Research Article
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Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media

Year 2025, Volume: 12 Issue: 2, 297 - 341, 05.12.2025

Özlem Alioğlu

https://doi.org/10.24955/ilef.1656035

Abstract

This study examines how major European online news outlets visually represent Syrian and Ukrainian refugees, offering a comparative analysis of the visual narratives that accompany coverage of two recent mass-displacement events. While previous research has documented textual double standards in media framing, far less attention has been paid to the role of images in shaping public perception. Photographs, often assumed to be denotative and objective, in fact carry powerful connotative meanings that can reinforce or contest prevailing discourses. The dataset consists of 200 lead images (100 per case) published between August and December 2015 for Syrian refugees and between February and July 2022 for Ukrainian refugees, drawn from leading online outlets in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Using MAXQDA, images were qualitatively coded under three themes: (1) the representation gap (actual vs. illustrative images, scene composition, and identifying information); (2) framing and composition (photographic perspective, subject composition, and the presence and role of non- refugees); and (3) embodied displacement (expressions, bodily positions, spatial environments, and surrounding objects). Qualitative frequency tables and code- clouds support comparative interpretation. The findings reveal sharply divergent visual narratives. Syrian refugees are predominantly portrayed through distant, chaotic, and depersonalized imagery-anonymous masses, men-only groups, scenes of struggle, barbed wire, and survival objects-resulting in a dehumanizing and threatening visual frame. Ukrainian refugees, by contrast, are more often depicted as identifiable individuals or families, in orderly environments, with supportive officials, personal belongings, toys, and pets-producing a narrative of familiarity, proximity, and legitimacy.These visual asymmetries demonstrate that photographs do not merely illustrate news but actively construct hierarchies of deservingness. The study underlines the need for closer scholarly attention to visual media, particularly in an era where images are central to shaping public understanding of forced migration.

Keywords

Visual Narratives Syrian Refugees Ukrainian Refugees European Media Visual Sociology

Ethical Statement

The preliminary findings of this research were presented and discussed at the XX. ISA World Congress of Sociology in June 2023. The abstract was published in the Conference Abstract Book.

