Dimensions of polity, politics and policy in the Austrian media system: Media coverage of the ‘refugee/asylum seeker crisis’

This article focuses on the media system in Austria, with particular interest in the portrayal of asylum seekers and refugees in the print news media. The objective is to define conditions, processes, and content issues in order to determine their roles in the coverage of this topic. As a framework for analysis, the model of three political dimensions, polity, politics and policy, is used. For each dimension, key factors are determined. In the analysis of the systemic framework (polity), the legal aspects for mass media, the level of concentration in the Austrian media sector, and the media self-regulation measures are considered to be essential as they form the basis for media plurality and diversity of opinion in a democratic system. Regarding the processes (politics), various main players are identified. These include policy-makers in the parliament and government and their influence on media enterprises, as well as Austrian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) committed to the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Journalists are seen as important actors, even if their gatekeeper-function seems to have changed due to new technologies. Thus, an individual citizen can now also use social media channels as a tool of direct participation and as an agenda-setting opportunity. Concerning the content issues (policy), the descriptive model of news values is considered essential for mass media coverage. A qualitative analysis of online articles in two daily newspapers, Kronen Zeitung and Der Standard, compares the tonality of the discourse in a range of articles and shows differences of the reporting styles in tabloid and quality media. Furthermore, there will be a comparison of online articles in derstandard.at of different time periods, analysing changes in the Austrian media coverage during and after the ‘welcome culture’ with regard to refugees/asylum seekers.