This study investigates how Burmese refugees were framed by Fort Wayne’s The Journal Gazette located in Indiana where refugee resettlement has taken place over the last two decades, write Emily A Ehmer, of Texas State University, and Ammina Kothari, of Rochester Institute of Technology. 335 stories and 286 accompanying images were analysed.

The findings indicate that the majority of stories published overall were news stories based on issues involving refugees in the community. The human interest and attribution of responsibility were most salient textual frames, while the visual frame of exotic was dominant. This study confirms previous findings related to studies on how media frame immigrants and refugees.

The article “Coverage of Burmese refugees in Indiana news media: An analysis of textual and visual frames” was published online before print by Journalism.

Picture: Suitcases by Tom Godber, licence: CC BY-SA 2.0