"We Demand Better Ways to Communicate": Pre-Digital Media Practices in Refugee Camps

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

This article provides a historical perspective on media practices in refugee camps. Through an analysis of archival material emerging from refugee camps in Germany between 1945 and 2000, roles and functions of media practices in the camp experience among forced migrants are demonstrated. The refugee camp is conceptualized as a heterotopian space, where media practices took place in pre-digital media environments. The archival records show how media practices of refugees responded to the spatial constraints of the camp. At the same time, media practices emerged from the precarious power relations between refugees, administration, and activists. Opportunities, spaces, and access to media practices and technologies were provided, yet at the same time restricted, by the camp structure and administration, as well as created by refugees and volunteers. Media activist practices, such as the voicing of demands for the availability of media, demonstrate how access to media was fought for within the power structures and affordances of the analogue environment. While basic media infrastructure had to be fought for more than in the digital era and surveillance and control of media practices was more intense, the basic need for access to information and connectivity was similar in pre-digital times, resulting in media activism. This exploration of unconsidered technological environments in media and refugee studies can arguably nuance our understanding of the role of media technologies in "refugee crises".

Object Details

• ISSN: 2183-2439
• Extent: Seite(n): 207-217
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Media and Communication, 7(2)

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Publizistische Medien, Journalismus,Verlagswesen ; Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie ; Medienpolitik, Informationspolitik, Medienrecht ; Migration ; Bundesrepublik Deutschland ; Migration ; Digitalisierung ; Notunterkunft ; Kommunikation ; historische Entwicklung ; politische Aktivität ; 19. Jahrhundert ; Mediengeschichte

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Seuferling, Philipp
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Portugal
• (when): 2019

Further information

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i2.1869
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:26 PM CEST