As noted above Justin Houston Chiefs Jersey , an advantage of Balkanism as a theoretical perspective is that it embraces attempts to resist, or at least contest, the construction and imposition of Balkanist discourses. Moral panic perspectives have tended to assume that media audiences are merely passive recipients of media-constructed threats and thus analyses have tended to fail to explore how such audiences - including the focus of the apparent panic - are active in reproducing or contesting the negative stereotypes produced. The largely negative media coverage can also be a stimulus to action among those disadvantaged by those processes. Here Balkanism offers a further advantage because it opens up the possibility for challenges to(http:www.merrellshoesdiscountboots-c-12) Merrell Boot the construction of external imaginings of 'the Balkans' and for exploring how media audiences make geopolitical meanings in response to such representations. Such challenges have received little attention from geographers, and little is known about their international dimension and how they link to broader processes of conceptualising 'Europe.' This section therefore presents an analysis of how the Romanian newspaper press covered the issue of post-accession migration and how the Romanian media responded to the UK press coverage of the issue. This reveals a critique of Balkanist discourses generated in the UK which Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Chiefs Jersey , in Romania and South East Europe, extends beyond academia and is mobilised in popular and media discourses about post-accession Romanian migration to the UK. In turn, this contestation also critiques and resists broader attempts to position Romania on the lower rungs of a normative European hierarchy.
The analysis which follows explores this contestation as it appeared in two key Romanian newspapers representing the broadsheet and tabloid press. The first is Adevarul one of Romania's most serious newspapers with(http:www.merrellshoesstoresandal-c-46) Merrell Sandal something of a reputation as a 'newspaper of record." For much of the 1990s it was the country's best selling newspaper but by 2006 it was experiencing declining sales. The second is Libertatea, a populist tabloid which over the past decade has established itself as the country's best-selling newspaper. All Romanian newspapers are strongly pro-Europe and pro-EU Kareem Hunt Chiefs Jersey , but neither of these particular papers has an explicit political stance. The Romanian press pays close attention to the way that their country is seen and represented internationally. Romanian journalists regularly monitor the websites of leading European newspapers for stories about Romania, and since English is the second language of many Romanian journalists, particular attention has been paid in recent years to the UK press. Thus, Romanian journalists were well informed about the populist debate within the tabloid press in the UK about fears of mass immigration following the accession of Romania (and Bulgaria) to the EU. In turn Patrick Mahomes II Chiefs Jersey , Romanian newspapers gave extensive coverage to the debate in the British press about Romanian immigration. Adevarul and Libertatea is representative of the different responses in Romania to the press debate in the UK.
During the summer of 2006 the press in Romania noted with disquiet the emerging debate in the UK about immigration. For example, one article in Adevarul noted that the subject was making the British "hysterical". The use of this term directly challenges British self-assumptions of rationality, order and calm, particularly when juxtaposed against representations of Romania in the British right-wing press as backward. Adevarul also addressed the British fear of Romanian migrants. It pointed out that the UK was of little interest to Romanians who wished to work abroad and that such migrants were far more likely to go to Italy or Spain Tyreek Hill Chiefs Jersey , where the local languages are similar to Romanian and there is a large expatriate Romanian community. It also questioned why Romanians would wish to work in a country where public opinion was so hostile to them. In turn, this debate was also taken up and reported in parts of the British press. Other articles rejected the assumption that Romania was the natural target of Romanian immigrant workers. One article in Adevarul published after