Was Lampedusa a key event for immigration news? An analysis of the effects of the Lampedusa disaster on immigration coverage in Germany, Belgium, and Italy

In the current paper, we investigate how the Lampedusa shipwreck disaster in October 2013 affected newspaper coverage in three European countries (Belgium, Germany, and Italy). Based on data from a quantitative comparative content analysis, we conclude that Lampedusa can be regarded a key event for immigration coverage, but only in Italy, where journalists devoted a considerable amount of attention to the disaster. We also find that the structure and the general tone of immigration coverage changed after the event. However, those changes were only short-termed and immigration coverage quickly returned to its routine level.

Publication year:2020

Keywords:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:yes

BOF-publication weight:1

CSS-citation score:1

Authors:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open