Introduction

This introductory chapter gives an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the interconnections between media, old and new, and the humanitarian challenges that have come to define the twenty-first century. The current migration crisis in Europe has turned the Mediterranean into a watery cemetery. While some countries, including Italy, Malta, Ireland, and Britain among others, engaged in rescue missions in the Mediterranean, there was mounting anti-immigration sentiment, racism, and xenophobia across Europe and the United States. Even as the global crisis escalates, and political and media discourses shift, people in communities, villages, towns, and islands struggle to support and help the migrants flooding into Europe, and the small number that has been accepted in the United States. In response to the current global crises, a World Humanitarian Summit, the first of its kind, took place in Istanbul, Turkey on May 23–24, 2016.