Attitudes ten opzichte van weergaven van het vluchtelingenvraagstuk door media

Abstract

A lot of research has been conducted on influence of media on attitudes towards immigrants. Media tend to have different perspectives on a social event, depending on their ideological or political background. The main focus of this study is to provide an in-depth look at the way people deal with these perspectives and how they feel about the consequences of these perspectives. Participants are interviewed on their ideological attitudes towards immigrants and their attitudes towards the functions of media. Both factors will be put in perspective with their attitudes towards coverage of immigrants by Dutch media. Vignettes are used to gather data on these attitudes. This research shows that people are convinced that media should portrait events in an informative, objective while they know that complete objectivity isn’t a reachable goal and even when the subjective way of portraying refugees is in line with their ideological motives.