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Teresa Martín, Universidad Complutense de Madrid–Harvard University, SpainAbstract
This paper examines the role of journalistic frames in constructing transnational memory and moral authority in the global coverage of Rohingya displacement between 2016 and 2023. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis of nine English-language outlets across three world regions, the study identifies four dominant narrative frames—moral urgency, victimization, civilizational threat, and geopolitical interest—and argues that each produces a distinct political reality with measurable consequences for humanitarian response. The analysis reveals profound asymmetries in global narrative power: Western frames circulate transnationally while Rohingya voices and Southeast Asian perspectives remain structurally marginalised. The paper introduces the concept of narrative infrastructure to theorise the durable discursive structures that render certain crises narratable and certain solutions conceivable. This concept bridges media theory and International Relations, reframing journalism not as an observer of global politics but as an actor constitutive of it. The findings carry implications for media practitioners, humanitarian organisations, and scholars of forced displacement, genocide studies, and the political economy of global communication.
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Conference: WCSS2026Stream: International Relations & Human Rights
This paper is part of the WCSS2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Martín T. (2026) Voices the World Failed to Hear: Media Frames, Transnational Memory, and the Politics of Humanitarian Narratives in Global Crisis Coverage ISSN: 2760-7267 The Washington DC Conference on the Social Sciences 2026: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 161-170) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2760-7267.2026.12
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2760-7267.2026.12
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