“No one knows who refugees really are” Discourses around the ‘refugee crisis’ in Poland
Analysis of selected mainstream media articles published
from 2014 to 2017
Matylda Jonas-Kowalik
International Migration and Ethnic Relations Master Thesis 30 credits Spring 2020: IM639L Supervisor: Anders Hellström Word count: 21,761 Abstract
The so-called refugee crisis was among the most significant events affecting European political and social structures during the previous decade. Previous research proves that the questions regarding refugee reception had instigated a rise of ethno-nationalistic and exclusionary sentiments across Europe. The Polish context has been a clear example. This study aims to analyze the ways in which Polish media produced and reproduced the discourse pertaining to the refugee crisis and subsequently the perceived representation of refugees. Based on the review of literature and theories of discourse, mediatization, politicization and Othering, selected mainstream media articles from 2014 to 2017 were analyzed. The findings illustrate that an exclusionary discourse and Islamophobic notions were prevalent during this period. Moreover, the results indicate that a discursive shift regarding the representation of refugees has occurred, significantly altering the manner in which Polish society perceives both refugees and the refugee crisis more generally.
Keywords Critical Discourse Analysis, media, refugee crisis, discursive shift, Poland TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements……………….…………………………………………………………1
1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………..…………………………2
1.1 Introduction………………..……………………..…….………………..……….2
1.2 Research problem………………..………………………………………………3
1.3 Aim and research questions……..………………………………………….……4
1.4 Academic relevance and contribution……..……………………………………..5
2. CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND……..……………………………………………….6
2.1 European Union……..……………………………………………………………6
2.2 Poland……..……………………………………………………………….……10
3. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ……..…………………………………………….12
3.1. Previous research……..………………………………………………………..12
3.1.1 Previous research in the Polish context.…….…………………..………14
3.2. Theoretical framework……..………………………………………………….16
3.2.1 Discourse……..……………………………………………………….17
3.2.2 Discursive shifts……..…………………………………………..……18
3.2.3 Mediatization……..…………………………………………….……..19
3.2.4 Politicization………..…………………………………………………22
3.2.5 Othering……..………………………………….……………………..22
4. METHODOLOGY……..……………………………………………………………….24
4.1 Method……..………………………………………………………………….24
4.2 Data analysis……..……………………………………………………………28 4.3 Material……..…………………………………………………………..….…….29
4.3.1 Selection of the newspapers……..……………………………………..29
4.3.2 Selection of the articles……..………………………………………….30
4.3.3 Typology of the articles……..………………………………………….32
4.4 Reflexivity……..…………………………………………………………..……32
4.4.1 Role as researcher……..……………………………………….….….33
4.4.2 Ethical considerations……..…………………….……………………34
4.5 Limitations……..………………………………………………………………………34
5. DESCRIPTIVE FINDINGS…………………………………………………………….35
5.1 Identifying the refugees………………………………………….………………36
5.1.1 Refugees, immigrants, economic migrants?…………………………..37
5.1.2 Religion, ethnicity, nationality…….…………………………………..40
5.1.3 Gender, age, sexual orientation…………………………………….….42
5.1.4 Other characteristics…………………………………………………..43
5.2 Identifying the reasons.………………………………………………………….44
5.2.1 War and conflict……………………………………………………….44
5.2.2 Economic reasons……………………………………………………..44
5.2.3 Other reasons………………………….………………………………45
5.3 Identifying threats……………………………………………………………….45
5.3.1 Threats of violence……………………………………………………45
5.3.2 Consequences of cultural differences…………………………………46
5.3.3 Diseases………………………………………………………………47
5.3.4 Financial strains………………………………………………………47
5.4 Political polemics……………………………………………………………….47 6. ANALYSIS………………………………………………………………….……………..48
6.1 “No one knows who refugees really are” - the representation of refugees and the refugee crisis………………………………………………………………….48
6.1.1 Implications of considerations of legal and administrative status…….……48
6.1.2 Discourse around identity of refugees……………………………….….….50
6.2 Production, circulation and distribution…………………………………………..52
6.2.1 The circulation and distribution of the selected newspapers…..…….…52
6.2.2 Understanding the typology of articles……………………………..…..53
6.3 Media, politics and the refugee crisis………………………………………….….54
6.3.1 Politicisation of the refugee crisis………………………….…..……….54
6.3.2 Media as the most important source of information…………..………..55
6.3.3 The dependency of media on political institutions……………………..56
6.3.4 Media logic or political logic?…………………………………………58
6.4 Discursive shift………………………………………………….………………..59
7. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………….…………………..61
List of articles……………………………………………………………………………….64
1. Gość Niedzielny…………………………………………………………….….….64 2. Polityka………………………………….…………………………………..…….68 3. Newsweek Polska………………………………………………………….………71 4. Sieci………………………………………………………………………….…….73 5. Do Rzeczy……………………..………………………..…………………….……76
Bibliography ………………………………………..………………………………………79 Table of figures and tables
Tables
Table 1. European Union — population and asylum application 2014-2017…………………9 Table 2. Poland — population and asylum application 2014-2017…………………………..11 Table 3. Selected newspapers — data…………………….…………………………………..30 Table 4. Numbers of articles mentioning legal and administrative status of newcomers in 2014…………………………………..…………………………..…………………..……37 Table 5. Numbers of articles mentioning legal and administrative status of newcomers in 2015…………………………..…………………………..……………………..…………38 Table 6. Numbers of articles mentioning legal and administrative status of newcomers in 2016…………………………..…………………………..………………………………..39 Table 7. Numbers of articles mentioning legal and administrative status of newcomers in 2017…………………………..…………………………..…………………………..……40
Figures
Figure 1. Total number of people who arrived to the EU………….…………………….…….7 Figure 2. Four-dimensional conceptualisation of the mediatization of politics……….….…..20 Figure 3. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis……….……..26 Figure 4. Number of articles published between 2014 and 2017…………….……………….36 Figure 5. Correlation between public opinion and number of articles………………………..60 Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Anders Hellström, for his support and guidance. His knowledge, comments and patience have been exceptionally helpful and greatly appreciated. My extended gratitude also goes to Linnea Adebjörk, Ebru Calin and Noah Godin for their continuous support and encouragement, without which writing this thesis would be a much more difficult task.
1 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
The migratory event that reached its peak in 2015 and was characterized by the exceptionally high number of people arriving at the borders of the European Union overland or from across the Mediterranean Sea came to be known as the European migrant crisis or refugee crisis. Even this relatively small number of new arrivals — 1,032,408 people coming to Europe in 2015 which represented only 0,002% of the total population of European Union (UNHCR, 2020) — proved to be a very significant factor in its political climate, with effects lasting to this day. Although not a single one of the European Union member states ranked among the top ten hosting countries in the world (UNHCR, 2016), the influx of refugees choosing Europe as a destination can still be seen as unprecedented, comparable only to refugee movements during and succeeding World War II, when an estimated 40 million people had been displaced in the region (Chalabi, 2013). This immediately begs the question — who were the refugees that came to Europe? One of the most universal definitions, stemming from the The 1951 Refugee Convention, defines refugee as “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion” (UN General Assembly, 1951). This definition will be adopted for the purpose of this study. However, the discourse produced regarding the refugee crisis is much more complicated than a simple legal definition. For many the ‘crisis’ became synonymous with the countless media images and descriptions of people fleeing their homelands and trying to reach safety in Europe — on overpacked boats, with children and the elderly, with the little possessions they were able to carry with them. For others, it was represented by the pictures of young men illegally crossing the border, mass migration motivated by economic reasons, religious extremists and the threat of political havoc in the European Union. Both of these discourses were present in the media and both influenced the perception of public opinion, which in many countries had little to no first-hand experiences with refugees. One of those countries, Poland, — demographically homogenous and geographically positioned far from Greece, Italy and other states that were first to interact with these asylum seekers — will be the focus of this study which aims to
2 analyze the media discourse of the ‘crisis’ and its implications. The structure of this thesis will continue as follows: first the aim and research questions will be introduced, followed by the detailed contextual background necessary to understand the political and social situation of the crisis in the European Union. Next, the context will be expanded by the presentation of previous research done on this topic, an introduction of the theoretical concepts that are crucial for conceptualizing the ‘crisis’ and the representations of refugees in Polish media that are the core interest of this study. Following the theoretical background, a discussion on the methodology of this study will be presented, together with the criteria and material chosen for the analysis. Last but not least, the descriptive findings followed by the analysis will be detailed and the study will reach its conclusion.
1.2 Research problem
Since attention towards refugees and asylum seekers has grown significantly in recent decades, both in the social and academic spheres, the analysis of media discourses can be seen as a way of connecting those two worlds. The subject of refugees became prevalent in the public discourse of the European Union in the wake of the migratory event of interest within this study, and even though it varied between the political spectrum, member states and individuals, the overall conclusions about the societal willingness of refugee reception in some countries were not always hopeful. This is perhaps why the subject of refugees has become increasingly politicized as well as, at times, very divisive, and remains of academic interest for so many — the author included. Discourse, as elaborated upon in the later chapters of this study, is constantly produced and reproduced, adopted and contested. It can also undergo changes or shifts, especially in the wake of unprecedented situation, such as the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees on the shores of Europe. Within the context of this study, a discursive shift will be understood as the change of social functioning of language on the national level (Fairclough, 1992; Krzyżanowski, 2018), that leads to significant changes of the discourse and in effect has a crucial social relevance as an object of the analysis. The so-called “refugee crisis” caused a sharp increase of the news coverage on refugees and migrants in the Polish media (Krzyżanowska and Krzyżanowski, 2018) which had an important role in producing and
3 reproducing the discourse around refugees themselves. As some researchers argue, this upsurge of media coverage has been “one of the main reasons for a qualitative change in Polish public discourse that has translated into a notable radicalization of exclusionary views” (ibid.: 614). Therefore, the main interest of this thesis lies in the examination of the media discourse from a specified period in Poland with hopes to gain better understanding of the creation of discourse in the context of this discursive shift.
1.3 Aim and research questions
This study aims to analyze how refugees and the refugee crisis were presented in the Polish media, in order to gain a better understanding of discursive shifts in general, as well as the discourse around this migratory event in particular. The discourse over the period of four years, from 2014 to 2017 — before the peak, during the peak and in the period that can be described as an aftermath of the peak of migration in summer 2015 — will be analyzed.
The central research question of this study is:
In what ways has Polish media produced and reproduced the discourse pertaining to the refugee crisis and subsequently the perceived representation of refugees?
The specific points of interest represented in the analyzed discourse will be explored with connection to the question written above: a) Which actors were perceived as central to this migratory event and how were the migrating persons represented in Polish media? b) What factors were perceived to cause this migratory event and for what reasons, according to the discourse, have these refugees migrated? c) What perceived threats do refugees pose for Polish society, what is said to be at risk and where does the fear of refugees stem from?
Hence, this thesis will be a qualitative case study of Polish media discourse on the refugee crisis and the discursive shift occurring in this context in the given period. In order to describe and understand how this analyzed discourse emerged, I will focus on mediatization
4 and politicization of the 2015 migratory wave, with emphasis on the discourse constructed and reproduced by media.
This research will adopt Critical Discourse Analysis, in order to examine how discourse around refugees is linguistically generated in Polish media and what its discursive and social practices are. The selected mainstream media articles that will be the subject of the analysis were published by five Polish weekly newspapers (Gość Niedzielny, Polityka, Newsweek Polska, Sieci and Do Rzeczy) during the period between January 2014 and December 2017. This analysis will be done with close connection to the previous research on the topic.
1.4 Academic relevance and contribution
Much has been written about the increased migration to the European Union in the period analyzed in this study as well as the social and political aftermaths of this event. The discourse that was created and reproduced around the refugee crisis has far-reaching implications both on the international level as well as for the respective member states. With my research, I hope to make a humble contribution to the growing body of literature on the subject of mediatization and politicization of refugee reception in Poland. Additionally, by translating articles from Polish to English and conducting the analysis of the discourse present within them in English, I aim to bring this issue to wider international attention. Analyzing the selected mainstream media articles can illustrate the discursive shift, while also furthering the understanding of this phenomena, in a context broader than in Poland alone. Lastly, since the migratory event of interest is widely known as the ‘refugee crisis’, — a phrase that is also commonly used in the analyzed discourse — for the purpose of this study I will use the phrase ‘refugee crisis’ and ‘European refugee crisis’ while bearing in mind the potential of reproducing a discourse that may be seen as harmful and oversimplified. This decision comes not without some concerns, since the word ‘crisis’ is seen as bringing a pejorative meaning, which was addressed by worldwide comparative research and its use often debated (i.e Taylor, 2015; Ruz, 2015). However, as mentioned before, having a better understanding of the of discourse regarding refugees as the aim of this study, the material analyzed in this thesis will hopefully provide a better understanding of why the phrase ‘refugee crisis’ has been so widely used. I also aim to emphasize how the mechanisms of fear and hate can contribute to a discursive shift that creates a discourse that represents refugees as
5 people who are different and in some cases described as essentially inferior; subsequently, this research has a societal relevance due to the potential of dismantling harmful stereotypes.
2. CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
Since attention to historical and social context is an important part of analyzing discourse, this section of the study will be dedicated to the events connected with the migratory wave of 2015 and how they influenced the politics of the European Union in general, and Poland specifically. Due to the high relevance of those affairs and variety of studies that were dedicated to this topic, the contextual background will be presented with the elaboration on both the procurring events as well as their conceptualization by researchers.
2.1 European Union
The wave of migration that peaked in the summer of 2015 and which is often referred to as the refugee crisis and by others as the “long summer of migration” (Scheibelhofer, 2019: 194) has shaped the contemporary discourse around refugee reception in the European context and continues to have a significant impact on politics in the European Union. Hence, those events and their repercussions are crucial as a contextual background for this study, since they create and influence the discourse that will be analyzed and will be important for sufficiently answering the stated research questions. With the Syrian civil war and unrest in the Middle East, caused by, among other factors, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and destabilization of the region (Jaskułkowski, 2019), many refugees pursued futures in Europe, which is why the refugee crisis was characterized from the Western perspective by high numbers of people arriving in the European Union. Most followed main roads of migration — from Turkey via the Aegean Sea to the Greek islands (Eastern Mediterranean) or from Libya to Italy (Central Mediterranean), occasionally overland through the Southeast of Europe. To illustrate this situation with numerical data, in 2014, approximately 225,000 people arrived in the Europe Union, while in 2015 it was more than a million (UNHCR, 2016, 2020).
6 Figure 1: Total number of people who arrived to the EU (UNHCR, 2020)
1100000
825000
550000
275000
0 2014 2015 2016 2017
(The numbers include sea arrivals to Italy, Cyprus and Malta, both sea and land arrivals to Greece and Spain.)
Among those who arrived in 2015, the largest group of asylum seekers were Syrians (56% of arrivals), followed by Afghans (24%) and Iraqis (10%) who fled from their unstable or war- torn countries (International Organization for Migration, 2016). As response to this situation, there arose two main conflicting approaches to the refugee crisis considered in European countries which were, firstly, humanitarian discourse stressing the need to help people fleeing persecution and secondly, the rhetoric of state security and the need to maintain law and order (Triandafyllidou, 2018). The latter one, connected with the fact that the creation of the single market of the EU was accompanied by the strengthening of external border control, “the war on terror”, outsourcing of border control, a restrictive visa policy, offshoring border control, heavy militarization of borders, and overall securitisation1 (Jaskułkowski, 2019: 33) caused not only a delayed response to the unfolding situation but also an uncoordinated one. Since this issue of securitisation is directly linked with the research questions, especially of the perceived “threats”, it will be explored in the analysis. Due to these factors, the borders of the European Union became very dangerous: as Jaskułkowski wrote, “migrants, including those who have a legitimate claim to seek refugee status, have very limited opportunities to reach the EU legally and safely” (ibid.: 34). It should be pointed out that the EU actions has been at times contradictory: on the one
1 Securitization - version of politicization that facilitates the use of extraordinary means in the name of security (CARFMS, n.d.). It can be understood as a process of social construction that pushes an area of politics, like migartion, into an area of security by using a rhetoric of discursive emergence, threat and danger aimed at justifying the adoption of unusual measures (Waever, Buzan & Jaap ,1993)
7 hand, some attempts to counteract the humanitarian crisis were made, especially after an extraordinary European Council meeting on 23 April 2015 following the humanitarian disaster in Lampedusa; on the other hand, the EU’s policies, or lack of them (e.g. absence of a common immigration policy, diametrically opposed attitudes and different practices of individual member states), arguably have worsened the crisis (Maldini and Takahashi, 2017). The humanitarian efforts connected to the Dublin Regulations were based on the Geneva Convention as well as the EU Qualification Directive and stated that the aim is to “determine rapidly the Member State responsible [for an asylum claim] and provides for the transfer of an asylum seeker to that Member State.” (Lorca-Susino, 2016: 125). According to some scholars (e.g. Selanec, 2015; Scheibelhofer, 2019; Maldini and Takahashi, 2017) and journalists specialising on the issue (Pai, 2020; Boghani, 2018), European states were neither prepared, nor willing to take responsibility for the arriving refugees, who needed material, psychological and medical support. Where the states failed in their efforts, many regular people and NGOs showed incredible strength and willingness to offer their services, filling the gaps left by the underfunded state agencies (e.g. Gunter, 2015; Kalogeraki, 2018; Bernát et.al, 2016). Yet, although there are many documented cases of personal involvement of groups and individuals in organizing efforts for refugees (ibid.; Scheibelhofer, 2019; Rozakou 2016), many others followed the exclusionist discourse of fear fuelled by the media in certain countries, such as Poland (Krzyżanowski, 2018). Hence, those two conflicting discourses - of solidarity and of exclusion, will be sought in the selected articles in the process of analysis. For many scholars and experts working on the subject of refugee reception in the European Union, it is clear that the EU has had problems protecting the rights of refugees and did not manage to develop a long-term solidarity-based refugee policy (Maldini and Takahashi, 2017; Jaskułkowski, 2019; Scheibelhofer, 2019). Most of the people who arrived on the shores the EU came from countries that were not politically stable and did not guarantee the fulfilment of human rights. Adding to the definition of refugee quoted in the introduction of this study, the European Parliament defines refugees as “people fleeing their home country to save their lives and who have been accepted and recognized as such in their host country” (European Parliament, 2019a), while asylum seekers are defined as “people who make a formal request for asylum in another country because they fear their life is at risk in their home country” (ibid). Article 14(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
8 (UDHR), adopted in 1948, guarantees the right to seek asylum, therefore, one could argue that people arriving on the shores of Europe simply exercised their human right of seeking refugee and safety. Hence, mainstream framing of this event as a ‘crisis’ should not be seen simply as descriptive or neutral, as it constructs the discourse suggesting that migrants and refugees are a sudden and unexpected source of trouble (Jaskułkowski, 2019: 32).
