to define the variables that this dissertation will take into account in the content analysis to be developed in the next chapter. The potential differences between news agencies in their coverage of immigration issues could be then based on the already mentioned variables. The literature and evidence reviewed in the first two chapters yield to my main research questions:

1. How do the different news agencies cover the issues about immigration in Europe? 2. Is there a difference between the frames used to refer to immigrants? 3. How do these variables differ between news agencies: quantity, topic, length, tone, represented voices or sources? 4. Will the organisational factors (goal, mission) along with sourcing practices, be the best response to explain the differences in the coverage of immigration issues by the different global wires services?

CHAPTER THREE Research Design and Methodology

As it was showed in the first two chapters, there are several studies that have examined how media portray the phenomenon of immigration, and also studies that examine how global news agencies cover different issues or events. However, studies that explores the coverage of immigration as it is represented by different international news agencies, could not be found. That is why this research provides an opportunity to contribute to the literature on immigration and media, highlighting a key player in the agenda setting of the media: the international news agencies.

In this regard a content analysis was conducted of news articles produced by the four news agencies: AFP, AP, IPS and Reuters. Content analysis is "a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use" (Krippendorff, 2004: 18). Similarly, as Bryman points out, content analysis seeks to "quantify content in terms of predetermined categories in a systematic and replicable manner" (2008: 274).

The categories chosen for this study respond on the one hand to the previous research carried out about news agencies and the variables that those scholars already used, and on the other hand, to the objective of this research in shedding some light on how news agencies cover the issues of immigration. In this regard, nine categories were used to code the units (news articles): Quantity, Length; Main destination country mentioned; Immigrant's region of origin; Topic; The frame behind the news; Represented voices/ Who speaks? ; Writing Style and Tone. Quantity and Length were measured to find out about the production capacity of the news agencies and Tone and Writing Style to get a clearer picture of the type of content produced. The geographical variables, Main destination country and Immigrant's region of origin were measured to learn about migration characteristics and to see if there are any group of immigrants that were covered more often than others. Represented voices, Topic and Frame, were coded to identify the differences between news agencies in the way they present the news to the readers. It is important to take into account that the different topics’ dimensions were built as the articles were coded and read, so as to reflect the topics actually included in the sample of articles. As a result 13 topics were defined. When more than one topic was presented in the article, the most salient one was chosen. In order to make this process more transparent, another person verified the final selection of topics. At the end the following topics where identified:

1) Crime

2) Right-wing parties and anti-immigrations ideas 3) Border control 4) Deportation 5) Illegal immigrants 6) Issues around Integration of immigrants 7) Traffic of immigrants 8) Threat of uncontrolled immigration 9) Labour migration 10) Media coverage of immigration 11) Benefits of immigration 12) Immigration as part of the European landscape

The same process was followed for identifying the predominant frame in the stories. A second reading of the articles was made in order to refine the 11 frames that were included at the end: 1) Immigrants as a burden for the economy 2) Immigrants deserve human treatment 3) Immigrants as criminals 4) Immigrants as a general threat 5) Immigrants as a threat for the culture of the destination country 6) Undocumented immigrants do not deserve legal status 7) Right-wing parties could be a threat in Europe 8) Immigrants are part of the landscape of Europe 9) It could be dangerous to be an illegal immigrant 10) Immigration could be beneficial 11) Media coverage of immigration is biased

A precise definition of each of the remaining variables could be found in the coding manual in Appendix I. The coding manual was tested by another person in order to assure consistency and reliability. The person made some comments with regards to Writing style and Tone, suggesting more precision in the definitions to assure that all the dimensions were mutually exclusive. However, overall, the coding manual was seen as clear and logical.

3.1 Sample

In order to get the sample the search engine Lexis Nexis was used. The only exception was in the case of Reuters, for which the website archive was used. The sample consists of articles discussing immigration issues in the selected news agencies. To reduce the final sample to a manageable size, the search was restricted to articles containing the word: “immigration”, “immigrants”, “migrant” and “migration”, and should be focused on immigration issues regarding any of the European countries. A preliminary reading of the identified material examined whether in fact each article did cover the topic of immigration in Europe. Articles that contained the key words but otherwise did not deal with the topic of immigration were excluded from the final sample.

