Content area
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the media describes (frames) immigration and immigrants emphasizing a comparison between a national media outlet and a border media outlet through a content analysis. This study focuses on the year 2022 because, previous research indicates that this year saw a significant shift in the demographics of migrants at the US-Mexico border, an overburdened immigration system, and ongoing policy debate (Roy, 2022). The national outlet used in this study is The New York Times and the border outlet is The Monitor which is based out of McAllen, Texas. The thesis aimed to answer two central questions, (1) How do news media outlets describe (frame) immigration and immigrants? and (2) Does the relative prevalence of frames vary when comparing national and border media outlets? With the aid of a partial preliminary categorization of frames, which was developed through both a deductive and inductive analysis, a semi-structured coding scheme was created and utilized for this study. Ethnographic Content Analysis was used for this qualitative study; this study used deductive and inductive methods to analyze data frames and patterns using thematic coding. The semi-structured coding scheme had ten (10) first-level codes and twenty-two (22) second-level codes. The study found that Political Rhetoric was The New York Times' most used primary frame (86.9%). Immigration and immigrants at the US-Mexico border were portrayed as refugees and victims 40.2% and 44.3% of the time, respectively, and as a threat 41%. Thematic framing is a technique for crossing narratives and was used by both outlets in the study. The New York Times presented immigrants and immigration inconsistently, using deviant language and tone and then humanizing the migrants with personalized stories. The Monitor also utilized thematic framing. Law and Order was the most used primary frame for this outlet (68.9%). The Monitor frequently reported on criminal activity in the borderland, such as Crime at the Border (59.2%). The implications of the study suggest that the media constructs immigration narratives within policy discussions, resulting in contradictory and inconsistent depictions of immigration and immigrants (Quinsaat, 2014). Immigrant stereotypes are common (Grigorieff, Roth, & Ubfal, 2020) and the media's portrayal affects public discourse and policy (Chouhy & Madero-Hernandez, 2019; Fisher, 2003). Overall, there continues to be a disconnect between public and political discourse and academic research on immigration (Harris & Gruenewald, 2020).
