Journalists facing immigration: aspirations and facts

Abstract

In recent decades, an important field of Social Sciences and Humanities research has developed around the representation of immigration (and its main actors) in the media. Many studies have suggested that generalizing language tends to be used and that this contributes to the dehumanization of immigrants, decisively affecting the way in which we perceive and relate to them. This topic has mainly been approached based on content analysis and critical discourse analysis, but few inroads have been made into the perspective of the informants. Therefore, the objective of this research is to incorporate a more qualitative approach to the study of this topic by analyzing the experience and self-perception of journalists themselves in understanding the process producing the immigration discourse in Spain. Our hypothesis is that the work of journalists is developed without the specialization or time needed for a more contextualized and rigorous treatment of the information. To test this hypothesis, we conducted semistructured interviews with ten reporters who have worked on this subject in recent years. These interviews were transcribed to detect the most recurrent issues, problems, and explanations in the discourse of the constructors of the image of immigration. The results indicate that journalists perceive clear shortcomings in the "‹"‹production (greater specialization, more sources, and more time are needed) and focus (a lack of social context and including the positive aspects of migration). In contrast, they agree that simplification, official sources, paternalism, and victimization are unnecessary.