Fighting the Negative Narrative about Migrants with Calm Communications
The negative narrative about people who we describe as migrants, unfortunately, finds its way through to the media, for years now. When for a steady, continuous period, we see regular narratives that evoke strong emotions and allow for discussions on social media, where negative and xenophobic voices get stronger than the positive and inclusive ones, that is when people’s minds form a negative association with the word migrant. We are all responsible for the way we tell these stories. The storytelling objectives, style and voice, make all the difference.
Luckily, lately, there are wonderful examples of the media that do not follow this path. Outside Multicultural Magazine is one of them. There is a rising trend of sharing stories with a positive outlook, with empathy in mind during the whole storytelling process: from how the story is written, to how it will be perceived and how it influences the actors of the story.
Outside Multicultural Magazine is an online magazine with a goal to provide an online space, where integration, multiculturalism and diversity are supported. They feature texts, videos and content by authors with different ethnical backgrounds. They are covering all aspects and a range of topics from everyday life.
Expats and non-expats are writing here about family, raising children, environment, employment, emotions, style, and politics. We can read about people with different backgrounds, together in the same space. The specific way of the calm communication they take pride in, they describe as communicating softly approach:
“If we meet a migrant or someone different in our city, let’s think what reason they had to come miles and miles to another country. We should be aware that negative narratives, ignoring new cultures or religions, not giving a chance for inclusion can in the end lead to violence. We should know who we are, hold on to that and respect that, then start learning about new religions, cultures in our communities. Also, give a chance to others to show their story and give a chance to show that they are friendly and as good as we are all. Most importantly, do not generalise, there is a bit of good and bad in all of us.”.
Read more positive, multicultural stories: https://outsidemagazine.ie/
