DE GRUYTER MOUTON Communications 2017; aop

Research in brief

Kevin Smets*
The way Syrian refugees in Turkey
use media: Understanding “connected
refugees” through a non-media-centric
and local approach
https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2017-0041

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, lo-
cal contexts and everydayness. Firstly, the paper discusses the interplay be-
tween 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.

Keywords: refugees, media use, migration, ethnography, connectivity, Middle

East

1 Introduction
The use of media and information and communication technologies (ICTs) has
become a major topic in research, policy and aid programs geared towards
refugees. While the current literature is predominantly media- and technology-
centered, this paper argues that considerable understanding can be gained
from a non-media-centric perspective. It reports in a brief manner on a qualita-
tive study on the media use of Syrian refugees in Turkey and puts forward three
main arguments. Firstly, the notion of the “connected refugee” needs to be

*Corresponding author: Kevin Smets, Department of Communication Studies, Vrije

Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, E-mail: [email protected]

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2 Kevin Smets DE GRUYTER MOUTON

decomposed in order to reveal a multiplicity of locally meaningful media ecolo-

gies. Secondly, a non-media-centric perspective may yield richer accounts of
the role of media in the everyday lives of refugees. Thirdly, the study indicates
two understudied research topics in relation to the media use of refugees, that
is, the tension between individual and collective technologies, and the impor-
tance of popular culture for ontological security.
The attention given to the media use of refugees has developed recently
within the field of media and migration studies, where the empirical focus has
primarily been on (descendants of) migrants who have settled permanently and
formed diaspora communities, such as Turks in Germany, North Africans in
France, or Mexicans in the US. In a context where the number of people dis-
placed by war is rising, and the impact on public debate is profound, scholars
are gradually shifting attention to different forms and stages of forced migra-
tion. Diminescu’s ground-breaking work on the “connected migrant” (2008)
and Bernal’s study on Eritrean refugees in cyberspace (2006) were among the
first to give shape to this new field of interest. Today, the study of migration
has increasingly become a study of technologies. A vast scope of topics has
emerged in this regard, from border technologies and mediated migrant activ-
ism to the use of technologies for integration. The “connected refugee” or the
“digitally connected migrant” (Ponzanesi and Leurs, 2014) embodies this strong
association between digital technologies and (forced) migration. Interestingly,
ICTs have also become central for many NGOs and aid programs working with,
and for, refugees. While specific technologies have been developed for a long
time, leading agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refu-
gees are now also developing global strategies to connect refugees and to em-
ploy digital technologies for enhancing their well-being (UNHCR, 2016).
Current research on the media use of refugees broadly consists of two
strands. On the one hand, there are a number of studies dealing with their
(lack) of connectivity and their precarious, unstable information and communi-
cation environments during or after migration (e.g., Emmer, Richter, and Kunst,
2016; Fisher, forthcoming; Frouws et al., 2016; Maitland and Xu, 2015; Wall et
al., 2017). On the other hand, scholars are increasingly focusing on how forced
migrants experience affect, sociality and co-presence through new media tech-
nologies (Leurs, 2014; Witteborn, 2015).
The research agenda on media and forced migration is quickly developing,
and a number of large-scale studies are currently being conducted. This paper
aims to contribute to this emerging field in communication research by high-
lighting the need for both a nuanced and locally-situated conceptualization of
the “connected refugee” as well as a less technology-centered (or, as I will
argue below, non-media-centric) approach to media use. The emphasis of the

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DE GRUYTER MOUTON The way Syrian refugees in Turkey use media 3

empirical study was on documenting and analyzing everyday practices, social

relations and experiences of Syrian refugees in two particular spaces: a refugee
camp in South-Eastern Turkey and a community center in Istanbul. A substan-
tial part of the study focused on the role media and ICTs play in these spaces,
however, without losing sight of the broader social context and power dynam-
ics. Before discussing the key results, I first outline the main theoretical argu-
ments of the study.

