Browsing by Author "Brunell, Eva"

This thesis investigates how four newspapers in Finland, two Finnish-language newspapers and two Swedish-language newspapers, describe the effects asylum seekers have on Finnish society. The newspapers included in the study are Helsingin Sanomat, Hufvudstadsbladet, Keskisuomlainen and Vasabladet. In addition to studying how the news media frame the consequences of taking in asylum seekers, I also compare if there are any differences between how the Swedish-language newspapers and the Finnish-language newspapers report on these issues. The reviewed time period is the year of 2017. This is an interesting period because the number of asylum seekers arriving to Finland had stabilized, after the dramatic increase in 2015. At this time, the news media put much focus on the consequences that followed, such as demonstrations both against and for asylum seeker rights as well as the discussions about what to do with the people who were not permitted to stay in the country. Illuminating how the news media describe the effects asylum seekers have on society is relevant because there are voices accusing the news media of being uncritical when it comes to asylum seekers and ignoring the negative effects this kind of immigration might create. The debate about asylum seekers is very polarised and the arguments are often based on feelings and prejudice. To enable a constructive discussion about this subject, we need knowledge about what the news coverage really looks like. This information is important to the public debate as well as to the journalists reporting on these issues. To find out how the news media picture the effects asylum seekers have on society, I have studied to what extent the four newspapers use nine different frames. Five of these frames describe asylum seekers as a problem for society, while four frames describe them as a resource. The result shows that news media in Finland describe the effects of asylum seekers as something negative to a much higher extent than as something positive. The most frequently used frames describe asylum seekers as if they contribute to crime and weaken social cohesion. Swedish-language newspapers do not rapport about negative effects of asylum seekers as often as Finnish-language newspapers. However, neither do they write about positive effects as often as the Finnish-language newspapers do.