References

  • Amores, Javier J. and Carlos Arcila. 2019. “Deconstructing the Symbolic Visual Frames of Refugees and Migrants in the Main Western European Media.” In ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 911-919. Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3362789.3362896.
  • Amores, Javier J, Carlos Arcila-Calderón and Beatriz González-de-Garay. 2020. “The Gendered Representation of Refugees Using Visual Frames in the Main Western European Media.” Gender Issues 37 (4): 291-314. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s12147-020-09248-1
  • Banks, James. 2012. “Unmasking Deviance: The Visual Construction of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in English National Newspapers.” Critical Criminology 20 (3): 293-310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-011-9144-x.
  • Barthes, Roland. 1977. Image, Music, Text. Translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana Press.
  • Berger, John. 1972. Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books.
  • Bleiker, Roland, David Campbell, Emma Hutchison and Xzarina Nicholson. 2013. “The Visual Dehumanisation of Refugees.” Australian Journal of Political Science 48 (4): 398-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2013.84 0769.
  • Debord, Guy. 2021. The Society of the Spectacle. Translated and edited by Ron Adams. Cambridge: Unredacted Word.
  • Ellison, Sarah and Travis M. Andrews. 2022. “‘They Seem So Like Us’: In Depicting Ukraine’s Plight, Some in Media Use Offensive Comparisons.” The Washington Post, February 27, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost. com/media/2022/02/27/media-ukraine-offensive-comparisons/.
  • European Commission. 2025. “Temporary Protection.” April 2, 2025. https:// home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/asylum-eu/ temporary-protection_en
  • Freeman, Gary P. 1995. “Modes of Immigration Politics in Liberal Democratic States.” The International Migration Review 29 (4): 881–902. https://doi. org/10.2307/2547729.
  • Göç Politikaları ve Projeleri Dairesi Başkanlığı. 2016. 2015 Türkiye Göç Raporu. Ankara: T.C. İçişleri Bakanlığı Göç İdaresi Genel Müdürlüğü. https:// www.goc.gov.tr/kurumlar/goc.gov.tr/YillikGocRaporlari/2015_yillik_ goc_raporu.pdf.
  • Guiraudon, Virginie. 2018. “The 2015 Refugee Crisis Was Not a Turning Point: Explaining Policy Inertia in EU Border Control.” European Political Science 17 (1): 151-160. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-017-0123-x.
  • Habermas, Jürgen. 2023. A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Hall, Stuart, Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke and Brian Roberts. 2013. Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Howarth, Anita. 2020. “Fake Photos in the European Refugee Crisis: The ‘Invasion’ Narrative of the Radical Right.” In Handbook of Research on Recent Developments in Internet Activism and Political Participation, edited by Yasmin Ibrahim, 122-137. IGI Global.
  • Ibañez Sales, Matías. 2023. “The Refugee Crisis’ Double Standards: Media Framing and the Proliferation of Positive and Negative Narratives During the Ukrainian and Syrian Crises.” Euromesco, March 2023, Policy Brief, www.euromesco.net/publication/the-refugee-crisis-double-standards- media-framing-and-theproliferation-of-positive-and-negative-narratives- during-the-ukrainian-and-syrian-crisis/.
  • Ineli-Ciger, Meltem. 2016. “Time to Activate the Temporary Protection Directive: Why the Directive Can Play a Key Role in Solving the Migration Crisis in Europe.” European Journal of Migration and Law 18 (2016): 1-33.
  • IOM (International Organization for Migration). 2016. Fatal Journeys Volume 2: Identification and Tracing of Dead and Missing Migrants. Edited by Tara Brian and Frank Laczko. Geneva: IOM. https://publications.iom.int/books/ fatal-journeys-volume-2-identification-and-tracing-dead-and-missing- migrants.
  • IOM. 2019. International Migration Law: Glossary of Migration. No:34. Geneva: IOM. https://publications.iom.int/books/international-migration-law- ndeg34-glossary-migration.
  • Martikainen, Jari and Inari Sakki. 2024. “Visual Humanization of Refugees: A Visual Rhetorical Analysis of Media Discourse on the War in Ukraine.” British Journal of Social Psychology 63 (1): 106-130. https://doi.org/10.1111/ bjso.12669.
  • McCann, Katherine, Megan Sienkiewicz and Monette Zard. 2023. The Role of Media Narratives in Shaping Public Opinion Toward Refugees: A Comparative Analysis. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.
  • Memou, Antigoni. 2019. “Spectacular Images of the ‘Refugee Crisis’.” Photographies 12 (1): 81-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2018.15017 28.
  • Newman, Nic, Richard Fletcher, David A. L. Levi and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2016. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2016. Oxford: Reuters Institute. https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ Digital-News-Report-2016.pdf.
  • Newman, Nic, Richard Fletcher, Craig T Robertson, Kirsten Eddy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2023. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023. Oxford: Reuters Institute. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/ files/2023-06/Digital_News_Report_2023.pdf.
  • Oliveira, Natalie da Cunha. 2023. We Don’t Belong to the Same War: A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage in Germany on the Syrian and Ukrainian War. Master’s thesis, University Institute of Lisbon.
  • Průchová Hrůzová, Andrea and Jan Zápotocký. 2022. “Seemingly Innocent Pictures. Visual Representations of Migrants and Refugees Circulating through the Czech Facebook Nationalistic Universe.” Visual Studies 37 (4): 348-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2021.1953397.
  • Rose, Gillian. 2016. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: Sage Publications.
  • Sontag, Susan. 2003. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador.
  • Telbrant, Miriam and Philip Haraldsson. 2022. Refugee and Refugee: An Analysis of Media Tendencies and Framing Concerning Refugee Crises. Bachelor thesis, Jönköping University.
  • UNHCR. 2015a. Global Appeal 2015 Update: Turkey. Geneva: UNHCR. https:// www.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/legacy-pdf/5461e60c52.pdf.
  • UNHCR. 2015b. UNHCR Asylum Trends 2014: Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries. Geneva: UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/media/asylum- levels-and-trends-industrialized-countries-2014.
  • UNHCR. 2016. Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2015. Geneva: UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/ph/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2017/03/ Global-Trends-Report-2015-1.pdf.
  • UNHCR Operational Data Portal. 2025. “Ukraine Refugee Situation.” November 2025. https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine.
  • van Leeuwen, Theo. 2004. “Semiotics and Iconography.” In Handbook of Visual Analysis, edited by Theo Van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt, 92-118. London: Sage Publications.
  • Wintzer, Jeannine. 2019. “The Visualization of Migration.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 18:1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919844100
  • Wright, Terence. 2002. “Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees.” Visual Studies 17 (1): 53-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/147258602200000505 3.

