To check or not to check? A critical perspective on the use of some famous visuals during the Refugee Crisis of 2015

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June 12, 2020

To check or not to check?

A critical perspective on the use of some famous visuals during the Refugee Crisis of 2015

Master Thesis

Supervisor: Sven Ross Author: Irina Sterpu

Stockholm University, Department of Media Studies

Master’s Programme in Media and Communication Studies

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Abstract

This research aims to present a critical view on the use of some digital imagery that misled the public opinion regarding the subject of asylum seekers during the Refugee Crisis of 2015. At the same time, it addresses the problem of misinformation in the Internet Era, an issue which

continues to be in the spotlight even nowadays (for example false/old pictures are used to present new narratives: Australian Bushfires, Hunger in Africa, COVID-19 pandemic etc.). On the one hand refugee journalism theory has been considered for this study as it exemplifies methods through which journalists are able to report a story about migrants or refugees in a correct ethical manner. On the other hand photography theory was also used for that it has offered tips in how to categorize the photos shared in the media and it contributed to find out the type of discourse which photographs produce.

The results of the critical visual analysis and semi-structured interviews (both used as methods for the thesis) showed that the selected images (specifically during 2015 Refugee Crisis) were misleading and that they distorted the public opinion. Also the interview answers’ revealed that misinformation exists and it affects the audience in the following ways: misused images mislead the public to believe what the source wants them to believe, misused images in different contexts can influence political beliefs, misused images with non-contextual captions raise questions of credibility in the media outlets (even if the sources that first published the erroneous information are known as unreliable).

Many members of the society are not familiar with the methods, through which fact-checking should be done, although they might suspect, sometimes, that what they see is a distorted product of biased reporting. The process of fact-checking text and visuals is highly essential in order to be informed correctly about the national and international setting.

Key words: Refugee Crisis, misleading visual imagery, fact-checking

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5.1 Critical Visual Analysis of three pictures widely spread in the media during the 2015 Refugee Crisis 35 5.1.1 Background and real context of the following images: an 'Isis flag' picture that claims to show refugees attacking police in Germany, supposedly Aylan Kurdi found dead on a Turkish beach and a presumable “invasion” of Italy, where “6,000 illegal immigrants arrived in just 48 hours ... 35

5.1.2 Visual signification of the images ... 37

5.1.3 The three sites: production perspective, image perspective and audience perspective .... 39

5.1.4 Recontextualization/reinterpretation of images in a new format (by adding caption or titles) ... 40

5.2 Semi-Structured Interviews with five journalists from the UK, USA, Germany, Czechia, Romania ... 41

5.2.1 Interviews’ analysis ... 41

6 RESULTS ... 46

7 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS ... 52

7.1 ‘Misleading but leading’ ... 52

7.2 Limitations of the study ... 53

7.3 Future Research ... 54

7.4 Conclusion ... 55

8 SOURCES ... 57

9 APPENDIX ... 70

9.1 Survey ... 70

9.2 Questionnaire ... 71

9.3 Interview answers ... 73

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Table of Figures

Figure 1. Title: “And so it begins…ISIS flag among refugees in Germany fighting the police”

(Independent.co.uk, 2015) ... 35 Figure 2. Caption from the website news360 with the shared news that became popular on various websites in 2015 linked to the 2015 Refugee Crisis ... 36 Figure 3. The body of Aylan Kurdi’s brother, Galip (France24) ... 36 Figure 4. Title: “invasion of Italy, where 6,000 illegal immigrants arrived in just 48 hours”

(Observers.france24, 2015). ... 37

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1 INTRODUCTION

At the end of 2014, the European Union (EU) was confronted with an increasing number of refugees looking for shelter in its Member States. In 2015, the crisis reached a whole new level, with an unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants, most of them fleeing their homelands (Syria, Iraq and other affected countries) because of war and terror. Asylum seekers were portrayed in the news media as wanting to find stability in the EU, an environment with better economic and social potential, especially compared with the their countries of origin/residence.

Factors such as: free movement, free trade, financial prosperity, ‘the ever-increasing’ disparity between wealthy states and developing ones as part of the globalization process, all of these aspects have determined masses of people to move around the world, in particular to flourishing regions (in the Refugee Crisis case, the direction was towards the Western European countries).

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) estimated that throughout January and August 2015 around 350,000 people entered the Schengen area illegally. On December 22, 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) claimed that 1,005,504 migrants came to Europe (Ranz, 2015). The figures also got higher and higher, as migrants started to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Most refugees departed from Syria – the majority of them being victims of humanitarian crises and Syrian citizens trapped between the forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime and the jihadists of the Islamic State organization (France24, 2015). The UNHCR received around 437,384 asylum applications (BBC, 2016).

More than two million people, according to UNHCR data (most of them from Arab countries such as Syria, Egypt, Jordan and others) have arrived in Europe since 2014, especially through Greece and Italy. The European Union’s ability to handle the crisis was questioned because of the very large and growing number of refugees who landed on the continent. These challenging circumstances caused diplomatic tensions and divisions in the EU. The lack of capacity to support such a massive amount of refugees separated the European states into two camps ̶ for and against the hosting of refugees according to social, political and economic criteria.

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The migrants’ arrival has prompted a significant spread of false information and fake images on different communication channels enforcing also the conspiracy theories (Kimminich et al., 2018) adjusted to the background. The media sought to either portray an attitude of rejection towards the refugees or a depiction of migrants as victims through the use of inaccurate captions under the pictures, through the intentional or non-intentional share of misleading information and by distributing alarmist photos or severe manipulations of the visuals. Starting from the premise that the way in which the media reflects a social problem can directly influence the attitude of decision-makers and citizens, it seemed natural that a crisis such as that of Syrian refugees would trigger multiple and various approaches. These, in their turn, would either create solutions or deepen the crisis. Most importantly, media’s role of informing correctly and objectively the public was clearly not fully fulfilled during the 2015 Refugee Crisis.

Further on, this thesis addresses through a selection of visuals (with captions or text) exposed in the context of the Refugee Crisis, the problem of misinformation and misleading of the public.

