This editorial serves as an introduction to Media and Communication’s thematic issue “Media and Migration in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Discourses, Policies, and Practices in Times of Crisis.” This... Show more This editorial serves as an introduction to Media and Communication’s thematic issue “Media and Migration in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Discourses, Policies, and Practices in Times of Crisis.” This thematic issue presents a space for discussion on ways in which digital infrastructures and media have an impact on understandings and experiences of migration during the pandemic. The seven articles in this volume offer an integrated account of this issue from many empirical studies adopting a multi-actor perspective while also involving different methodologies and cross-cultural and interdisciplinary frameworks. The contributions featured in this thematic issue shed new light on the role of mediated processes and discourses around migration and may be of assistance to understanding the opportunities and challenges of leveraging media technologies to promote inclusive, sustainable, and meaningful participation and representation of migrants beyond the pandemic. Show less
Journalism, both as a profession and as a practice, is changing rapidly. Technologies inside the newsroom are mutating, and journalistic practices, norms, and values are being reshaped with them.... Show moreJournalism, both as a profession and as a practice, is changing rapidly. Technologies inside the newsroom are mutating, and journalistic practices, norms, and values are being reshaped with them. Drawing on seven months of ethnographic fieldwork in Chile, including participant observation, I argue that the introduction of certain digital technologies has transformed journalists’ ability to negotiate editorial values. Media professionals are increasingly feeling trapped into routines established by third-party platforms. The conclusions suggest that the way newsrooms approach new digital technologies have created a lack of harmony in the way journalists are expected to work, the topics they are expected to cover, and the journalistic values they hold true. Show less
Integration is a highly contested concept within the field of migration. However, a well-established view of the concept draws from underpinning migration and refugee theories, in which integration... Show moreIntegration is a highly contested concept within the field of migration. However, a well-established view of the concept draws from underpinning migration and refugee theories, in which integration is seen as a dynamic, multidimensional, and two-way process of adaptation to a new culture and that takes place over time. Most studies have focused on the integration perspective of host societies, in particular how governments’ understandings of belonging shape legal frameworks of rights and citizenship and their impact on the process of integration itself. With a focus on refugee migration to the Netherlands, this study analyzes the newcomers’ perspectives and experiences of integration and information in the host society, as well as the role of digital media technologies and networks in mediating this relationship. Building on policies and refugee migrant interviews, the article sketches out the ongoing dynamics of social capital during refugees’ adaptation processes in the country and puts forward a perception of the role of media in the integration act. Show less