2 The connected refugee: Focus points

for theoretical refinement
Several scholars have argued for a more intricate understanding of the digitally
connected migrant, “whose empowerment through technology is coupled with
an ongoing material reality of everyday life, ordinary and extraordinary […]”
(Diminescu, 2008; Ponzanesi and Leurs, 2014, p. 10–11). Extending these con-
siderations to the connected refugee, and to refugees’ media use, urges us to
discern at least three key points for further theoretical refinement. Firstly, due
attention should be paid to the problematic notion of the term refugee and
refugee studies (Malkki, 1995) and to the implications of labeling different
forms of mobility (Witteborn, 2011). The term refugee might be too broad to
capture the many migration trajectories, life worlds and demographic realities
of current-day refugees. The term indicates a perplexingly diverse population
in terms of national, ethnic, religious, educational, class and gender identities.
When people are signified as refugees by scholars, are such socio-cultural dy-
namics not pushed to the background? Does the status as refugee override all
other biographical dimensions, and for how long? The term refugee of course
has conceptual, legal and political value, so instead of discarding it, I argue
that researchers should take into account as many demographic and socio-
cultural variables as possible, allowing for intersectional analyses to be made.
Moreover, studies on connected refugees should be situated and contextual-
ized: The notion of the refugee only becomes meaningful in a particular time
and space.
Secondly, connected refugees are positioned within multiscale media ecolo-
gies that are controlled, facilitated, and shaped by multiple actors. These in-
clude, at the surface, top-down, institutional and (supra)national infrastruc-
tures, generally put in place to increase control over borders and mobility.
However, the particularity and diversity of local media ecologies in various
environments (refugee camps, asylum and reception centers, etc.) may thus be

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4 Kevin Smets DE GRUYTER MOUTON

overlooked. While forced migration has a vast global dimension that draws
attention to interconnectivity, locality remains crucial. Drawing on scholars
who foreground locality in communication research (especially Kraidy and
Murphy, 2008), Witteborn (2012) argues for an ethnography of locally meaning-
ful communication practices, departing from the perspective of forced migrants.
A revaluation of local communication practices and infrastructures is key to a
richer conceptualization of the connected refugee.
Finally, and partly connected to the previous point, it is necessary to move
beyond a purely instrumental view of media use and adopt a more ethnograph-
ic and non-media-centric perspective. Such a perspective, which is rooted in
phenomenological, materialist and micro-sociological theories, shifts the atten-
tion away from the media technologies and devices and positions them within
daily routines, everyday contexts and social environments (Krajina, Moores,
and Morley, 2014; Moores, 2012; Morley, 2009). This approach not only adds a
much-needed empirical grounding to the notion of the connected refugee, but
also allows for a more ethnographic and humane viewpoint in which the agen-
cy and subjectivity of the refugee is emphasized rather than her/his inescapable
victimhood and despair. The work done on the spatiality and sociology of refu-
gee camps is therefore highly important here (Ramadan, 2013; Sigona, 2015).

3 Syrian refugees in Turkey: Context

and methods
The theoretical concerns outlined above were taken into account, and further
developed, during a qualitative, exploratory study on the media use of Syrian
refugees in Turkey. Turkey has seen a steep rise in incoming refugees, currently
hosting over 2.7 million Syrians (besides significant numbers of other migrants
who often consider Turkey as a transit country), and it is a central country
within the geopolitics of forced migration. The exploratory ethnography fo-
cused on two locations in Turkey: a refugee camp managed by the Turkish
government and the municipality in Sanliurfa (South-Eastern Turkey), and a
community center with a computer space in Istanbul, the country’s metropolis.
The study combined different qualitative methods. Expert interviews were
conducted with professionals working with refugees in Turkey. In total nine
people were interviewed in three different locations (see Table 1). These inter-
views provided valuable contextual information about Syrians living in Turkey
and about the role of media and ICTs in camp coordination and in the Syrian
community in Istanbul. These interviews mainly offered insight into institution-

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DE GRUYTER MOUTON The way Syrian refugees in Turkey use media 5

Table 1: Overview of experts interviewed.

Location Number of interviews Profile of the interviewees

Ankara 4 National policy advisor (2)

Representative of international NGO (2)

Sanliurfa 3 Management staff of refugee camp

Local representative of international NGO
Representative of municipality

Istanbul 2 Coordinator of community center

Social worker at community center

al dynamics from a top-down perspective, but also made clear the diversity
of measures and initiatives on the ground in different spaces. Subsequently,
participant observations were conducted between March and May 2015, and
again in September 2015,1 including a three-week ethnography in the refugee
camp in Sanliurfa and approximately 60 hours of observations in a Syrian com-
munity center with a computer space in Istanbul. Observations focused on dif-
ferent spaces such as private housing, common areas, the coordination center
and the computer room. While participating in daily life in these spaces as
much as possible, direct observations were made, which were recorded in elab-
orate field notes. During the observations, informal interviews were conducted
with 33 Syrians, half of which took place with the assistance of an interpreter.
Establishing rapport as an outsider was difficult, and the study raised several
ethical complexities. Following literature on ethical issues in studying refugees
(Block, Warr, Gibbs, and Riggs, 2012; Rodgers, 2004), I tried to emphasize sub-
jective experiences of refugees and to translate my results to professionals and
the broader audience in order to raise awareness of lesser known aspects of
the lives of refugees. Various measures were taken to protect anonymity, obtain
consent and to limit the intrusive effects of researching a vulnerable popula-
tion.2
It is important to note that the populations included in this study were
highly diverse. The refugees staying in the camp in Sanliurfa were generally
families with little economic security and lower levels of education. The camp

1 It is important to note that since this study was conducted, important political shifts have
taken place in Turkey, notably because of the state of emergency after the July 2015 coup
attempt. Follow-up research is needed to assess whether and how this has changed the man-
agement of refugee camps on the ground.
2 The study was supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Research Foundation Flan-
ders, and approved by the Ethics Committee for the Social Sciences and Humanities of the
University of Antwerp (2016).

