Media representation of the "refugee crisis" in the Hungarian and Austrian media

The importance of media representation of complex issues has been well established in social sciences. The media representations, in certain cases, create discourses and narratives, which can significantly influence public opinion. There is anecdotal evidence of such significant and considerably diverse narratives and discourses in the case of the current “refugee crisis”, but no systematic research has been done to showcase these different discourses. This projects aims to demonstrate the mainstream media discourses in two EU member states affected in the recent refugee crisis.

The comparative content analysis focuses on key events that triggered significant and contrasting political discourses and their media coverage for 3 days following there significant events:

-The “ghost van” – a van with dead bodies of 71 refugees found on the sideway of A1 motorway in Austria (27.08.2015)
-The "march of hope" - the march of refugees from Keleti station, Budapest towards the western border of Hungary (04.09.2015)
- The closing of the Hungarian-Serbian border with wired fence (15.09.2015)

The analysis includes the following media outlets in both countries: two political print dailies: one right-wing and one left-wing - with the largest readership; one internet news portal with the largest readership; one tabloid; and two television evening news programs: the public service and the commercial channel with the largest audience.