The issue 82 of Africa e Mediterraneo wants to investigate the challenges brought about by media and political communication, considering as focuses of analysis the communication processes within the European society (both of local media and migrants’ initiatives) and those activated in the African Countries, being aware that the circulation of ideas, images and cultural practices is more and more leading to a growing deterritorialization of the media and their messages and to the consequential crossing of national borders.

Argument

Since a long time, the media studies have been investigating the representation of migrants and asylum seekers provided by the European media. These researches have shed light on the distortions, the omissions and the tones of emergency and exceptionality that are usually used to depict such topics, failing to create public awareness on the need to manage the migratory issue as a structural, integral element of society.

In this regard, Italy represents indeed a particularly interesting example of the diffusion of such kind of media representation, due to its position at the “European borders” and the consequential recurrent and growing arrivals of migrants on the Italian shores. However, it is important to remark that during the last years the “migrants scare” discourse has been abandoned by the Italian Institutions; thanks to that, and probably also to the impressive job of many professionals operating in the field, the language of the media sounds more moderate and correct.

Also in other European Countries, researches have been conducted on the “migrant scare” discourse, while, at the same time, some organizations have started to wonder about the real efficacy of some humanitarian campaigns portraying asylum seekers and migrants as speechless and helpless victims. The reiteration on the media of such images would strengthen, in their words, the idea of migrants as “others” and different. 

During the last years, these topics have enjoyed particular success thanks to the diffusion of social media, whose use is in fact ambivalent since their multiplier effect can be used to disseminate both chocking, negative media contents (by terrorists, for instance) and positive examples of civic engagement, investigative journalism, etc.

Thanks to such technological innovations, students, civil society leaders, artists and citizens in Africa had the chance to develop new ways to communicate and to vehicle their protests. The new evolutions of the media have also increased the opportunities for the migrants to voice their requests and needs, and it is in this new enlarged public space that the representations of how the “others” perceive the Europeans and how the Europeans perceive the “others” can undergo a process of distortion at disposal of certain political aims.

The issue 82 of Africa e Mediterraneo wants to investigate the challenges brought about by media and political communication, considering as focuses of analysis the communication processes within the European society (both of local media and migrants’ initiatives) and those activated in the African Countries, being aware that the circulation of ideas, images and cultural practices is more and more leading to a growing deterritorialization of the media and their messages and to the consequential crossing of national borders.

Main themes

The articles to submit could deal with the following topics. However, other topics proposed by the applicants will also be considered:

•  The representation of migration and asylum seeking in the European media;
•  The strategies of institutional communication on migration;
•  The image of Europe and migration in the African social media;
•  The awareness-raising campaigns on migration and asylum;
•  The religious communication for the migrants;
•  The debates and the representations of the European values on the African media;
•  The methods and contents of use of the social media by the migrants and the asylum seekers in Europe.

Deadline for submission

The proposals (max. 400 words) will have to be submitted not later than April 5^th 2015 at the email addresses s.federici@africaemediterraneo.it c.mara@africaemediterraneo.it

The editorial staff will examine the proposals. In case the proposal will be accepted, the complete article with the related abstract (abstract max. 100 words) and a short biography of the author should be submitted by May 20^th 2015.

Africa e Mediterraneo is a peer reviewed journal.

The articles and the proposals can be submitted in the following languages: Italian, English, French and Spanish.

Editorial Staff

• Sandra Federici, Université de Lorraine, Université de Milan
• Stefano Allievi
• Ivan Bargna
• Salvatore Bono
• Vincenzo Fano
• Khaled Fouad Allam
• Marie-José Hoyet
• Lorenzo Luatti
• Francesca Romana Paci
• Giovanna Parodi da Passano
• Irma Taddia
• Jean-Léonard Touadi
• Alessandro Triulzi
• Itala Vivan