Page - 50 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Heinz Bonfadelli | Media Use of Ethnic Minority Youth 50 Immigrants still using their homeland media in their language of origin are regarded as not integrated and labeled as separatists in the typology of Adoni et al. (2002) and are still considered bonded to the culture of origin. This general assumption of the mass media’s positive integration function for migrants has at least been further differentiated or even put to question by various middle-range theories that attempt to explain the possible effects of mass communication in general or, in particular, in the migration context in detail, and that have been empirically tested (Bonfadelli 2004). Both agenda- setting theory and the media-framing perspective postulate that media coverage focusing on controversial or negative incidents or key events like 9/11 in New York in 2001 or the attacks by skinheads and neo-Nazis on asylum centers in Hoyerswerda (17.9.1991) can represent migrants as a problem or threat to society and influence the public agenda in this way (Brosius/Eps 1993; Scheufele/Brosius 1999). This applies especially when migrants are framed negatively and in a stereotyped way, as many content analyses demonstrate (Greenberg et al. 2002, on the German media see Müller 2005a). Another problem are the long-term media effects of the widespread and constant use of metaphors and phrases with negative connotations like “the boat is full” and “floods of refugees” or “Islamic terrorism” etc. that delegitimize the minority groups themselves (Poole 2000; Schiffer 2005). Critical discourse analysts like Teun van Dijk (1991) postulate increasing racism in society as a result of such media content. Cultivation theory takes as its starting point the results of such content analyses and claims that television cultivates stereotyped images of minority groups in the long term, especially in the minds of so-called ‘heavy viewers’ (Gerbner et al. 2002). These ‘mainstream’ perceptions of social reality can even lead to an increased fear concerning minority groups. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that debates on national identity in Europe or America are not new or unique and that foreigners or minority groups in general have always been regarded suspiciously by the dominant majority groups, even without the influence of media coverage (e.g. Huntington 2004). Furthermore, since most empirical surveys are not longitudinal, but, instead, based on just one point in time, there is a methodological problem involved in demonstrating causality between media use and media effects as dependent variables. From the uses and gratifications perspective, the supposed media effects like social integration can also be interpreted as independent variables. In other words, it is not clear whether better social integration is really the result of media use or if preferred use of domestic media is the result of a higher level of social integration.