The European Refugee Crisis Discourse in the Spanish Press: Mapping Humanization and Dehumanization Frames Through Metaphors

Authors

  • Marta Montagut Universitat Rovira i Virgili
  • Carlota M. Moragas-Fernández Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Keywords:

refugee crisis, metaphorical framing, critical metaphor analysis, Europe, Spain, Spanish media, migration

Abstract

The European refugee crisis has a central role in media and political narratives about migration these days. By applying critical metaphor analysis, this article explores how the Spanish press framed the crisis using metaphors in 2015, 2016, and 2017. The evolution of the different ways of conceptualizing migrants and European policies shows two metaphorical frames: the dehumanization frame, where refugees are a natural disaster/mass water or objects/goods, and the humanization frame, where migrants are positively framed as travelers, but also negatively, as troublemakers. Spain as a political actor has no agency till 2016 and 2017, when it is portrayed under the living thing source domain, mainly in a negative way. It is concluded the way in which the refugee crisis is framed is in line either with EU relocation or resettlement policies and points out the connection between language and policy.

Author Biographies

Marta Montagut, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Marta Montagut Calvo is senior lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain). She is a member of Asterisc Communication Research Group. She has specialized in the relationship between politics and journalism, political communication and news radio production. She also works on media frame analysis and critical metaphor analysis as well as on the field of memory and postmemory in audiovisual production in Spain. 

Carlota M. Moragas-Fernández, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Carlota M. Moragas-Fernández is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Communication Studies of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain). She is a member of Asterisc Communication Research Group. Her research focuses on the role metaphor plays on political and media discourses. She also studies how the interaction provided by the 2.0 environment has changed the dynamics of action of political parties regarding citizenship.

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Published

2020-01-01

Issue

Vol. 14 (2020)

Section

Articles

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