“Back Way” Migration to Europe: The Role of Journalists in Disseminating Information Campaigns in The Gambia

Alagie Jinkang, Valentina Cappi and Pierluigi Musarò

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2023, vol. 38, issue 6, 901-918

Abstract: Faced with food insecurity, unemployment and broken infrastructure, many Gambian youth risk their lives through irregular and dangerous journeys to Europe – the so-called “back way” – with the hope to maximize opportunities for “better life conditions”. Concurrently, local and Western governmental and non-governmental organizations implement in the country information campaigns on the risks of irregular migration, thus complementing extraterritorial border policies with symbolic bordering practices. This article explores the role of Gambian journalists in circulating narratives, including information campaigns, about “back way” migration to Europe, both as content creators and content disseminators. Starting with an overview of these narratives, this paper discusses the results of an online survey with 54 Gambian journalists, conducted between 2020 and 2021. Our findings show that journalists’ communication strategies are shaped both by the limits and the opportunities of the Gambian information ecosystem inviting further research on local journalists’ potential role in reproducing or negotiating Western discourses about irregular migration.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08865655.2022.2156375 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjbsxx:v:38:y:2023:i:6:p:901-918

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjbs20

DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2022.2156375

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Borderlands Studies is currently edited by Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, Henk van Houtum and Martin van der Velde

More articles in Journal of Borderlands Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().