The Narrative of Lampedusa - Mediated mobilities reflected in social structures

In the mediated narrative about Lampedusa as a destination, the tourist’s mobility is indicating consumption. The recommendation of a boat ride off Lampedusa’s coast to best experience/consume Lampedusa’s beauty, stands in great contrast to the boat rides in the narrative of the mobility of the migrant/refugee. This research is investigating the mediation and mobility processes working in the narrative of Lampedusa’s social structures as a destination for the two human mobility categories the Tourist and the Migrant/Refugee. Mediated material concerning the two categories of human mobility, the tourist and the migrant/refugee has been collected on the Internet. Material from two tourist destination communication platforms is illustrating the mobility of the tourist and the narrative of Lampedusa as a tourist destination. While material from two humanitarian-aid communication platforms serve to illustrate the narrative of the mobility of the migrant/refugee and of the humanitarian crisis at the destination and its surrounding waters. In order to a get fuller understanding of the mediated narrative of Lampedusa I have added articles from English and Italian speaking online news channels. The included material is selected following a non-probability, purposive sampling method. The result of the study demonstrates that by maintaining the meditated narrative of the tourist as a consumer, the mobility of the tourist is weakening the mobility of the migrant/refugee. And the narrative of Lampedusa is reinforcing the social power structures of the tourist from the Global North and the migrant/refugee from the Global South, as a representation of the political and moral consensus of postcolonialism