The Syrian Refugee Crisis: A Wild Myth or a Scary Truth
By: Sandya Mylvaganam
University 200
Professor Hall
December 15, 2016
Multimodal Rationale:
The first picture explains how the Syrian refugees are displaced in different countries.
This picture was placed to show that there are more people being affected by this situation than
the media covers. There should more coverage on the overall countries affected in this crisis
rather than only based in Syria. The next picture explains how the media, whether it being the
news or social media influences the public and stays in each and everyone’s brain. Thus what
they report does actually matter to the public, because we get affected by all kinds of media. The
third picture explains that political figures have an influence in media even though the things
they say might not be true, people are influenced by it by the amount of retweets and likes it has.
The fourth picture explains that the media does hide or not disclose specific information to the
public for its own benefit of the report being done.
The fifth picture explains how more media should focus on the refugees themselves than
the damage done in Syria, it shows that this specific media source focuses on the refugees
finding asylum in a different country. The sixth picture shows how multiple news sources cover
the same story, with the same facts and even same picture, it does not focus on a different idea
that could have been said or reported. The last picture explains how the media should focus on
the Syrian refugee’s struggles in this crisis rather than what the politics may be, thus showing the
public how they are truly affected in this crisis and giving the public a sense of what they go
through on a daily basis.
APA Abstract:
The Syrian refugee crisis is an ongoing world problem, and in my opinion I felt that it
was not getting enough attention from the world in order for the problem fully dissolve or even
lessen. Throughout the five years the withstanding war in Syria has caused its civilians to be
displaced thus causing a lot of people looking for asylum. The media is currently the only way to
obtain more knowledge about the whole crisis. The media outlets that report on this issue are the
world’s current outlet to information about this devastating global problem. Thus the media
should be able to report properly on the issue, on the refugees involved and try to truthfully
educate the public of this issue.
Media outlets around the world that misrepresent the struggling refugees, do not seem to
understand how their specific reports based on the refugees and the way they report it, affect the
public’s overall view on the whole situation. The media outlets that do unjust by misrepresenting
the refugees should be able to fix their ways of reporting the problem, so the world can fully
understand the crisis. The reports need to be able to explain the current situation in Syria but also
explain how the refugees are affected, what other countries are doing and even possible solutions
that could solve this terrible dilemma. I urge the media to change their ways of reporting on the
Syrian refugee crisis, in order to allow the world to comprehend the situation fully and
eventually be more helpful towards the situation and more importantly the refugees.
Have you ever rushed out of your room in fear of your life ending because a bomb
exploded somewhere in your own neighborhood? Fortunately, most U.S citizens do not have to
experience this, even though this is the dangerous reality of people living in Syria. For nearly 5
years, there has been an ongoing civil war between protestors against the Syrian government and
supporters of the Syrian government that started March 2011. The situation has worsened to such
an extent that a Free Syrian Army has been created, which civilians have joined and taken up
arms in order to go against the opposition. Since the war has begun, there have been roughly
250,000 civilians killed and around 11 million Syrian refugees displaced from their homes.
There are currently 22 million people in need of severe humanitarian services that live in Syria,
with such tallies rising as the days pass. Most Syrian refugees have fled to other countries like
Jordan and Lebanon but most are struggling with the aspect of getting out of Syria and being
successfully accepted in other countries.
At this time, the only way people in different countries other than Syria get their
information about the Syrian refugee crisis is through the media and their reports. In this case,
the media should represent the Syrians well, so others around the world get informed about this
significant horrific issue properly. Due to the media’s shady and misleading tactics, coverage and
the amount of background information presented to the public about the Syrian refugee crisis
however, the media outlets fail to represent the Syrian refugees properly, at the expense of the
Syrians' lives.