In order to have a representative sample that could show trends over time, the time frame covered by the analysis was selected following the selection technique of constructed week. As Hester and Dougall suggest, “constructed week sampling is more efficient than simple random sampling or consecutive day sampling” (2007: 811), because “to 'construct' a week entails that each source of cyclic variation—each day of the week—is represented equally” (2008: 812). I 'constructed' a week choosing the Monday of week 1, Tuesday of week 2, Thursday of week 4, Friday of week 5 and so on. In doing so, I got a sample that includes days from the month of February to the month of August, 2011. In total 21 days (3 constructed weeks) were examined, and 56 articles were analysed.

CHAPTER FOUR Analysis and Discussion

4.1 Number of stories produced and length of articles

Figure 1 Number of articles produced shows the number of articles that were produced about immigration during the sample period in the four news agencies. The purpose of measuring this variable is to get an initial idea of the production capacity of each news agency. While AFP produced the majority of the articles with 34 stories, IPS was the agency that released the minority of them, 3. This could be expected since IPS is a smaller news agency with less capacity of production. As already exposed in chapter two, on the one hand AP has about 3,700 employees who work in more than 300 locations worldwide; AFP employs 2000 people worldwide and produces 5000 stories per day; Reuters possesses 2400 editorial staff and publishes over eight million words daily, and on the other hand, IPS produces 270,000 words on a weekly basis according to 2008 figures (Joye, 2010). As Giffard argues, it is important to highlight that "the content analysis comparisons of IPS to the major international agencies should not suggest that IPS is in the same league in terms of financial resources as well as volume and range of its coverage" (2004: 29). Despite its different editorial policy, to focus on “the story underneath” (IPS website 2011) IPS cannot escape the logic of the market and thus needs to face the fierce competition with the mainstream news agencies such as AFP, Reuters or AP. To its disadvantage, IPS is not breaking the news nor does it provide up-to-the- minute coverage of events. Likewise, Manning argues that “although accuracy and authority are certainly important, it is the rapidity with which information can be distributed that secures reputation and contracts” (2001: 57). In this regard, the time expression used in the stories also show and reinforce the differences between the news agencies.

The three mainstream wire services, stress on time expressions that corroborate their goal of “fast delivery”. “On Monday”, “said on Tuesday”, “yesterday”, are some of the examples. In the case of IPS, time expressions show less emphasis on providing up-to-the- minute coverage of events and more attention on processes.“Recently”, “in February”, “nowadays”, are among the indications of the longer time line considered.

To have only three articles from IPS is obviously a disadvantage when it comes to comparing the production between news agencies. However, it also shows that regarding amount of stories, IPS is behind the mainstream agencies, at least for this sample period and this specific topic. Additionally, it could be suggested that it is predictable that AP has produced less articles about immigration as compared to AFP , since AP as it was stated in chapter two, is a co-operative of daily U.S. Newspapers, and therefore has a greater focus on US affairs, or in any case on immigration issues in the US. However, if the length of the articles is going to be compared, then IPS has on average the longest articles, since as it was already sated in chapter two, IPS puts much more emphasis in the context of events and in explaining the processes behind the news. Since fast delivery is not a goal, then the lesser production could also be expected. Figure 2 shows the differences regarding the length of articles between news agencies.

Again, the comparison possibilities are limited to the disparities in the amount of articles from each news agency considered in this research. But having acknowledged that, the average amount of words for IPS stories is 887 words, while for AFP, Reuters and AP, the average is 319, 339 and 560 words respectively. It is possible to suggest then, that in the case of quantity and length, the organisational factors of the news agencies could be held responsible for the differences in the coverage of migration issues.

