What a difference does time make? Framing media discourse on refugees and migrants in Croatia in two periods

Abstract

Media framing of Othered groups has become an important area of research in sociology and political science. This paper focuses on analysing media discourse on refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in Croatia in 2015-2016 and in 2018. Taking into account the media framing theory as the main theoretical underpinning of our research, the content analysis was used to gather data. The focus is on four daily newspapers in their printed versions in two periods, corresponding with terms of two ideologically different governments. Articles are used as units of analysis. While the predominant frame in both periods remained neutral, as per norms of journalistic profession, the change in ideological stance of the government - from social democrats, who put humanitarian elements first, to conservatives, whose focus was security-based – coincided with the relative rise in the number of articles with a negative portrayal of the migrant issue.