The St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo team working on the Voice of Migration – Future Communicators project (No. 2024-2-TR01-KA220-YOU-000279895) delivered a workshop titled “Aspects of Migration Narratives in the Media” with participants in the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme “Language Policy and International Diplomacy.” The session brought together undergraduate and PhD students from five countries—Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Assoc. Prof. Desislava Andreeva, and Chief Assist. Prof. Georgi Ignatov introduced the project and outlined its main goals, including the development of a Curriculum and a Modular Training Set for Young Communicators & Youth Workers (within WP3: “Migration Communication and AI Learning Resources for Young Communicators and Youth Workers”).
The workshop was designed to:
- introduce and pilot the Training Set’s opening module;
- explore how its blend of theory and practice can be embedded in youth training programmes;
- gather feedback from participants before and after the session in order to assess its learning impact.
Throughout the workshop, the trainers encouraged active participation through discussion, role-based activities, and interactive tasks grounded in real media examples. Students were also given a practical assignment to identify media frames and their linguistic markers.
Participants developed a clearer understanding of migration communication as a field, including how it is shaped by technological contexts, public stereotypes, and local social dynamics. Concepts such as “moral panic” and the “CNN effect” were discussed in accessible terms. The session also highlighted the importance of building coherent, long-term media narratives on migration.
Students were introduced to seven key elements of strategic communication on migration, along with the need for tailored engagement with different audience groups. Particular attention was paid to the role of storytelling and humour, value-based messaging, and the effective use of contextualized data and statistics.
In their feedback, participants emphasized how important it is for young people to be well prepared to engage with migration-related issues. They also noted the complexity and ethical sensitivity of migration discourse in the media, which often presents the topic in predominantly negative ways, thereby shaping the public agenda. The value of this type of training was widely acknowledged, and a follow-up survey showed a very high level of satisfaction with both the content and its practical relevance.
The remaining modules in the training package will address the following topics: “Migration and Media: Ethical Reporting Principles”, “Digital Literacy and Combating Disinformation”, “Migration Narratives: Empathy and Inclusive Communication”, “Migration Representation in Visual Communication”, and “Artificial Intelligence and Its Use in Migration Communication.” These will be developed by partner teams from Turkey, Austria, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
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