Images tip language use to ‘refugee’ according to researchers at Sheffield University

The shocking image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach transformed the language of the European migration debate as it appeared on 20m screens around the world in just 12 hours, according to social media analysis.

Researchers at Sheffield University have analysed nearly 3m posts which appeared in the wake of the first publication of the photograph in September.

The team said initial postings by a handful of journalists soon went viral with 53,000 tweets per hour — a social media storm which saw a transformation of the language around what was happening in Europe, with uses of the word ‘refugee’ suddenly outstripping ‘migrant’.