4.2 Writing style and tone

Figure 3 and 4 show the Writing Style and the Tone adopted by the news agencies when reporting on immigration. Regarding the Writing Style, the three mainstream news agencies, AFP, Reuters and AP adopted a General news structure that emphasizes facts of recent events, with 34, 9 and 7 articles each respectively. Although a majority of the articles use an Informative tone of reporting that restricts the articles to the description of facts, the three mainstream agencies also have Comparative stories that present different opinions. It could be argued that the Comparative tone facilitates the search for “balanced” information; a value included in their goals as media organisations. The Western media model and the news values of impartiality, objectivity, neutrality and balanced information, are among the main characteristics highlighted by the mainstream news agencies in their respective websites.

On the other hand, it was predictable that 2 out of the 3 articles from IPS adopted a Feature style, with a more reflective tone. The third one was an OP-ED, and therefore according to the coding manual, expresses the opinion of a named writer unaffiliated with the news agency's staff. IPS articles are longer and therefore have more space to contextualise the information and present the events in a critical way, the predominant tone. An example of this critical tone could be: "The increasing commercialisation of the mainstream media and the profit imperatives it imposes seem to be at the core of the lowering of quality in media coverage of migration related issues."; "Polish authorities assume that all those from Vietnam must be economic migrants, ignoring the fact hat some of them may find themselves in danger when deported". It could be suggested that the aim of adopting a critical tone meets the objective of discovering the “story underneath” (IPS website, 2011). Again, it is possible to argue that Writing Style and Tone respond to the organisational factors of the news agencies and in this way support our predictions.

4.3 Main destination country and Main immigrant's region of origin

Figure 5 Main destination Country shows the principal European destination countries mentioned by the news agencies. The aim of measuring this variable is to identify whether there is a predominant country that receives more attention or if there is any significant difference between the European countries covered by the mainstream news agencies and the alternative one. In this regards, it could be argued that there is a clear predominance of Italy and the EU as the main

destination countries mentioned in the articles. I included EU as a dimension under this variable, because there were lot of articles that mentioned the EU as a region, without mentioning a specific country. In the case of AFP, Italy and the EU captured the majority of the attention with 10 and 9 of the articles respectively. As for AP the relation is the same, with 3 and 2 articles for Italy and EU respectively. The predominance of Italy could be explained through the most recent events in Lampedusa, and Italian island that received an influx of 22,000 migrants arriving from Libya and other Northern African countries since the revolt against Muammar Gadafi in late February. The Italian authorities have called this wave of migration a “humanitarian emergency” and therefore requested the assistance of the European Union. That might be the reason why many articles were produced about immigration policies or problems in the European Union as a general region. In the case of Reuters, Italy shares its importance with the UK, with 3 of the articles devoted to each of the countries. It could be argued that since Reuters is originally a British agency, the UK receives more attention. Figure 6 shows the main region of origin of the immigrants mentioned in the news articles and it is directly related to Main destination country. AFP, AP and Reuters mentioned Northern Africa as the main immigrant's region of origin with 59%, 78% and 60% respectively.

Figure 6: Main immigrant’ region of origin

Finally, in the case of IPS with only 3 articles, two of them were focused on Europe as a region and one of them on Poland as we can see in Figure 5. Is the focus on Poland a sign of an alternative coverage, escaping from the mainstream agenda? This is a difficult question to answer due to the small number of IPS’ articles included in this sample. However, it could be suggested that one reason of including this story is IPS’ aim to cover the stories that other mainstream media do not cover, in this case the article of a Vietnamese immigrant in Poland. Regarding main region of origin

of the immigrants as Figure 6 shows, the first of the articles was focused on Northern Africa, the second one on Southern-Eastern Asia and the third one on Immigrants as a general group. It could be argued that IPS has a better distribution of Immigrant’s region of origin, but taking into account that the sample only includes three articles, the power to infer clear trends is diminished.