Table 1. European Union — population and asylum application 2014-2017
2014 2015 2016 2017
EU total population 506 944 075 508 450 856 510 152 681 511 522 671
Number of asylum 225 455 1 032 408 373 652 185 139 seekers arriving in the EU Percentage of new 0,0004% 0,002% 0,0007% 0,0004% arrivals to total EU population Refugees residing in 1 090 833 1 326 701 1 863 881 2 283 199 total in EU Percentage of refugees 0,002% 0,003% 0,004% 0,004% in the total population of European Union
Source: (European Parliament, 2019a)
Even though the EU was not the main destination for migrants and refugees, 2015 was characterized by politicians and the media as the time of the European refugee crisis. As mentioned before and as it can be seen in the data presented above in Table 1, even in the most intense period of migration to Europe in 2015, the percentage of new arrivals made up 0,002% of the total population of the European Union. In comparison, Turkey with a population of 79,81 million in 2017, one of the most important destination points for war refugees from Syria, hosted 4,2 million refugees that year, which made up 0,05% of their total population (UNHCR, n.d.). According to a survey conducted by the European Parliament in June 2019, immigration was one of the most pressing issues that influenced the voting decisions of Europeans in May’s 2019 EU elections, with 34% of Europeans voting with immigration in mind. (European Parliament, 2019b).
9 2.2 Poland
Poland, which joined European Union in 2004, from the very beginning presented a noticeably cautious and conservative approach to the refugee reception and humanitarian obligations that arose in 2015. This homogenous country2 can be described as a country of emigration rather than immigration — in 2017, 2,54 million Polish citizens lived abroad (Główny Urząd Statystyczny [GUS], 2018), and 400,000 non-European citizens had a long- term stay visa in Poland. However, it should be specified, that the statistics on the largest foreign-born group, Ukrainians, do not include recently arrived migrant workers (Santora, 2019; Walker, 2019). In 2017, more than 1.7 million Ukrainian citizens worked legally in Poland (Chapman, 2018), which can be connected both with humanitarian (annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and war in Donbass in 2014), as well as economic reasons. Immigration was not a major topic in the media, nor in politics up to 2015 (Krzyżanowski, 2018; Bielecka-Prus, 2018). After the systemic transformation in 1989 and in the later years of the post-communist transition, immigration has been limited, mainly consisting of migrants from neighbouring countries — Ukraine and Belarus — whose presence in Poland was long constituted as national minorities due to the historical changes of borders. The coalition government of liberal Platforma Obywatelska (eng. Civic Platform, PO) and agrarian Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (eng. Polish People’s Party, PSL) in power between 2007-2015 “reluctantly agreed to accept refugees in the framework of the EU relocation scheme” (Jaskułkowski, 2019: 48). However, negotiations regarding the reception of refugees conducted by the Polish government in the autumn of 2015 coincided with a political campaign for parliamentary elections, which took place on October 25, 2015. Hence, the topic of refugees was used as one of the key program points of political parties competing for votes (Bielecka-Prus, 2018: 7). Ultimately, the new right-wing government of Prawo i Sprawiedliwość party (eng. Law and Justice, PiS) elected in autumn of 2015 refused to accept the previous agreements concerning refugee reception. In PiS’s campaign in 2015, refugees and migration were one of the most debated and prominent issues, with the party taking a harsh and exclusionary approach to any relocation proposals and a complete rejection of any solidarity-based help for
2 In the last national census conducted in Poland in 2011, 96.88% respondents reported Polish as their first identity (GUS, 2015). 92.9% of Poles declare Catholicism as their faith (GUS, 2016).
10 people arriving on the shores of the European Union (Jaskułkowski, 2019). In effect, Islamophobic discourse in Poland was widely reproduced by the public media, the right-wing press, the Church as well as popular culture (Jaskułkowski, 2019; Krzyżanowski, 2018). This shift has an influence on the discourse that is analyzed in this study, which can also be seen in the numerical data from surveys conducted in this time in Poland. In May 2015, 76% of respondents expressed the opinion that Poland should give shelter to persecuted people, however, this sentiment was directed mainly towards Ukrainians from the war-torn area, while little over half of respondents (53%) did not agree to accept refugees from the Middle East and Africa (MENA) (CBOS, 2015a). In January 2016, the number of responders supporting the idea of asylum for persons from the MENA region amounted to 26%, while in June it was even smaller — 24% (CBOS, 2016). In 2020 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Poland failed to uphold its obligations regarding refugee quotas as required by law (Hursh, 2020).
Table 2. Poland — population and asylum application 2014-2017
2014 2015 2016 2017
Poland total 38 017 856 38 005 614 37 967 209 37 972 964 population Refugee status 8020 12 190 12 305 5045 applications in Poland Accepted cases 262 348 390 520
Percentage of 0,0002% 0,0003% 0,0003% 0,0001% migrants applying to total population Poland Refugees residing in 15 695 14 065 11 747 12 238 total in Poland Percentage of refugees 0,0004% 0,0004% 0,0003% 0,0003% in the total population of Poland
Source: (European Parliament, 2019a)
As can be seen in Table 2, the numbers of refugees residing in Poland, as well as the number of applications for refugee status are proportionately much smaller than other numbers in the European Union. The number of accepted applications is very low, which can also be
11 attributed to the fact that many refugees decide to leave Poland before their cases are closed by authorities, most often choosing to continue their journey to Western Europe — in 2017, 53% of asylum status proceedings were discontinued (Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców, 2018a). Most applications in Poland during the period between 2007 and 2018 were submitted by citizens of Russia (most often Chechens), Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia and Tajikistan (Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców, 2018b). Hence, the discourse of exclusion can be seen as prevalent in the Polish case, with very little public support for refugee reception for people from the MENA region.
3. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This section of the study will be dedicated to the exploration of previous research and other past literature on the topic. In order to answer the research questions sufficiently, the direct links between the following three concepts must be explained. First, mediatization — phenomena that can occur when the political system is highly influenced and adjusted to how mass media cover politics (Lundby, 2014), Second, politicization — designating a political meaning and character to an issue or concept, and third, the shifts of discourse. While mediatization will be one of the main concepts this study will focus on, politicisation should be seen as a complimentary theoretical framework to explain the importance of bringing the issue of refugees to the public during the Polish parliamentary elections in October 2015.
3.1 Previous research
As underlined previously, the summer of migration was arguably one of the most critical events that has deeply affected the identity and unity of the European Union in recent history. Hence, it comes as no surprise that this subject was, and still is, of the utmost importance and interest for researchers from a variety of academic backgrounds. There have been numerous positions arising on the topics of refugee reception, media discourse as well as the upsurge of Islamophobia and Othering in recent years in Europe. In the vast body of literature regarding this subject, I focus on the particular positions that are interconnecting with the discourse analysis produced by media within the context of refugee crisis perception in the EU, and specifically Poland.
12 As argued by many researchers, both the new and the traditional media have been key proponents in creating a discourse of fear and have played into the populist and far-right discourses of the “crisis” in the European Union (Krzyżanowski, et.al, 2018; Krzyżanowski, 2018; Modebadze, 2019; Podobnik et.al. 2017). In many European countries, political radicalism3 and ethno-nationalist mobilisation4 has caused a visible rise in patterns of xenophobic and racist discursive scapegoating and Othering (Krzyżanowski, et.al, 2018.: 4). According to the research by Krzyżanowski and co-authors, the majority of the discourses produced by the “strongly mediation-dependent European politics” were negative and served as a token for far-right and populist political movements. According to Wodak, populism in the ethno-nationalist form is especially prone to employing dichotomous strategies of, on one hand, engaging with the supposed national sameness, unity and cohesion (fallacy of sameness) and on the other hand, drawing a rigid distinction between “us” and other nations or ethnic minorities seen as “them” (fallacy of difference). This leads to constructing oneself as superior and unique (Wodak, 2015:54) and results in the discourse of Othering. Even though many populist right-wing parties are by nature skeptical of the European Union, they invoke the concept of “European identity” when it fits their political agenda (ibid.), which can be observed regarding this discussed migratory event. One of the main discursive changes — a concept that will be elaborated upon in the section dedicated to theory together with discursive shifts — that can be seen in Europe with connection to the refugee crisis, is that in many EU countries, even the mainstream political movements, parties and governments endorsed anti-immigration rhetoric as well as harshened stances toward refugees. This type of discourse before seemed to be visible mostly in connection with far-right and right wing movements (Krzyżanowski et.al, 2018: 7). In “The Mediatization and the Politicization of the ‘Refugee Crisis’ in Europe” authors point out that in the wake of the refugee crisis concepts
3 Political radicalism can be understood as an intent to transform or replace the fundamental principles and values of a society or political system. It is often achieved through social, structural change or radical reform. Political radicalism is often conceived as protest that challenges the political establishment, however may also be interpreted as new ways of engaging increasingly depoliticized electorates against weak party governments (ECPR, 2017).
4 Ethno-nationalist mobilisation can be seen as a nationalist political strategy to push a radical social discourse to shape memory and identity politics of the nation state. It combines radical politics with national sentiment. Ethnic nationalism, which sees the nation through the concept of ethnicity, pays special attention to shared ancestry, culture, language, religion and history of the nation. As Mazzini writes, “history is a source of identity power, and, for incumbents, a political one” and, in context of Poland, ethnic-nationalist rhetoric is an “instrument for radicalizing public sentiment and deepening cleavages among Polish society” (Mazzini, 2017).
13 that are especially vulnerable to politicization — humanitarianism, security, diversity, protectionism — were used in public discourses to sanction the new, harsh restrictions of migration and asylum policies (Krzyżanowski et.al, 2018:1). These are drawing on both the traditional and new forms of discriminatory rhetoric, Othering, outright racism and xenophobia (Krzyżanowski et.al, 2018: 3). A significant discursive shift can be observed not only on the level of the EU, but also in Polish political discourse (Krzyżanowski, 2018). Prior to 2015, anti-immigration rhetoric was scarce however, now can be characterized as strongly anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, and even racist. As the author writes, one of the central issues that has contributed to the process of politicization of immigration in Poland is the accommodation of debates about the refugee crisis in Europe in 2015 (ibid.: 92). He argues that the heated way in which political debates were conducted has a direct link to the rise of discriminatory public opinions about immigrants, which are especially visible regarding asylum seekers and refugees. (ibid.). In the analyzed texts, describing refugees as a “threat” to Polish culture, religion, and nationhood was prevalent. In Krzyżanowski’s words, “Such a marking of difference spanned a wide range of arguments, starting from cultural/religious incompatibility and ending in radical and blatantly racist statements on biological inferiority that recontextualized elements of Polish historical anti-Semitic arguments.” (ibid.). This change of discourse is identified by the author as “strategic enactment” and is based on the strategy of introducing new ways and patterns of debating certain topics — in this case immigration and refugees - that are in fact drawn from patterns previously used in different debates and discourses (Krzyżanowski, 2018: 78). Discourses were not only introduced to the public but further recontextualized and perpetuated, which in time elevates them to become hegemonic discourses. According to Krzyżanowski, in the case of Poland, this is visible in the connection between historical, Antisemitic discourse and modern, Islamophobic rhetoric (2018).
3.1.1 Previous research in the Polish context
Within the context of Poland, there are many notable works published in the broad area of interests connected with this thesis. Literature dating to the pre-crisis era includes, among others, studies on “othering” and ethnic exclusion — “Constructing “the Other”: The images of immigrants in Poland” by Grzymała-Kazłowska (2007) and “Realms and forms of
14 ethnic exclusion in Poland” by Jasinska-Kania and Łodzinski (2009), as well as media analysis focusing on nationalist tendencies and prejudice by Starnawski (2003). Bielecka-Prus argues, that in the context of Poland, the research on press discourse about refugees and immigrants is still insufficient, which can be explained by the fact that the conflict with the presence of foreigners was, as mentioned before, almost absent prior to 2015 (Bielecka-Prus, 2018: 13). However, given the literature on the subject, one can conclude that even with the lack of widespread public discourse concerning immigrants and refugees, these topics were indeed still of interest for some researchers focused on migration studies. As Jaskułkowski writes, three main approaches to study attitudes towards migrants in Poland so far contain: analyzing public opinion polls (quantitative research), analysis of the media and political discourse (qualitative research) and the contextualization of structural and historical processes (2019: 4). This study is aimed to fall into the second category, since my main focus lies in the media coverage of the refugee crisis. In his book, that aims to connect those three approaches, Jaskułkowski (2019) focuses on the attitudes towards migrants and refugees from the MENA region during the European refugee crisis of 2015-2016 in Poland, based on the qualitative data from interviews and analyzes of the policies by the Polish government and media discourses as well as popular culture. According to his findings, the overwhelming majority of the individuals interviewed for the purpose of his research identified refugees with Muslims, who were deemed to pose a threat to the Polish nation; which might be a direct link to the discursive shift described by Krzyżanowski (2018). This analysis establishes that even though the hegemonic Islamophobic public discourse can be reproduced, negotiated and contested, it was largely adopted in the Polish view of refugees and the refugee crisis. Even among interviewees who adopted a solidarity based approach and invoked arguments of open borders, the humanitarian discourse and the discourse of multiculturalism, the reproduction of some Islamophobic stereotypes remained present (ibid.: 8). This hegemonic perspective of the refugee crisis is also present in Bielecka-Prus’s “The Rhetoric of the Fear of the Stranger in the Polish Press Discourse” (2018). The author focuses on the “rhetoric of fear” by conducting an analysis of articles published in two main Polish daily newspapers — Gazeta Wyborcza of a more progressive profile, and Rzeczpospolita which holds a more conservative standpoint. Her analysis shows that the
15 rhetoric of fear and anxiety is present in both texts published in Rzeczpospolita and Gazeta Wyborcza. Names and adjectives used to described refugees appear fearful in both newspapers, especially in metaphorical form (ibid: 28). Clear differences can only be seen in how the themes of shame and guilt were used: the progressive newspaper more often appeared as an accuser, condemning the Polish approach to the refugee crisis, while the conservative newspaper more often assumed the role of advocate for antagonistic views. As the author writes, both press titles engaged in a normative discourse, characterized by a strong emotional charge (ibid.). This study, especially relevant given the topic of this thesis, shows that one should not blatantly assume a stark difference between media outlets of different political leaning when it comes to an issue as dividing as a refugee crisis. As Bielecka-Prus notes, the topic of refugees was so prevalent in everyday discourse, that the information on refugees reached 91% of respondents of a CBOS study, and almost half of respondents (46%) were interested in the issue (Bielecka-Prus, 2018:11; CBOS, 2015b). One of the interesting positions, which is based on the similar foundations as Bielecka-Prus’s work, is an article by Bobryk that looks into discourse analysis of the refugee crisis in the Polish press, analyzing material published in Gazeta Wyborcza and in Nasz Dziennik (Bobryk, 2017 in: Pasamonik and Markowska-Manista, 2017: 46). The research on this topic has yet to be expanded upon, however one of the few studies related to this issue suggests that, to a large extent, knowledge about refugees was shaped through the media, such as the press, television and internet portals (Pędziwiatr, 2015:132-150). Given the importance of media coverage regarding this issue, and with the aim of contributing to the still-developing body of literature regarding the discourse of refugee crisis in Poland, this study will specifically focus on the press discourse regarding refugees from 2014 through 2017.
3.2 Theoretical framework
Mediatization of the refugee crisis in Poland together with its politicisation of the issue connected with parliamentary elections of 2015, created a change of discourse that can be identified as the Othering of refugees and migrants — labelling them as a threat; different and even inferior to the native Polish population. This change of discourse surrounding the refugee crisis is described as a discursive shift, which is elaborated upon in the following sections of this study.
