Extending the Deservingness Framework to Communication Sciences

While communication research has documented how media frame social groups as victims or threats, little is known about the evaluative criteria through which mediated discourse constructs minority representations. This study introduces deservingness as a framework for analyzing such evaluative logics, drawing on the Control, Attitude, Reciprocity, Identity, Need (CARIN) criteria. We illustrate this through an analysis of 7,561 Belgian newspaper articles across three migration contexts (2015, 2021, 2022), combining automated dictionary-based content analysis with a theory-driven qualitative content analysis of 284 articles. Results reveal a stable but context-sensitive deservingness communication. We position deservingness as a transferable tool for research on moral evaluation and conditional solidarity.