Chapter Six: Discussion and Conclusions
3. Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research
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2. Contributions of the Study
The study generates few insights to the academic discussion. Firstly, it gives a systematic elaboration of the current refugee crisis in the German news media because there has not been much research to date. The findings demonstrate a generally negative
representation of the refugee crisis in Deutsche Welle, while it also reveals that the German media reports on various aspects of the issue probably due to the nation’s Nazi history during World War Ⅱ.
Secondly, contrary to the popular quantitative studies on audience perception today, the study takes the qualitative approach to see how the local citizens as well as international students respond to the news effects. This study found that people’s attitudes toward refugees are formed by news, their logic, what other people say, and their personal experiences. Their personal experiences usually help counteract the negative impressions of refugees. However, the effects of news portrayals sometimes exceed that of experiences, especially when facing the safety issue. The study reveals a continued negotiation between the news and the
audiences.
In addition, the findings demonstrate the similar portrayals between Deutsche Welle and other news media. The study therefore suggests that the phenomenon of “intermedia convergence” exists in news media regarding the current refugee issue.
3. Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research
Due to the limitation of German language skills, the study only examines one of the only two English news media in Germany, namely the Deutsche Welle’s online English website. Owing to the official role of being Germany’s international broadcaster, the Deutsche Welle online English website does not represent the German news in general.
Therefore this study is hardly able to establish a causal relationship between the news impacts and the audience perceptions.
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For future studies I suggest a broader examination on the German local news media and some international news media, such as BBC and New York Times, because international students tend to consume these well-known global news media instead of Deutsche Welle. By examining the news articles in these media, the researcher can then draw a clearer
relationship between the news and the readers.
Furthermore, the study could only recruit three European students in the focus group interviews, falling short of the minimum numbers the academic discipline requires. This can result in a problem when representing the European students in general.
Lastly, the study only recruits students who hold rather positive attitudes toward refugee issue. This was not what I expected before conducting this research. I had tried to invite some friends whom I knew shared negative opinions on the refugee issue, all of them rejected me because at the time they were not permitted or they were not willing to share their opinions with others. The lack of these participants could lead to a biased result in the study. Therefore, I suggest future researchers to try to include participants with negative opinions. A group discussion restricted to people with similar attitudes or a one-to-one discussion would probably arouse the people’s interests in the study.
In addition, the discussions with the students generate some interesting findings which are not in the scope of this thesis but still worth the attention of future studies. For example, the findings reveal that students from different countries and cultures would have various experiences. In this study, it shows that German students and some European students tended to take part in voluntary works more regularly. The variance in their cultural backgrounds might lead to the diversified experiences people encountered. I suggest to future researchers that they could explore how cultural factors affect audience interpretations regarding refugee issue.
Furthermore, previous research mainly focused on how the local people perceive the
“others” through the news representations of immigration. This study, however, reveals that
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refugees also learn from these news portrayals to understand how the locals perceive them and thus put some distance between themselves and the locals. It appears that news portrayals would widen the gap between local citizens and refugees, departing from its original mission to improve mutual understanding. Such gap might exist in relationships between host
countries and immigration or foreigners as well. I therefore encourage future studies to pay more attention to how migrants or refugees decode the news texts regarding immigration issue.
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1. Politician/ Officials/ Government and government report
3. Migrant/ Refugee/ Asylum seeker 1. Yes
6. Other experts (Academia, Religion etc.) 1. Yes
2. No
Frequencies of labels used to depict the displaced people
The terms should refer to the displaced people from Middle East and North Africa coming to Europe and should exclude some general terms such as “immigration law,”
“migration debate,” or “migration office”.
Some specific words, such as grant “asylum,”
PEGIDA’s “anti-foreigner movement,” and AfD’s anti-immigrant policy should not be included either.
1. Refugee/ Asylum seeker 2. Migrant/ Immigrant
3. Foreigner
Themes in the coverage
Please choose the main themes in the news articles. Main themes usually appear in the titles and leads. There could be more than one theme in each article. Note that the background information which is often referred to in the last two paragraphs should be excluded.
Burden on administration, welfare and job market
Topics include “the arriving people have led to the administrative burdens” or “we cannot deal with so many people coming to the country”.
1. Yes 2. No
Discussion on the cultural difference, security threat and problems that arriving people brought to the host society
1. Yes 2. No
The need for “immigration control”
The article shows the need for implementing “border checks” or
“deportation” policies because of the arriving people and refusing more refugees entry the country.
1. Yes 2. No
Problems faced by asylum seekers Topics include the terrible living condition in refugee shelter or their home countries,
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their journey to safe countries, and the deportation situation because their country is categorized as “safe country.”
1. Yes 2. No
Contribution of immigration Topics include refugees successfully integrate to the host society.
1. Yes 2. No
Stories about helping refugees/
Appealing for “Willkommenkultur”, solidarity, and responsibility to help refugees
Topics include calling for openness and tolerance, but exclude calling for European solution.
1. Yes 2. No
The blame of Cologne sexual assault should not be generalized to all of the refugees and immigrants
Topics include warning the public against placing blame on the immigrants,
foreigners, Muslim culture, or the country of origin.
1. Yes 2. No