The Media\u27s Portrayal of Immigration

This study analyzed representations of immigration in three Iowan newspapers between November 2015 and November 2016, focusing on three types of news organizations with different audiences: the Iowa State Daily, the Ames Tribune and the Des Moines Register. Stories covering immigration were mostly tailored toward political campaigns and rhetoric. Representations of immigrants were often marked by negative connotations and labels – illegal immigrants, discrimination, marginalization, etc. Immigrants were mostly portrayed as Mexicans or Latin Americans, and the topic was often linked to terrorism and Donald Trump’s rhetoric of building a wall to keep illegal [Mexican] immigrants out and banning “bad people” from terror-prone countries. Articles focusing on immigration did a good job on reporting on campaign rhetoric, and some analyses/editorials focused on the personalized narratives and humanitarian frames of immigration. These news organizations, however, enacted minimal effort to cover in-depth stories about immigration based on more diverse samples and sources, facts, and angles. Iowa is one of the most important states in the nation because of its role in shaping the outcome of elections. Immigration has become an important factor of political propaganda in the U.S. and many other countries, especially regarding border control and refugees. The dominant image of immigration and related topics shaped in Iowa through the media may in turn influence how other states perceive immigrants and immigration because of the messages received from media’s political coverage