Framing of the 2015-2016 ‘Refugee Crisis’ by American Journalists

Framing is a tool that journalists use to give salience to information they provide to their audiences. The study investigates how American journalists from four premier publications framed stories for their U.S. readers during a one-year period in the refugee influx that began with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s famous “wir schaffen das (we can do it)” statement in August 2015. Many Germans believed that Merkel’s statement was an unwelcome invitation to asylum seekers and other migrants to come to Germany. It also encouraged the growth of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-immigrant political party, especially in the former Communist-controlled part of the country. The thesis uses an exploratory model and rhetorical analysis to explain how the journalists framed their news reports in four areas: economic, human rights, security, and cultural. The thesis discusses the model’s effectiveness and worthiness for use in other studies involving framing of news stories by journalists.