Description
Health in the field of migration in general and refugees in particular constitutes an issue which raises international interest. It came into prominence in the media sphere during the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating the crucial role of the media in representing health issues regarding migrant populations. As far as the international literature is concerned, research on this topic is limited and usually focuses on a specific aspect of refugees and migrants’ health representation in the media. In contrast, the present research, combining the theories of social constructivism, securitization and media framing, highlights in a more spherical way the media representation of health in the field of migration. More specifically, this research examines the case of the refugee and migration crisis in Greece (2015-2020) by placing a particular emphasis on its health aspect. At the same time, it also focuses on the living conditions of refugees and migrants in the Reception and Identification Centers in Greece during this period. For this reason, a significant sample of news articles emerged from media monitoring, have been collected. This media monitoring, divided in three different levels of representation -the local, national and international level- concerns respectively the newspapers Dimokratis, Proto Thema, Ta Nea, The Guardian, The New York Times. The above newspapers were selected following the criteria of popularity and their electronic presence. The news articles covered the period from January 2015 to December 2020. In this context, we present the encoding scheme we created for the purpose of the research in order to better interpret the concrete media representation. The encoding scheme is methodologically based on the literature review we conducted. It involves theoretical elements by different disciplines, more specifically by the fields of international relations, communication, migration studies, social psychology, health sociology and medical anthropology which, apart from their contribution to the formation of the categories that constitute the scheme, enrich the research by giving it an intersectional dimension. The application of the above scheme reveals important elements of media representation not only related to the coverage of refugees and migrants’ health issues, but also the representation of the Greek state’s behavior concerning the health dimension of the refugee and migration crisis. As the results of the above research show, media coverage of health issues in the context of migration needs to adapt to a more interdisciplinary approach in order to cover health issues of migrant populations. This could be accomplished by using scientific evidence to destigmatize refugees and migrants, while at the same time highlighting the structural causes, such as strict political measures, that affect their health. The significance of political decisions regarding their health impact are also reflected through the findings of the survey, since the periods with the highest coverage at the three levels of representation are 2016 –the year of signing the Agreement between the European Union and Turkey- and 2020 –the year that COVID-19 pandemic broke out-.
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