Avrupa Medyasında Suriyeli ve Ukraynalı Mültecilerin Görsel Anlatıları

Year 2025, Volume: 12 Issue: 2, 297 - 341, 05.12.2025

Özlem Alioğlu

https://doi.org/10.24955/ilef.1656035

Abstract

Bu araştırma, Avrupa’daki büyük çevrim içi haber kuruluşlarının Suriyeli ve Ukraynalı mültecileri görsel olarak nasıl temsil ettiğini inceleyerek iki kitlesel yerinden edilme olayının medyadaki görsel anlatılarının karşılaştırmalı analizini sunmaktadır. Önceki araştırmalar medya anlatılarında metne dayalı çifte standartları ortaya koymuş olsa da toplumun algısını şekillendirmede görsellerin rolüne daha az dikkat edilmiştir. Çoğunlukla düz anlamsal ve nesnel olduğu varsayılan fotoğraflar, aslında yerleşik söylemleri güçlendirebilen veya sorgulayabilen güçlü yan anlamlar taşır. Veri seti, İngiltere, Almanya, Fransa, İtalya ve İspanya’daki önde gelen çevrim içi yayınlardan seçilen, Suriyeli mülteciler için Ağustos-Aralık 2015 ve Ukraynalı mülteciler için Şubat-Temmuz 2022 tarihleri arasında yayınlanan 200 ana görselden (her vaka için 100) oluşmaktadır. MAXQDA kullanılarak görseller, üç tema altında niteliksel olarak kodlanmıştır: i. temsil boşluğu (gerçek veya örnekleyici görseller, kompozisyon ve tanımlayıcı bilgiler), ii. çerçeveleme ve kompozisyon (fotografik perspektif, özne kompozisyonu ve mülteci olmayanların varlığı ve rolü) ve iii. bedenlenmiş yerinden edilme (ifadeler, bedensel pozisyonlar, mekân ve çevreleyen nesneler). Karşılaştırmalı yorumlama niteliksel frekans tabloları ve kod bulutlarıyla desteklenmiştir. Bulgular, keskin bir şekilde farklılaşan görsel anlatıları ortaya koymaktadır. Suriyeli mülteciler ağırlıklı olarak uzak, kaotik ve kişiliksizleştirilmiş imgelerle; anonim kalabalıklar, yalnızca erkeklerden oluşan gruplar, mücadele görüntüleri, dikenli teller ve ölüm kalım nesneleri ile temsil edilerek insanlıktan uzaklaştırıcı ve tehditkâr bir görsel çerçeve oluşturulur. Buna karşılık Ukraynalı mülteciler daha sıklıkla tanımlanabilir bireyler veya aileler olarak düzenli ortamlarda, destekleyici yetkililerle, kişisel eşyalar, oyuncaklar ve evcil hayvanlarla betimlenerek yakınlık, aşinalık ve meşruiyet anlatısı üretilir. Bu görsel asimetriler, fotoğrafların yalnızca haberi görselleştirmediğini, aynı zamanda yardımı hak etme hiyerarşilerini inşa ettiğini göstermektedir. Çalışma, görsellerin zorunlu göçe dair kamusal anlayışı şekillendirmede merkezi role sahip olduğu bir çağda, özellikle görsel medyaya daha yoğun akademik ilginin gerekliliğini vurgulamaktadır.

