From Words to Wire: Targeting Migrants as Sources and Carriers of COVID-19 Virus infection

Pandemija virusa COVID-19 podsjetila je javnost širom svijeta da su mnogi masovni mediji posebno u kriznim situacijama podložni zloupotrebama. Osim lažnih vijesti, teorija zavjera i masovne histerije koja se širila u medijskom diskursu, nezaobilazno su se na meti medijskih optužbi i sumnji našli migranti i izbjeglice širom svijeta. Predrasude, stereotipi i uopće vrlo kruti i netolerantni modeli mišljenja transparentirali su se u odnosu spram građana azijskog porijekla, muslimana, Židova. U bosanskohercegovačkim medijima posebno su negativno bili predstavljeni ljudi u pokretu, građani čiji je “goli život” (Agamben) stavljen van pravnog okvira, a tako i van okvira novinarskog profesionalizma. Pokrenuti su antimigrantski orijentirani web portali, vođena je antimigrantska kampanja kroz članke koji su korištenjem metafora, različitih tehnika pristranosti, logičkih pogrešaka, nametali poželjna viđenja nepoželjnih „drugih”. U ovom radu analizirali smo lažne vijesti kreirane o migrantima i izbjeglicama kao opasnim prenosiocima zaraze, tekstove na portalima orijentiranim na pisanje protumigrantskih tekstova, članke mainstream portala u Bosni i Hercegovini o migracijama. Koristili smo kritičku analizu medijskog diskursa, anlizirali smo upotrijebljene metafore, logičke greške i druge tehnike pristranog izvještavanja. Za postavljanje teorijskog dijela koristili smo djela Teuna van Dijka o kritičkoj analizi diskursa, Georgija Agambena o svetom životu i tankoj granici između života izvan prava i smrti, analizom logičkih pogrešaka Predraga Stojadinovića, tehnikama pristranog izvještavanja koje objašnjava Najil Kurtić.The pandemic of COVID-19 virus has reminded the public around the world that mass media are vulnerable to manipulation, especially in crisis situations. Except fake news, conspiracy theories and mass hysteria spreading in media discourse, especially migrants and refugees around the world have been targeted by media accusations and suspicions. Prejudice, stereotypes and generally very rigid and intolerant models of opinion have been transparented in relation to citizens of Asian descent, Muslims, Jews. Migrants and refugees, citizens whose “bare life” (Agamben) was placed outside the legal framework, and thus outside the framework of journalistic professionalism, were particularly negatively portrayed in the Bosnian media. Many anti-immigrant web portals In Bosnia were launched, an anti-immigrant campaign was conducted through articles that, through metaphors, bias, and logical errors, imposed desirable views of undesirable „others.” In this paper, we have analyzed fake news created about migrants and refugees as dangerous transmitters of infection, texts about migrants and refugees on portals oriented towards writing anti-migrant texts, articles of the mainstream portals in Bosnia and Herzegovina about people on the move. We used critical analysis of media discourse, analyzed metaphors which were used, logical errors and other techniques of partisan reporting. To set up the theoretical framework, we used the works of Teun van Dijk on critical discourse analysis, Georgio Agamben on sacred life and the thin line between life outside of law and death, Predrag Stojadinović’s analysis of logical errors, biased reporting techniques explained by Najil Kurtić