Improper Distance: The Refugee Crisis Presented by Two Newsrooms

This article examines how the two major newspapers in Spain and Norway between October 2015 and March 2016 covered the refugee crisis in Europe. Based on a quantitative and comparative content analysis of the Spanish newspaper El País and the Norwegian newspaper VG, the study finds that, in both newspapers, more than 50 per cent of the stories on the refugee crisis are about political and administrative issues. Politicians and governmental officials are the dominating sources, while far less space and attention are devoted to the refugees and their stories and opinions. Employing Roger Silverstone’s concept of proper distance as a theoretical anchorage point, the study concludes that the aspiring proximity in the news coverage favours the politicians more than those affected by the politics.