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6 Kevin Smets DE GRUYTER MOUTON

also had a predominant population of women, children and elderly people

as many (young) men migrated elsewhere (mostly to other Turkish cities or
Europe) or were still in Syria. In Istanbul, the population is much more diverse
as the community center was initiated by highly educated Syrians and the peo-
ple visiting the center mostly had middle-class backgrounds. One of the most
crucial differences between both populations was the fact that Syrians in Istan-
bul were living independently and that many were employed (although often
in informal circuits or below their qualifications) or studying and in general
more integrated into Turkish society and its growing Syrian community, while
Syrians in the refugee camp were living in temporary settlements provided to
them. Due to the ambiguous and fluctuating legal and administrative policies
towards Syrians in Turkey (Memisoglu and Ilgit, 2016), many participants were
uncertain about their status and future in the country.

4 Individual and collective technologies:

Policing ICTs and the informal economy
of solidarity
A first major finding of the study is that the media use of refugees is signifi-
cantly shaped by the interplay between collective technologies and how this
interplay creates power dynamics and solidarities.
Popular media representations have tended to emphasize the fact that ev-
ery refugee owns a smartphone and relies heavily on it. Recent studies show
that there is indeed a high penetration of smartphones among (Syrian) refugees
(see, e.g., Emmer, Richter, and Kunst, 2016; Xu, Maitland, and Tomaszewski,
2015). While this was also the case for the Syrians in Istanbul in this study, it
was less so for those living in the refugee camp. Smartphones are the most
common ICT device for obvious reasons such as relative affordability and ease
of use. In the refugee camp, however, it was observed that these supposedly
basic technologies were often part of a broader range of collective technologies.
The media ecology of the refugee camp, in particular, was largely one of shared
technologies. Certain media were part of the camp infrastructure (computer
room with desktop computers, television sets in common spaces) while others
were privately owned but shared with family members and/or members of the
camp community (cell phones, smartphones, laptop computers, television sets).
During an interview, a staff member of the camp management noted that “the
camp coordination offers the basics, but besides that, there is a whole system
of media circulating in the camp”.

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DE GRUYTER MOUTON The way Syrian refugees in Turkey use media 7

When examining the reasons for this, different concrete explanations were
given, such as the fact that many families had left items in Syria, their lacking
financial means, or that other family members (mostly men) had taken devices
with them. The following quote by Rima3, a 26-year-old woman whose husband
was living in Izmir and trying to migrate to Europe via Greece, illustrates this:
“We only had one phone with us when we arrived in Turkey and decided my
husband should take it to organize his journey to Europe. We stay in touch
through the phone of my cousin, who also lives here with me.” Similarly, a
number of families owned a television set and opened their houses in the refu-
gee camp to other members of the community to come and watch television.
The computer room managed by the refugee camp and supported by the local
municipality was one of the busiest places in the refugee camp and was regard-
ed as a key element in perceived well-being. In the community centre in Istan-
bul, too, collective technologies played an important role: Many of the Syrians
visited the center specifically because it provided wireless internet connection
and several computers.
While both situations are profoundly different, the interplay between col-
lective and individual technologies in the study reveals interesting issues relat-
ed to power and solidarity. The power dynamics within it can be explicit, for
instance, in the case of the computer room in the refugee camp, where media
use is policed by the staff: There are time slots for the use of computers, access-
ing certain content is prohibited, etc. The study also shows more implicit power
dynamics related to media use, since owning certain devices yielded particular
status within the community. Those who owned laptop computers or smart-
phones would sometimes ‘trade’ them to other community members in ex-
change for material goods (e.g., sanitary products), or, more often, symbolic
status. As Mohammad, a 52-year-old man living in the refugee camp with his
wife, put it: “In these weird conditions in the camp, such things [smartphones
and computers] are like money and they make you very important here.” Inter-
estingly, these power dynamics also had a significant gender dimension, as it
was observed that the control was mostly performed by men. The tensions that
this created, for instance, between siblings or between different generations,
are reminiscent of the media ethnographic work on family television (Moores,
2000; Morley, 1986).
The study thus shows that, besides the policed infrastructures provided by
managing actors (e.g., refugee camp management), there is also an important
informal economy of solidarity, within which refugees negotiate the shared use

3 All names are pseudonyms.

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8 Kevin Smets DE GRUYTER MOUTON

of technologies. These dynamics should be an integral part of our conception

of the connected refugee.

