A Content Analysis of the 2014 Immigration Crisis Media Coverage: An Intergroup Threat Theory Approach on the Age of Immigrants

The purpose of this research is to understand, through the intergroup threat theory, how the national and local press perceive unaccompanied minors through their media coverage. Using the 2014 immigration crisis, during which an exodus of unaccompanied minors crossed into the United States beginning in 2013, this paper investigates two central ideas: first, how does media coverage of young unaccompanied immigrants differ from the media coverage of non-minor immigrants? Second, how does spatial proximity to the American-Mexican border affect the tone of the media coverage young unaccompanied immigrants receive? I sampled two national newspapers and two local newspapers to interpret, via content analysis, how the intergroup threat theory shapes the media\u27s coverage of young unaccompanied immigrants. This paper derived three main findings: first, regardless of locality, the media associates unaccompanied minors with fewer symbolic threats than non-minor immigrants. Second, national media associates immigrant minors with higher levels of positive and negative symbolic frames than the local media. Third, local media associates fewer symbolic and realistic threats with unaccompanied minors than the national media