4.4 Topic and Frame

Figure 7: Topics covered by the news agencies

Figure 7 shows the Topics related to immigration covered by each news agency. The most covered topics by AFP were Illegal immigrants with 9 articles, followed by Threat of uncontrolled immigration with 7 articles, and Right-wing parties and anti-immigration ideas with 6 articles. The “threat” that immigrants represent for the destination countries was illustrated for example by the use of adjectives such as “giant wave”: “The Italian government has repeatedly warned that the ongoing strife in Libya could create a giant wave of migration towards Italian shores”. Similarly, one of the sources, the Prime Minister of Italy, Berlusconi said, “This is not a problem for a single country but for the whole of Europe”. The use of sources will be examined later, but of course the content and therefore the topic of a story will depend on who gets the opportunity to speak or express their opinions. It could be argued that if international news agencies include only melodramatic descriptions of “invasion” and “assault” on the island of Lampedusa by illegal immigrants, then these siege narratives will reach the media in the rest of the world. Additionally, the excessive use of numbers and figures could also be seen as a way to emphasize the “threat”:

“400 blue tents”; “a ship with 600 people was expected”; “4,000 immigrants are still waiting”, “a plan to accommodate 10,000 migrants on a temporary basis”. As was observed before, the majority of the articles of the mainstream news agencies respond to an informative tone, so figures are not normally presented within a context that can shed some light into, for example, absolute numbers of immigrants arriving to Italy every year.

In the case of Reuters the most covered topics were also Illegal immigration and Threat of uncontrolled immigration with 3 articles on each topic. The stories about illegal immigrants used lot of adjectives to reinforce the idea of illegality, “clandestine”, “irregular”, “undocumented”, “uncontrolled” were among the words chosen to refer to immigrants. It is however important to highlight that two of the articles written by Reuters were focused on the Benefits of immigration. The benefits highlighted in the stories were related to the need of having special policies for super- rich immigrants that can contribute to the economy, and about the benefits of receiving immigrants to relieve the ageing crisis in Europe. Regarding AP, the most salient topics were Illegal Immigration and Right-wing parties and anti-immigration ideas, with 4 and 3 articles respectively. IPS with only three stories covered three different topics: Traffic of immigrants, Media coverage of immigration and Issues around the integration of immigrants. The topics were presented with more context and background, also possibly connected with the goal of IPS of looking for the “story underneath”.

An interesting exercise to do is to mix variables; this is the case of Figure 8 that presents the tone

against the topic of the article in the case of AFP. Most of the articles’ topics in AFP were reported using an informative journalistic tone that privileges the descriptions of facts. In other words, the reporting on the immigration issues was mainly treated in an uncritical and decontextualized manner. For example the topic of illegal immigration was covered by AFP without analysing the background or without giving voice to different sources. On the other hand, in the case of IPS, as it was described in Figure 4, the three articles were reported using a critical tone, that is to say questioning the facts, so the stories present not only different topics but also a different way of presenting the information.

To sum up, it is important to remember that the purpose of this thesis is to identify the differences between the coverage of immigration issues provided by each wire service and at the same time, to shed some light on why these differences exist. The study of the topic selected contributes to this purpose. When the three mainstream news agencies report about immigration, then the preferred topic is Illegal immigration and as we saw in the case of AFP the tone used to present the topics was the informative one which only describes the facts. On the other hand, in the case of IPS, the alternative wire service, the topics selected to report about immigration follow a more critical tone and were focused on issues around integration, traffic and the media coverage of immigration. It could be suggested that the critical tone of IPS reporting responds to the goals of the news agency of discovering the “story underneath”. In the case of the mainstream news agencies, maybe the selection of the topics, respond to another criterion to determine what is worth covering; other news values are involved in the reporting of immigration issues: negativity, conflict, simplification.