This research’s purpose is to analyze the misleading character of three digital pictures during the Refugee Crisis of 2015 and to address the question of image fact-checking with the help of a series of interviews with journalists and experts from the journalistic field. It is necessary to mention here the implication of the verb ‘to mislead’, given the fact that for the visuals it can have slightly other meanings. In this study mislead will stand for the action of operating with visuals that might be fake, real but misused, biased, subjective or specifically selected to misinform the reader. Mislead will be a concept that embodies the five mentioned criteria so that it is easier to follow-up the course of the ideas during the analysis later on.

The research questions answered in this study are:

• RQ1: How are the refugees/migrants portrayed in a selection of pictures exposed in the media during the 2015 refugee crisis?

• RQ2: What kind of discourse can be identified based on the images’ message (text- caption/ context of the photos)?

• RQ3: How do media and news professionals understand misleading pictures (shared during the Refugee Crisis of 2015)?

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• RQ4: What is the link according to professionals between image/context fact-checking and the access to unbiased information in the digital era?

In order to provide answers the above-mentioned research questions, the two intended methods to be used for this study are: critical visual discourse analysis and semi-structured interviews.

The intention is not to conduct a statistically representative result but to make a more detailed interpretive analysis of a few examples of common types of visual communication dealing with the refugee crisis of 2015. These will contribute to further research in this area (especially during global crisis where information plays a vital role in exposing facts to the audience). Moreover the five conducted interviews will be helpful in finding answers at why and how misinformation can be avoided through fact-checking.

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2 BACKGROUND

This chapter will explore two aspects concerning the topic of research:

• the link between Refugee Crisis of 2015 and journalism (it will clarify a few concepts before using them in the analysis)

• it will look at the relevance of image fact checking process today, in the context of other major crises that emerged since 2015.

2.1 Refugee Crisis and Journalism- why is it the link so important?

The Refugee Crisis from 2015 has been one of the most critical developments since the end of the Cold War. FRONTEX identifies in Annual Risk Analysis 2015 report, that “the roots of the increase in the number of illegal crossings of the European Union border were the fights in Syria that gave birth to the most serious refugee crisis since the Second World War (FRONTEX, 2015:17)”. This crisis was seen as an opportunity for the media to deliver quality journalism at the needed time. The complexity of the subject was meant to be addressed in an integrated and objective manner (Makri, 2016). UNESCO (n.y.) declared that “although many media have focused on humanistic reporting and on telling the stories of refugees, very few journalists are trained to cover this issue – with important consequences”. Furthermore, UNESCO added that unprofessional journalists illustrated refugees either as a (male) threat or as victims. Moreover, the phenomenon of ‘us and them’ was born and it led to different interpretations of migrants’

stories. Nonetheless, the same report by UNESCO concluded that “media have been manipulated by political leaders, too often accepting their outrageous statements”.

Even if the media in the European countries are considered to benefit from a high level of freedom of speech, certain topics are more sensitive and require in-depth and accurate knowledge (as in the case of the asylum seekers migration towards Western European countries).

The positive and negative media coverage of the subject of refugees and migrants was influenced by the political, economic context and the unique culture of each society (Constantin, 2017:5).

The story of the asylum seekers needed to be told accordingly to the unexpected challenge of 2015. And the media’s duty was and remains not only to inform the public, but also to educate it.

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2.2 Concepts relevant to the study: asylum seeker, refugee journalism, risk and threat Once with the emergence of the refugee crisis, there have been discussions about the correct terminology attributed to the people who reached Europe from conflict-torn areas in 2015-16.

News media used words such as asylum seekers, refugees, migrants to depict those individuals, but not always the differences between these concepts were explained. This specific study will use all of these terms, to avoid repetitions, but the distinctions should be known beforehand. For a journalist it is quite difficult to identify whether the person is a migrant, a refugee or an asylum seeker when taking pictures.

2.2.1 Asylum seeker, refugee, migrant

Since the climax of the crisis, in 2015, the EU has implemented measures to improve the control of external borders and migration flows. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an asylum seeker is an individual who is looking for international protection;

to be noted here that not every asylum seeker will ultimately be recognized as a refugee, but every recognized refugee is initially an asylum seeker (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Master Glossary of Terms, 2006). The Refugee Council believes that describing someone as a ‘person seeking asylum’ is better than ‘asylum seeker’, as the latter term feels more dehumanizing. Little research acknowledged that asylum seekers and refugees are groups with widely different experiences, cultural backgrounds, health needs and behaviors (Suurmond et al, 2013).

This concept is relevant to this study because during the crisis there was a clear misunderstanding between: refugee, migrant and asylum seeker. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ definition (UNHCR), refugees are people who are “fleeing armed conflict or persecution” and “for whom denial of asylum has potentially deadly consequences.” At the same time, migrants are persons who leave their countries in search of better education and greater economic opportunities. Their homes have become dangerous places to live in so they decide to fly away from famine, economic collapse, etc.

(Eldridge, n.y.). The difference between migrants and refugees is that unless in danger of conflict or persecution, migrants are not considered as refugees (Eldridge, n.y.; Amnesty International).

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Therefore, a scale with the correct naming of people who came to Europe in 2015 would be:

asylum seeker, refugee, and then migrant.

2.2.2 Refugee reporting

Refugee reporting is substantially about the media representation of refugees and asylum seekers who migrated with or without their consent, and aims to present their stories, to cover the problems that are affecting their lives and to examine standards that would promote reporting about asylum seekers (CCME & WACC Europe, 2016). Refugee reporting stands for the reporting on “refugee issues around the world, including the political, economic and environmental causes of displacement and the people and ideas addressing forced migration (Refugees Deeply)”. Like many other types of reporting about certain crises or events, refugee reporting needs to follow journalistic standards and ethical principles. This concept needs to be taken as a branch of journalism, one that evolved and became more important from 2015 onwards. This is an area that will be examined in the Methodology section by using visuals as materials of analysis and discussion.