5 Popular culture, interstitial positions

and ontological security
The second major finding is that popular culture is omnipresent in the everyday
lives of refugees and plays a key role in ascertaining ontological security. While
many previous studies and media reports have focused on the functional uses
of particular technologies or platforms (smartphones, apps, social networking
sites) for navigation, information seeking and communication, it is important
to stress that the media use of refugees also includes the mundane consump-
tion of popular media texts. In fact, the refugees in this study used the technol-
ogies at their disposal predominantly for personal communication and for pop-
ular culture such as music videos, football matches, soap operas and films.
To varying degrees, participants indicate that their homes in the refugee
camp and in Istanbul are temporary, while awaiting return to Syria or migration
to elsewhere. They occupy interstitial positions, expecting to apply for asylum
or resettlement, waiting to go back home, to find employment or a place to live
(on this precarity, see Baban, Ilcan, and Rygiel, 2016; Kaya, 2016). Moreover,
there is significant boredom, but also anxiety, lack of orientation and fulfilment
among refugees, especially those living in the refugee camp. This became clear
not only during conservations with refugees, but also when talking to camp
staff members, who explained that boredom and a lack of useful activities are
a major concern in the management of the camp. Popular culture may offer an
escape from the realities of the interstitial position.
Rather than mere instants of escapism, popular culture offers a sense of
ontological security. Ontological security, as theorized most powerfully by
Giddens (1990), is a helpful way to understand what people do and feel in
order to gain a sense of security or continuity in a world that is turbulent,
insecure and constantly changing. Previous studies have already pointed at
television’s potential to establish ontological security, also in transnational “in-
between” contexts (Georgiou, 2013; Silverstone, 1993). In his study among
young Somali refugees in Ethiopia, Leurs (2014) also found that transnational
communication has significant potential to contribute to ontological security,
notably because of the “affects screen-based interactions spur in the bodies of
migrant users” (p. 101).
The potential of media use for ascertaining ontological security was partic-
ularly linked to popular culture. Participants noted that “listening to their fa-

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DE GRUYTER MOUTON The way Syrian refugees in Turkey use media 9

vorite music”, “watching soaps from the past”, “or staying up-to-date with the
big football leagues” was one of the only things connecting them to their past.
Moreover, they noted that watching soaps and films together with others was
one of the nicest ways to pass time. While these dynamics were most explicit
in the harsh environment of the refugee camp, similar observations were made
in the community center in Istanbul, where many participants made use of the
common computers and television to (jointly) watch football, soaps or films.
As Samir, a man in his thirties living in Istanbul together with his two brothers,
stated in the community center: “Doing this together makes us humans, as if
nothing has happened.” Although a more thorough mapping of the significance
of particular popular culture is yet to be undertaken, one specific Turkish se-
ries, Muhteşem Yüzyıl (Magnificent Century), a historical fiction series based on
the life of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent that ran from 2011 to 2014, was
very popular. This came as no surprise, as it was one of the most popular series
at the time of the study. It is also very popular in the Middle East and has been
regarded as a manifestation of Turkey’s soft power or cultural power in the
region (for a critique, see Jabbour, 2015). Interestingly, one Turkish staff mem-
ber of the refugee camp noted that “watching Turkish series will help the Syri-
ans know and appreciate our culture”. These dynamics suggest that it might
be worthwhile to further study the meaning-making processes related to the
consumption of popular culture in spaces like refugee camps.

6 Conclusions
This paper has briefly discussed two key findings of an exploratory study of
the media use of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Firstly, it was argued that there
is an important interplay between individually owned and collectively shared
technologies and devices. Media use thus needs to be managed and negotiated
within certain power dynamics. These are not only an integral characteristic of
life in spaces like a refugee camp, but are also part of a more informal economy
of solidarity among refugees. Secondly, the study shows that media use among
refugees is heavily centered on popular culture, which helps establish ontologi-
cal security in a turbulent, uncertain and interstitial position. Music, television
series and football play a key role in maintaining a sense of temporary belong-
ing and rootedness.
Theoretically and methodologically, the study built on the premises of non-
media-centric and ethnographic approaches to media use. The design of the
study, including two highly different spaces and populations, has enabled me
to explore diverse media practices within distinct local media ecologies. This

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10 Kevin Smets DE GRUYTER MOUTON

diversity highlights the multiplicity captured within the broad notion of the
“connected refugee”. Recognizing this diversity, and grounding media use in
everyday and local contexts, will result in a more sophisticated conception of
the connected refugee and, hopefully, in research that is more useable on the
ground.

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