Existing research shows that most immigration media coverage is disproportionally about Latinos and show them in a negative light, and this “threat narrative” is largely accepted by whites (Abrajano and Hajnal 2015). However, local Spanish media outlets are more likely to present pro-immigration news, and local news sources are more likely to pay greater attention to Latino-related immigration issues the larger the Latino population is (Branton and Dunaway 2009; Abrajano and Singh 2009; Dunaway et al 2010). Thus, I predict that because the percentage of Latinos in Florida’s 9^th Congressional district is greater than the national percentage of Latinos (42.0% and 18.1% in 2017, respectively), local media coverage will likely portray more pro-immigration sentiments, and there is likely a greater focus on Latino-related immigration issues in local news sources than national news sources. Additionally, I predict that local Spanish news sources will likely shed a positive light on immigration news more than local English news sources.

To test my predictions, I conducted an analysis of local news media content. I chose the local media sources WFTV, a local English news source, and El Osceola Star, a local Spanish news source. To collect data on the focus and tone of immigration-related news, I looked at news articles from December 11, 2018 to January 31, 2019 on the subjects of the January 2019 federal government shutdown and the border security and wall funding debate in Washington D.C. To conduct my search of articles, I used the keywords “immigration,” “immigrant,” “border,” “wall,” “undocumented,” “shutdown,” and “security.”

I created coding rules that divided articles into six categories based on the main focus of the articles: security/border wall, humanitarian, partisanship/Trump-specific, crime, economy, and district-specific, and within those categories, I grouped articles based on their tone: pro-immigration, anti-immigration, and neutral. I also recorded the number of articles that specifically mentioned Latino immigrants.

I collected data from 55 WFTV articles and 24 El Osceola Star articles. The most prominent tone on immigration in WFTV articles was neutral, with WFTV having 30 neutral, 21 pro-immigration, and 4 anti-immigration articles. On the other hand, El Osceola had primarily pro-immigration articles, with 20 pro-immigration, 0 anti-immigration, and 4 neutral articles. Overall, there was greater focus in the articles on security and the border wall, humanitarian news, partisanship and Trump-specific news, and district-specific news, but the main focus in the two media sources were different, as WFTV had more articles on security and the border wall and partisanship and Trump-specific news while El Osceola Star had the most articles on district-specific news. As for mentions of Latino immigrants, WFTV specifically mentioned Latino immigrants in 13 out of 55 articles while El Osceola Star mentioned Latino immigrants in 12 out of 24 articles.

The focus of the two news sources were different, as WFTV had a greater focus on national immigration news, such as security and the border wall and partisanship and Trump-specific news, while El Osceola Star had a more local lens, having more articles on district-specific news. While the tone for both news sources did have a pro-immigration leaning over anti-immigrant portrayals, almost half of WFTV news articles were neutral, while 83.3% of El Osceola Star news articles were pro-immigrant. Additionally, El Osceola Star news focused more on Latino immigrants, with 50% of news articles mentioning Latino immigrants, while WFTV news maintained a more general perspective on immigration.

The results mostly support my predictions on the portrayal of immigration news by local media sources. My hypothesis predicting that Spanish news sources specifically would have a greater pro-immigration tone and Latino immigration focus was supported, as El Osceola Star, a Spanish news media source, had significantly more pro-immigrant articles and news that focused more on Latino-related immigration stories. While my hypothesis that local media coverage would shed a more positive light on immigration issues was not fully supported by my findings related to WFTV articles, overall, there were more pro-immigrant sentiments portrayed in the news articles.

In 2011, FL9 was redistricted: Originally including eastern Hillsborough County, northern Pinellas County, and the Gulf coast of Pasco County, the new district contains Osceola County, central Orange County, and northeastern Polk County. The district’s demographics from before and after the redistricting are shocking, as the 2007 demographics show a large white only population of 78.9% the population and a small proportion of Latinos at 11.8% but the 2012 and 2017 demographics have Latino proportions of 46.4% and 42.0%, respectively, and similar proportions of white only populations, at 37.1% and 40.6%, respectively. While the native population has remained high in all three years, with 87.5%, 79.8%, and 82.6%, respectively, the foreign-born and foreign-born and not a citizen populations have decreased from 2012 to 2017, with percentage point changes of -2.8 and -1.7, respectively.

Existing literature on the immigrant experience show how it is largely affected by the immigrant and Latino populations. de Graauw and Vermeulen find that the proportion of the immigrant population is a significant predictor of immigrant integration, and Fernandez-Kelly writes that a larger Latino population can create a greater sense of community and unity among Latino immigrants. Research on public opinion shows that a larger Latino population leads to more support for permissive immigration policies, but a large and growing Latino population in a Republic district can lead to greater support for restrictive policies (Wong 2014). However, findings also show that greater interactions between whites and Spanish-speaking Latinos leads to greater support for restrictive immigration policies (Enos 2014). As for media coverage, Abrajano and Hajnal find that most immigration media coverage of Latinos show them in a negative light, and this “threat narrative” is largely accepted by. Similarly, Branton and Dunaway and Abrajano and Singh find that local media also show immigrants in a negative light, unless the news is presented by Spanish media outlets or immigrants are portrayed as beneficial to the economy.

Based on existing research, I predict that the smaller proportion of immigrants in Florida’s 9^th Congressional district means that immigrant integration is weaker. But because of the large Latino population, Latino immigrants also likely feel a greater sense of belonging within the Latino community. I predict that there is greater support for permissive immigration policies because of the large Latino population in a Democratic district and because it is hard to predict the level of white and Spanish-speaking Latino interactions without further research. I predict that media coverage is likely more positive since Latinos are a large part of the district population and thus a large part of the economy. But because of the equally large white population, a big portion of the population likely still accepts the “threat narrative.”

My brief research plan will test my predictions on media coverage. I will research the most popular local news and media outlets as well as proportion of Spanish news outlets. When analyzing the media, I will take a similar approach to how we analyzed our district representative’s Twitter feeds, looking at the news content January 2019 to March 2019 using the key words “immigration,” “immigrant,” “border,” “wall,” “undocumented,” and “Latino.” I will look at the tone of news, estimate the percentage of positive and negative stories, and analyze the content and focus of the news coverage.