16 The theory is based on the previous research that indicates that prior to 2015 a discourse of hostility towards refugees did not exist to the same extent as can be observed throughout and after 2015. This shift is directly related to how this topic has been presented in the media, by politicians and by the clear signs of Othering that now permeate this discourse. Important theoretical concepts — discourse, discursive shifts, mediatization, politicization as well as Othering will be discussed in detail in the next sections of this study.
3.2.1 Discourse
Discourse can be defined as the use of language spoken, written or visual — in a given social context. All social practices hold a discursive meaning — they convey meaning, which shapes and influences actions (Hall, 1992: 291). The conditions under which the language was used, by whom it was used and why, all influence the understanding of the “object” that is being discussed - “the way in which a particular set of linguistic categories relating to an object and the ways of depicting it frame the way we comprehend that object” (Bryman, 2012: 528). Discourses are seen as much more than simply ways of thinking and constructing meaning. They define the “‘nature’ of the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern” — they shape the world and people’s understanding of it (Weedon, 1987:108). Hence, language cannot be considered neutral due to the fundamental subjectivity rooted in the relativism of social context and the identity of the user. Fairclough uses the term ‘discourse’ to make the connection between texts and their social purposes - therefore, discourses do not simply reflect or represent social entities or relations, they construct or ‘constitute’ them (Fairclough, 1992). In the context of this thesis, the discourses around refugees will therefore be seen as not only a reflection of certain social and political contexts but also as something that actively constructs them. As defined by Foucault, discourse encompasses ways in which societies produce meaning and knowledge and is inherently linked with social practices, subjectivity, power relations and relations between all of the aforementioned factors (Weedon,1987:108). Knowledge is inherently linked with power — ‘there is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time, power relations.” (Foucault, 1977: 27). According to his understanding of power, one can observe an unbreakable bond between knowledge and power
17 — power is based on knowledge and makes use of it, while simultaneously, power reproduces knowledge by shaping it (Foucault, 1998). Therefore, in this context, power means having control over the practices constructing both knowledge and discourse as well as what is seen and understood as reality (Fairclough, 2009). Discourse, being itself both a theoretical and methodological concept, can be used to inspect how shared frames of understanding the world and reality are being produced and reproduced through oral or written sources, in the case of this study — the newspapers. Critical Discourse Analysis, which is the method adopted in my research, will be explained in detail in the next section, dedicated to methodology.
3.2.2 Discursive shifts
As mentioned in the pervious chapters of this study, discourse is not static, since the language responds to the changing structures of the society and events. Discursive changes, as defined by Fairclough are “a significant shift in the social functioning of language” (1992: 6). Local appropriations of discursive changes — the discursive shifts, are further described as “actor-specific responses toward social, political, and economic macro-level transformations.” (Krzyżanowski, 2018: 78). Discursive change and discursive shift both can be used to conceptualize the changes of discourse, yet they are not synonymical - discursive change is a concept that, on the macro-level, indicates global or transnational framing of public discourse (ibid: 78), while discursive shift helps to identify how and when public and political discourses are changing, becoming politicized and often simultaneously mediatized (ibid.: 79) on the mezzo-level, i.e. state. Hence, the international changes of discourses around refugees can be seen as a discursive change, however, when analyzed in the context of Poland, should be referred to as a discursive shift - responses to social and political transformations that are happening on the macro-level, but are interpreted and reproduced by actors within Polish politics and media. Discursive shifts are often seen as an essential factor within the context of mediatization of politics - which Krzyżanowski understands as a “process whereby politics becomes increasingly dependent on the media and profoundly changes the course and logic of its practices in line with media-driven demands” (ibid.). Therefore, to analyze the changes of discourse that this study focuses on, discursive shift will be one of the central concepts utilized.
18 Discursive changes and discursive shifts — non-simultaneous, contextual, and field dependent — can be seen in the areas of ongoing securitisation of sociopolitical realities and political radicalization. This plea of securitisation is also a way to legitimize exclusionary measures and exclusionary rhetoric under the guise of national safety (van Leeuwen and Wodak, 1999).
3.2.3 Mediatization
Mediatization can be seen as one key concept to understand the transformation of modern democracies. It has been described as a meta-process together with globalization and individualization (Lundby, 2014: 376). In the context of politics, mediatization has been seen as a process in which politics has increasingly “lost its autonomy, has become dependent in its central functions on mass media, and is continuously shaped by interactions with mass media” (Mazzoleni and Schulz , 1999: 250). One of the most prominent researchers working on the mediatization of politics, Asp (Hjarvard 2013:8–9) defines this process as a “change in which politicians tend to adapt to various constraints imposed by the media” (Lundby, 2014: 351). By using the term mediated politics, Asp describes the relationship between the media and politics in which media became a necessary source of information between those in positions of power and authority as well as the governed communities and individuals. Mass media is often the main or even the only source of political information which shapes people’s conceptions of political reality. Since in the context of the refugee crisis in Poland, the media can be described as the main source of knowledge about refugees, as touched upon in the previous research, the concept of mediatization is helpful to sufficiently answer the posed research questions. Strömbäck proposes analyzing the process of mediatization of politics over four different dimensions - this model will be operationalized in this study in order to answer the research questions.
19 Figure 2. Four-dimensional conceptualization of the mediatization of politics (Lundby, 2014: 378)
The first dimension is concerned with to which degree media constitutes the most important source of information about politics and society, which can be seen as the channel of communication between political institutions and the public (Lundby, 2014: 378). It describes the extent to which politics have become mediated. The second dimension refers to the degree to which media has become independent from other political and social institutions. If the media is differentiated and independent from other social and political institutions, it will be “shaped by the media’s own interests, needs, and standards of newsworthiness, rather than subordinated to the interests and needs of political institutions and actors” (ibid.). This influences both what is being covered and how media covers certain topics. The next dimension describes the degree to which the coverage of politics and society is guided by media logic and not by political logic (ibid.). Media logic and political logic refer to modus operandi of those respective institutions, and should be understood as “appropriate behaviour that is reasonable and consistent within the rules and norms of the respective institutional context” (ibid.: 381). Rules and procedures can be formal or informal and guide the ways of thinking and acting of those institutions. Political logic is shaped mostly by the framework of the political system of the country in question and the need to be successful on the political level when it comes to wining political power and in affecting policy changes and reforms (ibid.: 383). Media logic
20 is guided by professionalism (neutrality, transparency, trustworthiness), commercialism (media markets are commercial and outlets need to compete for audience attention), and media technology — “applied communication technologies shape content in production and reproduction processes, as well as the processes of finding or reshaping news to fit the socio-technological formats of different media” (ibid.: 382). If media is the most important source of information while the media coverage of politics is largely shaped by media logic, political actors have little influence of what and how is covered. This leads to the last dimension, which is concerned with whether those political actors are acting driven by the media logic in order to “influence the media, and through media the public” (ibid). Therefore, the increased power of the media should be seen as both a cause and an effect of the process of mediatization (ibid.: 360). Especially in the case of the creation of knowledge within the intersection of politics and media, hegemonic discourses are prone to be produced — as Marcuse writes, “one-dimensional thought is systematically promoted by the makers of politics and their purveyors of mass information. Their universe of discourse is populated by self-validating hypotheses which, incessantly and monopolistically repeated, become hypnotic definitions of dictations (1964: 40). Even though the transformations of politics, media and society and their interrelations can sometimes be seen as over-generalized or over-simplified, mediatization of politics can clearly be seen when it comes to political campaign communication (Esser and Strömbäck 2012a), journalistic approaches toward covering elections (Esser and Strömbäck, 2012b), and voter values and behaviour (Dalton, 2008). This becomes relevant to this study, due to the fact that negotiations regarding the reception of refugees conducted by the Polish government in the autumn of 2015 coincided with a political campaign for parliamentary elections. The definition of what constitutes the media can be blurred, especially in the era of social media, increased possibilities of content production and reaching the largest possible audience with it. In research on the mediatization of politics, the media that is described as the most important is, as Strömbäck and Esser frame it, “news media as socio-technical organisations and institutions” (Strömbäck 2008; Esser 2013). This means television, radio, newspapers, as well as news magazines in their traditional or digital formats, but also digital news providers that approach journalism in an organized form and recognized criteria. In my thesis, I will analyze, the five most prominent weekly newspapers in Poland, with the criteria
21 of selection being the largest newspaper circulation: Gość Niedzielny, Polityka, Newsweek Polska, Sieci and Do Rzeczy. All of them fullfill Strömbäck and Esser’s definition of media as socio-technical organisations and institutions.
3.2.4 Politicization
Politicization is a process of designating a political meaning and character to a phenomenon, identity, activity or event. In the Polish context, in recent years the topics of migration and refugees became more prevalent in political debates and in the media (Krzyżanowski, 2018), and therefore, politicized. This is visible in other member states of the European Union as well — in 2019, Felipe González Morales, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants for the United Nations publicly expressed a deep concern over how issues of migration and migrants themselves are being politicized and scapegoated in Hungary, saying that “migrants are portrayed as dangerous enemies in both official and public discourses in this country” (UN News, 2019). Some political parties in the EU exploited the political-opportunity of the refugee crisis, by fostering their anti-establishment claims, stressing the need to secure external borders and against further integration (Gianfreda, 2017).
3.2.5 Othering
The term Othering describes the diminishing action of defining and labelling a person or group as different and essentially inferior to oneself. powell5 and Menendian define “othering” as a “set of dynamics, processes, and structures that engender marginality and persistent inequality across any of the full range of human differences based on group identities” (powell and Menendian, 2017). Due to the high relevance of historical and social background in Critical Discourse Analysis, a method adopted in this study, a short introduction of the significance of Othering has to be provided. The term has its roots in the colonial practices of military conquest of non-white peoples and cultural genocides of European imperialism (Kingston, 2015). In postcolonial studies, the term subaltern coined by Gramsci, designates the indigenous populations of colonized land who are politically, socially
5 john a. powell chooses to spell his name in lowercase
22 as well as geographically outside the colony’s hierarchy of power (Liguori, 2015). The practice of Othering served as a justification of physical domination and the destruction colonized people’s culture by degrading them to colonial-subjects and placing them on the peripheral spheres of geopolitical operation of colonial imperialism (Ashcroft, Griffits and Tiffin, 1998: 142; Fanon, 1952; Spivak, 1985). This process can also be described with another Gramscian term, cultural hegemony — domination maintained by ideological and cultural means (Cole, 2020). The ruling-class imposes beliefs, norms and values on the society by manipulating the culture and as an effect, the ruling-class worldview becomes the cultural norm that justifies the status quo of hierarchal structures of the society and injustices (ibid; Bullock and Trombley, 1999: 387–88). This notion of colonial rhetoric manifests itself in Orientalism, that as scholars concerned with postcolonial studies argue, has a direct influence on European perception of the Eastern world, including the Middle East (Said, 1978). Orientalism, the study and fetishisation of “The Orient”, now referred to as territories of West Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, intellectually justified Western imperialism. According to Said, who introduced the wider academic debate on this issue with his book “Orientalism” (1978), the binary relation between “the Occident” — Europe, seen as Western Self and “the Orient” seen as non–Western Other, created the hegemonic discourse of superior European civilization and inferior, uncivilized people of the East. Foucault’s theorisation of discourse (especially the knowledge-and-power relation) describes the cultures that were considered inferior as “a whole set of knowledges that have been disqualified as inadequate to their task or insuffi-ciently elaborated: naive knowledges, located low down on the hierarchy, beneath the required level of cognition or scientificity” (Foucault, 1980: 82). According to Said, this patronizing and discriminatory discourse was, and still is, reflected in art, politics and academic studies that adopted and reproduced prejudiced, outsider-interpretations of Arabo-Islamic cultures (Said, 1978). The relevance of Orientalism for this study lies in the fact that the Orientalist discourse has an influence on how people from MENA countries are perceived in the European context. This attitude towards Arab and Muslim people as “the Other” is argued to still be present in Western politics and media (Arif, 2018; Shatz, 2019). Said, commenting on Western media coverage of Islam and Muslims wrote that “the sense of Islam
23 as a threatening Other — with Muslims depicted as fanatical, violent, lustful, irrational - develops during the colonial period… The study of the Other has a lot to do with the control and dominance of Europe and the West generally in the Islamic world. And it has persisted because it’s based very, very deeply in religious roots, where Islam is seen as a kind of competitor of Christianity” (Said, 1997; cited in Arif, 2018: 35). The Orientalist discourse was especially visible in the justification of “the war on terror”, which as mentioned before, can be seen as linked with the destabilization of the Middle East. The language of Orientalism during the post-9/11 era, albeit not always explicitly racist, often focused on tropes “putative differences in culture” (Shatz, 2019). Same observations were made in the wake of the refugee crisis in the European Union (Arif, 2018), and will also be of interest in this study. Othering can clearly be observed in the previously mentioned ethno-nationalistic fallacy of difference together with the strategy of singularisation — constructing oneself as unique and superior (Wodak, 2015:54), populist discourse used by political parties as a response to this migratory event, as well as in rhetorical strategies such as the appeal to emotions and the appeal to fear which will be elaborated on later in this study. Othering can be seen as a crucial rhetorical strategy in the discourse surrounding Arab and Muslim peoples as well as refugees, this will be explored in detail in the section dedicated to the analysis with the investigation of “threats” — building of Saids concept of “the sense of Islam as a threatening Other”.
4. METHODOLOGY
4.1. Method
Discourse analysis (DA), which Gill intriguingly calls “skeptical reading” (Gill, 2000) focuses on how language can be seen as constituting and producing the social world (Bryman, 2008: 500). In other words, it “emphasises the way versions of the world, society events and inner psychological worlds are produced in discourse” (Potter, 1997: 146 in:Bryman, 2008: 500). Moreover, DA focuses on locating contextual understanding when looking into situational specifics of speech and text. Therefore, three basic questions that can guide research employing the DA as the method are: 1) What is the discourse doing? 2) How is the discourse constructed to make it happen? 3) What resources are available to perform this activity? (Potter, 2004: 609). 24 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which will be adopted as a method in this thesis for analyzing the empirical material, focuses on a Foucauldian approach to discourse, that sees the language as a power resource that is related to ideology and socio-cultural change (Bryman, 2008: 508). The critical part signifies that this type of DA aims to “expose connections between language, power and ideology” (Halperin and Heath 2017:338) and the role of discourse is described as “enacting, reproducing, and resisting social power abuse, dominance, and inequality” (ibid.:339). Following this approach, CDA focuses not solely on the text, but also on the relationship of historical, social context of the events and relations of power addressed in the texts that are being analyzed (Bryman, 2008: 508-509). This is connected with the notion of intertextuality, which touches upon the fact that the discourse can be seen as existing beyond the discursive event that is analyzed, and therefore enables the researcher to focus on contexts in which the discourse is situated (ibid.: 509) Hence, the main aim of CDA is both uncovering meanings through analysis of language and uncovering how meanings are constructed in the process of production, distribution, and consumption of the texts analyzed while taking into consideration the perviously mentioned contexts (Halperin and Heath 2017: 377). Apart from the focus on exploring the stages and aspects of text production, one of the main differences between DA and CDA comes in the ontological considerations - both are rooted in epistemological constructivism, however, scholars grounded in DA tend to represent strong anti-realist tradition, while CDA adopts a critical realist standpoint, that connects the concept of independent reality and the personal perspectives and biases that together construct the world that is knowable and understandable for people through what is ‘observable’ (Bryman, 2008). Therefore critical realists “believe that there are unobservable events which cause the observable ones; as such, the social world can be understood only if people understand the structures that generate such unobservable events” (IS Theory, 2015).
Based on Foucault’s definition of discourse, sociolinguist Fairclough created a three- dimensional framework for CDA, that will be used in this study. This model is based on the authors belief that every “discursive event” should simultaneously be analyzed as a “piece of text, and instance of discursive practice, and an instance of social practice” (Fairclough, 1992: 4).
25 Therefore, the model presents itself as follows:
Figure 3. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1992: 73)
1. Text analysis This level of the analysis focuses on the text itself and its linguistic features - content, meaning and structure of the text. The focus will lay on the descriptive layer of the text (Halperin and Heath, 2017). Hence, in this step the linguistic layer of the selected articles will be analyzed. In order to observe the discursive shift, the text analysis will be conducted separately for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 — the years this study is concerned with. This level of analysis, will be crucial for answering the research questions, especially “who” are the refugees according to the discourse, “why” are they coming and Othering, with connection to what are the “threats” they are bringing with them. 2. Discursive practice
This level of the analysis focuses on the processes related to the production and consumption of the text — how the text was produced, distributed and consumed (ibid.). On this level, the state of accessibility, scope of publicity and popularity of the selected newspapers as well as who they are aimed for will be taken into consideration. Together with the first step, the processing analysis will be conducted in order to answer the research questions. The mediatization of politics will also be a concept that will be used in order to 26 conduct the second step of the analysis. 3. Social practice This last level of analysis focuses on the connection between the text and the social context in which it is situated (ibid.). With the contextual background provided in the second chapter of this study, the mediatization of politics and politicisation of the refugee crisis will be the theoretical concepts that will allow the research to dive into social analysis.