2.2.3 Risk and threat

Initial reporting about the Refugee Crisis of 2015 began with the idea that many people started coming to EU member states seeking protection after having faced war or violence in their states; later, media reporting on the crisis shifted the emphasis from refugees ‘at risk’ towards refugees ‘as a risk’ to European countries’ security, social fabric and culture (Gray & Franck, 2019). Gray & Franck (2019) have conducted a research by using Factiva database to find articles from September 2015 until March 2016 in order to determine how the refugees were referred as or to in the media. Their results “identified articles that contained at least one of the words ‘refugee’, ‘migrant’, ‘immigrant’ or ‘asylum’, along with some form of ‘protect’, ‘safe’,

‘security’, ‘risk’, ‘danger’ or ‘terror’, as well as reference to the ‘EU’ or to ‘Europe’ (Gray &

Franck, 2019)”. The anti-immigration rhetoric’s goal was to create “a sense of insecurity in the Europe because traditional stability appears to be under threat because of the refugee crisis that activated a good amount of latent xenophobia, leading to anti-Islam protests, attacks on asylum centers and other violent actions (Antunez, 2019)”. The risk and threat discourse regarding the

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asylum seekers gained attention when the anti-immigration rhetoric was supported by political parties (in the UK, Germany, Hungary, etc.).

The ‘risk and threat’ concepts are part of a prominent anti-immigration discourse which will be analyzed later in the methods’ application section.

2.3 Relevance of image fact-checking process nowadays, in the context of other major crises that emerged since 2015

Misinformation spread around the world, especially during major crises (Refugee Crisis 2015, Economic Crisis of 2008, Bushfires in Australia and Amazon, Coronavirus Pandemic, etc.) has become a serious matter as audiences no longer know what to believe. Fake news and images, as well as propaganda, circulate in order to either create panic or to serve political interests of some parties. The line between journalism and Social Media posts/content has become blurred, urging the public and even the journalists to verify the facts, information and visuals before presenting them as ‘truth’. Exposing the Invisible organization (n.y.) states that in “times when news moves faster than ever, in an increasingly polarized world, where “viral” rules over facts; from state propaganda, news blown out of proportion, fabricated statistics, misplaced images, wrongfully attributed videos, and twisted facts masqueraded as studies; accuracy is key for many facing life- or-death situations.” Furthermore, verification is a must for gaining credibility and devoted audience.

This study is relevant not only for providing an example of analysis of misleading or misused pictures in the context of a crisis. It is also relevant as it tackles a problem of the current century, which is fact-checking of the information in the digital era.

Semi-structured interviews with experts in this field are trying to point out and analyze the emergency of visuals’ verification in the context of the 2015 refugee crisis. However, it is also relatable and applicable to other types of crises that imply the distribution of visuals in the media.

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3 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter looks at existing literature about the media representation through visuals of the 2015 Refugee Crisis and whether there existed any analyses about the misuse (intentional or non- intentional) of pictures as a method to transmit subjective (different) messages to the public. The interpersonal meaning made in an image centers on how it represents particular kinds of “social relation between the producer, the viewer and the object represented” (Zappavigna, 2016).

Previous research talks about subjectivity and the idea that no photo can be objective, but still there are other research studies that disregard this affirmation. If to concentrate more on the subjectivity of a photo, one of the dimensions of subjectivity is the photo manipulation. There can be a lot of types of photos manipulation, either by selection of angle or perspective, or digitally manipulated. Marshall Johnson claims that a “photograph portrays a brief moment of objective historical reality, albeit through the inherently subjective viewpoint of the photographer.” Indeed here I would say that the photographer is responsible for the selections and choices of photographs and, and there is a need to think twice when publishing them.

Moreover, the public comes with its subjectivity too when seeing photos/images in the media (it might remind him of something or he/she can see a totally different picture than the one presented by the journalist). The other side of subjectivity, which can be intentional, happens when photos presented in the media are misused, false, misleading, biased or selective. Lotan (2016) argues that in the post-truth politics era, biased information — misleading in nature (coming also from rich visual media), usually used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view — is a much more encountered problem than fake news. As we can see the manipulation of visuals is a serious problem, and not only because they can be misleading, but also because the media loses its credibility by exposing such images in the public sphere.

Even though there is a variety of studies and a multitude of books about the 2015 Refugee Crisis portrayal in media, little is discussed or analyzed about the imagery which was used by the news outlets in order to transmit information. Specifically, there is limited knowledge about the purpose of the used images, about the intentional or non-intentional aim of publishing those pictures and about their text captions used as context for the image. At the same time, as online fact checking of images emerged as an issue only in the 21^st century as a consequence of the amount of fake news spread daily, there is a necessity of researching and discussing more about

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this than it was done up till now. As these topics were not covered enough, this is a missing gap I would like to fulfill in this thesis.

3.1 Mass media as a visuals’ distributor and a meaning creator

Previous research (about the digital visualization which is used to mislead the public perceptions) highlighted that fact-checking is necessary when receiving a piece of information that contains visuals or text (ANSA, 2018). Berry et al. (2016) pointed out that in many European countries people’s perceptions about migration were heavily influenced by negative media coverage, especially through the visuals. Ethics in the pictures was also discussed based on the impact the photographs have on the audience (Pekel & van de Reijt, 2017). Unfortunately, mass media cannot exist without visuals, since they enhance a story due to the following facts:

they grab attention (images get more engagement than texts do), they tell a story on their own (a picture communicates a story quicker than the written word), they can be easily shared (Sydney Public Relations Agency, 2012). Note that the misuse of photographs and videos, is a common problem in the mass media and it is punished according to the law (Pember et al., 2005:300).

Coming back to the immigration issue which was massively reported in the media, Greussing et al. (2017:1752) argue that tabloid media play a key role in “contributing to hostility towards migration-related groups by referring to stereotyped images of exclusion and discrimination.”

