The Role of Local News Coverage in Shaping Perceptions of Refugees

Keywords: refugee studies, resettlement, integration, newspaper
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Local news coverage can play a powerful role in shaping how a receiving community perceives the arrival, presence, and integration of refugees. This case study focuses on how St. Louis, Missouri’s leading city newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, depicts local refugees. Rather than simply covering breaking news events, the Post-Dispatch, has taken an active role in educating the receiving community about refugees’ lived experiences, cultures, and contributions through feature articles and editorials. This content analysis begins with the Post-Dispatch’s coverage of Bosnian refugees in south St. Louis City in the late 1990s and continues through the newspaper’s more recent focus on the city’s small but growing Afghan refugee population. An awareness of the role local news coverage can play in easing a receiving community’s tolerance and acceptance of refugees may provide a useful tool for refugee advocates and resettlement agencies in other places in the United States and beyond.