Description
The role of visuality in contemporary processes of representations and perceptions of migrants and refugees is becoming increasingly complex due to the interplay of several communication channels. Previous research has examined the ways in which regimes of visuality contribute to the sociomaterial (re)production of race in a variety of media, emphasising the role of visual elements. Drawing on the notion of contemporaneity to investigate the experience of stimuli across multiple sensory modalities within a specific timeframe, the study maps the aural, visual, and temporal dimensions that are intrinsic to the process of news-making. It examines how visual representational practices in information dissemination may both displace and emplace individuals. Recognising how inter-modality and multisensory representational practices may capture the co-constructed nature of race and migration, the study investigates how they may both displace and emplace individuals. Through a multimodal analysis of German television news coverage of Die Tagesschau, it examines how various modes of communication contribute to the construction, transmission, and reinforcement of racial categories in the representation of refugees. The paper makes the case that contemporary processes of racialisation extend beyond mere visual phenomena, but rather emerge through the interactions between different representational and perceptual modalities. Each of these forms shapes how refugeeness is perceived, experienced, and reproduced in public discourse in a different way. By investigating the process of creating multisensory communicative experiences, the study aims to expand on the ways news discourses configure social identities and forms of being as understood via the perceptions of others.
