The representation of the Ukrainian displaced people diaspora on British television: A multimodal critical discourse analysis

As of June 2023, 179,500 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in the UK on government visa schemes following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 (UK Government, 2023). Amongst the media reports of the conflict, some television programmes focussed on the Ukrainian Displaced People (UDP), their journeys through Europe and their lives once in the UK.

Through a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis lens (e.g. Kress and van Leeuwen 2001; Machin and Mayr, 2012) applied to documentary films (Castaldi, 2021, forthcoming), the paper analyses the representation of UDP in programmes broadcast on British television that focussed on the Ukrainian diaspora, and explores the discourses and narratives used to discuss the phenomenon. The study is part of a larger participatory project with UDP in Kent, UK, which investigates representations and self-representations of the Ukrainian diasporic community.

The preliminary results, showing a largely sympathetic stance from the media producers, will be discussed, and comparisons will be made with the representation of other diasporic communities in the media to highlight positive ways of framing and discussing refugee crises in media discourse.