Immigrants in the distorting mirror of the eedia Stirring things up for immigrants [Archives:2007/1108/Culture]

Media reporting on immigrants has taken on a harsher tone since the terrorist attacks of September 11. Some old prejudices are back in fashion and being joined by some that are completely new. Christoph Butterwegge has been assessing the mood in Germany

The attitude of the German mass media to foreigners living in Germany is much the same as their attitude to reporting on foreign countries – it is only done in exceptional circumstances, should be as spectacular as possible, and ideally have a touch of catastrophe thrown in for good measure.

There is a tendency to associate immigrants with chaos and crime: Mafia murders, gang robberies and asylum fraud. If it's true that “only bad news are good news