The Construction of Migrants’ Images in the Russian Media

Abstract

In this article, we examine the representation of cross-border labour migrants in the Russian media. The study was conducted in 2005–2015. During the first stage of the project, the regional press was studied by means of the qualitative content analysis. During the second stage, attention was focused on television, which has a more significant impact on the distribution and imposition of images of migrants than the press or the Internet. We analyze the news format, as well as the formats of talk show and comedy show. The main methodological framework is critical discourse analysis. We argue that television, as the most influential source of information, constructs different images of migrants through the different formats used, with negatively colored images clearly predominating. Common to these images are gender, age, ethnic, and class stereotyping, a limited set of life contexts, as well as depersonalization and passivity.