REIMAGINING THE REFUGEE IMAGE: ALTERNATIVE REFUGEE APPEARANCES ON INSTAGRAM

Year 2022, , 585 - 612, 31.12.2022

Merve Alçayır

https://doi.org/10.17572/mj2022.2.585-612

Abstract

Dominant representation regime has been presenting refugees as a “universal subject”, and refugeeness as an experience characterized by poverty, victimization and neediness. However, recent qualitative studies focusing on refugee experience have revealed that forced migration is not experienced homogenously, as mass media and international migration regime try to present it, but the experience varies depending on the social, political, economic and cultural conditions in which migration takes place. Similarly, media does not always present refugees as passive victims, fleeing violence and persecution; but sometimes as political subjects, for example as happened in the aftermath of the Second World War. Drawing on the idea that the Internet offers marginalised groups a space to reframe the narratives around their experiences, this study analyses the refugee images produced and shared on Instagram by people with forced migration experience. Research focuses on whether visual narratives produced based on lived experience offer an opportunity to subvert or erode the dominant cliches. Results suggest that although the alternative refugee images produced by refugees on Instagram are still limited in number, these posts make different aspects of the refugee experience visible and provide an optimistic framework for positive change in the long run.

Keywords

visual culture, refugee image, self-representation, counter-representation

MÜLTECİ İMGESİNİ YENİDEN TAHAYYÜL ETMEK: INSTAGRAM’DA ALTERNATİF MÜLTECİ GÖRÜNÜMLERİ

Abstract

Egemen temsil rejimi, mülteciyi “evrensel bir özne”; mülteciliği ise yoksulluk, mağduriyet ve muhtaçlığın karakterize ettiği bir deneyim olarak sunagelmiştir. Ancak çalışmalar, zorunlu göçün kitlesel medya ve uluslararası göç rejiminin sunmaya çalıştığı gibi homojen bir deneyim olmadığını; aksine sosyal, politik, ekonomik ve kültürel koşullara göre değişiklik gösterdiğini ortaya koymuştur. Benzer biçimde medya, mültecileri her zaman şiddet ve zulümden kaçan pasif kurbanlar olarak değil; örneğin İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrasında olduğu gibi politik özneler olarak temsil etmiştir. Bu araştırma, internet ortamının marjinalleştirilen gruplar için kendi deneyimlerine dair anlatıları yeniden çerçeveleme imkânı sunduğu argümanına dayanarak Instagram’da zorunlu göç deneyimi olan kişilerce üretilen ve paylaşılan mülteci imgelerini analiz etmektedir. Aynı zamanda bu araştırma, yaşanmış deneyime dayalı bu görsel anlatıların klişe imgeleri tersine çevirmekte sunduğu olanaklara odaklanmaktadır. Analiz, Instagram’da mülteciler tarafından üretilen alternatif mülteci imgelerinin, hâlen sayıca sınırlı olsa da, paylaşımların mültecilik deneyiminin farklı yönlerini görünür kılarak uzun vadede pozitif bir değişim için iyimser bir çerçeve sunduğunu göstermektedir.

Keywords

görsel kültür, mülteci imgesi, öz-temsil, karşı temsil., visual culture, refugee image, self-representation, counter-representation

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