How great to have my piece included in this very timely special issue of the open access journal of the Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies Association. The theme is Fortress Europe: Media, Migration and Borders, and it presents a range of case studies on the media coverage of the so-called “refugee crisis” in Europe. It highlights how Europe and the violence that its borders inflict upon bodies comes to produce refugees as “other,” and explores the role of various (digital) media representations in consolidating or challenging the dominant tropes around the figures of the migrant, refugee, and asylum seeker.
My contribution focuses on the case of the Facebook page, Europe Says OXI, and draws on interview and observation material from the activists responsible for the page. The paper analyses the role of the social media platform in the social movement of which they form a part, and argues that the existing opposition within the literature between “connective” versus “collective” identities is not so productive. It suggests the idea of “online camaraderie” as a step towards encompassing the particular experiences of a shared connection between people and a contemporary movement that is both digitally mediated and has an important and complex relationship to what Europe means today.
Donya Alinejad 