Depiction is Key to Proper Representation
The refugees, as of right now, are most prominently represented in media. The media has
only a single most important duty to fulfill--tell the whole story and make sure the people they
are reporting on have their voices heard. When reading reports on the Syrian Refugee Crisis
however, some media outlets refer to the refugees incorrectly with certain specific word usage in
their reports. In these articles, the media does not correctly depict the refugees during their
struggle, an action that has misinformed many members of the public about this highly sensitive
topic. In fact, “Role of the Media in Europe’s Refugee Crisis” author Lauren Pascu. She has
completed her masters in international relations and is a current research and professional
communications advisor, expresses “reports from The Daily Mail, the Sun and The Daily
Mirror" received backlash because the words used to describe refugees, were inhumane and
degrading. For example when talking about Syrians being forced to evacuate Aleppo, most
media outlets referred to them as refugees but the media outlets listed referred to them as
"migrants” (Pascu, 2015). When the Daily Mail, the Sun and the Daily Mirror media outlets use
the word migrant rather than refugee, they know that they are supposed to describe the civilians
in danger trying to leave the country to be safe from the harms happening in Syria. The word
migrant however, means someone looking for a job who goes to a different country to do so. The
two words could not be more different--the people rushing out of Syria are doing so because they
are scared for their life, not necessarily looking for a job, but an asylum that accepts them. As
certain media outlets use the word migrant than the word refugees to describe the Syrians it
provides open misperceptions for the public to assume wrongly of Syrian refugees, people who
are in need of so much help. Pascu also expresses in “The role of the Media in Europe’s Refugee
that “with the privileged place the media has in the lives of the public, it has to give unbiased
information. Not doing so can cause a serious consequence, which affects the true blocked
feelings of the people and could harm the chances of the public even thinking of the Syrian
refugees", explaining why the media should not depict the refugees in a wrong way by using
completely different words to describe them (Pascu, 2015). The media can not only manipulate
the public in such ways just by the words they use however, they can also do so when greater
forces influence what the media publish to the masses.
One author expresses this idea, noting
that some media tend to misrepresent the Syrian refugees because of the influence they receive
from greater forces like certain governments or significant political figures. Lisa De Bode, author
of Al Jazeera America’s report “Watchdog slams U.S. Media for Coverage of Refugee crisis,
Immigration”, is a European and American journalist who has reported on the refugee crisis,
foreign fighters in Syria and even the Paris Terror. De Bode expresses that “there was an
overload of focus on Donald Trump’s context when talking about immigration and the Syrian
refugee crisis even though what he said was not fact checked” ( De Bode, 2015 ). The media
outlets that continuously reported on what Trump said wanted him to be of importance because
at the time, he was running for President. When the media focuses on political figures and what
they say about specific problems like the Syrian Refugee Crisis, the media should have double
checked if what was said was correct or not, rather than assume the figure says truth.
If the media reports are not double checked, then reporting what politicians say word for
word leads to significant misrepresentation of the Syrian refugees due to reports containing
factually incorrect pieces. There was actually one other example of the media not double
checking their information from specific sources like well-known sources. This occurred in the
Boston Globe by award winning author and foreign correspondent of over 50 countries, Stephen
Kinzer. He noted that the “Washington Post’s narrative reported that Aleppo has been a
“liberated zone” for a couple of years but now in real trouble”, which is the opposite of what is
actually happening (Kinzer, 2016). This affects the public's opinion of the refugees because now
the American people think Aleppo is not safe anymore all of a sudden, even though the area has
been trying to be a safe zone for its people. That particular media outlet has been known to
sometimes report incorrect statements due to financial pressure and the outlet being based in
Washington DC than in Syria or in neighboring countries. Due to the media being very
prominent in today’s world, all media outlets have a major impact on people’s opinion,
particularly since news is such a necessity in this day and age. The idea of media reports being
the sole source of information for the non-Syrian public along with the fact that they represent
the refugees shows the role media has in news reaching the ears and eyes of the rest of the world.
The Jomec article “British media coverage of refugee and migrant crisis is the most
polarized and aggressive in Europe” by Dr. Mike Berry, supports the idea of how media
reporting on the crisis depicts the refugees incorrectly through the words used and outside
political influence. Berry, who has his doctorate from Cardiff University in journalism, media
and cultural studies points out “that countries like Germany and Sweden have more than 50 % of
their media outlets using the correct term of refugees to refer to the Syrians and that other
countries like Britain and Italy use the word migrant to describe the refugees less than or equal to
50 %.”(Berry, 2016). It does not seem so pertinent in Britain and Italy but, because the idea of
referring to the refugees as migrants even after four years of suffering as this war continues to
drag on, makes the media seem they want to influence the people in a certain way. Berry also
emphasizes that the “ government and political figures affect what the media has to say
pertaining to the Syrian refugee crisis in Sweden, Italy and even the United Kingdom because
most influence came from right wing parties.” (Berry, 2016) This article went further and
expressed that British media were highly aggressive towards the refugees in describing them,
noting how right wing press kept insisting on anti-refugee measures. When the media focuses on
what the politicians or government has to say about the crisis rather than the actual facts of the
Syrian refugee crisis, the people will believe the reports' words and hidden bias is correct.
