Portrayals of Immigrants and Refugees in U.S. News Media: Visual Framing and its Effect on Emotions and Attitudes

Parrott, Scott; Hoewe, Jennifer; Fan, Minghui; Huffman, Keith

doi:10.1080/08838151.2019.1681860

Cited by 39 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Among these, it is understood that the two negative frames are burden and threat, which can promote reification and dehumanization of immigrants and refugees (Stelian, 2014), as well as a potential increase in feelings of fear within host societies, which at the same time could lead to behaviors that attack the social welfare of immigrants and refugees. Nevertheless, although the normalization and victimization frames can have a more positive effect on these feelings and attitudes, this has yet to be confirmed, and in fact some studies suggest that frames that victimize migrants also tend to contribute to their dehumanization (Stelian, 2014), despite being able to improve positive attitudes by increasing empathy and positive emotions (Parrott et al, 2019). Meanwhile, the normalization frame is considered to depict displaced people in the most humanized way, but the effect on societal opinion could indeed be the opposite, generating a negative response in the audience due to comparisons mediated by initial prejudices or lack of empathy.…”

Section: Representation Of Immigrants and Refugees In Western Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of negative visual frames of immigrants and refugees in the main media of Southern Europe

Amores

Calderón

Blanco‐Herrero

2020

EPI

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The Mediterranean migration crisis especially affects three Southern European countries that represent the main gateways into the continent for immigrants and asylum seekers: Spain, Italy, and Greece. In recent years, feelings of rejection towards migration have been increasing in all of them, accompanied by a simultaneous increase in the number of hate crimes. Similarly, the representation of these groups in European news media seems to have worsened, especially since 2015, the year in which the migratory crisis significantly worsened. This coverage could be affecting European citizens on emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal levels and thus should be rigorously analyzed. The present study is based on the theory of framing and, specifically, on visual framing to analyze the connotative representations of immigrants and refugees spread by the reference media of Southern Europe through images, paying more attention to the negative frames in particular, which represent displaced people as a burden or threat. Specifically, 360 photographs taken between 2014 and 2019 and published by the main media in Spain, Italy, and Greece were subject to content analysis. The findings show a temporal increase in the negative visual frames of immigrants and refugees in the analyzed media. Differences were also found between countries, with Greece presenting a higher percentage of images with negative frames, as well as a greater predominance of this type of frame compared with the other countries. Finally, differences were identified between the media themselves, including the Greek Kathimerini, a media outlet that stands out for the amount and prevalence of photographs framing immigrants and asylum seekers as a burden and threat. Resumen La crisis migratoria del Mediterráneo afecta especialmente a tres países del sur de Europa, que son la principal puerta de entrada de inmigrantes y solicitantes de asilo en el continente. Estos países son España, Italia y Grecia, y en todos ellos los sentimientos de rechazo a la migración han ido en aumento en los últimos años, acompañados por el incremento simultáneo de los delitos de odio. De igual forma, la representación de estos grupos en los medios informativos europeos parece haber empeorado, especialmente a partir de 2015, año en el que la crisis migratoria se agravó mucho. Esta cobertura podría estar afectando a las actitudes de los ciudadanos europeos hacia los desplazados, por lo que conviene analizarla de manera rigurosa. El presente estudio se basa en la teoría del encuadre y, en específico, en el visual framing para analizar los marcos connotativos de inmigrantes y refugiados que transmiten los medios de referencia del sur de Europa a través de sus imágenes durante la crisis migratoria, prestando una mayor atención a los marcos negativos, los que representan a estas personas como una carga o amenaza. Así, a través de un análisis de contenido se examinaron 360 fotografías publicadas por los principales medios de España, Italia y Grecia entre 2014 y 2019. Los resultados muestran un incremento temporal de los marcos visuales negativos de inmigrantes y refugiados en los medios analizados. También se encontraron diferencias entre países, presentando Grecia un mayor porcentaje de imágenes con marcos negativos, así como una mayor predominancia de los marcos negativos que el resto de países. Por último, se identificaron diferencias entre los propios medios, siendo el griego Kathimerini el que destaca por tener una mayor presencia de imágenes con marcos de carga y de amenaza, y una mayor predominancia de estos marcos en sus fotografías.