Since this study focuses on the discourses presented in the newspapers, it is crucial to note that media messages are produced, disseminated, and interpreted by the recipients, the process which influences the discourse greatly. This phenomenon was most famously described by Stuart Hall (1973) as encoding and decoding. It underlines the different intentions and interpretations between the actors in the communication process — the encoding of a message is its production, while the decoding refers to how members of the audience are able to interpret and understand this message. This process also depends on the requirements of the actual medium i.e newspapers, TV, social media, and will vary between them. This phenomena is the focus of CDA — not simply analyzing text but also looking at the process and connections between text, discursive practice and social practice. This “intervention of the medium” as Hjarvard writes, “can affect both the message and the relationship between sender and recipient” (2013: 19). If one defines the media as forms of technology, all technology-supported communication will be seen as “mediated communication” (Lundby, 2014: 7). The use of a particular medium, in the case analyzed in this thesis — newspapers, will alter the outcome of the communication as well as its format and the content — it will have a significant effect on the discourse and the way it is analyzed. Therefore, in order to answer the research question proposed by this study one of the steps of analysis will focus particularly on the level of mediatization of politics in the Polish context. In order to do so, the Strömbäck’s four-dimensional conceptualization of the mediatization of politics, explained in detail in the section dedicated to theory, will be used as a tool to analyze this particular issue. Hence, the analysis will be based on the Fairclough model — by employing CDA, first text will be analyzed, then discursive practice and, last but not least, social practice. Strömbäck’s conceptualization of the mediatization of politics will be used in the analysis as an additional tool to connect discourse analysis with the concept of mediatization.
27 It can also be seen as complimentary to the levels of the discursive and social practice in the Fairclough model, as it touches upon the context of the production and social context of the discourse.
4.2. Data analysis
As the framework for conducting discourse analysis is more flexible than when it comes to for example quantitive research (Bryman, 2008), as guidelines, this research will follow three basic questions coined by Potter, mentioned in the previous section, as well as Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis and Strömbäck’s four-dimensional conceptualization of the mediatization of politics. The material will be analyzed year by year - starting from 2014 and ending at 2017 in order to be able to make sufficient observations about the discursive shift. As Bryman writes, “attention to rhetorical detail entails the sensitivity to the ways in which arguments are constructed” (Bryman, 2008: 505). In order to be able to answer the research question, with focus on concepts introduced in the theoretical framework of this study, a few specific rhetorical strategies will be of interest when analyzing the material. Selected rhetorical strategies, which will be elaborated upon in the following paragraphs, will be especially useful in order to answer the proposed question on how refugees and the refugee crisis were framed in the Polish media. Discourse is often used in order to establish one version of the world against many competing depictions (Gill, 2000: 176). Hence, it produces facts that are designed to convey knowledge that is allegedly factual by using rhetorical strategies, which will be especially important for the first step of analysis in the Fairclough model. One of the rhetorical strategies in discourse, that is relevant to this study is the extreme case formulation - presenting extreme, possibly hostile positions that simultaneously justifies and legitimizes the stance (Bryman, 2008: 506). This extreme case formulation was previously documented as a strategy to create a hostile discourse around asylum seekers (Lynn and Lea, 2003: 446). Strategies that will also be of interest are, the previously mentioned fallacy of difference together with the strategy of singularisation, as well as the appeal to emotion (argumentum ad passiones), characterized by the manipulation of a recipient’s emotions in order to win an argument, especially when no factual evidence can be proven (Fallacy in
28 Logic, 2019). Emotional appeals can be used effectively to influence behaviour and beliefs, since they appeal to the public with language that is designed to produce an emotional response - often bringing up norms and values such as religion, country, crime etc. (ibid.). Another strategy that is connected with the core of the previous one is the appeal to fear (argumentum in terrorem or argumentum ad metum), when the discourse aims to create support for an idea or vision by installing fear of the alternative.
4.3. Material
4.3.1. Selection of the newspapers
Given the fact that in Poland there is a distinction between public and commercial media, the analysis will only focus on the latter of those categories. This research will use the articles published in the digital editions of five mainstream Polish national weekly newspapers, namely Gość Niedzielny, Polityka, Newsweek Polska, Sieci and Do Rzeczy. These newspapers have been selected on two predetermined criteria. First, chosen newspapers have the largest circulation of all weekly newspapers in the country. Moreover, all consecutively managed to place as the best-selling magazines, ranking in the top five of weekly newspapers when considering sales, though the years that are of interest for this study, even when experiencing plummeting sales in the sector of printed press (Kurdupski, 2020). The second criteria of the selection of material is connected with the ideological standpoint of the media outlets that can be representative for the Polish political scene. Gość Niedzielny is a conservative, Catholic weekly (BBC News, 2016), Polityka represents liberal- left wing standpoint focusing on socio-political issues, Newsweek Polska adopts a liberal- centrist perspective (Frankowiak, 2016: 191), while both Sieci and Do Rzeczy have a conservative, right-wing profiles with ethno-nationalist tendencies (ibid.: 361-336). Therefore, selected newspapers represent a broad spectrum of political standpoints. All of the newspapers fall into the category of opinion weeklies, which can be classified as intended for the educated reader, with opinions and viewpoints on cultural or political affairs, usually with a particular bias (Healey Library, nd.). This selection is similar to one adopted by Bielecka- Prus for her study “The Rhetoric of the Fear of the Stranger in the Polish Press Discourse” (2018), with difference in the fact that in this study the newspapers analyzed are weeklies not daily’s.
29 Table 3. Selected newspapers — data
Name of the Date of Frequency of Ideological 2014 2017 newspaper establishing publication profile Average total Average total sales per issue sales per issue (Kurdupski, (Kurdupski, 2018) 2018) Gość Niedzielny 1923 Weekly Catholic 141 503 123 450 conservative Polityka 1957 Weekly Liberal/left- 121 280 109 105 wing Newsweek 2001 Weekly Liberal/Centrist 118 486 96 822 Polska Sieci 2012 Weekly Conservative/ 77 030 61 836 righ-wing Do Rzeczy 2013 Weekly Conservative/ 60 446 42 163 righ-wing
4.3.2. Selection of the articles
Due to the high profile and importance of the refugee crisis, the number of articles published in relation to this topic over the span of four years can be overwhelming. Given the politicisation and emotions surrounding this issue, as well as media logic, some articles that barely concerned refugees or refugee crisis were tagged with key words such as “migrant” or “refugee”. Since the corpora of texts is so large, certain criteria had to be established in order to select articles that would be appropriate for answering the research questions of this study. The guidelines for selecting articles were inspired by the list of important criteria for selecting texts for discourse analysis by Wodak and Meyer (2009, p. 98): 1. Specific political units (region, nation state, international union). 2. Specific periods of time relating to important discursive events, which are connected with the issue in question. 3. Specific social and political actors. 4. Specific discourse. 5. Specific fields of political action. 6. Specific semiotic media and genre.
The criteria that were chosen for the articles, specified that: 1. The title of the article has to be directly connected with refugees coming to the European Union from MENA countries, which excluded different migratory events that were taking place in this timeframe, for example refugees from war-torn Ukraine. 2. The text of the article has to be connected with the context of Poland or Polish citizens - i.e
30 refugee reception in this country, attitudes of Poles towards refugees from MENA countries, governmental response to the refugee crisis, acts of solidarity with refugees exhibited by Poles, demonstrations in Poland that were held pro and anti refugee reception, statistics and information about refugees in Poland etc. 3. The article has to be able to be interpreted as a text only, i.e. it cannot be a short introduction to the video material prepared by the specific news outlet.
All articles have been selected using the research engine provided by each website, looking for the key word “refugee” and then selecting the years that are corresponding to the chosen timeframe: January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2017. Then, the search was refined and the articles that did not fit the criteria were excluded manually. Articles excluded were i.e interviews, articles describing situation concerning the refugee crisis in other countries of the European Union like Germany or Sweden; articles that reported on casualties of tragic accidents happening on the Mediterranean sea; articles that looked at the problematic or migratory events from historical perspective without connecting it to the phenomena of interest; articles that described Poles as refugees in the historical perspective; all the non- written material like videos, photo-stories and illustrative drawings with captions etc. If the article was fitting the criteria, but small or insignificant parts of it concerned different subjects, those parts were excluded from the analysis. All of the 77 of articles analyzed in this study were published and can be found as digital versions on the website of each newspaper. However, three of the media outlets (Newsweek Polska, Sieci and Do Rzeczy) restrict the access to the archival material with the pay-wall, which might limit the accessibility to some of the articles — this is crucial, since the availability of the articles can increase the transparency of this study. The articles that fit the criteria and were selected for this study are: 22 articles from Gość Niedzielny, 15 articles from Polityka, 11 articles from Newsweek Polska, 16 articles from Sieci and 13 articles from Do Rzeczy — more detailed information is provided in the list of articles, placed before the bibliography. For the year 2014 there was no articles that would fit the criteria in three out of five newspapers (Polityka, Newsweek Polska and Sieci).
31 4.3.3. Typology of the articles
The 77 articles analyzed in this study have been divided into three categories, based on the content, authors and their purpose. The first category that will be referred to as category 1. contains articles that can be described as news reports or updates - they talk about events or recent political decisions, usually in a shorter, more concise manner and include numerical data. Examples of those articles are titles like “CBOS: 63 percent surveyed Poles do not agree to accept refugees” (Gość Niedzielny, 2017) or “Poles do not want to accept refugees [SURVEY]” (Do Rzeczy, 2017). Some of those articles are not signed with the name of the author, but rather, simply by the name of the press agency or the newspaper. This category contains 19 articles across the five newspapers. Articles that can be described as opinion pieces were placed in the second category (category 2.). Those articles signed by authors, are in nature longer as well as more analytical than articles from category 1., and usually present more nuanced perspectives on the refugee crisis and refugees within the context of Poland. “Why and how Poland should support refugees” (Polityka, 2015) or “Put a dam against the extremism. Who should get asylum on the Vistula?” (Do Rzeczy, 2015) can be examples of titles that can be found in this category. This category contains 51 articles across the five newspapers. The third and last category (category 3.) contains opinion pieces that specifically feature perspectives of politicians or experts. Articles in this category are similar to the articles from the previous category, however they explicitly mention the politicians or experts in the title, giving them platform. “Morawiecki: We oppose the concept of relocation mechanism” (Do Rzeczy, 2017) or “Zygmunt Bauman on the fear of immigrants” (Polityka, 2015) or “Korwin-Mikke: Refugees? Better Arab occupation than an EU occupation” (Do Rzeczy, 2017) can be examples of titles that can be found in category 3. This category contains 8 articles across the five newspapers.
4.4. Reflexivity
One of the important considerations that has to be made in connection with the chosen methodology and theoretical framework is the question of reflexivity. As Malterud writes:
32 “researcher’s background and position will affect what they choose to investigate, the angle of investigation, the methods judged most adequate for this purpose, the findings considered most appropriate, and the framing and communication of conclusions” (2001: 483-484). Reflexivity guides the process of methodological awareness in order to ensure that the research is trustworthy and transparent (Bryman, 2008: 393). Researchers must be reflective about their values as well as their personal interpretations of the world. In the case of this particular study, I aim to touch upon this issue in the next sections dedicated to the role of the researcher and ethical considerations. It is necessary for the researcher to be sensitive about their own cultural, political, and social context, since “knowledge from a reflexive position is always a reflection of a researcher’s location in time and social space” (ibid.)
4.4.1 Role as a researcher
Since Critical Discourse analysis stems from the constructivist approach, the role of the researcher in producing, reproducing and contesting discourse has to be acknowledged. Due to the method of this study, I adopt the epistemological position of a social constructivist approach, which asserts that social phenomena as well as their meanings are continuously shaped by social actors (Bryman, 2008: 19) and the understanding of them is influenced by conceptual frameworks, biases, theories and narratives (6 & Bellamy, 2012: 57). This study will, therefore, treat the discursive practices of Polish media as social constructions, that influence the understanding of refugees and the refugee crisis in the context of Poland. Given this standpoint, as well as the fact that CDA as a method relies on the interpretation of the researcher, I do not assume or suggest that a certain ‘truth’ will be established as a result of the analysis, but perhaps rather one of the truths that could be identified given the selected method and material (6 & Bellamy 2012: 22-23). Being born and raised in Poland, as well as residing in that country during the 2014-2017 period provides me with a deeper understanding of the social context of the discussed events, as well as a good understanding of the language, along with cultural codes, idiomatic expressions and metaphors. However, those factors might also influence the implicit bias that affects my understanding, actions, and the analysis of the selected material. Therefore, in order for this study to reach credibility — ensuring that the this research was indeed carried with standards of good academic practice (Bryman, 2008: 377) and
33 confirmability — while acknowledging that reaching the complete objectivity is impossible in social research, the researcher acted in good faith while conducting this study (ibid.: 379), my research follows closely theoretical and methodological concepts, as well as previous research done on this subject. By staying dedicated to the theory and method adopted in this study, as a researcher I aim to distance myself from personal experiences and opinions and question the material through a theoretical lens.
4.4.2 Ethical considerations
Given the adopted definition of the discourse and the method of CDA, this thesis in itself will become a part of discourse that regards the topic of interest of this study. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to consider the language used, for example the problematic notion of the ‘crisis’ when the arrival of refugees in the EU is considered, because of the risk of reproducing it unintentionally. Another crucial issue that has to be mentioned is that the author herself does not belong to the group that the analyzed discourse is produced about — as I am not a refugee myself I will aim to consciously and respectfully discuss this subject from the perspective of an outsider of their struggle, while still acknowledging that due to the previously mentioned circumstances I am too influenced to a certain degree by the discourse I am analyzing.
4.5. Limitations
Analyzing the large compilation of articles selected to be featured in this study was a time- consuming and complicated task, due to the short amount of time that is provided for the research in the frame of the two-year master’s thesis and to only one person holding responsibility for carrying out the study. Moreover, the necessity of manual exclusion of some of the results from the search was also a complication. To overcome the problem of a very high number of articles, the research questions that were specified in the beginning of this study had helped to focus specifically on the related issues that appear in the texts. The time frame of the publishing of articles that are analyzed in this study spanning over four years was a deliberate choice in order to try to capture the discursive shift in the discourse regarding the refugees and the refugee crisis in Polish media - therefore, the number of articles per newspaper per year had to be reduced through the
34 established criteria, that excluded i.e. articles published about this issue in the context of other countries. This of course presents a drawback, since those articles can be considered as an important factor in the wider context of the discourse surrounding this migratory event, especially since coverage about countries that did accept refugees might give insight to what discourses were produced about the general outcomes of refugee reception. Yet, this clear trade-off that can be described as exchanging claims of exhaustivity for claims of generalization, can hopefully provide results that bring additional knowledge to the way the Polish news media covered this specific issue in the context of Poland and capture the previously mentioned discursive shift. Another important issue is considering the limitations of the chosen method. Even though CDA is a well-established and popular method of discourse analysis, it also faces some criticism. Although the material is thoroughly read and analyzed, the choices that are made during its selection impact the outcomes - therefore sampling is a common criticism directed towards this method (Aydin-Düzgit and Rumelili, 2018). Moreover, the reliability and validity of the analysis cannot be determined in the same way as in quantitative studies (ibid.). However, even though CDA is sometimes criticized on the lack of objectivity, the theoretical method itself does not accept the notion of possibility of reaching full objectivity (ibid.) Even with these considerations in mind, CDA was chosen to be the method of analysis as the most appropriate to answer the posed questions, and the research will follow the guidelines and standards of good academic practice.
5. DESCRIPTIVE FINDINGS
Based on the Fairclough model, the first level of CDA focuses on the text itself and its linguistic features — this section will therefore be dedicated to those descriptive findings. The descriptive findings are divided into four parts: 1) Identifying the refugees; 2) Identifying the reasons for migration; 3) Identifying threats 4) Political polemics, in order to gain more understanding about the discourse surrounding each of those issues per stated in the research questions, based on the 77 selected articles published in five previously mentioned newspapers between 2014 and 2017. In order to focus on the discursive shift, as mentioned before, the articles will be analyzed chronologically, starting in 2014 and ending in 2017.
35
Figure 4. Number of articles published between 2014 and 2017
Number of articles in total Gość Niedzielny Polityka Newsweek Polska Sieci Do Rzeczy
40
30
20
10
0 2014 2015 2016 2017
The material fitting the criteria of selection from 2014 is the smallest and encompasses only three articles - two published in Gość Niedzielny and one published in Do Rzeczy. During the next year of the analysis — 2015 — the highest number or articles that fit the criteria were published. Among the five analyzed newspapers there was 35 articles from 2015 in total. In 2016 there is a visible decline in the number of articles — from selected material, 22 articles in total fit the criteria. Similarly, 2017 also represents the decline of the number of articles — from that year 17 articles were selected.
5.1 Identifying the refugees
This section of descriptive findings will be dedicated to the traits that are prescribed to the refugees such as their religion, nationality and legal and administrative status.
36 5.1.1 Refugees, immigrants, economic migrants?
The terms “refugee” or “migrant” appear in all articles analyzed, often used interchangeably or as synonyms. Many articles over the four years this study focuses on, dived deeper into pinpointing to which category the people arriving on the shores of the EU fell into - are they refugees or economic migrants? Because of the importance of the issue of legal and administrative status due to the different legal obligations countries have depending on the status of newcomers, the information in this section will be presented with the support of the numerical data. Out of three analyzed articles from that year, in two of them the word “refugee” appears, one includes the word “migrant” and one contains “asylum seeker”. The distinction between refugees and other migrants is mentioned in one of the articles published in Gość Niedzielny - “Refugees are subject to international protection and those, who do not meet the required criteria must be quickly sent back to their countries of origin.” (Gość Niedzielny, 2014). The rest of articles from 2014 do not mention this distinction.