White (2014) points out that “media’s lack of understanding of stereotypes and their influence on popular culture means that media often make matters worse; and in the end there is a massive loss of sensitivity leading to intrusive reporting on victims and their families and often a narrow sensationalist selection of violence stories.” I would argue here that indeed in the media from its appearance, dramatic things would go first hand in hand with sensationalist stories, just because they might have a greater impact on the public. If in the case of text, discrimination, manipulation or stereotyping is easier to spot, for pictures and images it is slightly more difficult to do it. When the Refugee Crisis of 2015 started, photographers were seen as civic agents that needed to problematize the two dimensions of the performativity of photography: firstly the manner in which migrants affected others or were affected by others, and secondly the political significance of the photographs with the migrants (showing pictures of them to the public and presenting the problem from different angles for different purposes) (Chouliaaki et al. , 2019:315). I would add here the third dimension of photography about the intentionality of

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migrants’ portrayal in a certain manner with the help of images. However, not relevant research was found on the non-intentional purpose of sharing a certain picture in a certain context (only in the light of misinformation, but not specifically from this angle). Smets et al. (2020) argue that the mainstream media cover the migrants in a dehumanizing manner, pointing out either their victimization or the fear they spread among the people. The authors assert that the sharing of visuals is done selectively and old narratives become activated in new contexts. Concepts such threat and risk (Smets et al., 2020: 418) become the hidden approach when reporting about refugees or showing pictures of them. Through the iconic imagery, exposed on digital platforms, people share the content often without questioning the source or the validity of what the eyes see.

Ibrahim (2018) claims that “an ‘empty intimacy’ is produced by the visuals where migrant bodies are exposed and this leads to the dissemination of trauma and invites a gaze of pathos where it resides in a contested space between ‘artification’ and politics.” While most of the literature claims that media is held accountable for the image it portrays about the refugees, there is also the other side of the coin: the visuals it uses often carry information without being explained in the text or having nothing to do with the text in general. Georgieu & Zaborowski (2017) note that a journalist’s responsibility is to familiarize the public with the refugees’ stories, the narratives of the crisis and the pictures of migrants. Berry et al. (2016) states that UNHCR observed that during the 2015 crisis, shocking images as the one of Kurdi or the kid from Aleppo changed the approach of European countries towards migration, but have also contributed to the change in reporting the Refugee Crisis by mass-media. The report done by UNHCR about the press coverage of the Refugee Crisis shows what a sensitive subject is to choose imagery when reporting about migrants. It analyzes further how different news outlets made their choice when presenting issues linked with asylum seekers. Folkenflik (2015) confirms what UNHCR indicated about the shared images and supports the idea that media coverage of the Refugee Crisis was highly influenced by the photos that circulated in the public space. Among several news outlets, France24 (2015) and Independent (UK) (2015) did some fact-checking on the images that circulated in 2015 (Refugee Crisis climax) and came up with proof about several cases where photos were misused, manipulated or taken out of context in order to distort the public opinion. But more about this will come later in the Methods’ application part. Lamont (2015:92) argues that media texts use language and image to express information and present events through specific frameworks, which play an important role in constructing the viewer’s

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perceptions. As we can see today’s media chooses what goes on the first page and it usually is all linked with drama or sensationalism. Gamson et al. (1992: 374) also enforces the idea that people consume “media-generated images of the world, using them to construct meaning about political and social issues. The lens through which we receive these images is not neutral but evinces the power and point of view of the political and economic elites who operate and focus it. And the special genius of this system is to make the whole process seem so normal and natural that the very art of social construction is invisible.”

3.2 Portrayal of the migrants in the media

During the Refugee Crisis in 2015 media was the first to inform about every kind of rhetoric, event, declaration or situation all over the places/countries where migrants were heading to.

Much of the literature has looked specifically at the portrayal of Refugee Crisis in the UK, as Berry et al (2016) suggested that “out of the five countries under analysis (Spain, Italy, Germany, UK, Sweden), UK media coverage of the Refugee Crisis had the most negative and polarized coverage of the crisis, often presenting the issue as a social or cultural threat. (Langdon, 2018)”

In the UK, immigration rhetoric served as a central foundation of the idea to leave the EU (supported by UKIP), during the EU Referendum campaign. “The relentless (negative) coverage of the refugee crisis in the media brought the topic of immigration to unprecedented national salience for the British public just as sensitivity to the issue was heightened (Europenow Journal, 2019).” In 2020 we see that the British approach towards the Refugee Crisis stood as an influence for Brexit.

Vaughn Wallace former photo editor at Al Jazeera highlights the fact that people should look past the image when there is a strict reference to the migrants (Pekel & van de Reijt, 2017). Pekel et al. (2017) continues to note that in the digital age context needs careful examination; a journalist’s job does not finish when publishing a photo. Furthermore, providing context (captions, text) is equally important, and that is where editors need to acknowledge whether there is enough proof and information to interpret what is represented in the image. Indeed, here there is a clear necessity of checking the sources and the validity of the image (Pekel & van de Reijt, 2017). Ibrahim (2018:1) adds that there is a current problem with the “Internet’s architecture, where images cross over into an unstable regime where they can be morphed and stripped of their context, they can be re-appropriated and reimagined through new consumption and

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commemoration rituals”. Misuse of pictures either intentional or non-intentional can lead to visual misinformation. Guy (2017) states that images are used on a daily basis as persuasive vehicles for mis- and dis-information (not only photographs but graphs and charts as well). The author mentions further that recent research proved that the public’s experience with spotting manipulated images is very poor, as nowadays people focus on finding the ‘fake’ in the text, which is easier to interpret and analyze. Since visuals can have such an impact over public’s perceptions and beliefs, it is important to take Refugee Crisis as a past event to see in what way the shared photos at that time were misleading and how. Guy (2017) points out that visual misinformation might be different when compared to text-based information, the author suggesting the following questions: “What cognitive processes in our brains might make visual information seem more believable? Does the type of imagery used affect the likelihood that a piece of information is false? What kinds of deception are supported by visual information?”

3.3 Fact-checking of images

Furthermore, little has been researched or talked about the link between facts and images, as part of media literacy (Young-Brown, 2019, p. 55). Smith (2004) from New York Times points out that the most important steps in fact-checking the images are: determining what needs to be checked, researching the facts, assessing the sources (people, newspapers, the Internet), indentifying the manipulation of images and comparing with other pictures on the Internet.