Additionally, when the media depicts the refugees some do it with very inhumane words that
degrade the refugees further instead of displaying the situation they are in. These different
variations of depiction among the media grossly misrepresent the Syrian refugees when they
need help from all countries. To obtain the help they need, their stories need to make it to the
public without being altered maliciously in order to pander to others or sensationalize them. One
last way the Syrian refugees are wronged by the media is the amount of coverage that can be too
much and too little at the same time, affecting the international portrayal of Syrian refugees.
Amount of Coverage Done
Media outlets have the opportunity to report on whatever major or minor events happen
all throughout the world. But the real question is, when they choose a topic that is a global issue,
would it be better to cover more or less of the situation? The amount of coverage done on the
Syrian refugee crisis has shown such a dilemma, as coverage amount has a clear effect on how
the public views the crisis and the refugees themselves. Joseph Erbentraut, a senior editor of 8
years for the Huffington post explains in “How the Media are Reporting on Europe’s refugee
crisis” the significant issue looming overhead. He provides “that there is a very big abundance of
coverage on the crisis, in fact it might be too much because now the refugees are not really seen
as people in need of help but just another statistic people overlook”, (Erbentraut, 2015). This
reduces the level of importance the disaster in Syria should be getting to the equivalent of a
pamphlet you are handed on the streets about surveys. When the Syrian refugee crisis is covered
too often with the same facts and areas being affected being mentioned time and time again, the
refugees are embodied incorrectly as a dilemma that will never change, even though the issue is
constantly changing and new facts are surfacing. If there is a big news update even, it is
disregarded due to the staggering amount of mass reports on old information. This makes the
public feel like nothing can be done further for Syria and they then stop keeping interest.
Erbentraut emphasizes that the amount of coverage on the Syrian refugee crisis is too
much and is not efficient, exclaiming “an idea that has been overlooked throughout the reports
on the Syrian refugee crisis, is how other countries outside of Syria are dealing with this crisis”
(Erbentraut, 2015). This is a part of the story that as a whole, gets ignored or labeled as irrelevant
information by the mass media. When the media excludes certain parts like this on serious
issues, the public is not fully informed and does not get the whole story, even though such cut
portions can be important to know due to the length of the Syrians' suffering.
In general, not knowing the whole situation
of any issue can give a wrong impression about someone, whether it be good or bad. Erbentraut
thus urges the coverage of this particular topic to be reduced, due to the vast abundance of the
reports, stating that it’s important to focus on obtaining multiple aspect of the whole story rather
than repeating the same parts of the Syrian refugee crisis to the public.
Contrary to half of Erbentraut beliefs, David Gross, a photojournalist of thirty plus years
who specializes in war, human rights, abuse and disasters thinks there should be more coverage
of the Syrian Refugee crisis. He proves this view by expressing that “even though the Syrian
refugee crisis is the largest refugee crisis ever, the world has not been really supportive...when
reporting on specific issues journalism is supposed to make the people care and the situation
better, for the case of the Syrian refugee crisis, it does not seem that way because no help is not
present and the money to help the refugees has not shown itself” (Gross, 2013). Through such a
statement, he is expressing that even though that this crisis has been ongoing for the past five
years it has not been even close to getting resolved. Gross, author of “What I learned about
media after photographing Syrian refugee children”, expresses that even though all these media
sources are reporting on the Syrian refugee crisis, it has not gotten better or received the funds it
needs in order to be fully dissolved. That reason is why Gross decided to do a photography
project instead of another article, as he wanted to cover the Syrian refugee crisis more in a
different way, catching the public’s eye. Gross wants media outlets changing their focus on the
damages and distress of the Syrian refugee crisis to one more about the refugees themselves.
