Mediated Intergroup Conflict: The Discursive Construction of “Illegal Immigrants” in a Regional U.S. Newspaper

Abstract

Using an intergroup communication framework, this article examines how a newspaper in southeastern Virginia discursively constructs the "illegal immigrant" as a metonym for Latino immigrants. This mixed methods study traces the development of this newspaper discourse about illegal immigrants from1994 to 2006 using quantitative lexical analysis. It then shows how two local news events further instantiate an illegal immigrant metonymy influencing perceptions of Latinos, subsequent media discourse about immigration, and local immigration policies using critical discourse analysis. The quantitative findings suggest that news discourse focusing on (illegal) immigration tended to use lexical items low in optimism and commonality, consistent with outgroup negativity. The qualitative findings show how two incidents involving "illegal immigrants" attached negative stereotypes to this category, which then potentially influenced perceptions of Latinos more broadly. This analysis shows some of the ways that media discourse influences perceived intergroup threats at the local and national levels.

Local News Media Cultivation of Host Receptivity in Plainstown

“…This study used a naturalistic setting to combine content analytic data with a survey of host community members personally experiencing an influx of non-White immigration. Therefore, this study answered Stewart et al (2011) call to examine the influence of local immigration news on the local news consumers.…”

“…Santa Ana's (1999) metaphoric analysis of Los Angeles Times immigration coverage found that immigrants were compared to animals or weeds, terms linked to overt expressions of racism. Stewart, Pitts, and Osborne (2011) found that local newspaper coverage of illegal immigrants was more pessimistic than optimistic. Those authors also found that illegal immigrants were represented as criminals, alcoholics, dangerous, and unable to speak American English.…”

Apathy and Antipathy: Media Coverage of Restrictive Immigration Legislation and the Maintenance of Symbolic Boundaries

“…The media reinforce distinctions between immigrants and nonimmigrants in coverage of topics beyond legislation, as illustrated in prior studies. Quantitative research tends to investigate the causes and consequences of “positive” and “negative” coverage of immigration (Branton and Dunaway , , ; Dunaway, Branton, and Abrajano ), while qualitative research focuses largely on negative framing of immigration, examining the processes behind and implications of such coverage (Brown ; Chavez 2013; Flores ; McConnell ; McElmurry ; Sohoni and Mendez ; Stewart, Pitts, and Osborne ; Stewart ). We advance the literature on media portrayals of immigration in two ways.…”

Who gets a fair go? A Žižekian reading of representations of asylum seekers in Australia

“…The creation of this 'suitable enemy' is evident within a range of contemporary research on representations of asylum seekers in Australian public Who gets a fair go? discourse (Kampmark, 2006;Doherty and Lecouteur, 2007;McKay et al, 2011), a dynamic also found in the UK (Baker, 2007), in the USA (Ana, 1999;Berg, 2009;Stewart et al, 2011) and in mainland Europe (Willen, 2007;Garcia, 2008).…”