Figure 9: Frame behind the news

Figure 9 shows the frames adopted by the different news agencies when reporting about immigration, and in doing so, contribute to the response of our research questions about the differences between wire services. Framing Immigrants as a general threat is the dominant discourse in AFP stories, with 17 articles under this category, equivalent to the 50% of AFP’s total production. Examples of this frame include statements like: “This is not a problem for a single country but for the whole of Europe”; “of course there's a risk of migration”; “fear of an influx of North African refugee”. In the case of Reuters and AP the most recurrent frame is also Immigrants as a general threat with 6 articles each, representing 60% and 66% respectively. Does this frame respond to the predominance of certain news values such as conflict or negativity? Or does it, in the case of AFP respond to the ideological position of the government of France in relation to immigration? As stated in chapter two, over 40% of AFP’s income is dependant on subscription from government agencies (Boyd-Barret, 2011). As McCullagh observes, Marxist positions state that the predominant pattern of framing in the media is one that is compatible with the interests of the dominant class or power group in society. Therefore, framing is connected with ideology (2002). Similarly, Stuart Hall argues that “ideological power is the power to signify events in a particular way” (1982: 69, in Mc Cullagh, 2002:39). It could be suggested that the selection of certain frames to cover immigration in the case of AFP is a result of the ideology behind the news agency and not

on the organisational factors. It is important to remember that these forces that have the power of shaping news content (such as organisational factors or ideology) can operate together or separated, and in practice certain factors could be more determinative than others (Reese, 2001). In this respect Paterson argues that content research of news agency output and production research with news agencies, demonstrate that these institutions “typically base news coverage on the economic priorities of the major Western powers and the assumed interests of major Western media” (2003: 5). These factors can then also help to shed light on the nature of the coverage of immigration issues in AP, Reuters and AFP.

On the other hand, IPS uses the frames Immigrants deserve human treatment, Immigrants are part of the landscape of Europe and Media coverage of immigration is biased. It could be argued that following its goal of giving voice to the voiceless and telling the stories from a Southern perspective of the events, it is predictable that the agency would adopt these more critical and reflective frames that pay attention to causes and background of immigration. One of IPS articles is focused on the story of a Vietnamese and his problems as an immigrant in Poland. It covers the process, and is not only focused on recent events as the tendency is among mainstream news agencies. When mentioning immigrants, the journalist tried to go beyond the normal description and gave “positive” descriptions such as: “There are professors among them as well as farmers, but here almost all sell textiles or work in small restaurants”. Recognising the human condition of immigrants by saying something about their profession for example, avoid the dehumanisation caused by stereotyping them as a general “threat” to societies. Similarly the inclusion of conciliatory commentaries such as the ones included in IPS' OP-ED, encourages other points of views and frames to understand the issues around migration: “And so we look for easy answers presented as simple choices- e.g., moderate vs. radical Islam, multiculturalism vs. assimilation, secularism vs. religious fundamentalism, etc. Yet such simplistic naming and categorising further divides people and provokes animosities”.

To sum up, the frames used by the mainstream news agencies in comparison with the alternative one are clearly different and it could be argued that they respond to different goals and interests as news organisations. While IPS stressed a more conciliatory frame to talk about migration, the mainstream wire services refer to migration in terms of “illegal” or threat”. To “give voice to the voiceless” and to discover “the story underneath”, are obviously goals that imply a more critical approach to the topic of immigration as in the case of IPS. On the other hand news values such as negativity, or conflict, as well as the interest behind the media organisations, in other words, the ideology, seems to play also a decisive role in the case of the mainstream news agencies, AFP,

Reuters and AP.

4.5 Represented voices / who speaks?

As it was already suggested in the literature review, sources play a key role in media content and can influence the way events are presented to audiences (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996). Not all sources are equally likely to be contacted by journalists, “those with economic or political power are more likely to influence news reports than those who lack power” (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996:180). Official sources are preferred by journalists because they are more easily available and because editors believe that “official sources have important things to say” (1996:181). Regarding this variable, the differences between the mainstream agencies and the alternative one, are very noticeable (Please see Appendix II for distribution of sources). IPS stories include a range of actors that go beyond the circle of official sources. IPS is the only agency that uses sources from NGOs and civil society organisations in its articles. This emphasis on the presence of more NGO and civil society sources can be seen as a result of IPS’ goals as a news organisation; the need to give voice to different actors in order to discover the “story underneath”.