Table 4. Numbers of articles mentioning legal and administrative status of newcomers in 2014
Gość Niedzielny Do Rzeczy
Total number of articles 2 1
refugees 2 0
migrants/immigrants 0 1
asylum seekers 1 0
economic migrants 0 0
illegal migrants 0 0
The differences between the chosen words as well as the need to distinguish who is a refugee and who is migrating to the European Union for other reasons was very present in 2015. “Refugees” appeared in all analyzed articles published that year in Gość Niedzielny, Polityka and Newsweek Polska. In Sieci it did not appear in one out of nine analyzed articles, and in Do Rzeczy it did not appear in two articles out of six analyzed. The word “migrants”
37 was also used frequently and appeared in the same number of articles as the word “refugees” in Sieci, and is used even more than the latter term in Do Rzeczy.
Table 5. Numbers of articles mentioning legal and administrative status of newcomers in 2015
Gość Polityka Newsweek Sieci Do Rzeczy Niedzielny Polska Total number 8 7 6 9 6 or articles refugees 8 7 6 8 4
migrants/ 6 7 3 8 6 immigrants asylum seekers 1 3 0 2 2
economic 1 3 1 2 1 migrants illegal migrants 1 2 1 3 1
The difference was framed in many ways, i.e. “immigrants who are actually running away from danger and death, and those who care about economic issues.” (Gość Niedzielny, 2015), underlying the fact that some of the people arriving on the shores of the EU cite false reasons for the purpose of filing the asylum application. Newsweek Polska included quotes from interviews with ‘regular’ Polish people on this topic: “It is necessary to distinguish refugees from the [rest of this] wilderness” (Newsweek Polska, 2015). In Polityka, one of the articles contained the phrase “economic refugees” and was used to describe people who are forced to migrate due to the economic hardships. In some articles the notion that newcomers are refugees was rejected completely - Newsweek Polska included a quote from the interviewee who said: “They are not refugees, only immigrants crossing the border illegally and breaking international law” (Newsweek Polska, 2015), Do Rzeczy titled one of the articles analyzed in this study “They are invaders, not refugees” (Do Rzeczy, 2015) as well as quoting one of the analyzed articled in Sieci (2015) - “no one knows who refugees really are (…) most of them are not victims of war”. There are also some discrepancies - in one of the articles, people from Syria are called refugees escaping war in one paragraph and then illegal immigrants in the following (Do Rzeczy, 2015) Some quotes are of even more pejorative character: ”They are not refugees.
38 They are not emigrants. They are savages.” (Newsweek Polska, 2015). Most of the pejorative quotes, undermining the rightfulness of claims to asylum were published in Newsweek Polska, Do Rzeczy and Sieci. Similarly, in 2016 the use of multiple ways to describe the newcomers continues. “Refugees” and “migrants” remained the most used terms compared with 2015, with “refugees” appearing again in all the articles in Gość Niedzielny, Polityka, Newsweek Polska and this year also in Sieci. The only newspaper which used the word migrant in more articles than the term refugees was Do Rzeczy — migrants was used in all articles, refugees only in a single one. However the significant change can be seen in the frequency of the use of “asylum seekers” from appearing in 8 articles in 2015 to only two articles in 2016.
Table 6. Numbers of articles mentioning legal and administrative status of newcomers in 2016
Gość Polityka Newsweek Sieci Do Rzeczy Niedzielny Polska Total number 6 5 3 4 3 or articles refugees 6 5 3 4 1
migrants/ 6 5 2 4 3 immigrants asylum seekers 0 0 1 1 0
economic 1 2 0 0 0 migrants illegal migrants 1 2 1 1 0
The necessity of dividing newcomers between refugees and economic migrants was still present in 2016 in many articles — i.e. “secure borders and make a distinction between refugees and economic immigrants” (Gość Niedzielny, 2016), “differences between economic migrants and refugees” (Polityka, 2016).
Following the trend visible between 2015 and 2016, in 2017 “refugees” and “migrants” were still the most popular terms used in the analyzed context. Refugees appeared in all articles published in Polityka, Sieci and Do Rzeczy, five out of six articles in Gość Niedzielny and one
39 out of two in Newsweek Polska. The use of the term “asylum seekers” declined even more, and was present only in one of the articles analyzed from 2017. Similar decline was present with the terms “economic migrants” (present in one article in Gość Niedzielny and one in Sieci) and “illegal migrants” (present in one article in Sieci and one in Do Rzeczy).
Table 7. Numbers of articles mentioning legal and administrative status of newcomers in 2017
Gość Niedzielny Polityka Newsweek Sieci Do Rzeczy Polska Total number 6 3 2 3 3 or articles refugees 5 3 1 3 3
migrants/ 3 2 1 3 1 immigrants asylum seekers 1 0 0 0 0
economic 1 0 0 1 0 migrants illegal migrants 0 0 0 1 1
In 2017 underlying the distinction between economic migrants and refugees was still present: i.e “the vast majority of refugees are economic immigrants who do not need urgent help (Gość Niedzielny, 2017).
5.1.2 Religion, ethnicity, nationality
In the analyzed articles, refugees were often described in more detail with their religion, nationality or ethnicity mentioned explicitly or implicitly in the text. They can be divided into national, ethnic and religious origins of refugees (or as they were often described, migrants.) In this section the data will be presented in a descriptive way. Given the small number of articles meeting the criteria in 2014, there was less variety in different descriptive ways that were used to identify refugees. Both articles published in Gość Niedzielny focused on Christian refugees from Syria, while the article in Do Rzeczy focused on Muslims without specification of the country of origin. In 2015, which encompasses the largest number of analyzed articles, the descriptions
40 were more varied and detailed. When it comes to religious origins, refugees were described as i.e.: “Christians from Syria” (Gość Niedzielny, 2015) or “Syrian Christians” (Polityka, 2015), “Muslim refugees”, “true victims of war - Shia, Yezidi and Christians” (Sieci, 2015) and “followers of Allah” (Do Rzeczy, 2015). Ethnicity was mentioned only in Sieci, where they were describes as Arabs. Most place was dedicated to the country of origin - people “from Syria, but also from various places in Africa and the Middle East” or “from Syria and Eritrea” in Gość Niedzielny; as a “wave of refugees from Syria”; “refugees from the Islamic countries”; “refugees and economic migrants from the Muslim world” in Polityka, “Muslims from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other Arab countries”, “refugees from the Middle East” in Sieci and, last but not least, “illegal immigrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq” and “immigrants from Arab countries” in Do Rzeczy. In 2016 similarly to the year before, when religion was considered refugees were described as “Christians from Syria” (Polityka) , “Muslims coming to Europe” (Sieci) and simply as Muslims (Do Rzeczy). There was no mention of the ethnic origins in articles analyzed from that year. Once again, most space was dedicated to geographical descriptions of origin - “Refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq” and “mostly Syrians” in Gość Niedzielny; simply as Syrians in Polityka; Syrians and Afghans in Newsweek Polska; “Masses from Middle East and Africa” in Sieci. In 2017, the situation was similar to the prior years. Refugees were described in regard to their religious affiliation as “Islamic refugees” (Gość Niedzielny), Christians (Polityka) and Muslims (Polityka, Do Rzeczy). Different to the year prior, they were again identified as Arabs (Polityka). Once more the geographic origin seemed to be of most interest for the newspapers - “refugees from Muslim countries” or “victims of war from the Middle East” (Gość Niedzielny, 2017) as well as “people fleeing the war in Syria” (Newsweek Polska). Sieci was the only newspaper that described the perceived changing situation when it comes to where the people are traveling from: “While, until recently, the vast majority were Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans (…) now more and more immigrants are coming to Europe from Africa.” As visible in the examples, many descriptions included both ethnicity and country or region of origin, sometimes using them in non-specific ways (i.e. “immigrants from Arab countries”; Do Rzeczy, 2015; “Refugees from Muslim countries” Gość Niedzielny, 2017).
41 5.1.3 Gender, age, sexual orientation
In contrast to the legal status, national origins or religion, there is not many straightforward descriptions of personal characteristics of refugees such as age, gender or sexuality. When it comes to gender of the refugees two distinctive contexts can be recognized. The first is connected with how many men versus women come to the EU as refugees. The second, that will be elaborated upon in the section dedicated to “threats” (5.3 in this chapter), are the characteristics of those young men. Women are mentioned in detail sparsely; most place is dedicated to explaining women’s experiences, in one article published in 2016 in Gość Niedzielny regarding female refugees in Lebanon. In few articles published in Do Rzeczy women are presented as enslaved by their husbands due to their religious laws - “the husband is only obliged to take care of his wife, who fufills his sexual desires at every call” (Do Rzeczy, 2016). When it comes to men, more space is dedicated. An article in Sieci (2015) mentions that “80% of illegal immigrants are men” and similar information can be found in Do Rzeczy: “more men than women and children” (2015), or “mostly men” (Polityka, 2015). In one of the articles in Do Rzeczy, refugees are described as “almost only men” (2017). In some articles, Muslim men are also presented as perpetrators of sexual violence - “Rape makes you closer to Allah” ( Do Rzeczy, 2016). In one instance the gender of refugees is mention also in regard of perceived “leftist propaganda” that distorts the real image of refugee crisis: “According to this [leftist] propaganda, every person from these crowds storming Hungary, Lampedusa and the Greek coast is a woman escaping the war with a child” (Do Rzeczy, 2015). Age is overwhelmingly mentioned in two contexts — first when it comes to descriptions referring to refugee children or unaccompanied minors (“in the last two years as many as 10,000 migrant children that arrived on our continent disappeared without a trace”, Polityka, 2016), second to describe how many young men are among the refugees coming to Europe (Do Rzeczy 2015, 2016; Sieci, 2016, 2017). Sexual orientation of refugees is mentioned only once, in connection with reports of acts of violence against queer refugees (“LGBT migrants”) from the hands of other refugees: “Some refugees flee not only from wars, but also from persecution because of their sexual orientation, which, however, do not cease after crossing the Mediterranean” (Polityka, 2015).
42 5.1.4 Other characteristics
The positive or neutral descriptions —i.e. “migration is a normal part of the human experience” (Polityka, 2016); “normal people like us” (Gość Niedzielny, 2015) or “hungry and tired” (ibid.; Newsweek Polska, 2015; Polityka, 2015) - are provided rarely. When refugees are described in more detail, instances of pejorative language can be found in most of the newspapers: “lazy and young” (Newsweek Polska, 2015), or “dirty” (Newsweek Polska, 2015; Gość Niedzielny 2015). According to one author they have “taut faces, eyes fluttering, looking for a way out” (Gość Niedzielny, 2015). In some articles they are also perceived as fanatical followers of Islam (Sieci 2015, 2016, 2017; Do Rzeczy, 2015, 2016, 2017) who are culturally different (Sieci, 2015; 2016; Do Rzeczy, 2015), feel entitled to social benefits (Do Rzeczy, 2017) and want to bring their families to Europe (Gość Niedzielny, 2015, Newsweek Polska, 2015) and close themselves in ghettos without integrating with hosting societies (Gość Niedzielny, 2015; 2017). Refugees coming to the EU were more often described in terms of groups not individuals. Adjectives such as “mass” (Polityka, 2015) or even more pejoratively as a “horde” (Do Rzeczy, 2016, Newsweek Polska, 2015) or with references to violent forces of nature: “wave” or “big wave” (Polityka, 2015), “wave of illegal immigrants” (Do Rzeczy, 2015), “an avalanche of refugees” (Gość Niedzielny, 2015), “flood of thousands muslim refugees” (Sieci, 2015). Most of this dehumanizing terminology appears in articles from 2015, but continues in following years as well (i.e. Newsweek Polska, 2016). Sometimes refugees are stripped of all characteristics: “crowds of anonymous people who want to get to Europe at all costs” (ibid.). Special place has to be given to exceptionally pejorative descriptions of refugees, when they were subjected to dehumanization and sometimes comparisons to animals — “flocks of refugees” (Sieci, 2015), “flood of Europe with human litter” (Newsweek Polska, 2015), visible clearly in quotes from regular Polish people included in one of the articles “I consciously use the word ‘cattle’ “because I think it is cattle and should be treated like cattle” or “Most of them behave like animals without any tact and culture. They don’t have intelligence. (…) Animals that you want to bring to Poland will rape, rob and kill” (ibid.).
43 5.2 Identifying the reasons
This section of descriptive findings will be dedicated to identifying what are the perceived reasons for refugees to travel to Europe according to the analyzed articles. The findings will be divided into three categories that emerged from the material: war and conflict, economic incentives and other reasons, which will encompass reasons that were not prominent in the discourse but present nonetheless.
5.2.1 War and conflict
The very few articles that were published in 2014, as mentioned before, focused on Christian refugees from Syria (Gość Niedzielny, 2014). The main reasons identified were the civil war in Syria and the situation of Christians which “is getting worse day by day” (ibid.). The article published in Do Rzeczy did not focus on the reasons of the refugee crisis. In articles from 2015 there is many references to war and unrest in the MENA region - the lack of religious freedom and death threats (Gość Niedzielny, 2015), power relations in the region (ibid.), “risk of death every day in their home country” (Do Rzeczy, 2015; Polityka, 2015), seeking safety in Europe (Polityka, 2015), war and terror (Newsweek Polska, 2015). Some articles identified Christians as the only persecuted with a valid reason to leave their countries (Sieci, 2015) or doubted that the claims of danger in the home countries of refugees are real - “they say they are escaping war” (ibid.). In 2016 the reasons mentioned in this category were similar to those identified in the prior year: refugees were seen as “escaping the places where there is conflict” (Gość Niedzielny, 2016), although straightforward mentioning of the reasons of migration was much more scarce than the year before. Consecutively, in 2017 the reasons connected with war and conflict were mentioned even less than the year prior. Civil war in Syria (Newsweek Polska, 2017) and war in general (Gość Niedzielny, 2017) were still mentioned, however much less frequently than in 2015 and 2016.
5.2.2 Economic reasons
Economic reasons that would cause migration to the EU in the studied context are non- existent in the material from 2014. In 2015 however, the reasons for migration that fell into economic incentives were described as: “difference between war-torn world of refugees and
44 peaceful and prosperous Europe” (Gość Niedzielny, 2015) , the lack of jobs and poverty in Syria (Newsweek Polska, 2015) and the fact that refugees want to “to live in rich EU countries” (Do Rzeczy, 2015). Moreover, some articles mentioned social benefits that refugees hope for (Sieci, 2015). Similarly to the discourse that was mentioned in connection with war and conflict, there is much less descriptions — almost none — of the reasons in 2016 and 2017. In the latter, Do Rzeczy mentioned social benefits once as the reason for migration, but this was the only instance of those reasons being mentioned at all.
5.2.3 Other reasons
One of the other reasons that was mentioned for the migration of refugees to the EU is the reunification with family — connections between immigrants who reached Europe before and are bringing their families and friends from back home (Gość Niedzielny, 2015). One of the articles simply stated that the reasons for migration are “complicated” (ibid.), while in another the quote “Who are these Syrians running from? From Muslims? Muslims are running from Muslims?” (Newsweek Polska, 2015) was included, indicating that reasons for migration are not clear.
5.3 Identifying threats
In many articles published between 2015 and 2017 there are explicit or implicit mentions of perceived threats that the reception of refugees will bring to hosting societies and Poland in particular. Interestingly, in one instance the fear of refugees was described as not being able to explain what the threat is — “We don’t know what we’re afraid of because they are capable of totally everything. If they were more predictable, I could say what I’m afraid of.“ (Polityka, 2016). The findings will be divided into four categories that emerged from the material: threats of violence, consequences of cultural differences, diseases and financial strains.
