Page - 76 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Petra Herczeg | Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Austria 76 3.1 Migrants in the Media Xenophobia has become a major issue in the media, after initial moves in this direction were undertaken by the right-wing Freedom Party and then popularized by the Neue Kronen Zeitung, a tabloid that has the highest circulation of all of the newspapers in Austria (the Neue Kronen Zeitung is read by 43.8 percent of all Austrians of age 14 and older – a total readership of 3,031,000). Surveys indicate that even today somewhat diffuse attitudes towards “foreigners” among the Austrian public remain and that migrants are primarily perceived “as a problem”. A new discourse has appeared in the mass media: “…different migrant groups were portrayed as a threat to the social system, to security, and the economic stability of Austria. The stereotypes created in the early 1990s were still prevalent in today’s newspapers and broadcasts.” (Joskowicz, EUMC1 2002, 311). This discourse was dominated by references to economic arguments (“Wirtschaftsflüchtlinge”) and during the Bosnian war in 1993 the Neue Kronen Zeitung reported “primarily about the discussion about refugees in Austrian politics and the impact that the refugees would have on the economy, and did not consider the perspectives of refugees at all” (Joskowicz, EUMC 2002, 318). In 1993, the Freedom Party’s anti-immigrant petition (“Österreich zuerst” – “Austria first”) was propagated by the tabloid Neue Kronen Zeitung. The quality press opposed the petition. One typical way this tabloid engaged in opinion making can be seen in the fact that it practically ignored one of the largest demonstrations ever held in Austria, the “Lichtermeer” (“Sea of lights”) against the FPÖ anti-foreigner campaign. As mentioned above, immigration from Turkey and also from African and Asian countries increased simultaneously with a third phase of migration. This led to further stereotypical reporting on migrants’ issues and to corresponding perceptions on the part of the general public. In her comparative analysis (“Alte und neue Minderheiten - zum Einstellungswandel in Österreich 1984 – 1998”), Hilde Weiss demonstrates that the category of “Ausländer”/ “foreigners” is very imprecise, as foreigners can be “illegal aliens, refugees, persons working in Austria for shorter or longer periods, with or without Austrian citizenship, immigrants of the first, second or third generation, tourists, Europeans or only non-Europeans coming from the western hemisphere or elsewhere, etc.” (Weiss 2000, 26). Furthermore, the EUMC Report demonstrates that at the end of the 1990s, mainly black migrants have been reported on in a negative way, primarily as drug traffickers and in connection with other drug-related crimes. 1 EUMC was renamed in March 2007 in EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and is based in Vienna.