In the case of AP, AFP or Reuters their insistence on “objectivity”, could be translated into its preference for what Stuart Allan calls the “map of 'relevant knowers” (2010:81) that is why the majority of the sources were from the government. Similarly, Becker employs the notion of a 'hierarchy of credibility' to specify how, “in a system of ranked groups, participants will take it as given that the members of the highest group are best placed to define 'the way things really are' due to their 'knowledge of truth'” (1967, in Allan, 2010: 81). Implicit in this assumption is that NGOs or civil society groups are not reliable sources according to the mainstream news agencies' standards. It is important to clarify that I am not making a value judgement about the information provided by the government. The news agencies could even disagree about details of government policies or action presented in the articles, but at least government voices are heard. Civil society, NGOs, policy advocacy groups, educational establishments and religious organizations have an important role to play in migration governance and therefore they need to be heard.

Another interesting point is that within a single article IPS is also the one that shows more variety of sources. For example in one article, the following sources were included: Active Watch, Former general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, vice-chair of the European Parliament, IOM's Media and Communication head and Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. It is also worth mentioning that AFP is the agency that uses the majority of “other media” as sources, that is to say, statements taken from other local media, indirect sources.

CHAPTER FIVE

Conclusion

The general findings of this research regarding the news coverage about immigration in Europe provided by the four news agencies, confirm what previous studies about mass media coverage of immigration and about the nature of international news agencies copy have already observed separately.

The three mainstream news agencies, AFP, Reuters and AP tend to: 1) Write shorter articles in relation to IPS. 2) Mainly use the informative tone that describes the facts and the General News writing style that emphasizes recent events in order to report about immigration. 3) Include voices in the articles that are mainly from official sources such as the government. 4) Frame the news about immigration in terms of “illegal” and “threat”.

In the case of IPS, the alternative international news agency, it could be argued that the wire service: 1) Writes longer articles with more context and background in relation to the mainstream news agencies. 2) Mainly uses the Critical tone that questions the facts and the Feature writing style that implies longer articles and also a more reflective tone. 3) Includes more civil society and NGOs sources to report about immigration, and also contains more variety of sources within the articles in relation to mainstream news agencies. 4) Frames the new about immigration taking into account the broader social an economic situation of immigrants.

Clearly, further research is needed to establish more conclusive findings based on the use of a bigger sample of articles as well as a more extensive sample period. One weak point of this research is that the sample only included three articles from IPS, which means there are fewer opportunities to generalise the results. What is very interesting is that despite this weakness, the differences between the mainstream news agencies and the alternative one stand out and are meaningful. That is why this research contributes to the literature on immigration coverage by the main providers of content, international news agencies, and in this regard, is an original input to the analysis of news content.

As I have argued in this dissertation, the immigration phenomenon will continue and is likely to transform in scale due to different factors, such as the effects of climate change or the new global economic dynamics. As the literature review already discussed, European leaders increasingly question the concept of Europe without borders and follow each other in announcing the end of multiculturalism. In this context, the mass media coverage of migration represents a great challenge to the current and future societies, since they have the power of shaping public discourse and our perceptions around immigration. Additionally, while the news channels have been increasingly diversified due to new developments such as the Internet, the information they provide has become more and more alike (Bielsa, 2008). In this regard, international news agencies as wholesalers of news influence the agenda and the content of the mass media and define the nature, volume and direction of information that flows across the globe (Rauch, 2003). These facts transform the objective of this dissertation into a significant one. How do the different international news agencies cover the issues about immigration in Europe? And what could be held principally responsible for the differences in that coverage? The latter question is the most difficult to answer since the factors that could intervene in the definition of what is worth covering (organisational factors, ideology, extra media factors, etc.) vary according to the circumstances and interact among themselves leaving explanations only in the sphere of what is the best explication under certain conditions. In this regard, the organisational factors understood as the goals, mission or news values of wire services, along with sourcing practices, seems to play a significant role when identifying the differences of coverage about immigration issues between news agencies. The ideology behind the media, that is to say, how media content is connected with larger social interests, could also be held responsible for the kind of immigration stories produced.