5.3.1 Threats of violence
In 2015 one of the biggest threats perceived to be coming with refugees were acts of terror. Terrorist threats were mentioned that year explicitly in all the selected newspapers. Even Polityka, which pleaded that “we should treat seriously but not go crazy” (2015) published an article with a quote: “there are reasonable fears over threats - muslim fundamentalism, ISIS,
45 medieval sharia law” (ibid.) Refugees were described by one of the persons featured in the article in Newsweek Polska as “invaders, terrorists, throat cutters” (2015) and another quote featured read “permitting Islam in Europe is like giving a Nazi a loaded rifle and standing under a wall” (ibid.). The fears over terrorists and spies among the refugees were very prominently present in Sieci (“they are danger to the Poles”) and Do Rzeczy, with the latter saying “hundreds of thousands of unassimilated Muslims are enough to spread the plague of terrorism across Western Europe (…) When we accept Muslim people here, attacks will also take place in Poland” (2015). This discourse continued for the next two years, which is represented by the phrase repeatedly used in Gość Niedzielny — “in the case of migrants, the most important thing is the security of Poland and Poles” (2016, 2017). Terrorist threats were mentioned repeatedly and the threat of ISIS terrorists hiding among the refugees was highlighted (Sieci, 2016) In Polityka the fear of terrorist attacks was framed in a context of the lack of Polish experience with this matter: “in a country that has not had experience with terror so far, images of victims, explosions, blood on the streets, crowds in panic, crying mothers, make a paralyzing impression.” (Polityka, 2016)
Sexual violence was another threat that should be highlighted separately and was mentioned both in Newsweek Polska and Do Rzeczy (2015). In the following year this subject was covered extensively in Do Rzeczy and Sieci with linking interpreted religious laws with the threat of rapes on European women — “The Qur’an and Muhammad himself allow the rape of girls.” (Sieci, 2016)
5.3.2 Consequences of cultural differences
The perceived difference of culture between refugees and Europeans were perceived as a serious threat in many analyzed articles from 2015 — refugees were perceived as fanatical followers of Islam (Newsweek Polska), striving for the Islamisation of Europe (Sieci) which will in effect cause Europe to loose its identity. One of the articles mentioned that “Muslims eagerly impose their lifestyle on Christians in the Middle East, and there are no reasons to see that in Poland - when there are enough of them - it will be different” (Do Rzeczy). Some of the articles perceived that clashes between local populations and newcomers are hard to avoid due to cultural differences and anti-immigration sentiments (ibid.) 46 Similarly to the discourse of violence, discourse of cultural differences also continued for the next two years analyzed. One article stated that “Muslims coming to Europe have a conflict with the Western world engrained in their collective consciousness” (Sieci, 2016) and the “clash of civilizations will be really painful” (ibid.). Refugees belong to a different culture and are not integrating — “culturally foreign people who, as the experience of other countries have shown, do not integrate with local communities” (Gość Niedzielny, 2017). The only newspaper that did not engage in describing those types of threats was Polityka.
5.3.3 Diseases
In one article there is a mention of the fact that refugees are supposed to bring diseases and lice (Newsweek Polska, 2015).
5.3.4 Financial strains
Mentions of the financial strain accepting refugees would put on Poland were mentioned in Do Rzeczy which wrote about refugees “living on Polish taxpayers money” (2015), in Gość Niedzielny (2015) and Polityka (2016). However Polityka, in one of the articles (2015) also considered that accepting refugees can indeed have a positive influence on Polish economy, when more people will join the workforce and start paying taxes.
5.4 Political polemics
Given the political standpoint of the newspapers, the discourse differed between newspapers. While most opinions about the refugee crisis were presented in the newspapers according to the political affiliation, there were also instances of polemics and arguments between left/ progressive and right /conservative standpoints. In some articles, conservative/right-wing newspapers accused the left of being unreasonable and calling the conservatives inhumane: “Their [left’s] beautiful slogans of humanitarianism, saving refugees, mercy, etc., became an ideology that everyone should profess, and if they don’t, they are murderers.”, Gość Niedzielny, 2015); unfairly blaming the Catholic Church for not enough support for the asylum seekers (Gość Niedzielny, 2016) as well as of moral blackmail (Sieci, 2015). Solidarity based approaches were described as “naive narratives of solidarity” (Sieci, 2015). Left-wing Polityka accused the right-wing of calling all refugees terrorists (2015) and accused
47 the PiS government of using refugees in order to gain political support as well as allowing the radicalization of the society and hate crime statistics to rise (Polityka, 2017).
6. ANALYSIS
Following the Fairclough model (1992:73), the analysis will focus on the interpretation — processing analysis of the text and discursive practice, and explanation — social analysis of discursive and social practises. In order to position the findings in the theoretical framework proposed for this study, concepts such as Othering, mediatization and politicisation will be utilized with connection to the refugee crisis.
6.1 “No one knows who refugees really are” - the representation of refugees and the refugee crisis
6.1.1 Implications of the consideration of legal and administrative status
The implications behind the choice of language and terminology that is used to describe the people who migrated to Europe and are considered to be a part of the refugee crisis is crucial. Member states of the European Union have territorial sovereignty, which in this context is connected with the “prima facie exclusive jurisdiction over its territory (…) to decide who among non-citizens shall be allowed to enter and remain, and who shall be refused admission and required or compelled to leave.” (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh et al., 2014:37). This is however more complicated when considering refugee admission. Since refugee protection — legal tools, that include international custom law, universal and regional treaties as well as national laws — suggest and implement obligations on states that intend to “ensure that no refugee in search of asylum is penalized, expelled, or refouled” (ibid.). Moreover those legal tools aim to ensure that their human rights are respected as well auto ensure the rights and benefits connected with the refugee status are granted. Therefore, refugees unlike the persons migrating for other reasons, have significantly more protection which stems from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) article 14 — “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”. Considering this context, the choice between using the word “refugee” and the word
48 “migrant” already holds an implication of the legal and administrative status of newcomers, as well as the extent of the obligations that lie on the state when it comes to admission and protection for those persons. The debate around the refugee crisis in the Polish media, described in detail in the chapter dedicated to the descriptive findings, should be interpreted not only as a linguistic discussion, but as an ideological one. If people arriving on the shores of Europe are considered to be refugees, they should be protected according to laws and treaties. However, if they are described simply as immigrants or migrants this situation is not as clear, because it does not indicate that they have a special status according to international laws. Moreover, if their claims of asylum are undermined or they are framed as illegal or economic migrants this puts them in a significantly different legal situation. To conclude, the manner in which migrating people are perceived can change according to the discourses that are produced and reproduced in the media: from more sympathetic and rights-based approach that concerns refugees, to more indifferent attitude towards migrants, or even to more negative perception of people migrating illegally or for economic reasons. The international discussion around the terminology of the refugee crisis was present as early as 2015 (i.e. Taylor, 2015). Some media outlets made conscious decisions to unify their discourse by using consistent terminology — for example al-Jazeera had decided against the use of the word migrant and, as reported, when appropriate decided to solely use refugee (Ruz, 2015). The reasoning behind this was that using the term ‘migrant’ “has evolved from its dictionary definitions into a tool that dehumanizes and distances, a blunt pejorative” (ibid.). The findings from the material suggest that both the terms ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ were used often across the ideological spectrum of the newspapers. However, even though the difference might seem small number-wise, it is important to point out that both in 2015 and 2016 only the right-wing, conservative outlets failed to use the word ‘refugee’ when talking about the crisis in some of the published articles, while in other newspapers it was explicitly used in all the articles. In left-leaning outlet Polityka, even though the term ‘migrant’ was still used, “refugee” appeared in every single article about the crisis. When considering the use of the terms ‘economic migrants’ or ‘illegal migrants’ the divide is not as significant, however right-wing Sieci was the only outlet that used the latter consistently in every year of the period
49 of analysis. This can be seen as connected with the ethno-nationalist profile of this newspaper and previously mentioned fallacy of difference.
6.1.2 Discourse around identity of refugees
When looking at how the migrating persons are described, a few important trends emerge. First and foremost the clear signs of Othering are visible in the analyzed articles - refugees are often represented as the Other, ethnically, culturally and religiously different (fallacy of difference) or even incompatible with the European population (i.e. “Muslims eagerly impose their lifestyle on Christians in the Middle East, and there are no reasons to see Poland - when there are enough of them - otherwise”, Do Rzeczy, 2015). Refugees rarely are described as individuals, they are perceived to have group characteristics that are negative and very rarely are they described in a positive light. Additionally, they are perceived as a problem, they are dehumanized and ostracized. Notably, the right-wing and conservative outlets (Sieci, Do Rzeczy,Gość Niedzielny) underlined the differences between “us” versus “them” repeatedly and often in a very pejorative and divisive fashion. Interestingly, in some cases the “us” meant Poland, in other cases Europe, which can be explained by Wodak’s remarks on the ethno- nationalists invoking of the concept of “European identity” when it fits their political agenda, even if they are skeptical of the European Union (2015: 54). In Polityka and Newsweek Polska, this discourse was reproduced by dedicating a lot of space for the analysis and description of the right-wing and nationalist opposition to refugee reception. The rhetorical strategies of fallacy of sameness (i.e “When we accept Muslim people here, attacks will also take place in Poland”, Do Rzeczy, 2015) and as well as appeal to emotion (i.e “the situation of Christians in Syria is becoming increasingly dramatic”, Gość Niedzielny, 2015) were also present in some of the analyzed articles. Moreover, another emerging trend is using Islamophobic discourse in connection with the refugee crisis. Islam was continuously presented as a religion of terror and violence (i.e “The Qur’an and Muhammad himself allow the rape of girls”, Do Rzeczy, 2016), Muslim people were recognized as a mass not as individuals, with little to no distinction between various strains of Islam. In some articles the lack of understanding that “Muslim” does not equal “Arab” and vice versa lead to the situation in which there was little precision in identifying who the people described in the articles are with various generalisations and
50 mistakes present. As Schmidt writes, this problem of the lack of understanding between differences of ethnic and religious origins are a prevailing problem: “constant conflation of ethnic origin and religious identity again turns out to be the result of a framed media discourse in which the terms Arab and Muslim are used as meaning virtually the same” (2014: 175). This leads to producing misconceptions, i.e in one article Pakistan was mistaken for an Arab country (Sieci, 2015), because the majority of its population is Muslim. Furthermore, clear signs of favouritism of Christian refugees over the Muslim ones was present in all conservative outlets. This Islamophobic discourse was also directly connected with the perceived threats that refugee reception can bring to Poland (i.e ”When we accept Muslim people here, attacks will also take place in Poland”, Do Rzeczy 2015). The argumentum in terrorem overwhelmingly present, and the discourse of fear could be found even in Polityka which did not engage in the Islamophobic discourse to the same extent as the conservative outlets. Coming back to the quote from Said (1997), “the sense of Islam as a threatening Other” was noticeable over the analyzed period in many of the articles. The outlets engaged in the creation of Islamophobic discourse did not necessarily try to conceal this practice — in one of the articles, xenophobia was described as a “natural defence mechanism” (Sieci, 2016). Those findings seem to confirm what Jaskułkowski (2019) wrote about hegemonic Islamophobic discourse being largely adopted in the Polish view of refugees and the refugee crisis. Even in more progressive outlets, the reproduction of some Islamophobic stereotypes remained present, which confirms Jaskułkowiski’s research that those discourses were hardly ever contested. Interestingly, one of the articles acknowledged the colonial history of MENA countries, however with the heavily underlined opinion that Poland has no responsibility for the colonial violence and therefore no moral obligation to help refugees — “Many Poles, moreover, do not feel that it is us who should first move with the help of the inhabitants of Africa or the Middle East, because we have no moral debt to them resulting from the guilt of colonialism.” (Do Rzeczy, 2015). The final discursive trend that emerges with close connection to Othering and Islamophobia is Orientalist notions. In the framework of Orientalism, the stereotypes of gender roles have a prominent role in the creation of the representation of the Other. Hasan
51 explains the origins of this discourse in this way: “Colonizers presented a villainous picture of eastern men as “traders in female bodies” (…) Such a negative depiction was designed to construct an artificial contrasting image of eastern men as barbaric and of western men as “civilized.” Orientalist representations of women (…) have all along been intended to convey a particular impression of them as passive, incapable of raising their voice, and always waiting for westerners to advance their causes.” (2005: 30). Traces of this Orientalist discourse can be found in the analyzed material. In some of the analyzed articles, Muslim men were presented as violent perpetrators of sexual violence against white European women, especially in articles published after the infamous case of the 2015–16 New Year’s Eve Cologne sexual assaults6. Muslim women were perceived as victims or even slaves of their husbands. According to Schmidt, the way Arab women are depicted in the West is highly politicized and focuses on the “suppressed Arab woman as passive victim with a ‘veiled and beaten body’” (Schmidt, 2014: 181-182).
6.2 Production, circulation and distribution
6.2.1 The circulation and distribution of the selected newspapers
As mentioned previously, the selected newspapers have the largest circulation of all weeklies in Poland. This means that the analyzed articles reach a wide public. To put this into perspective — given the average number of sold copies of each issue, specified Table 3, all five of the newspapers together reached a weekly average of 518,745 people in 2014 and 433,376 people in 2017. Those numbers account for one copy per person, which in many cases is not accurate, since more than one person can access the same issue of the newspaper — therefore one could assume that the real number is even bigger. Consequently, the discourse produced in the analyzed newspapers has the potential to reach a wide circles of recipients. The newspapers in question are distributed mostly through sales by newsstands,
6 During the 2015–16 New Year's Eve's celebrations, around 1,250 women in at least twelve German cities reportedly have been sexually assaulted, with attackers being described as of refugee background in the media. As Noack writes: “Officials have linked the sexual assaults to the influx of refugees. Many suspects had originally come to Germany from North African countries rather than Syria, officials said.” (Noack, 2016). Those events were widely reported in the media both internationally as well as in Poland.
52 bookstores, or other press vendors. They are also available as digital copies online, which is an important factor in accessibility. They are generally financed by a combination of the three sources — advertising, purchase price, or by prepaid subscriptions. Even considering the large number of sales per issue the fact that they are not available for free might be seen as an important obstacle for the discourse reaching an even larger public.
6.2.2 Understanding the typology of articles
The typology of analyzed articles introduced in the chapter on methodology, can be a helpful insight to the production of the discourse. First however, the character of the weekly newspaper should be considered. All analyzed weeklies describe social, political, economic and cultural events from Poland and abroad. They however represent different worldview profiles, in this case Catholic, left-wing, liberal and right-wing/conservative. Since they can be considered to follow a certain ideological profile and are published only once a week, they often tend to focus on deeper analysis of the current political and social events than daily newspapers, which can report on the news much more frequently. This is reflected in the proposed typology of the articles analyzed in this study — the overwhelming majority (51 out of 77) fall into the category 2 — longer as well as more analytical articles that can be described as opinion pieces. Only one of the analyzed newspapers — Gość Niedzielny, published very few of those articles (5 out of 22). In the rest of the newspapers those articles composed a majority of published content, which can point to the conclusion that, since all the newspapers fall into some ideological affiliation, most of the discourse presented was influenced by it. This brings up the question of neutrality, since according to the notion of professionalism, media should follow the rules of neutrality, transparency and trustworthiness. In articles that were heavily influenced by the political ideology, especially boldly presented in the case of right-wing/conservative outlets, certain bias is present. A surprising finding in this study was that so few articles fell into category 3 — specifically featuring perspectives of politicians or experts (8 out of 77). Even though in many articles politicians, parties and experts were mentioned by name, after setting the criteria and before the analysis of the material I perceived that more articles would directly give platforms to individuals who are either in charge of political decision or are deemed to have an expertise
53 on the subject. After some consideration however, this issue might be connected with the fact that interviews were excluded from the analyzed material.
6.3 Media, politics and the refugee crisis
Returning to the model of analyzing mediatization of politics proposed by Strömbäck (Lundby, 2014: 378), and explained in the chapter dedicated to the theoretical background of this study, one must ask what role did mediatization play in the context of the refugee crisis. This concept can provide an insight into the connections between production and consumption of the text, as well as the social context of its creation. Therefore focus of this section of the analysis lies on the discursive and social practices. This will be executed to the best of the ability of this research, that is however aiming to be placed rather in the area of migration studies than media studies. With this in mind, the following section will focus on the most important aspects of mediatization that could affect the media discourse around the refugee crisis and its social context.
6.3.1 Politicisation of the refugee crisis
The notion of politicisation of the refugee crisis manifested itself in the material in a few ways. First, the approach toward the refugee crisis and refugees was often perceived as a political discussion, with stark divides between left-wing outlets and right-wing newspapers. Left-wing Polityka adopted a solidarity approach, while Do Rzeczy and Sieci presented strong stances of exclusion. Gość Niedzielny and Newsweek Polska could be seen as somewhere in between, although the former was more similar to other conservative newspapers, while the latter was closer with Polityka. The articles were most often written from the ideological perspective of the respective media outlet, especially visible in the conservative newspapers. As pointed out in the chapter dedicated to descriptive findings, some of the articles engaged in the heated polemics with the opposite side of the political spectrum. Those findings seem to confirm what Bielecka-Prus wrote about how the progressive newspapers adopt the accusatory tone and condemn the Polish approach to the refugee crisis, while the conservative newspapers more often assume the role of advocate for the exclusionary approach (2018). Second, it is important to remind the reader that the refugee crisis coincided with the political campaign for the parliamentary elections in Poland on 25 October 2015. The election
54 caused a change of the government and was won by the largest opposition party, the right- wing PiS, with 37.6% of the vote (Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza, 2015). Therefore, during the heated campaign, all the decisions made by the pervious government were contested — including the decision to accept a certain number of asylum seekers. The issues of immigration were addressed in the campaign as political and used against the opponents which had a significant influence on the number of articles that were published on this topic — not only were they reporting the events of the refugee crisis and refugee reception in other countries of the EU, but also framed those issues as political debates. In many of the articles, politicians were quoted and their opinions on the subject were taken into consideration more often than other experts, i.e. researchers or NGO workers. After the parliamentary elections, the decision of accepting refugees was overruled by the new government, placing Poland in a situation of conflict with the European Union. The last way the politicisation of the crisis was manifested clearly in the material is connected with the decision to not accept any refugees. Since the exclusionary approach was manifested often by right-wing outlets with ethno-nationalist character, by nature skeptical of the European Union (Wodak, 2015: 54) the refugees were often perceived as a political struggle between Poland — protecting its independence and sovereignty — and the EU, that tries to impose their rule over member states. This discourse was mostly present in Gość Niedzielny, Sieci and Do Rzeczy.
