In times of increased global migration, the integration function of journalism gains special significance: the inclusion or exclusion of migrants in a society is mainly performed in mediated discourses. In 2015 Germany received worldwide media attention, which often emphasized the country’s ‘culture of welcome.’ However, sexualized attacks during New Year´s Eve 2015/16 in Cologne triggered a global echo and became a metaphor for refugees groping German women.
The research interest focuses on the perspectives from outside of Germany: how do media from different parts of the world frame the attacks? How is the German nation-state represented? What ideologies of migration become apparent? And how is sexualized violence negotiated? These questions are sought to be answered with a qualitative frame analysis based on texts from a broad variety of global English-speaking media outlets: The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Haaretz, Russia Today and Asharq Alawsat.
As a result, six media frames could be identified: Clash-of-Cultures, Blame-the-Left, Good-vs.-Bad-Migrants, Resist-Racism, Germany´s-Left-Right-Divide and Fight-Global-Chauvinism. The research has shown battles on the significance and understanding of nation-states in times of globalization, about myths of ethnic purity or of cultural superiority. While the media representations differ a lot, migration is most often conceptualized as a ‘sexual problem’ and sexualized attacks as an ‘imported practise’.