This is explained when he expresses “ reporting on the
Syrian refugee crisis might be better for the refugees especially through photography of the
individual, making the public care shifting their emotions from sympathy to empathy”
(Gross,2013). Hopefully having a new way to present the refugees, the public will think in a
different way. This type of coverage is more focused on the individuals involved in the Syrian
refugee crisis, thus making the readers understand who is truly affected by this long war and
actually embody the refugees well.
In accordance to Erbentraut's plea of coverage on the Syrian refugee crisis to be fully
present and widely representative of the refugees, author Katie Nguyen, a Thomson Reuters
Foundation correspondent, expresses that the coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis should be
whole stories rather than a few parts. Nguyen, author of “Bigotry, panic reflected in media
coverage of migrants and refugees”, expressed that “Starting in Bulgaria to Brazil (worldwide)
journalists fail to express the full story of the idea or topic they are reporting on. A recent study
of media coverage of 14 different countries expressed little resources was the cause for why
media outlets could not provide full stories and emotional reports related to the Syrian refugee
crisis” (Nguyen, 2015). This proves that many media outlets forgo information, not knowing if it
is important or not. Leaving out facts and not telling the whole story due to their lack of
knowledge can easily lead to false accusations and false ideas about specific individuals, their
situation and even their race. Thus when the media continues this form of reporting, they affect
the public’s perception of the refugees based on the information that is being covered. One last
way the media changes the public’s idea of what and who the refugees truly are is through their
specific coverage, only focusing on the background information of this unfolding refugee crisis.
Background Information, does it have relevance?
Most of the public that reads the news every day, will know what the Syrian refugee
crisis is or at least how it all happened because the media continues to provide background
information on the issue. Yet sometimes certain media outlets repeat what other media outlets
say and it just becomes old news that is just repetitive. This is one way where the media gets
away with providing a story to the public that does not have much information because most of it
is the same compared to other news outlets. In the article “How Can NGOS keep Syria’s
refugees in the news? Guest Columnist; an Action Aid communicative executive tells of the
intractable struggle” by Jo Harrison, they note that the media should focus on more than the
background information. Jo Harrison is a communications advisor for ActionAid Arab Region
Initiative and Palestine and is also a freelance television journalist for several UK based
broadcasters. Harrison notes that background information presented on the Syrian refugee crisis
is helpful but media outlets should focus on the suffering of the Syrian people and more uprising
facts that are new than the old facts. This is voiced by her saying “The United Nations can now
announce that over 4 million refugees are displaced outside of Syria. There are currently 1.8
million Syrians in Lebanon, while turkey has 1.7 million, as Jordan shelters 627 Syrian refugees.
This refugee crisis is the worst one ever to occur since World War II. For example the Syrian
refugees are exhausted from the media constantly trying to understand or hear their misery and
mostly upset for no real change of this crisis for the past four years” (Harrison, 2015). If the
media reported more on the refugees themselves then the background information, the public
will understand better what the refugees really need in this tough situation. This excerpt gives the
readers facts about the Syrian refugee crisis but also calls the media out on how they cover the
crisis yet nothing significant has really changed and the Syrians refugees are getting tired of the
media just interviewing them for a story. In Harrison’s opinion, it is actually quite hard for the
media to present the Syrian refugee crisis to the public due to the over-repetition and recurrence
of large amounts of media covering the same facts,
stating that “As the media outlets report
constantly about the Syrian refugee crisis, they now face a fatigued audience, who think the
crisis in the Middle East has no hope to get better or even improve in any way…” (Harrison,
2015). She is reporting that because of the repetition of the same facts in different media outlets
the audience has gotten tired of hearing the same thing, so maybe talking about different or new
facts that happen would make the audience more interested in the Syrian refugee crisis.
