Revista Română de Sociologie (May 2013)
Discourse Representations of Migrants in Political Talk-Shows in Romania
Abstract
In this study, we analyse the way in which talk-shows in Romania build upon intra-EU migration as a public issue. According to one of the research hypotheses, the topic of new migration is strategically used in the public environment, determining the taking of positions, agendas and forms of institutionalisation. The semiotic and discourse analysis of a corpus of political talk-shows broadcast in the period 2010-2011 by Romanian TV stations specialising in news and socio-political debates highlights discourse strategies that are relevant for the media construction of public issues in talk-shows. The article shows that in talks-shows migrants are represented "globally", from the perspective of categories of persons that can contribute to a competitive national image. Migrants become visible through their performances in the host country and, as a result, the moral distance from them becomes apparent through a politics of visibility (hence the visibility of mythical migration, of high-performance migration, etc.). Talk-shows do not present the issue of the Diaspora experience, namely of the position of migrants with respect to forms of otherness, cooperation or solidarity.
