Kevin Smets

The way Syrian refugees in Turkey use media: Understanding “connected refugees” through a non-media-centric and local approach

Abstract This paper reports on an exploratory, qualitative study of media use among Syrian refugees in Turkey, focusing on two locations: a refugee camp in Sanliurfa (South-Eastern Turkey) and a community center in Istanbul. It seeks to provide new angles for conceptualizing the “connected refugee” by adopting a non-media-centric and ethnographic approach that emphasizes diversity, local contexts and everydayness. Firstly, the paper discusses the interplay between individual and collective ownership of media and ICTs, which is linked to certain power dynamics and an informal economy of solidarity. Secondly, the role of popular media (e.g., music, television series, football) for establishing ontological security in an interstitial and unstable position is discussed.

Five Questions for Digital Migration Studies: Learning From Digital Connectivity and Forced Migration In(to) Europe:

This Special Collection “Forced migration and digital connectivity in(to) Europe” historicizes, contextualizes, empirically grounds, and conceptually reflects on the impact of digital technologies on forced migration. In this introductory essay, we elaborate digital migration as a developing field of research. Taking the exceptional attention for digital mediation within the recent so-called “European refugee crisis” as a starting point, we reflect on the main conceptual, methodological and ethical challenges for this emerging field and how it is taking shape through interdisciplinary dialogues and in interaction with policy and public debate. Our discussion is organized around five central questions: (1) Why Europe? (2) Where are the field and focus of digital migration studies? (3) Where is the human in digital migration? (4) Where is the political in digital migration? and (5) How can we de-center Europe in digital migration studies? Alongside establishing common ground between various communities of scholarship, we plea for non-digital-media-centric-ness and foreground a commitment toward social change, equity and social justice.

Book review: Social media in Southeast Turkey: Love, kinship and politicsCostaElisabetta, Social media in Southeast Turkey: Love, kinship and politics. London, England: University College London Press, 2016. ISBN 978910634523; 194 pp., £35 (pbk).

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Social Media + Society January-March 2018: 1 –3

Kurds and Their Cultural Crossroads

Kurds have come to occupy an increasingly important position in the contemporary Middle East, notably in the struggle against Islamic State ( IS ). This has brought about an increased presence of Kurds in global media. At the same time, the Kurdish media landscape in the Middle East and in the diaspora has developed rapidly. The timing is thus appropriate to reconsider Kurdish media and cultural production in the light of the recent political, cultural, social and technological shifts. In this editorial introduction to the special issue on Kurdish media and cultural production we reflect on this growing field of research, focusing on three questions: How do media and cultural production contribute to contemporary (discourses on) Kurdish movements, and vice versa? How can we explain the emergence of a Kurdish mediascape in the Middle East and Europe theoretically and methodologically? And, what is the relevance and potential effect of this emerging Kurdish mediascape for the existing politics of media at the national and international level? We give a brief overview of the current state of research on Kurdish media and cultural production and discuss the articles in this special issue and how they contribute to a stronger understanding of the relations between media, culture and society in the Middle East.

Ethnic identity without ethnic media? Diasporic cosmopolitanism, (social) media and distant conflict among young Kurds in London

Media are fundamental to the way communities make sense of conflicts. This also holds true for diaspora communities, who are involved in and affected by distant/homeland conflicts. Shifting away from the dominant focus on ‘radicalization’ through media in this context, this study looks at the role media play in making sense of such conflict among young Kurds in London. Data consist of focus groups with Kurdish youth, participant observations in community centres and ethnographic conversations. While media are generally perceived as the central forces through which diaspora youth experience and engage with the Kurdish conflict in Turkey, ethnic media, in particular Kurdish broadcasting, play a very limited role. The distance vis-à-vis ethnic media is analysed and explained through respondents’ discourses on diasporic cosmopolitanism. The results show that their shift away from ethnic media facilitates more solid ethnic identities and more enhanced engagements with the Kurdish conflict.

Perceived Human Rights in Van Merkez, Eastern Turkey

Abstract The Kurdish population in Turkey and its human rights situation have been a major issue in Turkey’s foreign and domestic politics. There is a need for large-scale empirical evidence on perceptions of human rights or how people judge their own life situation and obstacles to greater empowerment and freedom of choice in the predominantly Kurdish eastern part of Turkey. Providing such empirical input, this study offers insight into the perceived human rights of people living in Van Merkez, an area that has been shaped by the Kurdish conflict. The data are part of the EUMAGINE project on human rights and migration-related perceptions, and consist of survey questions about human rights conditions among a representative sample of 500 respondents aged 18‒39. The results show that the differences in perceptions between Kurds and Turks are partially explained by the life satisfaction, perceptions of corruption and safety of respondents. The largest part is explained by the perception of language discrimination by the government.