It is clear that the kind of content produced by the mainstream news agencies and the alternative one is not the same, and that they have different news values that guide the type of coverage developed. It is however very difficult to escape from the logic of the market and the fierce competition with the mainstream news agencies. It is a battle, which, in the end, IPS “looses”. With better resources IPS could deliver better coverage in terms of quantity so that to compete with the mainstream news providers an in doing so, provide better coverage of processes and events with an alternative view and of importance for the countries in the developing world. As long as immigration issues are framed following a media agenda that homogenize public discourse, the immigrant's voices are not going to be heard. To encourage alternative frameworks with plurality of voices represent a necessary addition to mainstream media and a necessary addition to the coverage of immigration.

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Appendix I

CODING MANUAL

Length

Length of article in number of words

Writing Style

1. General News: Emphasizes facts of a recent event, straight news and inverted Pyramid where the most important facts are at the beginning of the article and the least important in the end 2. Feature: Longer article and more reflective tone 3. Interview: A discussion between two parts; a conversation between the journalist and someone else consider relevant to discuss the topic presented in the article. 4. OP-ED: Express the opinion of a named writer who usually unaffiliated with the news agency's staff 5. Commentary/criticism: Any story that offers a first person opinion

Tone

1. Informative: Describe the facts 2. Critical: Questions the facts 3. Comparative: Presents different opinions 4. Contextualize the information: Explain facts, gives a context to the information presented. 5. Other

Main destination country mentioned

EU: Europe as a general category

Eastern Europe 1.Belarus 2.Bulgaria 3.Czech Republic 4.Hungary 5.Poland 6.Republic of Moldova 7.Romania 8.Russian Federation 9.Slovakia 10.Ukraine

Northern Europe 11.Åland Islands 12.Channel Islands 13.Denmark 14.Estonia 15.Faeroe Islands 16.Finland 17.Guernsey 18.Iceland 19.Ireland 20.Isle of Man 21.Jersey 22.Latvia 23.Lithuania 24.Norway 25.Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands 26.Sweden 27.United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Southern Europe 28.Albania 29.Andorra 30.Bosnia and Herzegovina 31.Croatia 32.Gibraltar 33.Greece 34.Holy See 35.Italy 36.Malta 37.Montenegro 38.Portugal 39.San Marino 40.Serbia 41.Slovenia 42.Spain 43.The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Western Europe 44.Austria 45.Belgium 46.France 47.Germany 48.Liechtenstein 49.Luxembourg 50.Monaco 51.Netherlands 52.Switzerland

Immigrant's region of origin

5. Asia 1a. Central Asia 1b. Eastern Asia 1c. Southern Asia 1d. South-Eastern Asia 1e. Western Asia 6. Europe 2a. Eastern Europe 2b. Northern Europe 2c. Southern Europe 2d. Western Europe 7. North America 8. Africa 4a. Eastern Africa 4b. Northern Africa 4c. Middle Africa 4d. Southern Africa 4e. Western Africa 9. Latin America and the Caribbean 5a Caribbean 5b Central America 5c South America 10. Oceania 11. Antarctica

Topic

When referring about migration, the main topic is:

13) Crime 14) Right-wing parties and anti-immigrations ideas 15) Border control 16) Deportation 17) Illegal immigrants 18) Issues around Integration of immigrants 19) Traffic of immigrants 20) Threat of uncontrolled immigration 21) Labour migration 22) Media coverage of immigration 23) Benefits of immigration 24) Immigration as part of the European landscape 25) Humanitarian problems related to illegal immigration

The frame behind the news

When referring about migration, the main frame is:

12) Immigrants as a burden for the economy 13) Immigrants deserve human treatment 14) Immigrants as criminals 15) Immigrants as a general threat 16) Immigrants as a threat for the culture of the destination country 17) Undocumented immigrants do not deserve legal status 18) Right-wing parties could be a threat in Europe 19) Immigrants are part of the landscape of Europe

20) It could be dangerous to be an illegal immigrant 21) Immigration could be beneficial 22) Media coverage of immigration is biased

Represented voices / Who speaks? In order to give some indication of the type of voices heard in news articles about immigration, the following categories were used to code the type of person speaking, on every occasion that an individual other than the journalist spoke.

