eng The metaphorical portrayal of migrants in the comments sections of Serbian online news articles Keywords: migrants, dehumanizing metaphors, news articles, online news comments, othering, Serbian Ključne reči: migranti, dehumanizujuće metafore, novinski članci, komentari čitalaca, drugost, srpski Philologia Mediana volume: 17 number: 17 startpage: 997 endpage: 1010 Online news comments have become an important part of digital public discourse and a convenient platform for voicing opinions on contentious social issues such as migration. Couching our study in the framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis (CHARTERIS-BLACK 2004; MUSOLFF 2016), in this paper we aim to: 1) identify metaphors used in the readers’ comments on news articles to depict migrants and the migration process; 2) explore the role of metaphor in sustaining ideologies and conveying negative evaluations of migration and migrants. The analysis is based on metaphors found in a dataset comprising 1,235 readers’ comments on 32 news articles published in various Serbian online news media reporting on six critical migrant- related events which occurred in Vojvodina, the northernmost part of Serbia, in the period of June to October 2023. Our findings show that in an attempt to communicate their fear for the safety of the local population, commenters resort to metaphors which structure migration as an invasion and a natural disaster, and migrants as dangerous human beings, animals, and objects. All the groups of metaphors serve to demonize and dehumanize this entire social group and cast migrants and migration as a threat to society. Such extremely disparaging characterizations of the Other appear to be instrumental in guiding the general public’s perception of migrants and in creating and perpetuating the Us vs. Them dichotomy. Rezime Pod teorijskim okriljem kritičke analize metafora rad ima za cilj da identifikuje metafore u komentarima čitalaca na onlajn vesti o migrantima u Srbiji i istraži ulogu metafore u kreiranju i podsticanju negativnih vrednosnih određenja. Analiza se zasniva na materijalu od 1,235 komentara čitalaca na 32 vesti objavljene u onlajn medijima na srpskom jeziku o oružanim sukobima između migrantskih grupa, koji su se u drugoj polovini 2023. godine dogodili u okolini Subotice. Rezultati analize ukazuju da čitaoci, rukovođeni strahom za bezbednost lokalne zajednice, u svojim komentarima pribegavaju dehumanizujućim metaforama koje migrante i proces migracije karakterišu kao invaziju i prirodnu katastrofu, a migrante kao ratnike, okupatore, teroriste, divljake, životinje i predmete, što ima za ishod stigmatizaciju cele te društvene grupe. Poimanje migracije kao pretnje i nepoželjne društvene pojave pokazuje se kao podesan okvir za održavanje narativa o drugosti i kao pogodna podloga za legitimizaciju problematičnih mera i politika. info:eu-repo/semantics/article application/pdf 346173 bytes 2025 https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/o:37944 doi:10.46630/phm.17.2025.66 ISSN: 1821-3332 Silaški, Nadežda Đurović, Tatjana All rights reserved