Page - 215 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Svetlana Serebryakova | Issues of Migration 215 vedomosti” is again being published (since 1992), and so is “Pyatigorskaya pravda” (since 1995). The newspaper “Rodina” (KPRF, Communist Party of the Russian Federation) represents the party press. On the sector of private media there are mainly weekly newspapers – with the exception of two daily newspapers. Highest circulations in the Stavropol’ area can be found among the weekly advertisement-papers on the news-sector: “Ekstra-biznes”, “Telekur’er”, “Kavkazkaja nedel’ya”, the daily district newspaper “Stavro- pol’skaya pravda”, the city newspapers “Vechernii Stavropol’”, “Pyatigorskaya pravda”, the county newspapers “Rassvet” (Turkmensky County), “Blagodar- nenskie vesti” (Blagodarnensky County), “Primanychskie stepi” (Apanasen- kovsky County). Matters of general social importance are subject of journalistic interest mainly in the general newspapers of the majority – special interest media looks at the respective subject matter from its special interest point of view. Accordingly, our sample to study the characteristics of journalistic description of migration processes and issues consists of regional-, city- and county- newspapers – different levels of media reporting, where different attitudes towards the subject matter can be observed. Traditional and conservative is the coverage of issues of migration in county newspapers: Being published with 4-8 pages (3 of which contain journalistic material, the others advertisements, TV program etc.) once or twice a week, those publications aim at close contact to their readers, supplying them with information on local issues of their county. In doing so they focus on the activities of communal authorities, reporting on their sanctions and measures taken in order to solve migration-related problems. A news report in the county-newspaper “Levokum’e” (April 7th, 2007) can be seen as an example: “On Migration and Security Measures” it says in the headline of the article, reporting on a meeting of the county council of economic and social security that discussed processes of migration in the Levokumsky County. In his article the journalist discusses several key issues related to migration: its uncontrolled development, its evocation of socio- economic and ecological chance in the Levokumsky County: The newcomers do not make an effort to get to know existing traditions, customs and conventions of the residing population, their behavior oftentimes attests to their depreciative relationship to the residing population. Should not the migrants be thankful to the residing population, that a higher educational level in new living conditions is being granted to them, and that they get the opportunity to be proficient in the use of the national language.