Nevertheless, here it is also important to keep the pace with the technology and use applications in order to get things checked. Fact-checking is essential in order to avoid conspiracy theories in the traditional media and on “social media platforms as they might promote biased content and contribute to the visibility of specific types of content (van Geffen, 2019).” Craft et al (2017) emphasize that:

“News media literacy is rooted in the idea that democratic self-governance relies on an informed citizenry. Thus, the broad aims of news media literacy are to empower news consumers to seek useful and accurate information so that they may make informed decisions related to the political and social structures of society. Susceptibility to, much less endorsement of, conspiracy theories generally runs counter to these goals.”

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Due to the misinformation phenomenon in the journalism arena, audiences have grown more skeptical of anything they read or see. Current events that involved the spread of fake news in the public sphere has made Facebook accountable for what it allows people/ media outlets/

politicians to post on their accounts. Therefore, based on several months of research and testing, Facebook came up with three categories of misinformation in photos and videos: “(1) Manipulated or Fabricated, (2) Out of Context, and (3) Text or Audio Claim” (Facebook, 2018).

“A survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre found 64 percent of American adults said made-up news stories were causing confusion about basic facts on current issues and events. In the past, poorly photoshopped images were the go-to source for spreading misinformation, and it was relatively easy to spot a fake image” (Sthankiya, 2018). In fact, with an accelerating modernization of the digital media, it is virtually impossible to check every piece of news or image that comes up in the media, especially when photos are misused or spread with a different context. The worst part is that by the time someone might have discovered the purpose or the manipulation of the misused photos, it might be too late, as the public can be unsure whom to trust or it loses its credibility in the media overall. Sthankiya (2018) points out that “what can be even more challenging is finding the original source of the fake news or meme once it goes viral.

If a source cannot be found, it is next to impossible to hold someone responsible for misinforming people.” While Sthankiya from DNN Media (2018) argues that it is up to the user to ensure he/she does fact-checking, until technology catches up with the misinformation spreading, I argue that it is also the media’s responsibility to make sure that misleading, manipulated or false information is not present in their reporting. Zlatkova et al (2019) observe that even though visual imagery is more influential than text, fact-checking has mostly ignored the growing number of claims about images. The authors continue by claiming that media images, “especially news photographs, that convey a questionable, or outright false, sense of the events they seem to depict. (Zlatkova et al, 2019:2099)” The mission of detecting fabricated images is solved only by using traditional methods such as color, shape, text feature (Zlatkova et al, 2019:2101). While manipulation of images is relevant, there is always the other side of it since often the image is original but the claim about the picture is false or misleading (Zlatkova et al, 2019:2101). To the best of my knowledge there has been a lot of research about fact- checking the images and the attempt to find digital tools for helping the public spot

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misinformation, but not enough research other than the recent paper, thoughts of which I presented above: Fact-Checking Meets Fauxtography: Verifying Claims About Image article.

Suciu (2019) discusses further that “fact-checking shouldn’t be as crucial as fact gathering and just as technology has made it easier for more people to regularly access the news, it has also made it easier for misinformation to spread.” Definitely, in order to maintain the accurate reputation of the journalists and the trust in the media, fact-checking is a must, it is the new professional standard. Suciu (2019) adds that “people need to be aware of how to use it for sophisticated searches for images as well as reverse image search. Checking to see if an image has been doctored, manipulated or otherwise presented in a misleading context is easier due to the digital tools available in the internet.” Indeed, here I would add that no information should be taken for granted and people should question everything especially if it comes from the media and on times when important events occur.

These findings together with more in-depth research with the help of other primary and secondary sources will contribute to a well-argued discussion about the misuse of digital pictures during the Refugee Crisis of 2015 and to address image fact-checking as one of the emerging necessities of the 21^st century.

3.4 Theories relevant to the study

From the welcoming portrayal of refugees in the media, the refugees as victims or refugees as threat and risk, the unprecedented coverage of migrants in the mainstream media led to shaping European countries’ opinion about the arrival of the ‘others’ (Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2017). In the light of the ongoing appearance of stories and events in 2015 that were linked to the Refugee Crisis, I have selected a few theories that relate to migration, visual representation of the migrants and journalism ethics.

3.4.1 Migration theories

Migration has been a widely spread phenomenon but also a very sensitive subject when linked to major crises, for instance the Refugee Crisis of 2015 or the Brexit decision. The political consequences of immigration have been addressed from two angles: on the one hand the cases of refugee movements and on the other hand, the effect of migration on diversity (concerning the relations between minorities and majorities) (Piché, 2013:37). Migration theories do not only

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attempt to understand and explain, but also to justify “migration policy choices that were founded on a supposedly unshakeable principle: immigration is a privilege and not a right”

(Piché, 2013:44). Overall, “migration pressure to developed countries from the South is likely to remain high, and possibly increase for some time due to economic and demographic disparities between the global North and South (Coleman, 2015)”, but also because a lot of migrant fly war or potential dangerous regimes (Coleman, 2014 suggests that citizens of third world countries are usually materially better off somewhere else).

3.4.2 Refugee Journalism

Chouliaraki & Zaborowski (2017:6) note that “journalism is a performative practice in the sense that its news stories of suffering are not simply offering information about refugees but, actually, provide the symbolic conditions of possibility under which we are invited to imagine the predicament of these sufferers as well as think, feel and act towards them.” Chouliaraki &

Zaborowski (2017) claim further that journalism is an instrument that acts as a voice of those in regard and therefore it is responsible for the reporting and the context. The latest report by UNHCR about Media’s reporting on refugees identified that even though most of the journalists are aware of the importance of accurate reporting about asylum seekers; other media colleagues continue to broadcast misinformation about the refugees. UNHRC stated that inaccurate language and commentaries awoke prejudice among people. However, refugee crisis is as any other crises, a challenge for the journalists, therefore reporters “need to be equipped with tools both emotionally and professionally in order to cover the story as accurate as possible without prejudice or furthering hatred on particular groups in society (EFJ, 2018).” European Federation of Journalists (2018) has elaborated a guide on how to report on refugees and migrants based on ethical practices that will determine the reporters to make the right editorial decisions. About seven media organizations give advice on how to get the sources and whom to trust, how to get the facts right, how to know the legal limits and how to avoid unethical reporting about refugees and migrants. Alltogether, as refugee journalism is a sensitive topic, there are guidelines (EFJ, 2018; UNESCO; Ethical Journalism Network, 2017; Gross, n.y.; Berry, Mike, Garcia-Blanco, Inaki and Moore, Kerry 2016) that need to be considered or at least analyzed before reporting a story about migrants or refugees in a correct ethical manner.

