Cartoon representations of the migrant crisis in Greek new media

The increasing and irregular flow of migrants in Europe had lead to an unprecedented crisis which European and International stakeholders have been struggling to manage in a challenging context of financial insecurity, political instability, fragile foreign relations and controversial steps and policies. This current context questions Europe’s image as a powerful global key-player and a civilized privileged space/entity and also shutters migrants’ dreams and illusions of a promise-land. Inevitably, the migrant crisis has emerged as top news in most old and new media around Europe and extensive coverage of the topic has been informing the audience almost on a daily basis. Of course, cartoonists have been affected and inspired by the situation, as well. In a time period of twelve months, from April 2015 to March 2016, in Greek new media alone, three hundred and seven cartoons were published on the topic. This project set out to examine the cartoons published in new media over the allocated time period in order to find out what were the main foci of the artists’ attention in relation to the migration crisis and how they related to domestic and international political affairs and further international interests by major stakeholders. It also explored the way immigrants have been depicted, the way Europe is depicted as a promise-land, how all involved stakeholders have handled the crisis and the artists’ degree of active judgment or influence. A mixed research method, combining content analysis, which falls into the realm of quantitative research methods, with elements of psychoanalysis and social semiotics, which observe matters, analyse the visual and critically interpret it was employed. Results showed that the migrant crisis was a favorable topic for Greek cartoonists publishing in Greek new media. They explored the topic from various aspects, including politics, values, everyday life, religion, war and art, shifting from mockery and heavy criticism to sympathy, guilt and a sense of worry about the fellow human depending on their personal political orientation and the aspect of the topic they were commenting on. Evidently, the migrant crisis is a strong humanitarian crisis placing a bomb to fundamental and consolidated values, policies and relations among all stakeholders