A rather wild imagination : who is and who is not a migrant in the Czech media and society?

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F22%3A00126283" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/22:00126283 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01240-2" target="_blank" >http://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01240-2</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01240-2" target="_blank" >10.1057/s41599-022-01240-2</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

A rather wild imagination : who is and who is not a migrant in the Czech media and society?

Original language description

This paper focuses on migrants and migration in the context of the Czech Republic, an ethnically and nationally homogeneous country without significant migration experience. Despite this fact, the issue of migration became very prominent in 2015 and has been an integral part of Czech political and public discourse since then. Although the topic has attracted scholarly interest, but the reflection on migrant images held by citizens has been omitted. To fill this gap, first, we conducted a quantitative computer-assisted content analysis of the main Czech media (2015–2018) to investigate how important the issue of migration was and in what context migrants and migration were discussed in the media. We then conducted a series of focus groups with Czech citizens to answer not only how they perceived migrants and migration in general, but also how they perceived the (quality of) media coverage of this issue. The findings offer insight into patterns of media consumption: Our respondents were well aware that media representation of the topic is exaggerated and does not include all possible points of view. The prevailing perception was that the mostly negative media representation was fixated on the image of a migrant coming from the Middle East, most likely to be a terrorist who is not going to adapt to a “normal” life in the Czech Republic. Indeed, the very term migrant is mainly associated with someone who, according to the mental projections of the respondents, is “different” at first sight, fails to fit in and integrate into the majority society, does not look for work thus becoming dependent on the social system of the host country. In other words, for Czechs, people who come to settle and work are excluded from the socially constructed category of migrants.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50601 - Political science

Project

—

Continuities

V - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z jinych verejnych zdroju

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

ISSN

2662-9992

e-ISSN

2662-9992

Volume of the periodical

9

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

14

Pages from-to

1-14

UT code for WoS article

000825334500001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85133579966