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Images and photos of the massive migrant crisis in Europe in 2015 and 2016 circulated globally and tried to influence public opinion either presenting facts objectively or subjectively.

Documentation about migration and the photos taken from 2015 and onwards continues up till nowadays. Photography has changed both art and culture with its capacity of documenting truth, memory and identity; photography having also the ability to transmit the lasting emotional effect (Barthes:1980;Martinique:2018).

The canon of photographic theory systematically puts the represented character in an inaction or suspicion position, limiting the known background for the public and restricting the possibility of the subject to appear as actor (Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2019). Photographs for Sontag (2002)

“either numbs our sensibilities or incites empathy” and if images either beautify or uglify the subject they can be provocative (Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2019). Refugee photography should not be taken as the true reality since pictures of human suffering accompanied by text - for instance, a caption below a printed image – is not able to present the reality for its audience in a way that allows us to relate to the situation; “the refugee picture can evoke a reaction but the picture itself is not a true reflection of the actual crisis; it does not give us the whole story but merely opens up one single view point. (Ukmar, 2017:7)” This theory is also relevant for the critical visual analysis that will be done later on in the study as it allows us to see in what ways visuals describe reality, either they stand alone in the discourse about the refugee crisis or they are accompanied by captions or text in order to send a message to the public. However, some weaknesses of the theory might be represented by the results or findings that can be subjective, and at the same time the cultural background plays an important role. The analysis of the image without knowing the exact purpose of the author or his own opinion about the findings can also be a problem for the interpretation of the results. In this way, the only type of analysis of the image possible is through looking at photo/photography’s social function and as well at the text/caption that comes with it in order to depict a context (Elkins, 2007:23).

Photography represents “the process of producing images of objects on photosensitive surfaces and at the same time it has many uses for business, science, manufacturing, art, recreational purposes, and mass communication¹”. Since photography is about technique but also about

1 https://www.definitions.net/definition/photography

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perspective, usually photos’ objectivity or subjectivity is questionable. As argued before photos can have different purposes when shared, but the specific purpose that this study will look at is the aim to mislead the audience. By mislead, it is meant to understand whether the photos were used in order to lead or guide in a wrong direction. Misleading photos (photos are real, but aim to mislead the audience when it comes to a specific subject) can be classified in a few categories, based on the research that will be done. Therefore photos can be: misused (photos are real, but are used in contexts other than the one specified by the original photographer; ex. Memes, propaganda, fake news), fake (lack of authenticity, either digitally produced or mixed with other images to create a different picture suitable for the desired content), biased (“used in order to shape a reader’s perception of an event; ex: a newspaper or website may make use of a photo of a rally that was taken early in the event -- before the bulk of the participants had arrived ̶ to give the impression of poor attendance.²), selective (media chooses what to show and what not to show from an original image), subjective (“the photograph nees to tell a story and to transmit the atmosphere and emotions; the subjective photographic experience can also be done when the photographer gives an image a title and writes their ideas or opinions, intentions about the photograph, and manipulated by angle/perspective (Blavatsky, 2019:6)³”). At the same time, photos can be misleading in their captions or title questioning their credibility afterwards.

Photography theory which is widely used in photojournalism has therefore a key role in attempting to discover the meanings the selected photos (for the critical visual analysis) reveal.

Moreover, it might help in trying to categorize the photos in one of the types presented above and also might contribute to the answer linked with the type of discourse which photographs produce in the end.

3.4.4 Visual communication: Semiotics

Communicating with the help of visual aid helps in transmitting ideas and information that might be read or looked upon. Visual communication theories are divided in two types: sensual and perceptual (Bryant & Zillmann, 2005). According to Sturken and Cartwright (2009), visual culture reflects upon “a broad survey of theoretical approaches to the study of images and the social contexts in which images play a part.” However, what might capture the attention for this study is semiotic analysis (study of signs) by attempting to look at the iconic signs (relevant

2 https://www.conservapedia.com/Photo_bias

3https://bit.ly/3i3XkyI

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examples are found in photographs and motion pictures – that can be true representations of what they depict or seem like something) (Rose, 2016). At the same time, Morris (1964) notes that

“human action involves signs and meanings in three ways: the perception stage - the person becomes aware of a sign; the manipulation stage - the person interprets the sign and decides how to respond to it; the consummation stage - the person responds.”

Njirić & Miloslavić (2016) point out that semiotics “provides to understand in a different way, by language and framework, the link between the image and society; it is also a method that can be used to expose photos, studying mass media, literary texts and systematically analyze a number of other features of the popular culture.” As the digital technology is advancing every year more and more, people are exposed to photos more than ever (advertising, media, magazines, etc.) It is stressed out in the 21^st century that people witness and live in an age of images where regardless if the end product is in digital or print form, images are posted at ever- greater speeds (Devrim Gürsel , 2016), often without much attention being paid to double-check the photo or to see if it matches the context (because very often it is important the shocking content, who is first to publish a news, etc.).

Roland Barthes (1964), found that society develops a complex system of codes, while the photographs are made of signs that create the picture narratives. The four types of codes identified by Barthes (1964) are: metonymic (a combination of signs that lead the viewer to make assumptions/associations), analogical (provokes the viewer to make mental comparisons), displaced (the meaning is transferred from one set of signs to another one) and lastly, condensed code (Several signs combine to form a new, composite sign). Barthes (1964) argues that semiotics portrays the significance of symbolism in the visual communication and perception.

Therefore by using the codes and signs’ types we can have an in-depth analysis of the selected images used during the Refugee Crisis.

