Neighborhood press and immigration: a frame-building analysis of the depiction of immigrants

This research studied the way immigration is depicted by the neighborhood press of Barcelona. Mainstream media tend to give visibility to immigrants when problems arise. Through this visibility based on problems, and the processes of framing, a virtual social identity is constructed and given to the immigration population. However, the neighborhood press of Barcelona, inscribed within the Catalan regional press’ own idea of journalism, offers a different approach to this issue due to its history, neighborhood and commitment to the region. Through a frame analysis, three main frames gave a depiction of the immigrants different from the one the mainstream media use. The results show that this differentiated depiction still stereotypes immigrants while not granting them enough visibility even when there is no blaming or attack. In this sense, while accounting for the differences, the neighborhood press of Barcelona misses a chance of depicting immigration in a more accurate way