Public Conference
(Im)migration Representation in the Media Platforms era
Rome and online
10.00-10.30 Arrival of participants and registration
10.30-10.45 Welcome greetings
Marcello Scalisi, Director, UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union
Flavio di Giacomo, Spokesperson/Senior Public Information Associate, Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, International Organization for Migration – IOM
Andrea Miconi, EUMEPLAT Principal Investigator, Professor of Media Sociology, IULM University
10.45-12.30 Representation in the European media: research results
Moderator: Nathalie Clauter, Project Manager, UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union
Andrea Miconi, IULM University, Italy
Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, Open University of Catalonia, Spain (online)
Justine Toms, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria (online)
Volker Grassmuck, Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung | Hans-Bredow Institut, Germany (online)
Ioanna Archontaki, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Sofia Ferro Santos & António Vasconcelos, ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal (online)
Lutz Peschke, Bilkent University, Turkey (online)
12.30-13.30 (Im)migration discourse: tools and strategies
Moderator: Mathieu Schneider, Vice President Culture, Science-Society and Solidarity Actions, University of Strasbourg; President of MEnS network – Migrants dans l’Enseignement Supérieur
Elisa Giomi, Commissioner, Italian Communications Regulatory Authority – AGCOM
Flavio di Giacomo, Spokesperson/Senior Public Information Associate, Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, International Organization for Migration – IOM
Mara Matta, Professor, Sapienza University of Rome
Claudia Matera, Chief Development Officer, ALL DIGITAL (online)
13.30-14.30 Light lunch
14.30-16.00 Media narratives: the way ahead
Moderator: Andrea Spinelli Barrile, Journalist, InfoAfrica, Africa Rivista; Co-founder Slow News
Annalisa Camilli, Journalist, Internazionale
Patrizio Nissirio, Editor and Coordinator, ANSAmed
Micol Pancaldi, Project Manager, COPEAM
Associazione Stampa Estera (to be confirmed)
16.00-17.00 Round table on recommendations (closed session)
In the last decades, im/migration has become a hot and divisive topic in European countries and at the EU-level, being at the centre of strong and heated discussion among opposite political parties and attracting the media interest and attention.
Nevertheless, the way this complex issue is portrayed by and in the traditional and new media is often not accurate, leading to disinformation and misinformation and influencing the perception of the dimension and repercussions migration has in the European societies.
Among its research tasks, the EUMEPLAT project, funded under the Horizon 2020 Programme, has been studying the representation of two critical issues for the European identity, migration and gender, by analysing a vast data-set of online contents in the ten countries involved in the project, with the aim of investigating whether platformization is confirming or dismantling the existing stereotypes on these topics. A catalogue of best practices will be compiled and shared with decision-makers.
Three main dimensions have emerged from the research:
(1) Immigrants do not speak, they are spoken about. The first indication from the between country observation is crystal clear: when it goes down to immigrations, immigrants are always the object, rather than the subject. In all likelihood, best practices are to be searched for, which imply a positive role of immigrants in telling their own stories.
(2) Representation of immigration in social media is about territory – our territory. As a matter of fact, in social media debate the route of the immigrants is very short: they materialize, out of the blue, at the European borders. With their previous, exhausting journey put out of the picture, such representation would consolidate the idea of immigrants pushing at the European borders, and Europe eventually being the victim of the process (based on the invasion stereotype). How to give justice to the immigrants’ stories, in a way that would respect the geographical proportions of the process? Statistically speaking, we know that the huge majority of refugees and immigrants resettle in the countries of the Global South – but how to build a narrative around that?
(3) Representation of immigration is about people – not person. With the exception of crime stories, representation of immigrants is all about their collective body. Not accidentally, we rarely see them in close-up pictures – normally, we have a long-shot or a medium-shot of a bunch of them. In such a way, what we lose is their personal identity: the plain fact that any immigrant has an individual story, made of friendship and pain, preferences and flaws, like anybody else.
The conference is the occasion to bring together the different actors playing a role in the immigration representation in the Euro-Mediterranean region, namely the European and national institutions, the international organisations working on the issue, the academia, the media and audiovisual practitioners and the civil society. Starting from the three dimensions above-mentioned, the speakers will exchange on how to to develop a new storytelling about migration and its impact on the European identity and culture and define a road map and policy recommendations.
If you are in Rome and wish to attend the Conference in presence
If you wish to follow the Conference online
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Accept settingsHide notification onlySettingsWe may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.
Private: Privacy Policy