As this study will analyze visuals later in the method chapter, there still is need of a clarification of the definition of the term mislead as it is a central key term for the visuals. As previously stated in the introduction, mislead will stand for the action of using visuals that might be fake, real but misused, biased, subjective or specifically selected to misinform the reader. Mislead will be a concept that embodies the five mentioned criteria so that it will be easier to follow-up the course of the ideas during the analysis later on. Why mislead? As Merriam-Webster dictionary

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suggests, mislead is the action of “leading in a wrong direction or into a mistaken action or belief often by deliberate deceit (Merriam-Webster Dictionary⁴)”. Dubin (1992:162) notes that photographs can seriously mislead the audience, as people have different conceptions and interpretations when looking at them. At the same time, Dubin (1992:162) adds that people assume that if the camera saw it, then what is in the photograph it existed and is true; it is also difficult to contest photographic documentation of actual people and authentic acts. Misleading pictures are not necessarily fake, biased or digitally manipulated, however they can be subjective and the context where they are put can create a strong gap between the reality and the aim of the journalist (not necessarily of the photographer). Therefore it is important to see if the context where the photo appeared is linked to the image, whether the visuals are cropped or edited for getting another outcome, whether the caption that comes with the image is relevant and transmits the same message as the picture, etc. At the same time, misleading pictures depend on the context they were put in, because by themselves they have their own message, while combined with text or a title they can lead to wrongful assumptions.

For the semiotic analysis (part of critical visual analysis) there might be some constraints like:

“sometimes semioticians present their analyses as if they were purely objective ‘scientific’

accounts rather than subjective interpretations; yet few semioticians seem to feel much need to provide empirical evidence for particular interpretations. (Leiss et al. 1990:214)” Therefore, there might be the temptation to take the findings as objective while they might be subjective, but empirical evidence might help to argue the findings and back up the results. Chandler (2003) thinks that “semiotics is referred usually as an 'imperialistic' method or theory, since some semioticians appear to regard it as concerned with, and applicable to, anything and everything, trespassing on almost every academic discipline.”

The visual impact of the images is not only aiming at attracting the attention of the viewer, but also it influences the opinions and attitudes of the public, encouraging consumption or political hidden pursposes (Njirić & Miloslavić 2016). In this regard, semiotics, the science of signs and meanings is as important as photography theory because it helps spotting in photographs the hidden meaning or the message that is possibly aimed to shape the public opinion in someone’s

4 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mislead

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favor (Njirić & Miloslavić 2016), which is to be discovered later in the critical visual analysis’

application part.

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4 RESEARCH DESIGN

4.1 Study aim and research questions

As mentioned earlier in the introductory part, the intention in this research is not to conduct a statistically representative result but to make a more detailed interpretive analysis of a few examples of common types of visual communication dealing with the refugee crisis of 2015.

Based on the results (emerging from critical visual analysis and conducted semi-structured interviews) that will be shown in the Ch. 5 and discussed in Ch. 6, this study aims further to serve as an example of identification of misleading photos in the news media and at the same time it will serve as another source of discussions about fact-checking of information and images in the digital era. Four research questions have been carefully formulated in order to achieve the study’s goal. All four research questions are based on theory, previous research, the 2015 refugee crisis information and the journalistic area. Two of the research questions refer solely to the material (in our case, visuals) that will be analyzed with the help of critical visual analysis.

Another two research questions will attempt to look at the experience and perception of five experts regarding the analyzed pictures, but also they will look further into the fact-checking issue that is so important nowadays (again based on experts’ experience, knowledge and background).

In order to answer the research questions, critical visual analysis will be done for understanding and contextualizing images, but also to understand how images embody and express contradictions, misleading meanings or hide a certain discourse when combined with text. It is important to understand that both the text and the visual create the message that is received later by the audience. Therefore, in order to answer the first RQ (“How are the refugees/migrants portrayed in the photos exposed in the media during the 2015 refugee crisis?”) it is essential to analyze the background of the image, the signification of the image, the three sites: production perspective, image perspective and audience perspective and lastly the reinterpretationof the image that happens once text is attributed to it. The second RQ which aims to find out what kind of discourse is present behind the images and whether it is misleading or not in its character is a challenge for this study, as there is very little information from the photographer or from the people present in the image (so the objectivity of the assessments might suffer). Moreover, in the second method, semi-structured interviews, there is put a small accent on formality, rather than

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on open discussions about the refugee crisis imagery shared in the media as well as on follow up questions about further discussions about the role of misleading pictures in general and the relevance of fact-checking nowadays. RQ3 and RQ4 seek to be answered based on the respondents’ experience, background and assumptions. On the one hand RQ3 was an introduction into a wider sphere of journalism, fact-checking and its importance, and on the other hand it validates the CVA results. RQ4 goes beyond the topic of the study, and aims to find, if existent, the link between image/context fact-checking and getting unbiased news in the digital era, by opening a window for further research in this area that gets higher attention nowadays in the context of the current challenges of the Internet époque.

This study is not limited only at looking at some of the most prominent refugee crisis visuals shared in the media space, but also it aims to look further at the global issue of misinformation and the emergence of verifying the information and the received material that circulates both in the digital and print media.

Empirical research was done with the help of two qualitative methods: critical visual analysis and semi-structured interviews with five journalist experts from different corners of the world.

This study looks at three images shared in the digital media during the 2015 refugee crises that were accompanied by text or captions. In the end, it is meant to understand whether the visuals were or were not used in discordance with the title/caption/text that came up in the news and whether the aim of the author (not the photographer) of the news was to mislead the audience through the shared content. At the same time, the interviews done with experts from the area of investigative journalism, photojournalism or editors will come to support or to refute the above assumptions. Moreover, the interviews are also supposed to highlight the importance of fact- checking of images in the digital era, when almost every person can become a source of a picture thanks to the Social Media.

