Slide 1:

 

To perform a media analysis around immigration, it is imperative to understand the effects of the media’s framing of immigrants. First, it has been proven that framing the news with a perspective influences the audience’s perception of immigrants (Adidas, Lo, and Platas 2018). Second, a study of the NYT shows that not only has the volume of immigration coverage increased dramatically in the past few decades, but immigrants are mostly perceived badly (Abrajano & Singh, 2015). This only worsens once it is considered that the district has seen an increase of 2.5pp in the Latino population, which should encourage anti-immigrant sentiment (Hopkins 2010; Enos 2014). Finally, proximity to the border influences how salient immigration is, with border state residents considering it a major issue (Dunaway, Brandon, & Abrajano, 2010). Considering these conclusions from previous research, it is likely that TX-27 will have local news that focus on incidents around immigration, adding a negative bias towards immigrants.

As well, it is important to take the district’s basic electoral and demographic compositions. Electorally, Republican Michael Cloud represents the solidly Republican district. Demographically, Latinos make just over 50% of the district, with most of the remaining population comprising of non-Hispanic Whites (39%). As mentioned earlier, the district’s composition is changing. This change is mostly accentuated in Victoria, Representative Cloud’s hometown, which saw a 4.6pp change in the Latino population between 2012-2017. Otherwise, the district’s largest city, Corpus Christi, has an increase in Latino population closer with the district’s average at 2.3pp.

Slide 2:

To test whether the research holds true, this assignment covers two local sources from district TX27’s biggest cities: Corpus Christi’s KRISTV and Victoria’ Victoria Advocate. This study will check the number of articles published between the beginning of the government shutdown (12/11/2018) to a week after the shutdown was over (01/31/2018). To search the articles, I used the keywords “immigration” and “border”.

To test the two predictions, I measured the articles’ political scope and immigrant framing. First, I analyzed the Scope, or specifically the scope of the issue the article is covering. Scope can range from a national bill to a minor, local incident with immigrants. Second, I analyzed the Immigrant Framing; that is, whether individual immigrants were framed negatively, positively, or neutrally. Since these are subjective, I chose specific characteristics for each category:

  • For positive framing, there should be either an empathetic framing of immigrants, or an analysis of the benefits of immigration.
  • Neutral framing usually focuses on policy while maintaining distance from immigrants. Otherwise, neutral news articles will only include cold, factual news stories.
  • Negative framing will include a version of a threat narrative, or call for support for restrictive policies. Even worse, it could attempt to dehumanize immigrants through different methods.

Slide 3:

After doing some research, the Victoria Advocate proved to consider immigration a much more salient issue than KRISTV, publishing 22 articles about the topic within the time frame studied against the latter’s mere 4. Even more important, Representative Cloud wrote a column in the Victoria Advocate a week after the shutdown was over.

Otherwise, most articles, over half of the total articles studied (14/26) covered national news, with all of KRISTV’s articles covering national news. Seven articles covered local news, and five covered state news. Then, most articles had a neutral framing of immigrants, usually pointing facts or focusing on the conflict between Democrats and Republicans to end the shutdown, with all 4 articles from KRISTV maintaining this neutral reporting. Otherwise, news from the Victoria Advocate covered immigrants negatively more often than positively, introducing both cases of dehumanizing and elements of a threat narrative.

Slide 4:

The research on this articles hold up to the two main predictions that took place in the beginning of the research project:

  1. While a significant portion of articles cover local news, national news are covered more frequently. Interestingly, the issue of immigration seems a lot more salient in Victoria than it is in Corpus Christi, as predicted because of Victoria’s more significant demographic changes.
  2. Research suggested that the news would be a lot harsher on immigrants than they truly were. Most articles ended up following neutral tones, while they tend to be frame immigrants negatively. It is possible that the high Latino population of the two cities would not allow immigrants to be framed too negatively.

However, this study sets up further research to answer different questions:

  • Representative Cloud’s article is a call for further research. Thus study labeled his column as neutral because he took elements from the threat narrative while trying to empathize with immigrants. He appeals to national security. However, he is careful not to blame these threats to all immigrants. Instead, he blames Mexican drug cartels for creating a humanitarian crisis for illegal immigrants. This way, he manages to empathize with immigrants while calling for restrictive policies.
  • Although right now the only suggestion that immigration does not seem salient in Corpus Christi is that the change of population is not significant, the high Latino population suggests there should be more research.