Reality, News And A Digital Migration

Michael Hedges October 5, 2015 - Follow on Twitter

Refugees trying to flee civil war and terror in Syria, Iraq and on to Central Asia and North Africa became through this past summer the significant focus for news media. One tragedy after another led the headlines and breaking news reports. Explaining it all tested the skills of journalists and editors, lest xenophobic opinion crowd out reality. There has been considerable new learning.

Swedish newspaper Jönköpings-Posten (JP) produced a 16-page supplement on the subject elevated to the concerns expressed by a young reader. “I wonder if you could make a children’s magazine about the war that children can read and understand,” wrote 4th grader Lydia Smedenman, quoted by medievarlden.se (October 1). “It’s hard to understand why they have a war and it’s terrible for the people there.”

“The letter was a revelation,” said JP managing editor Patricia Svensson. “Lots of grown men and women yell their way through the debate with prejudice and hatred as weapons, dismissing photos and facts… with comments that should be totally impossible to even think. These people do not (think). But 10-year old Lydia asks.” Jönköpings-Posten is a daily newspaper serving Jönköping in central Sweden and published by Hallpressen.

Reporting about refugees making their way out of these conflict zones requires sifting through facts in an atmosphere increasingly heavy with opinion, often from politicians hoping for a headline or extra time on the evening news. “It’s not about the people who declare that refugees are good or bad, “ said Denmark public broadcaster DR executive news director Ulrik Haagerup speaking to journalists in Vienna, quoted by Der Standard (September 30). “We need to tell the story as it is.” Mr. Haagerup’s book Constructive News, published last year, points to the “costs” of negativity and cynicism passed off as journalism.

“It is vital now that journalists are journalists and not try to be politicians,” he pointed. “Opinion is OK but it’s my job to see the world with both eyes. I think it’s time journalists reflect… as people who care about the future of society. And the truth is there are problems.”

Refugees arriving in Europe, disparate for factual information, have few traditional media resources, languages being a constraint. German public broadcasters WDR and RBB offer a twice-daily five-minute information bulletin in Arabic and English on the Funkhaus Europa broadcast channel. A separate hour-long Kurdish-language program is broadcast once a week.

Those en route are further separated from traditional news sources. Radio and TV receivers are rarely travel essentials. Smartphones, however, are.

“If the 2011 Arab Spring was the first Facebook rebellion, then we can call the huge numbers of refugees arriving in Europe in 2015 the first digitally-driven mass migration,” said Die Zeit (October 1). Smartphones offer news and information from trusted sources, family and friends, tips from fellow travellers and maps. And, too, traffickers pitch their services.

For refugees smartphones are not, contrary to the opinions of right-wing British politicians, a luxury. Basic models are not particularly expensive, less than €50, and in common use in Syria, less so in Iraq, as mobile distribution has mostly survived the barrel bombs while fixed broadband has not. Among Syrians with mobile subscriptions, 98% use WhatsApp and 97% use Facebook, according to a WPP/TNS report on Arab social media usage published earlier this year.

Access, of course, comes with a charge. Mobile virtual network provider Vectone Mobile is offering 5,000 free SIM cards to refugees in Austria, good for three months, through Roman Catholic relief and social series agency Caritas. "Communication is a right, not a privilege,” said Vectone Mobile CEO Baskaran Allirajah, quoted by wirelessweek.com (October 2).

See also in ftm Knowledge

We've Gone Mobile - And Nothing's The Same – new

Consumers have taken to smartphones in huge numbers. Competition among device makers, telecoms and content producers has created an insatiable demand. With so much volume markets are fragmenting... and nothing's the same. 152 pages PDF (August 2015)

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