Institute of Central Europe/Yearbook 23 (2025)/Issue 2/Between contempt and paternalism – migrants in press coverage during the 2021 EU–Belarus border crisis: a comparative analysis of “Sieci” and “Polityka” weekly magazines

Between contempt and paternalism – migrants in press coverage during the 2021 EU–Belarus border crisis: a comparative analysis of “Sieci” and “Polityka” weekly magazines

Między pogardą i paternalizmem – obraz migrantów w relacjach prasowych podczas kryzysu granicznego UE–Białoruś w 2021 roku. Analiza porównawcza przekazu tygodników „Sieci” i „Polityka”

Maciej Bachryj

ORCID: Maciej Bachryj: 0000-0002-8072-9488

Afiliacja: University of Wrocław

Pages: 125–147

Edition: Lublin 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36874/RIESW.2025.2.5

Citation method: M. Bachryj, Between contempt and paternalism – migrants in press coverage during the 2021 EU–Belarus border crisis: a comparative analysis of “Sieci” and “Polityka” weekly magazines, „Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej” 23 (2025), z. 2, s. 125–147, DOI: https://doi.org/10.36874/RIESW.2025.2.5

Keywords: , , , , ,

Abstract: The aim of this article is to examine how metaphors of migrants, present in Polish press discourse, shape their image in terms of warmth and competence, following the assumptions of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM). The study is based on metaphor analysis grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), drawing on Kövecses’s extended framework and the hierarchy of the Extended Great Chain of Being (EGCB). A comparison of texts from the weeklies “Polityka” and “Sieci”, which represent divergent ideological orientations, demonstrates that these magazines construct distinct repertoires of metaphors relating to migrants. In the left-liberal “Polityka”, metaphors that diminish migrants’ agency predominate, encouraging their categorisation as a group characterised by low competence but relatively high warmth. Conversely, in right-wing conservative “Sieci”, metaphors depicting migrants as a threat occur more frequently, lowering their perceived warmth while yielding a more varied assessment of their competence. Thus, the repertoire of metaphors is closely linked to the content of the resulting stereotype, giving rise to different forms – paternalistic in “Polityka” and contemptuous in “Sieci”.

Between contempt and paternalism – migrants in press coverage during the 2021 EU–Belarus border crisis: a comparative analysis of “Sieci” and “Polityka” weekly magazines

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