Government: the voice of the president, the vice-president a minister, a senator a congressman, state agencies, politicians of the ruling party

NGO: the voice from a representative from a national NGO.

Civil society organization representative: someone who represents a social movement, Trade Union, journalist's Federations, etc

Religious organisations: the voice of a representative of a religious organisation

Immigrants themselves: the immigrants involved in the particular event or immigrant's general voices

National of the given countries: a person resident in the destination country

International Organisations: organisations with an international membership, scope, or presence

Other media: when the news agency quotes other media

Experts: university professors, academics, independent researchers

Think tank: organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military or technology issues.

Appendix II

Distribution of sources

Sources

Name of article News agency Government NGO Civil society organisations Think tank Immigrants themselves International organisations the destination country Nationals of Other media Religious organisations Experts Other Europe must weather risks of Arab 'sea change' AFP x Turkish PM irks German government – again AFP x Greek government stands firm in immigrant protest AFP x Italy warns on Le Pen visit to migrant island AFP x Greek detention centres for illegals 'inhumane': EU agency AFP x Libya evacuee ship leaves Italy for Morocco AFP x Dutch prosecutors dismiss anti-Islam MP's trial objections AFP x European Union raps France over immigration 'Non' AFP x Italy threatens to let immigrants loose in Europe AFP x Bad weather halts immigrant transfers in Italy AFP x More kids, more immigrants and longer lives: today's Europe AFP x

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Berlusconi says migrant plan worked despite new arrivals AFP x Italy protests after France blocks trains to stop demos AFP x x Don't exaggerate immigration danger': EU chief AFP x Repatriation deal with Tunisia working: Italian minister AFP x Europe facing migration issue, not refugee influx: Red Cross AFP x Nationalist right set to surge as Finns head to the polls AFP x Neo-Nazi attacks on immigrants after killing AFP x EU plans to tackle illegal migration AFP x Europe tackles shake-up of border-free area AFP x x x Eight-year-old Afghan migrant drowns off Greece AFP x Police smash German-Turkish people-smuggling ring AFP x Tunisian coastguard says recovered two, not 150 bodies AFP x x x Up 150 dead in Tunisian boat sinking AFP x Greek border guards arrest migrants after shooting AFP x Labour migration declining over financial crisis: report AFP x 100 migrants arrested on boat off Greece AFP x Human rights court toughens up over deportation suspensions AFP x Police scramble to track extreme-right after Norway attacks AFP x x x Romanian MP blames EU 'multiculturalism' for Norway attacks AFP x Italian town mayor bans 'smelly' kebabs AFP x Greek plans barbed-wire fence along Turkish border AFP x Finnish MP decries witch-hunt on far-right after Norway AFP x x New arrival of refugees on Italian island AFP x x REFUGEES: Vietnamese struggle for a place in Poland IPS x x x Europe: Media complicit in rise of Xenophobia IPS x x x x x OP-ED: Cutting the fog: multiculturalism, religion and the common good IPS France sends "massive" aid to Libya's Benghazi: PM Reuters x EU may offer incentives for North Africa reform Reuters x Super-rich migrants offered quicker UK settlement Reuters x Amnesty criticises Italy on immigration response Reuters x x Italy steps up call for EU help with migrant crisis Reuters x Migrants part of solution to aging crisis: experts Reuters x x UK plans ￡110 million aid for Arab Spring nations Reuters x

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Asylum seekers getting "amnesty" in backlog – MPs Reuters x Nearly 700 migrants arrive on Italian island Reuters x King tries to unite shattered Norway at remembrabce Reuters x x 2 arrested in Athens over hunger strike AP x x Migrants escape Italian tent camp AP x France blocks train from Italy with migrants AP x Tunisia finds 58 bodies on its beaches AP x Jolie visits refugees who fled Libya, Tunisia AP x x x Dutch police try mobile fingerprinting immigrants AP x Norway's 'lone-wolf' attacks stir angst in Europe AP x x Italy demands NATO probe over Libya boat migrants AP x x Far-right anger, violence thrive on Europe's edges AP x x x

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