Keywords

Görsel Anlatılar Suriyeli Mülteciler Ukraynalı Mülteciler Avrupa Medyası Görsel Sosyoloji

References

  • Amores, Javier J. and Carlos Arcila. 2019. “Deconstructing the Symbolic Visual Frames of Refugees and Migrants in the Main Western European Media.” In ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 911-919. Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3362789.3362896.
  • Amores, Javier J, Carlos Arcila-Calderón and Beatriz González-de-Garay. 2020. “The Gendered Representation of Refugees Using Visual Frames in the Main Western European Media.” Gender Issues 37 (4): 291-314. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s12147-020-09248-1
  • Banks, James. 2012. “Unmasking Deviance: The Visual Construction of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in English National Newspapers.” Critical Criminology 20 (3): 293-310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-011-9144-x.
  • Barthes, Roland. 1977. Image, Music, Text. Translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana Press.
  • Berger, John. 1972. Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books.
  • Bleiker, Roland, David Campbell, Emma Hutchison and Xzarina Nicholson. 2013. “The Visual Dehumanisation of Refugees.” Australian Journal of Political Science 48 (4): 398-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2013.84 0769.
  • Debord, Guy. 2021. The Society of the Spectacle. Translated and edited by Ron Adams. Cambridge: Unredacted Word.
  • Ellison, Sarah and Travis M. Andrews. 2022. “‘They Seem So Like Us’: In Depicting Ukraine’s Plight, Some in Media Use Offensive Comparisons.” The Washington Post, February 27, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost. com/media/2022/02/27/media-ukraine-offensive-comparisons/.
  • European Commission. 2025. “Temporary Protection.” April 2, 2025. https:// home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/asylum-eu/ temporary-protection_en
  • Freeman, Gary P. 1995. “Modes of Immigration Politics in Liberal Democratic States.” The International Migration Review 29 (4): 881–902. https://doi. org/10.2307/2547729.
  • Göç Politikaları ve Projeleri Dairesi Başkanlığı. 2016. 2015 Türkiye Göç Raporu. Ankara: T.C. İçişleri Bakanlığı Göç İdaresi Genel Müdürlüğü. https:// www.goc.gov.tr/kurumlar/goc.gov.tr/YillikGocRaporlari/2015_yillik_ goc_raporu.pdf.
  • Guiraudon, Virginie. 2018. “The 2015 Refugee Crisis Was Not a Turning Point: Explaining Policy Inertia in EU Border Control.” European Political Science 17 (1): 151-160. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-017-0123-x.
  • Habermas, Jürgen. 2023. A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Hall, Stuart, Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke and Brian Roberts. 2013. Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Howarth, Anita. 2020. “Fake Photos in the European Refugee Crisis: The ‘Invasion’ Narrative of the Radical Right.” In Handbook of Research on Recent Developments in Internet Activism and Political Participation, edited by Yasmin Ibrahim, 122-137. IGI Global.
  • Ibañez Sales, Matías. 2023. “The Refugee Crisis’ Double Standards: Media Framing and the Proliferation of Positive and Negative Narratives During the Ukrainian and Syrian Crises.” Euromesco, March 2023, Policy Brief, www.euromesco.net/publication/the-refugee-crisis-double-standards- media-framing-and-theproliferation-of-positive-and-negative-narratives- during-the-ukrainian-and-syrian-crisis/.
  • Ineli-Ciger, Meltem. 2016. “Time to Activate the Temporary Protection Directive: Why the Directive Can Play a Key Role in Solving the Migration Crisis in Europe.” European Journal of Migration and Law 18 (2016): 1-33.
  • IOM (International Organization for Migration). 2016. Fatal Journeys Volume 2: Identification and Tracing of Dead and Missing Migrants. Edited by Tara Brian and Frank Laczko. Geneva: IOM. https://publications.iom.int/books/ fatal-journeys-volume-2-identification-and-tracing-dead-and-missing- migrants.
  • IOM. 2019. International Migration Law: Glossary of Migration. No:34. Geneva: IOM. https://publications.iom.int/books/international-migration-law- ndeg34-glossary-migration.
  • Martikainen, Jari and Inari Sakki. 2024. “Visual Humanization of Refugees: A Visual Rhetorical Analysis of Media Discourse on the War in Ukraine.” British Journal of Social Psychology 63 (1): 106-130. https://doi.org/10.1111/ bjso.12669.
  • McCann, Katherine, Megan Sienkiewicz and Monette Zard. 2023. The Role of Media Narratives in Shaping Public Opinion Toward Refugees: A Comparative Analysis. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.
  • Memou, Antigoni. 2019. “Spectacular Images of the ‘Refugee Crisis’.” Photographies 12 (1): 81-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2018.15017 28.
  • Newman, Nic, Richard Fletcher, David A. L. Levi and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2016. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2016. Oxford: Reuters Institute. https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ Digital-News-Report-2016.pdf.
  • Newman, Nic, Richard Fletcher, Craig T Robertson, Kirsten Eddy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2023. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023. Oxford: Reuters Institute. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/ files/2023-06/Digital_News_Report_2023.pdf.
  • Oliveira, Natalie da Cunha. 2023. We Don’t Belong to the Same War: A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage in Germany on the Syrian and Ukrainian War. Master’s thesis, University Institute of Lisbon.
  • Průchová Hrůzová, Andrea and Jan Zápotocký. 2022. “Seemingly Innocent Pictures. Visual Representations of Migrants and Refugees Circulating through the Czech Facebook Nationalistic Universe.” Visual Studies 37 (4): 348-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2021.1953397.
  • Rose, Gillian. 2016. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: Sage Publications.
  • Sontag, Susan. 2003. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador.
  • Telbrant, Miriam and Philip Haraldsson. 2022. Refugee and Refugee: An Analysis of Media Tendencies and Framing Concerning Refugee Crises. Bachelor thesis, Jönköping University.
  • UNHCR. 2015a. Global Appeal 2015 Update: Turkey. Geneva: UNHCR. https:// www.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/legacy-pdf/5461e60c52.pdf.
  • UNHCR. 2015b. UNHCR Asylum Trends 2014: Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries. Geneva: UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/media/asylum- levels-and-trends-industrialized-countries-2014.
  • UNHCR. 2016. Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2015. Geneva: UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/ph/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2017/03/ Global-Trends-Report-2015-1.pdf.
  • UNHCR Operational Data Portal. 2025. “Ukraine Refugee Situation.” November 2025. https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine.
  • van Leeuwen, Theo. 2004. “Semiotics and Iconography.” In Handbook of Visual Analysis, edited by Theo Van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt, 92-118. London: Sage Publications.
  • Wintzer, Jeannine. 2019. “The Visualization of Migration.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 18:1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919844100
  • Wright, Terence. 2002. “Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees.” Visual Studies 17 (1): 53-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/147258602200000505 3.
There are 36 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Internet Publishing, Communication Sociology
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Özlem Alioğlu 0000-0002-1284-5057