Lastly, to support the fact that Harrison thinks that the media does not do a good job of
covering the facts well of the continuing situation in Syria, she expresses that “ due to certain
facts not getting enough media coverage the Syrian refugees look like they are coping with this
whole crisis…” (Harrison, 2015). Once again, the Syrian refugee crisis and the refugees are not
illustrated by the media correctly due to the lack of facts covered, especially by not focusing on
the developing facts. She uses the word coping to infer that due to the presence of old facts that
are being provided by the media, the refugees appear to be doing just fine, a thought which is
disastrously incorrect. Harrison expresses that the media should place their attention and efforts
on covering the true suffering of the Syrian refugees rather than the facts that give background
information, because by this time many reports have been published giving information on the
background information. She says “That Action Aid tries to find the newest and most impressive
statistic to make their next story title. They have brought many celebrities, political figures and
even journalists to tell new and emotional stories of the refugees… The power to change the
crisis at hand only happens when the public sees how tragic this crisis truly is, as they get
updated. So it is her job (Harrison) to enter refugee communities and truly observe and
understand on how it affects the people” (Harrison, 2015). The focus of the media reports should
be new facts about the people that continuously suffer with this crisis as the year passes by.
The idea of focusing on something other than the background facts of the Syrian refugee
crisis is also conveyed in the CNN article “To prevent millions fleeing conflict, we must give
peace its chance” by Neal Keny- Guyer; who has been CEO of Mercy Corps since 1994 and is
also chairman of the board of Inter-Action, the biggest alliance of United States based
international NGOS. He notes that the media should focus more on resolution and global conflict
with the crisis than the background information by mentioning that “The U.N Secretary General
and President Obama have had high-level summits to entice the public about solutions. The
focus on solutions is reasonable and efficient but not enough to actually have the situation
dissolve… the problem of 65 million people fleeing for their lives is not necessarily the media
coverage of the facts from multiple of media sources, it is conflict, specifically global conflict”
(Guyer, 2016). He thus provides that the focus of the media should be on the possibility of
resolution. This displays the fact that the focus of the media currently based on the Syrian
refugee crisis is not efficient because it revolves around a bigger problem that if solved, will help
solve similar problems like the Syrian refugee crisis in the future if they are ever fixed.
In order for the public to believe that the main resolution the US and other countries
should try to achieve, Guyer provides examples where resolution of global conflict has actually
worked in civil wars like the civil war in the Central African Republic “the Mercy Corps worked
with the community leaders and the younger people of each side to establish peace building
skills and provide connection between the biggest cities which ended up resulting in 200 militia
fighters becoming disarmed” (Guyer,2016 ). This excerpt gives hope that if the media focused
more on the possibility of a solution and even look back on past problems related to the Syrian
refugee crisis, then there is a chance of the whole crisis getting resolved. The example provided
proves that when the media and the people focused more on the bigger problem which Guyer
expresses is global conflict, then it is possible that the Syrian refugee crisis will actually be
diminished or at least move in a positive direction with less suffering and less people having to
flee for their life. Guyer emphasizes the idea that to focus more on global conflict by
“peacebuilding and conflict confrontation actually gives results. It is truly worth the expense.
The knowledge and amount we can handle is provided so why are we not trying to give peace its
true chance” (Guyer 2016). He is stating that there is a solution of peace that has been ignored
due to over coverage of background facts and old facts. Peace building is one possible solution
that has not been given much thought due to the over coverage of old facts and no fixation on the
people being truly affected in this situation, the Syrian refugees.
Conclusion
The representation of the Syrian refugee crisis and its refugees is covered from head to
toe by multiple of media outlets and news stations, yet almost half of the world has no coherent
idea that this crisis is still continuing and that too many people are still pleading for help without
much hope. It should be the media’s objective to cover the Syrian refugee crisis fully and
truthfully, to provide more coverage focusing on the refugees and possible solutions.
This global issue should
matter to the world because too many people continue to suffer. The media can help make this
crisis get the right attention it so dearly needs to reduce or even fully dissolve the suffering of the
Syrian refugee crisis. The media plays the important role of informing the public and embodying
the refugees as they are currently suffering and emphasize what the world could do to truly help
the Syrian refugees when they are in the time of need. Due to the significant roles the media play
in providing information about the Syrian refugee crisis, they need to be able to represent the
Syrian refugees properly and accurately. Without such coverage, the suffering human beings of
Syria that need the world to turn its head and care will be let down and will lose their lives in the
process.
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