4.2 Critical Visual Analysis (CVA) - A Brief Discussion of the Method

Both visual journalism and the traditional journalism rely on images in order to transmit a message or news to the audience. Existence of extensive literature on CVA allows us to deconstruct the ideologies behind the images. Barthes (1977) claims that visual signification can be articulated in two levels: denotation and connotation. The first one refers to the actual

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meaning of the image, the immediate meaning, while the second appeals to the symbolical or ideological meaning(s) of the image inscribed by cultural codes. Critical visual analysis can be separated in two terms: “‘critical’, term which addresses how things are, why they are like that, and how they could be different (e.g. Fairclough, 2010; Wodak, 2011);” and ‘visual analysis’

“enhances the richness of data by discovering additional layers of meaning, adding validity and depth (Glaw et al., 2017).” Rose (2001, p.16) identified three aspects from which an image can be analyzed: production perspective (the way the image was made), image perspective (what does the image look like) and audience perspective (the way in which the images are seen by the viewers and why they have a certain impact). Rose (2001:22) argues further that an image is what the photographer/author wants to show. Barthes (1977:142,154) stresses out that a picture’s understanding depends mostly on the viewers, as the audience can stare at the images in individually distinct ways and they can draw different conclusions based on their unique understanding of the world. What a photograph shows is “how a particular thing can be seen or could be made to look – at a specific moment, in a specific context, by a specific photographer employing specific tools (Schroeder, 2003:81)”. CVA was chosen as a method, due to this capability of investigating the pictures and the underlying substrate of those images when combined with text. The major benefit of this analytical approach is that such analysis can be extended to larger samples; it can be used in different research areas that have a link with visuals fact checking and in depth analysis. With the help of semiotics and photography theory, photos will be analyzed from the perspective of photography features explained in theoretical background and also by putting semiotic lens the images will be analyzed based on the three sites exposed by Rose: production perspective, image perspective and audience perspective.

A potential limitation of this method is that visual materials may be interpreted differently by the researcher compared to the audience. To minimize this, a second method (semi-structured interviews) is conducted later on, to validate the results of the first method.

4.2.1 Sampling for CVA

Once with the appearance of the Internet, digital media became more accessed than the print media, creating therefore the necessity for the print to become both print and digital. The accessibility and the broad coverage possible due to the Internet, digital media, also known as

‘new media’, are not conditioned by money or space (unless only it can be limited by the

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censorship imposed in some countries) (Gane & Beer, 2008). This is one of the reasons why digital images were used for the analysis. Also, a big pro for the digital media is “that the quality of the photographs is never reduced with the use of digital technology in contrast with analog technology. The stored information in the analog system may damage or even lost or duplicated but in the digital system the case opposite. (Dhruba, 2019)” Therefore the images chosen for the research can be found easily on the Internet by everyone (unless deleted by the source, but most probable accessible on another source) and can be analyzed by anyone interested in conducting the same analysis or another type of analysis.

There have been researched about 50 Google pages that responded to the searches: misleading images during the Refugee Crisis, fake images used during the 2015 Refugee Crisis, debunked pictures with refugees in 2015. However because the images needed to be at least known by the public and the interview respondents later on, only three pictures were selected to be analyzed.

There has been done a survey (appx., p. 70) where 28 people with ages from 20 to 57 years old answered whether they are familiar with five initially selected photos for the research. The majority of the respondents were from the Eastern and Central Europe. 75% of them recognized 2-3 photos, 14% recognized all of them, and 11% said they recognize only one picture. As a result of the survey, but also based on the same question addressed to the interview respondents for the second method, only three picture were chosen for the critical visual analysis. One is a picture of Aylan Kurdi on a Turkish beach (Vice, Observers.France24, 2015) , the second one is presenting an 'Isis flag' picture that claims to show refugees attacking police in Germany (Independent.co.uk, 2015) and the last one depicts a presumable “invasion” of Italy, where

“6,000 illegal immigrants arrived in just 48 hours” (Observers.France24, 2015). All of these images were selected also for the following criteria: they needed to be easily recognizable or familiar to the public, there should have been an available link to the pictures so they can be accessible by the time this study is finished and maybe after (here, very important aspect was that a lot of pictures were found, but the initial source deleted them because they recognized the pictures were used for misleading aims), photos needed to be real (taken by photographers and not digitally manipulated) and needed to have either a caption/title that accompanied them when they were published. Another criteria of selection was the time frame, therefore the pictures are taken only from 2015 news media. Also one of the conditions was that it is proved the image was used in misleading purposes because in this case, the research would not go into the speculation

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territory. However, the images found were categorized as used in wrongfully contexts in order to mislead the audience (France24, Independent.co.uk, Vice, 2015), but not very much information was given about this. In consequence, this study wants to analyze this aspect of why the photos accompanied by titles or captions were misleading and what was the ultimate goal of using them during the 2015 Refugee Crisis.

4.3 Semi-Structured Interviews (SSI) - A Brief Discussion of the Method

Semi-structured interviews usually consist of open- and close-ended questions, but that leave space for follow-up discussions/questions as well. Effectively conducted SSI give precious insights and gained information if done cautiously and with the right persons, as they are suitable for long studies because they bring valuable information, reliability and validity to the research (William, 2015).

An interview guide is prepared in advance, there takes place a formal interview and the interviewer, even if he/she follows the questions prepared in advance, he/she can “follow topical trajectories in the conversation that may stray from the guide when he or she feels this is appropriate (Cohen, Crabtree, 2006)”. At the same time, SSI are used when there might not be another chance to interview someone. Questions can be prepared beforehand, so the interviewer is well-prepared and can appear competent during the discussion (Cohen, Crabtree, 2006).

SSI were used for this research to validate the findings from the CVA method and also to enhance the validity and reliability of the study. The advantages of this method stand in the following: “encourages two-way communication, provide qualitative data to compare to previous data, interviews are a great way to look deeper into or discuss issues, allow for open-ended responses from participants for more in-depth information (Fuelcycle, 2019)”. SSI encourage the respondents to express freely and in their own terms their views on the addressed topics by the interviewer, but also semi-structured interviews provide in the end comparable and reliable qualitative data for the research.

Nevertheless, SSI have their own limitations because it is time-consuming to find the right respondents that have experience and training to conduct an interview properly, there is also the necessity to interview more people, but to choose in the end the answers that suit your research

To check or not to check? A critical perspective on the use of some famous visuals during the Refugee Crisis of 2015