Victimhood and Charity: A discourse analysis of Ukrainian refugees in Dutch news media
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2024-06-27
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en
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This dissertation analyses how discourse around Ukrainian refugees is created in Dutch news media. Forty-six images, taken from the tag ‘Ukrainians Fleeing’ on the Dutch news channel NOS, have been analysed using theories of framing, representation and stranger fetishism alongside sources analysing media representation of the refugee ‘crisis’ of 2015. The photos have been divided into three categories: the first Ukrainians by themselves, to analyse how they are represented, then the response to the fleeing Ukrainians, to see how Europe represents itself, and lastly images where the Ukrainian and European aid interact, to see how their identity is established in an encounter. By close reading and discourse analysis is revealed that Ukrainians are passivated and infantilised, and so subject to victimisation. Europe’s response to this victimisation is to resolve the lacks created in the representation of Ukrainian refugees, and provides charitable humanitarian aid. This leads to Europe using the victimhood of Ukrainian refugees to establish itself as a benevolent saviour.
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