Description
Recent years have seen practices of re-bordering in the larger European Union, a process which stands in contrast to the larger aims of free movement of people. This paper explores media narratives on borders, and their subsequent relationship to the wider European Union project. Specifically, the paper draws upon data collected in the Horizon-2020 B-Shapes project, and its case study regions. It builds on a frame analysis of border narratives in a selection of minority language daily newspapers in five unique European borderzone contexts. Minorities can be conceptualised as a looking glass who provide a unique perspective on bordering processes (Tarvet & Klatt, 2021).
Through the analysis, I seek to establish if media border narratives in these borderzone contexts change during times of crisis and, if so, in what ways? Conceptually, the analysis is stimulated by an understanding of borders as fluid and border politics as shaped by media narratives. A theoretical perspective of ontological security theory is used to shed light on the shifting functions and perceptions of borders, and what these changes may represent for the future of the European project.