6.3.2 Media as the most important source of information
The first dimension of the Strömbäck model is connected with the media being the most important source of information. In the context of Poland, this can be considered a true statement — most Polish people learn about politics and society from the media, which can be seen as the channel of communication between political institutions and the public (Lundby, 2014: 378). According to research by Institute for Social Research and Market (IBRiS), television remains the most important source of information about events, society and politics for Poles 83% respondents indicate that they use it as a primary type of media. However, Internet portals (59%) are ahead of radio and the press (48% and 35%, respectively). Social media is still indicated by the minority of respondents as a source, family and friends are a source of information for 26 % of respondents (Kolanko, 2019).
55 According to a different study, conducted by the Polish Literacy Research (pol. Polskie Badania Czytelnictwa), while television was still the most popular type of media, 52% of the responders stated that they read a newspaper the previous day (Dwornik, 2018). When taking into consideration weekly papers, 39% of the responders read weeklies on regular basis (ibid). Interestingly, there is a connection between class and newspaper readership — when income was taken into consideration, 50% of the responders who financially belong to the middle or upper class read the weekly newspapers (ibid.). This might be connected with accessibility — weekly newspapers are usually not accessible free of charge except for copies in libraries. Similarly to other societal and political events, the media can be seen as the most important source of information on the refugee crisis and political response to it (CBOS, 2015b). According to research and based on how often this subject was brought to the attention by the media, the vast majority of the population was aware of the refugee crisis, even if they personally never met a refugee (ibid). Hence, although the presence of these issues in the political discourse in Poland was not at all proportional to the number of refugees in the country, the upsurge of news with often with a bias or negative approach towards refugees cause this to be a widely debated and divisive topic within public discourse.
6.3.3 The dependency of media on political institutions
The second level of Strömbäck’s model is concerned with the dependency between political and social institutions and the media (Lundby, 2014: 378). The media in Poland are pluralistic and mostly privately owned (Freedom House, 2020). There are public media broadcasters that include radio and television, however in the case of the press all outlets are commercial. Independent media can publish material and produce discourse that is “shaped by the media’s own interests, needs, and standards of newsworthiness, rather than subordinated to the interests and needs of political institutions and actors” (Lundby, 2014: 378). Reporters Without Borders (RWB), a non-governmental organisation that focuses on the freedom of press around the world, releases annual reports on the situation in each country
— Press Freedom Index. The focus points are pluralism, media independence, self-censorship as well as legislative framework, transparency, and infrastructure (Reporters Without Borders, 2016). The organisation works to “protect journalistic freedom and independence vis-à-vis all
56 political, corporate and religious centres of power and influence” (ibid.). According to the Press Freedom Index Poland ranked 19th worldwide in 2014 and 18th in 2015, after which due to further assessment of the RWB the conditions for media in Poland worsened — in 2016, Poland ranked 47th and in 2017 ranked 54th (Reporters Without Borders, 2020). This sudden deterioration of media freedom was related to the fact that after the Polish parliamentary elections in October 2015, state-controlled companies began to shift their advertising to private media outlets that showed their support to the newly elected PiS government (Freedom House, 2020). In the case of this research, Sieci and Do Rzeczy significantly benefited from this practice, which was also to a certain degree favourable to Gość Niedzielny. Consequently, the outlets that presented more critical positions to the new government have suffered a sharp decline in both advertising revenue as well as subscriptions from government ministries (ibid.). Newspapers analyzed in this study that suffered from those political decisions were Polityka and Newsweek Polska. This can point to the observation that during 2016 and 2017 the newspapers that generally produced discourse that represented refugees in a negative light gained more governmental support, and therefore its stance on those issues gained more legitimisation. Those political attempts to restrict media freedom were especially visible in connection with public media, but had the influence over privately-owned, commercial outlets as well. In 2017, the RWB called for the condemnation of the media situation in Poland by the EU: “It is vital that European Commission does not allow media freedom to deteriorate within the EU. The Polish government’s stranglehold on the media must be clearly condemned” (Reporters Without Borders, 2017). Therefore, the situation of media independence in the context of this study is not straightforward. Articles analyzed in this study were published over the span of four years — 2014 to 2017. During the first half of this period the press in Poland was assessed by independent organisations like RWB as good, with media independence guaranteed. During the second half of this period however, the situation deteriorated significantly and even though privately-owned outlets did not loose freedom as much as public ones, the decision of the government to stop subscriptions and advertisements had an effect on the level of media independence.
57 6.3.4 Media logic or political logic?
The last two levels of the Strömbäck model (Lundby, 2014: 378) focus on the degree of which media and political actors are guided by media or political logic (ibid.). Given the context of dependency of media on political institutions described in the previous section, this can be seen as a complicated issue to cover substantially in the format of this study. This section will first discuss media and then the political actors. Media logic, guided mostly by notions of neutrality, transparency, trustworthiness and commercialism, can be clearly observed in the way the newspapers selected in this study conduct their operations. Beginning with commercialism, since all the analyzed outlets are privately owned, the facts of media markets being commercial and outlets working to compete for audience attention is clear on many levels. All the analyzed outlets have both printed as well as digital versions, which increases their visibility to a broader public. Aside from Gość Niedzielny, the outlets offer discounts on their subscriptions for readers who decide to choose longer subscription periods. Although it is not an aspect of interest in this study, it is worth mentioning that the covers of the newspapers in this period were also designed to gain the attention of customers, with Sieci and Do Rzeczy including unambiguous, negative representations of refugees on several covers over the analyzed period (i.e Sieci, issue 37/2015; Do Rzeczy, issue 38/2015). Discussing neutrality, transparency and trustworthiness can be complicated due to the clearly stated ideological profiles of the newspapers. Since most of the articles in this study are opinion pieces, as mentioned before, the notion of neutrality is not wholly applicable to them since, by definition, they aim to present the certain perspective of the author. When it comes to the transparency and trustworthiness, the analyzed newspapers often used quotes from politicians, experts and regular citizens, which increased the levels of those two qualities. In regard to political logic (electability and successfulness on the political level) in the media, the correlating signifiers are most visible in Do Rzeczy and Sieci, that strongly supported the PiS government elected in 2015. Many articles from those two outlets were arguably written with a political agenda on the mind, in attempt to strengthen first the chances, then the position of PiS by criticising the previous government and praising the party in question regarding the response to the refugee crisis. Turning attention to political actors, the lines can be seen as even more blurred. By
58 appearing in the media often and discussing their political agendas in approachable and populist fashions, they follow the media logic. Since media is the primary source of information about the political and social situation for the majority of the Polish public, the presence of politicians in the media is very important for their recognizability and how public opinion perceives them, which has an effect on the results of the elections. This was visible especially during the build-up period before the 2015 parliamentary elections. On the other hand, however, the goal of winning political power in order to affect policy changes and reforms remains as the primary objective. Therefore, even if media can be seen as mainly acting with media logic, political actors can be described as borrowing from both of these modi operandi.
6.4 Discursive shift
The discursive shift, which was described by the other researchers previously concerned with this subject, can also be seen in the material analyzed in this study. Refugees did not start to arrive to Europe sporadically in 2015 — on the contrary, in 2014 around 225,000 people reached the EU (UNHCR, 2020). Thus, the refugee crisis had begun long before this media discourse about refugees, which as mentioned before, was practically non-existent in the Polish context prior to 2015. The articles published about the refugee crisis in 2014 were scarce and did not engage in Othering, dehumanization and the Islamophobia of refugees. They were more of a descriptive character, with little political perspective or concern about the perceived potential threats. These notions became very present in the material published the next year — the discourse became divisive and polarized on ideological as well as political lines and the issue was present in the media disproportionately to the minuscule number of refugees that actually reached Poland. The quantity of articles from 2015 was overwhelming compared to 2014, with more than ten times the number of features, which signifies the degree to which this issue was mediated and politicized in a short period of time. The discourse produced in 2015 can be observed as continuing in the final two years analyzed in this study. Hence, the discourse was not present in 2014, was constructed in 2015 and its further construction and reconstruction occurred over the period of 2016 and 2017.
59 Figure 5. Correlation between public opinion and number of articles
Willingness of accepting refugees from MENA countries in Poland (CBOS, 2018) Number of articles in the selected newspapers
50% 30
37,5% 22,5
25% 15
12,5% 7,5
0% 0 I-VI 2014 VII-XII 2014 I-VI 2015 VII-XII 2015 I-VI 2016 VII-XII 2016 I-VI 2017 VII-XII 2017
The data represented in Figure 5 displays the ‘number of articles published in the given time period’ together with the ‘willingness of the Polish population to accept refugees from the MENA countries’ as reported by CBOS (2018). Interestingly, the highest support of refugee reception correlates with the climax of reporting on the topic. This might be connected with the fact that during this period of time, many tragic stories of refugees dying on their way to Europe were published — most notably the picture of a three year-old Syrian boy’s body, Alan Kurdi, who drowned on the 2 September 2015 in the Mediterranean Sea, which made global headlines and was overwhelmingly met with sympathy (Smith, 2015). However, just after this peak of acceptance of refugee reception, a sharp decline can be seen. As discursive shift is not a phenomena that happens instantly, but rather over a period of time, one could argue that the decline visible in this graph is in fact the effect of the discourse that was published in 2015. Going back to the notion that the upsurge of articles was “one of the main reasons for a qualitative change in Polish public discourse that has translated into a notable radicalization of exclusionary views” (Krzyżanowska and
60 Krzyżanowski, 2018: 614) can be seen as probable given the material analyzed in this study. The sole number of articles producing, reproducing and contesting the discourse was most likely bound to have a significant influence that could be seen over the course of the following months. This shift can also be seen as connected with the politicisation of the refugee crisis — the fact that it overlapped with a heated parliamentary election in Poland posed an opportunity for the PiS, Euro-sceptic and right-wing party to use the possibility of refugee reception as a threat in an attempt to unify Polish society. According to Krzyżanowski, the discursive shift partially lies in the mediatization of right-wing populist parties, specifically PiS, who, by using media spread the strong, ideologic messages about immigration under the guise of interactivity and familiarity (Krzyżanowski, 2018: 79). Since this study did not focus directly on political discourse, this could not be confirmed with the findings. However, traces of those ideologic messages regarding immigration were very present in the material, especially in the conservative/right-wing outlets, therefore it is worth mentioning this perspective on reasons of how the representation or the refugee crisis and refugees was formed in the Polish context.
7. CONCLUSION
The main objective of this study was to analyze the ways in which the Polish media has produced and reproduced the discourse pertaining to the refugee crisis and subsequently the perceived representation of refugees. The findings show that mediatization of the refugee crisis in Poland together with its politicisation of the issue in conjunction with the parliamentary elections of 2015, can be regarded as influential in the creation of the discursive shift. As proved in this study together with pervious research on this subject, the media discourse around refugees prior to 2015 was scarce. However, during and after that year it became very visible, with strong pejorative character. Consequently, the way that the refugee crisis and refugees were represented in the media altered over the analyzed period, which is also reflected in the regressing levels of willingness to accept refugees from the MENA countries in Poland. The negative and even radical discourse found in the articles surrounding the refugee crisis and refugees can be divided into three trends. First, the distinction between refugees and economic migrants, in which many refugees were described to be claiming to have reasonable
61 grounds to seek asylum, while in actuality were coming to Europe because of social benefits and economical prosperity. Secondly, the fear of the invasion of aliens flooding Europe — described as savages, criminals, fanatics, sometimes even terrorists, displayed a trend with clear notions of Othering and Islamophobia embedded in it. Interestingly, all of the newspapers reproduced this Islamophobic discourse to some degree, regardless of their political affiliation. Thirdly, attacks on the Polish government in power prior to the 2015 elections for succumbing to the dictates of the European Union and for violating Polish sovereignty. After the analysis of the material, the conclusion can be made that an exclusionary approach to the refugee reception was much more prevalent in the analyzed material than the solidarity-based approach that was represented only by one of the selected newspapers — Polityka. Rhetorical strategies of fallacy of sameness, fallacy of difference, as well as appeals to fear and emotion were also present and identified in the analyzed discourse. This study, as mentioned before, was not meant in any way to exhaust the topic of the Polish media discourses regarding the refugee crisis and refugees, but rather to make a humble effort in understanding how those discourses were produced and what characterized the discursive shift. I do not assume nor suggest that a certain ‘truth’ was established as a result of this analysis, but perhaps rather one of the truths that could be identified given the method of Critical Discourse Analysis and the selected material. The potential further research of this phenomenon can assume many forms and bring new perspectives to the academic discussion. For example, analyzing the mentioned discursive shift as the strategic enactment of historical Polish anti-Semitism and looking into the differences and similarities between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia within the context of modern Poland could produce very insightful findings and deepen the understanding of both discourse as well as Othering. Moreover, research on the perceptions of the refugee crisis and refugees in Polish immigrant communities in different countries throughout the EU could provide interesting findings on the reach of this Polish discourse among native Polish-speakers as well as the potential differences of perception according to the country of residence. Last but not least, the Orientalist sentiments in Polish society both in the broader perception of peoples from the MENA region as well as refugees specifically also has the potential to add significantly to the body of existing literature. On a final note, even if reaching the truth was not an objective given the ontological
62 and epistemological standpoints adopted in this thesis, the results can still bear significance and have social importance. First and foremost, contrary to the dehumanizing discourse around refugees present in the analyzed material, the reality of the refugee crisis was the reality of hundreds of thousands of real people — with fears, dreams, hopes and feelings. As a researcher I believe strongly in the importance of academic methods in addressing social issues and injustices. One should always remember that Othering present in discourse can lead to real acts of violence in society.
63 List of articles
1. Gość Niedzielny
In the following table, articles colour-coded in red belong to category 1., articles listed in yellow belong to category 2, while articles belonging to category 3 are listed in orange. The titles are first listed in original (Polish), English translation is provided in brackets.
Number Date Author Title Link Category 1 17.02.2014 - Budują dom https:// dla chrześcijan www.gosc.pl/ - uchodźców z doc/ Syrii 1888276.Buduj [They are a-dom-dla- building a chrzescijan- house for uchodzcow-z- Christians - Syrii refugees from Syria] 2 21.09.2014 - Coraz więcej https:// azylantów www.gosc.pl/ [More and doc/ more asylum 2168444.Coraz seekers] -wiecej- azylantow 3 30.05.2015 - Polska musi https:// przyjąć www.gosc.pl/ uciekinierów doc/ [Poland must 2510890.Polsk accept a-musi-przyjac- refugees] uciekinierow 4 31.05.2015 - Czekają nas https:// długie spory o www.gosc.pl/ imigrantów doc/ [Long disputes 2512649.Czeka about ja-nas-dlugie- immigrants spory-o- await us] imigrantow 5 28.07.2015 - Przyjmiemy https:// uchodźców, ale www.gosc.pl/ czy ktoś pytał doc/ kontrwywiad? 2608814.Przyj [We will accept miemy- refugees, but uchodzcow- did anyone ask ale-czy-ktos- counterintellige pytal- nce?] kontrwywiad
64 6 03.09.2015 Grażyna Co zrobić z https:// Myślińska falą www.gosc.pl/ imigrantów? doc/ [What to do 2677760.Co- with the wave zrobic-z-fala- of imigrantow immigrants?] 7 16.09.2015 - Uchodźcy czy https:// imigranci. Kto www.gosc.pl/ ich rozróżni? doc/ [Refugees or 2704431.Ucho immigrants. dzcy-czy- Who will imigranci-Kto- distinguish ich-rozrozni them?] 8 16.09.2015 Bogumił Amok lewicy z https:// Łoziński uchodźcami www.gosc.pl/ [Left’s amok doc/ with refugees] 2703713.Amok -lewicy-z- uchodzcami 9 19.09.2015 - Potrzebny jest https:// spokój ws www.gosc.pl/ uchodźców doc/ [Calm is 2709105.Potrze needed in case bny-jest- of refugges] spokoj-ws- uchodzcow 10 23.11.2015 - Szydło o https:// uchodźcach: www.gosc.pl/ Nie jesteśmy doc/ gotowi 2839066.Szydl [Szydło about o-o- refugees: we uchodzcach- are not ready] Nie-jestesmy- gotowi 11 12.01.2016 - Ilu uchodźców https:// trafi do Polski www.gosc.pl/ w 2016? doc/ [How many 2922865.Ilu- refugees will uchodzcow- come to Poland trafi-do-Polski- in 2016?] w-2016 12 08.03.2016 - Tusk: “Dni https:// nielegalnej www.gosc.pl/ imigracji doc/ dobiegły 3014313.Tusk- końca” Dni- [Tusk: “The nielegalnej- days of illegal imigracji- immigration dobiegly-konca are over”]
65 13 23.03.2016 MG Polska nie https:// przyjmie www.gosc.pl/ migrantów doc/ [Poland will 3048484.Polsk not accept a-nie-przyjmie- refugees] migrantow 14 28.04.2016 Bogumił Caritas Polska https:// Łoziński pomaga www.gosc.pl/ uchodźcom doc/ [Caritas Poland 3114905.Carita is helping s-Polska- refugees] pomaga- uchodzcom 15 16.09.2016 - Szydło ma https:// pomysł, co www.gosc.pl/ zrobić z doc/ migrantami 3450155.Szydl [Szydło has an o-ma-pomysl- idea what to do co-zrobic-z- with the migrantami migrants] 16 01.12.2016 Monika Uchodźcy https:// Andruszewska mówią: Bóg www.gosc.pl/ zesłał Polaków doc/ [Refugees: God 3576805.Ucho send us the dzcy-mowia- Poles] Bog-zeslal- Polakow 17 15.01.2017 - Dziś Światowy https:// Dzień Migranta www.gosc.pl/ i Uchodźcy doc/ [Today is 3654158.Dzis- International Swiatowy- Migrant and Dzien- Refugee Day] Migranta-i- Uchodzcy 18 28.03.2017 - Szydło: Polska https:// nie zgodzi się www.gosc.pl/ na szantaż ws. doc/ uchodźców 3776772.Szydl [Szydło: o-Polska-nie- Poland will not zgodzi-sie-na- accept the szantaz-ws- blackmail uchodzcow regarding the refugees] 19 08.05.2017 Bogumił Opiekujemy się https:// Łoziński 20 tys. www.gosc.pl/ uchodźców doc/ [We look after 3871175.Opiek 20 thousand ujemy-sie-20- refugees] tys-uchodzcow
66 20 11.05.2017 - Bochenek: W https:// Polsce nie ma www.gosc.pl/ islamskich doc/ imigrantów 3880195.Boche tylko dlatego, nek-W-Polsce- że zmienił się nie-ma- rząd islamskich- [Bochenek: imigrantow- There are no tylko-dlatego- Islamic ze immigrants in Poland just because the government has changed] 21 31.05.2017 - Ilu Polaków https:// jest za, a ilu www.gosc.pl/ przeciw doc/ przyjmowaniu 3932937.Ilu- uchodźców? Polakow-jest- [How many za-a-ilu- Poles are for przeciw- and how many przyjmowaniu- against taking uchodzcow refugees?] 22 08.12.2017 - CBOS: 63 https:// proc. badanych www.gosc.pl/ Polaków nie doc/ zgadza się na 4363636.CBO przyjmowanie S-63-proc- uchodźców badanych- [CBOS: 63 Polakow-nie- percent Poles zgadza-sie-na- surveyed do przyjmowanie not agree to accept refugees]
67 2. Polityka
In the following table, articles colour-coded in red belong to category 1., articles listed in yellow belong to category 2, while articles belonging to category 3 are listed in orange. The titles are first listed in original (Polish), English translation is provided in brackets.
