Media and Minorities

178
Georg Ruhrmann
minority groups, a subject that has long been discussed by social psychologists
(part 2). Finally, I critically examine the relationships among research,
policy advice, and journalism and indicate how the media present and evaluate
scientific studies (part 3). In conclusion, I summarize my findings as issues
and questions for further discussion (part 4).
1. Disintegration: Dimensions and Debates
The term integration describes a long-term, dynamic, social process that occurs
on different levels. Integration brings together social groups with different
values and lets them grow together. The host society, which is usually only
rudimentarily multicultural, often excludes immigrant groups in many ways
and for a number of reasons.3 Immigrants frequently live within the cultural
context of their society of origin.
On the other hand disintegration describes the processes and situations in
which social bonds erode and become weaker. Social processes of fragmentation
and disintegration begin and produce a decrease in solidarity among
groups and, eventually, a shared loss of meaning that manifests itself in intergroup
tensions and hostilities, which can lead to political and economic
instability. Such conflicts can also emerge in societies with a long tradition of
ethnic tolerance and integration. They are apparent in social discourses and
political controversies and, later, in social unrest, demonstrations, and sudden
eruptions of violence. Media coverage is topical, event-related, and short
term. It does not explain the social causes of disintegration, which include the
fact that many groups depending on welfare benefits are forced to live in continuous
poverty and involuntarily and inevitably reproduce these increasingly
precarious conditions.4 Particularly high unemployment rates bring
about and reinforce such poverty, and in regions of high unemployment, especially,
one observes greater than average discrimination. People with immigrant
backgrounds excluded from employment opportunities are denied the
resources that are made available as a matter of course to members of the majority
society.5
3 See Anthony Heath et al., The Political Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Britain (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
4 See Klaus Dörre, Stephan Lessenich, and Hartmut Rosa, Sociology, Capitalism, Critique,
trans. Jan-Peter Herrmann and Loren Balhorn (London: Verso, 2015) and Mike Cole,
Racism. A Critical Analysis (London: Pluto Press 2015).
5 See Anthony Giddens, Sociology (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006) and Alice Goffman, On
the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014).
© 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525300886 — ISBN E-Book: 9783666300882