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A MAY TO REMEMBER

Adversarial Images of Immigrants in U.S. Newspapers during the 2006 Policy Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2008

Otto Santa Ana ,
Sandra L. Treviño ,
Michael J. Bailey ,
Kristen Bodossian  and
Antonio de Necochea
Otto Santa Ana*
Affiliation:
César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Sandra L. Treviño
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Michael J. Bailey
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Kristen Bodossian
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Antonio de Necochea
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
*
Professor Otto Santa Ana, 5169 N. Maywood Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90041-1211. E-mail: otto@ucla.edu
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Abstract

We examine mainstream U.S. print news depictions of the 2006 immigration policy debate. Using critical discourse analysis informed by cognitive metaphor theory, we analyze a substantial sample of mainstream U.S. print news reports in May 2006, at the height of national attention on the “Great May Day” demonstrations across the country. We compare it to a second sample of print news media articles from October 2006, at the time of the passage of the 2006 Secure Fence Act. Mainstream print media represented immigrants with a noteworthy balance between human and nonhuman language during the time of the Great May Day marches. However, the media did not sustain a balanced representation of immigrants in the ensuing months. The conceptual metaphor immigrant as criminal is predominant during both periods. We explore the implication of the language used to frame the immigration policy debate.

Keywords

Public DiscoursePrint News MediaGreat May Day DemonstrationsImmigrant Justice Social MovementCognitive Metaphor TheoryCritical Discourse Analysis
Type
STATE OF THE DISCOURSE
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , Spring 2007 , pp. 207 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2007

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