The influence of media narratives on political debate: narratives on the 2015 migrant ‘crisis’ in five European countries

Abstract

It is widely recognised that migration narratives in the media and in party political debate are mutually constitutive, shaping one another in complex ways. This creates challenges in understanding the direction of influence across the two spheres. In this article, we introduce a methodology that helps identify how narratives circulate between the media and party-political debate. We apply this to analyse coverage of the migrant ‘crisis’ in the summer of 2015. Building on the framework proposed by Jones and MacBeth (2010), we offer a systematic comparison of narrative components in the media and political debate in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK over this period. Combined with interviews, this comparison of narrative development and diffusion allows us to draw insights into media influence. We find that during a particular window of opportunity, media narratives appear to have had an impact on political debate, reinforcing and strengthening more welcoming approaches, at least in this initial phase of the crisis. We find that media influence was most pronounced in determining the emotive elements of the narrative (victims, villains and heroes of the story) rather than in influencing the proposed remedies or policy solutions.