Number Date Author Title Link 1 31.05.2015 Marek Ostrowski Polacy powinni https:// okazać www.polityka.pl/ solidarność z tygodnikpolityka imigrantami /kraj/ [Poles should 1621315,1,polac show solidarity y-powinni- with immigrants] okazac- solidarnosc-z- imigrantami.read 2 21.07.2015 Marta Mazuś Chrześcijańscy https:// emigranci z Syrii www.polityka.pl/ już w Polsce tygodnikpolityka [Christian /spoleczenstwo/ immigrants from 1626807,1,chrze Syria are already scijanscy- in Poland] emigranci-z- syrii-juz-w- polsce.read 3 15.09.2015 Marta Mazuś Polska wojna o https:// uchodźców www.polityka.pl/ [Polish war tygodnikpolityka about refugees] /kraj/ 1633067,1,polsk a-wojna-o- uchodzcow.read 4 15.09.2015 Marek Ostrowski Dlaczego i jak https:// Polska powinna www.polityka.pl/ wesprzeć tygodnikpolityka uchodźców /swiat/ [Why and how 1633057,1,dlacz Poland should ego-i-jak-polska- support refugees] powinna- wesprzec- uchodzcow.read
68 5 22.09.2015 Adam Polacy o https:// Szostakiewicz uchodźcach: www.polityka. między pl/ solidarnością a tygodnikpolity strachem ka/kraj/ [Poles about 1634023,1,pola refugees: between cy-o- solidarity and uchodzcach- fear] miedzy- solidarnoscia- a- strachem.read 6 06.10.2015 Marcin Biały Białystok https:// Kołodziejczyk przeciw www.polityka.pl/ uchodźcom tygodnikpolityka [White Bialystok /kraj/ against refugees] 1635739,1,bialy- bialystok- przeciw- uchodzcom.read 7 01.12.2015 Artur Są uchodźcy https:// Domosławski wojenni i są www.polityka.pl/ uchodźcy tygodnikpolityka ekonomiczni. /swiat/ Dlaczego 1642077,1,sa- traktujemy ich uchodzcy- inaczej? wojenni-i-sa- [There are war uchodzcy- refugees and ekonomiczni- there are dlaczego- economic traktujemy-ich- refugees. Why inaczej.read do we treat them differently?] 8 01.03.2016 - Uchodźcy wśród https:// uchodźców www.polityka.pl/ [Refugees tygodnikpolityka among refugees] /swiat/ 1652634,1,uchod zcy-wsrod- uchodzcow.read 9 12.04.2016 - Wielka https:// wymiana www.polityka.pl/ uchodźców tygodnikpolityka [A great /swiat/ exchange of 1657446,1,wielk refugees] a-wymiana- uchodzcow.read 10 27.09.2016 Edwin Bendyk Zygmunt https:// Bauman o www.polityka.pl/ strachu przed tygodnikpolityka imigrantami /nauka/ [Zygmunt 1676742,1,zygm Bauman on the unt-bauman-o- fear of strachu-przed- immigrants] imigrantami.read
69 11 25.10.2016 Joanna Cieśla To młodzi https:// najbardziej boją www.polityka.pl/ się uchodźców tygodnikpolityka [Young people /spoleczenstwo/ are the ones who 1680182,1,to- are the most mlodzi- afraid of najbardziej-boja- refugees] sie- uchodzcow.read 12 18.12.2016 - Rok https:// umierającego www.polityka.pl/ Aleppo i tygodnikpolityka zamykania się /swiat/ przed 1687400,1,rok- uchodźcami umierajacego- [A year of dying aleppo-i- Aleppo and zamykania-sie- closing ourselves przed- from refugees] uchodzcami.read 13 28.02.2017 Marta Mazuś Czy da się https:// zmienić postawy www.polityka.pl/ Polaków wobec tygodnikpolityka uchodźców? /spoleczenstwo/ [Can the 1695402,1,czy- attitudes of Poles da-sie-zmienic- towards refugees postawy- be changed?] polakow-wobec- uchodzcow.read 14 09.05.2017 Marta Mazuś O człowieku, https:// który z własnej www.polityka.pl/ woli pomaga tygodnikpolityka uchodźcom /spoleczenstwo/ [About a man 1703880,1,o- who voluntarily czlowieku-ktory- helps refugees] z-wlasnej-woli- pomaga- uchodzcom.read 15 04.07.2017 Jakub Bierzyński Uchodźcy: https:// najskuteczniejsz www.polityka.pl/ y straszak tygodnikpolityka władzy /kraj/ [Refugees: the 1710746,1,uchod most effective zcy- bogey of the najskuteczniejsz government] y-straszak- wladzy.read
70 3. Newsweek Polska
In the following table, articles colour-coded in red belong to category 1., articles listed in yellow belong to category 2, while articles belonging to category 3 are listed in orange. The titles are first listed in original (Polish), English translation is provided in brackets.
Number Date Author Title Link 1 07.06.2015 Renata Kim Obcy patrzą na https:// nas [Strangers www.newsweek. are looking at us] pl/polska/ spoleczenstwo/ stosunek- polakow-do- imigrantow-i- uchodzcow/ wg8ck6p 2 19.07.2015 Renata Kim Imam modli się https:// za Polskę [Imam www.newsweek. is praying for pl/polska/ Poland] spoleczenstwo/ polacy-nie- znaja-arabow-a- mimo-to-ich-nie- lubia/cg9gzsj 3 13.09.2015 Anna Śmigulec Raport o https:// uchodźcach: U www.newsweek. nas w domu pl/syryjczycy-w- [Report on polsce-raport-o- refugees: At uchodzcach/ home with us] rdbzbtz 4 13.09.2015 Aleksandra Raport o https:// Gumowska uchodźcach: www.newsweek. Antymuslim robi pl/islamofobia- się modny w-polsce-strach- [Report on przed- refugees: Anti- uchodzcami/ muslim is getting yhhqlm4 fashionable] 5 20.09.2015 Aleksandra Uchodźcę https:// Gumowska ugoszczę www.newsweek. [I will welcome pl/polska/ a refugee] spoleczenstwo/ polacy- pomagaja- uchodzcom/ 2vm7m3t
71 6 27.09.2015 Anna Szulc Cały ten strach. https:// Dlaczego Górale www.newsweek. z Kościeliska nie pl/polska/ chcą uchodźców spoleczenstwo/ [All this fear. dlaczego-gorale- Why z-koscieliska- Highlanders nie-chca- from Kościelisko uchodzcow/ do not want dphlslx refugees ] 7 31.01.2016 Jacek Pawlicki Europa pod https:// ścianą www.newsweek. [Europe against pl/swiat/kryzys- the wall] migracyjny-czy- strefa-schengen- przetrwa/ y87y6qs 8 11.12.2016 Paweł Sondaż: https:// Szaniawski Odsuwanie www.newsweek. uchodźców pl/sondaz- [Survey: Pushing polacy-i- away the niechec-do- refugees] uchodzcow-z- syrii/jm0vj4m 9 11.12.2016 Wojciech Cieśla Dziwna historia https:// robota do łapania www.newsweek. uchodźców pl/polska/ [The strange spoleczenstwo/ story of a robot ochrona-granic- for catching ue-zbrojenia- refugees] drony-bazy- danych-roboty/ sqzhqvg 10 28.05.2017 Dariusz Ćwiklak Pol-end. Dariusz https:// Ćwiklak o www.newsweek. problemie pl/tydzien-z- polskiego rządu polski-rzad-i- z imigrantami. imigranci- [Pol-end. podsumowanie- Dariusz Ćwiklak tygodnia/ about the xrhdbmp problem of the Polish government with immigrants.] 11 25.06.2017 Jakub Korus Sondaż: Ile https:// kosztuje brak www.newsweek. solidarności pl/sondaz- [Survey: How polacy-nie- much does lack przyjma- of solidarity uchodzcow- cost] pomimo-kar- finansowych/ 0t27es0
72 4. Sieci
In the following table, articles colour-coded in red belong to category 1., articles listed in yellow belong to category 2, while articles belonging to category 3 are listed in orange. The titles are first listed in original (Polish), English translation is provided in brackets.
Number Date Author Title Link
1 06.04.2015 Aleksandra Oswoić Islam https:// Rybińska [Domesticating www.wsiecipra Islam] wdy.pl/ numer-14- pmagazine-178 .html 2 14.09.2015 Marzena Politycy https:// Nykiel fundują nam www.wsiecipra Polskę w wdy.pl/ turbanie archiwum/ [Politicians are numer-37- bringing us pmagazine-203 Poland in .html turbans] 3 21.09.2015 Bronisław Bliski Wschód, https:// Wildstein Europa, Polska www.wsiecipra [Middle East, wdy.pl/ Europe, numer-38- Poland] pmagazine-204 .html 4 21.09.2015 Witold Islam z twarzą https:// Gadowski kalifatu www.wsiecipra [Islam with the wdy.pl/ face of the numer-38- caliphate] pmagazine-204 .html 5 21.09.2015 Dariusz Strzelamy czy https:// Karłowicz tylko topimy? www.wsiecipra [Are we wdy.pl/ shooting, or numer-38- only pmagazine-204 drowning?] .html 6 21.09.2015 Bronisław Moralny https:// Wildstein terroryzm www.wsiecipra [Moral wdy.pl/ terrorism] numer-38- pmagazine-204 .html
73 7 28.09.2015 Aleksander Uchodźcy i https:// Nalaskowsk polska wieś www.wsiecipra [Refugees and wdy.pl/ Polish rural numer-39- community] pmagazine-205 .html 8 28.09.2015 Łukasz Imigranci i https:// Warzecha polskie wybory www.wsiecipra [Immigrants wdy.pl/ and Polish numer-39- elections] pmagazine-205 .html 9 05.10.2015 Aleksandra Europa https:// Rybińska przechodzi na www.wsiecipra Islam wdy.pl/ [Europe is archiwum/ converting to numer-40- Islam] pmagazine-206 .html 10 15.02.2016 Aleksandra Islamski gwałt https:// Rybińska [Islamic rape] www.wsiecipra wdy.pl/ numer-7- pmagazine-224 .html 11 15.02.2016 Bronisław Samobójstwo https:// Wildstein Europy www.wsiecipra [The suicide of wdy.pl/ Europe] numer-7- pmagazine-224 .html 12 27.06.2016 Bronisław Problem https:// Wildstein uchodźców www.wsiecipra [The problem wdy.pl/ of refugees] numer-26- pmagazine-243 .html 13 01.08.2016 Bronisław Islam i https:// Wildstein poprawność www.wsiecipra [Islam and wdy.pl/ correctness] numer-31- pmagazine-248 .html 14 11.06.2017 Konrad Imigracyjny https:// Kołodziejski biznes www.wsiecipra [Immigration wdy.pl/ business] numer-24- pmagazine-221 3.html
74 15 27.06.2017 Konrad Młodzi, https:// Kołodziejski wściekli, www.wsiecipra niezintegrowan wdy.pl/ i kolodziejski- [Young, angry, we-wsieci- not integrated mlodzi- wsciekli- niezintegrowan i- pnews-3257.ht ml 16 16.07.2017 Jaromir Kto przeciw https:// Kwiatkowski uchodźcom ten www.wsiecipra tuman! wdy.pl/ [Who is against numer-29- refugees, is pmagazine-222 stupid] 3.html
75 5. Do Rzeczy
In the following table, articles colour-coded in red belong to category 1., articles listed in yellow belong to category 2, while articles belonging to category 3 are listed in orange. The titles are first listed in original (Polish), English translation is provided in brackets.
Number Date Author Title Link
1 19.08.2014 Wojciech Na straży https:// Wybranowski poprawności dorzeczy.pl/ politycznej 3989/na-strazy- [Guarding the poprawnosci- political politycznej.htm corectness] l 2 06.07.2015 Ryszard Nieodwracalna http:// Czarnecki islamizacja ewydanie.dorze Europy? czy.pl/ [Irreversible index.php? Islamization of act=mprasa&su Europe?] b=page&id=18 1&page=14840 &type=1&z=7 9 3 06.07.2015 Jacek Strażnicy http:// Przybylski Cywilizacji ewydanie.dorze [The guardians czy.pl/ of civilization] index.php? act=mprasa&su b=page&id=18 1&page=14840 &type=1&z=7 9 4 27.07.2015 Piotr Semka Postawić tamę http:// ekstremizmowi ewydanie.dorze . Kto powinien czy.pl/ dostać azyl nad index.php? Wisłą? act=mprasa&su [Put a dam b=page&id=18 against 4&page=15173 extremism. &type=1&z=7 Who should get 9 asylum on the Vistula?]
76 5 14.08.2015 Rafał To najeźdźcy http:// Ziemkiewicz nie uchodźcy ewydanie.dorze [They are czy.pl/ invaders not index.php? refugees] act=mprasa&su b=page&id=19 2&page=15844 &type=1&z=7 9 6 14.08.2015 Tomasz Uchodźcy w http:// Terlikowski praktyce ewydanie.dorze [Refugees in czy.pl/ practice] index.php? act=mprasa&su b=page&id=19 2&page=15844 &type=1&z=7 9 7 14.08.2015 Dominika Pełzający http:// Ćosić dżihad ewydanie.dorze [Crawling czy.pl/ Jihad] index.php? act=mprasa&su b=page&id=19 2&page=15912 &type=1&z=7 9 8 15.02.2016 Tomasz Seksualny http:// Terlikowski Dżihad ewydanie.dorze [Sexual Jihad] czy.pl/ index.php? act=mprasa&su b=page&id=21 6&page=18244 &type=1&z=7 9 9 20.06.2016 Rafał Islamopoprawn https:// Ziemkiewicz ość, czyli dorzeczy.pl/ samobójstwo kraj/8995/ Zachodu Islamopoprawn [Islamic- osc-czyli- correctness, or samobojstwo- Western Zachodu.html suicide] 10 05.07.2016 Witold Polska na https:// Repetowicz wojnie z dorzeczy.pl/ Państwem 9109/polska- Islamskim na-wojnie-z- [Poland at war panstwem- with the islamskim.html Islamic State]
77 11 16.07.2017 - Polacy nie chcą https:// przyjmować dorzeczy.pl/ uchodźców kraj/35649/ (SONDAŻ) Polacy-nie- [Poles do not chca- want to accept przyjmowac- refugees uchodzcow- (SURVEY)] SONDAZ.html 12 27.09.2017 - Korwin-Mikke: https:// Uchodźcy? dorzeczy.pl/ Lepsza kraj/42665/ okupacja Korwin-Mikke- arabska niż Uchodzcy- unijna Lepsza- [Korwin- okupacja- Mikke: arabska-niz- Refugees? unijna.html Better Arab occupation than EU occupation] 13 17.11.2017 - Prawie 70 proc. https:// Polaków dorzeczy.pl/ uważa, że nie kraj/47652/ powinniśmy Prawie-70- przyjmować proc-Polakow- imigrantów uwaza-ze-nie- (SONDAŻ) powinnismy- [Almost 70% przyjmowac- Poles believe imigrantow- that we should SONDAZ.html not accept immigrants (SURVEY)]
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