Page - 216 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Svetlana Serebryakova | Issues of Migration 216 From there it can be concluded that certain efforts of assimilation are expected of migrants. In general, media content regarding their traditions, religion, and culture is being verbalized in a positive way. County-newspapers also publish official statements of the public admi- nistration. These are oftentimes official greetings on public holidays. Repre- sentatives of the different administrative offices repeatedly declare the need for peace and friendship among the different Caucasian nations – even though they hardly ever mention the matter of migration in their official speeches and greetings, as our analysis shows. Another characteristic of the county press is related to its traditional focus on personality, a focus on the people that are of special importance and interest for the development and history of the county – to be read in emo- tional portraits and life stories. (Mostly successful) migrants and refugees can be among the “heroes” in these emotional reports as well, because their fate is unique, dramatic and interesting. They are being portrayed as people who subdued their fate, successfully reassembling their life in a new place and under new conditions. Without question, this kind of reporting can be seen as an important contri- bution of county-journalists to the building of a positive migrant image: the media is qualified to affect their readers emotions, evoking sympathy for their heroes. But in the total amount of material, this kind of publication makes up for a very little part. Regional and city-press declares the intercultural dialogue of members of al nationalities to be of great importance, and it also sees public dialogue on a national level to be of great importance for the integration of the respective migrant groups. But our analysis shows regional as well as city press not to pay a great deal of attention to issues and problems of migration, even though the subject matter is not avoided. But informative and analytical reports on migration issues can be found on this level – indicating that journalists and newspaper offices have realized the topicality and importance of migration matters. The newspapers “Stavropol’skaya pravda”, “Stavropol’skie gubernskie vedomosti”, “Otkrytaya dlia vsekh i kazhdogo” often publish information and comments on migration-related conflicts. Most frequently migrants themselves and members of the authorities represent the parties of the dispute. This is along the lines of press guidelines to defend the average citizen in his or her dispute with administration officials. Where the former is often portrayed as hard-working and decent, the latter in many cases is depicted as mercenary. You may take the article “Disguised Schemes” as an example: Reporting on current issues of city planning in Stavropol, the city newspaper “Otkrytaya dlia vsekh i kazhdogo” gives the floor to a refugee, telling of his law suit with “russian bureaucracy” – a preamble tells of his fate, his escape with children