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Section: Representation Of Immigrants and Refugees In Western Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of negative visual frames of immigrants and refugees in the main media of Southern Europe

Amores

Calderón

Blanco‐Herrero

2020

EPI

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“…While an experiment shows that informational videos on the European refugee crisis do not produce more powerful opinion shifts than news texts (Powell et al 2018), another study detects interesting trends in the effect of photographs on immigrants in the US media. Through different experiments, Parrott et al (2019) conclude that human interest frames increase positive emotions, enhancing positive attitudes about the group. Furthermore, political frameworks increase negative emotions and ultimately lead to negative attitudes.…”

Section: Increased Experimental Activitymentioning

confidence: 93%

Framing Studies Evolution in the Social Media Era. Digital Advancement and Reorientation of the Research Agenda

Rabadán

2021

Social Sciences

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Framing studies remain a powerful line of research in political communication. However, in recent years, coinciding with the emergence of social media, theoretical and operational advances have been detected, as well as a significant reorientation of its research agenda. The interaction between media and platforms such as Twitter or Facebook has built a clearly hybrid communicative environment and profoundly transformed the organization of public debate. This is the case, especially, with processes such as the setting of the public agenda or the construction of interpretive frames. Based on a systematic review of the international reference literature (2011–2021), this article analyses the influence of social media on the evolution of framing studies. Moreover, specifically, the beginning of a new stage of digital development is contextualized, and a triple research impact is explored. The main contributions of the text are that it (1) identifies advances in the theoretical and empirical organization of these studies; (2) explores its reorientation of content towards a greater balance between the analysis of media and political frames; and (3) reviews the recent experimental development of effects studies. Finally, the main challenges for future research in this field are detailed.

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“…Conflict is a prevalent frame, comprising news where migrants are typically portrayed as victims or criminals [22,[60][61][62], as a challenge for border security [63], or as a major economic and social cost for the state [55,59,64,65]. Likewise, studies examining news on Hispanic immigration in the United States reveal that foreigners are shown as lazy, ambitious, and/or as a threat to national stability and Americans' job security (see, e.g., [53,62,[66][67][68]). Similarly, Lakoff and Ferguson [54] analyze the framing of issues related to migration in the speech of former President George Bush as it was presented in the media.…”

Section: Negative Media Portrayal Of Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They analyzed different media platforms covering print press, television, radio, and the Internet, finding that not all Latino migrants have the same press treatment and a new trend where migration is linked to conflict and political discussion. Latter research on mass media effects shows that the frames given to immigration have a significant influence on citizens' attitudes, opinions, and emotions [45,49,67,69]. Igartua and colleagues [45,49] consider that the effects of frames may be governed by what they call heuristic processing, assuming that when media consumers are not mainly motivated to process information, the presence of peripheral cues in the journalistic message may condition cognitive responses.…”

Section: Negative Media Portrayal Of Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These conclusions are the result of a rarely implemented methodological design, which consists of using an experimental strategy in the context of a survey in a country that has experienced an accelerated and growing influx of immigrants from various parts of Latin America in a short period of time. This is important because, in the field of news framing research, past studies have used experiments similar to a laboratory condition [31,52,60,65,67,69,72], obtaining data with valuable internal validity, but with little external validity and no possibility of representing the general population or identifying the differences among the segments studied.…”

Section: Key Findings and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Influence of Media Coverage on the Negative Perception of Migrants in Chile

Scherman

Etchegaray

Pavez

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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How mass media frame information about migrants is vital to further their well-being and social inclusion in the host society. However, it can also encourage forms of discrimination and xenophobia. In Chile, migration is a theme of great relevance due to a substantial increase in the flow of migrants over the last ten years, as well as the acts of extreme violence toward this group. Thus, this research analyzes how mass media coverage of migrants influences Chileans’ perception of migrants. Adopting an experimental design, we implemented a large-scale, representative online survey with citizens over 18 years of age (N = 2227) and an experiment with combined access to positive and negative news about migrants in different news outlets. The regression analysis showed differences between citizens regarding the type of daily relationships they are willing to maintain with the migrant population. Furthermore, exposure to news about migration was the primary variable that explains why people consider this phenomenon one of the main problems affecting the country, confirming the agenda-setting theory. The experiment also indicated a causal relationship between the exposure to negative content and negative judgment about this group and their presence in the country.

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Portrayals of Immigrants and Refugees in U.S. News Media: Visual Framing and its Effect on Emotions and Attitudes

Cited by 39 publications

References 35 publications

Evolution of negative visual frames of immigrants and refugees in the main media of Southern Europe

Evolution of negative visual frames of immigrants and refugees in the main media of Southern Europe

Framing Studies Evolution in the Social Media Era. Digital Advancement and Reorientation of the Research Agenda

The Influence of Media Coverage on the Negative Perception of Migrants in Chile

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