From faces to faceless: visual framing of migrant children in British media

Çetin C.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , cilt.0, sa.No information, ss.1-21, 2025 (SSCI)

Özet

This study examines how British news outlets use child-related imagery to frame migration, situating visual practices within the intersecting dynamics of dehumanisation and racialisation. The analysis is shaped by renewed public debate in early 2023 about how vulnerability and responsibility are depicted in media coverage of refugees and migrants. Focusing on four major UK outlets (BBC, Daily Mail, Metro, Financial Times), the study explores how facial visibility and thematic framing shape selective narratives of who becomes recognisable in the public sphere. Drawing on a quantitative framing analysis of 3,648 articles published over a 20-month period, including 1,685 items containing child-related visuals, the study codes facial visibility, framing themes, and nationality. The findings reveal clear nationality-based disparities: images of Ukrainian children tend to be humanising and relational, showing visible faces and everyday scenes, whereas Palestinian, Afghan, Syrian, and Rohingya children more often appear in distant, faceless, or crisis-oriented frames that limit their individuality and presence. These uneven patterns reflect what scholars describe as the global colour line and the racialised logics that shape humanitarian communication.The study shows how media representations reproduce longstanding hierarchies of humanity and contribute to broader processes of political belonging and exclusion in contemporary Britain.