Publication Date December 5, 2025
Submission Date March 12, 2025
Acceptance Date November 10, 2025
Published in Issue Year 2025 Volume: 12 Issue: 2

Cite

APA Alioğlu, Ö. (2025). Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media. Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi, 12(2), 297-341. https://doi.org/10.24955/ilef.1656035
AMA Alioğlu Ö. Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media. Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi. December 2025;12(2):297-341. doi:10.24955/ilef.1656035
Chicago Alioğlu, Özlem. “Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media”. Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi 12, no. 2 (December 2025): 297-341. https://doi.org/10.24955/ilef.1656035.
EndNote Alioğlu Ö (December 1, 2025) Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media. Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi 12 2 297–341.
IEEE Ö. Alioğlu, “Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media”, Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 297–341, 2025, doi: 10.24955/ilef.1656035.
ISNAD Alioğlu, Özlem. “Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media”. Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi 12/2 (December2025), 297-341. https://doi.org/10.24955/ilef.1656035.
JAMA Alioğlu Ö. Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media. Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi. 2025;12:297–341.
MLA Alioğlu, Özlem. “Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media”. Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi, vol. 12, no. 2, 2025, pp. 297-41, doi:10.24955/ilef.1656035.
Vancouver Alioğlu Ö. Visual Narratives of Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees on European Media. Ankara Üniversitesi İlef Dergisi. 2025;12(2):297-341.
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