The perception of Europe and its countries has a high impact on expectations and decisions of citizens from outside (considering) coming to Europe, especially from countries of origin (COO) for migration.

The assessment of the perception of European countries in COO is a complex and dynamic intermedia task. The opinion is formed via different channels with diverse influence, including mass media, targeted information channels, and now also increasingly via social media. Extraction of information coming from such multimodal channels is especially challenging since it is communicated in many languages, and a wide variety of players influences it. Besides textual communication, the perception is mostly formed through visual information, such as photographs and videos that play an essential role in creating an “image” of staying in Europe. This preconceived image will change based on the experiences during the migration process. The presence of information bias further complicates the reflection of the perception. In turn, this misperceptions may lead to security threats. Linking perceptions and misperceptions to visible effects and risks, and identifying the relationship between causes and effects requires careful and substantiated analysis of data from many sources, to avoid premature and superficial conclusions.

The goal of the MIRROR project is to develop an integrated platform, as well as a systematic methodology for the comprehensive intermedia analysis of the perception of Europe (and individual countries in Europe). The project also aims at the detection of discrepancies between the perception of and reality in Europe, and the creation of awareness for the impact of such misconceptions and potentially resulting threats.

MIRROR brings together a highly interdisciplinary team of experts and three border authorities and will combine methods of automated multimedia analysis with empirical studies for creating a substantiated picture of the perception of Europe.