Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-2017
Capstone Advisor
Shana Gadarian
Honors Reader
Lamis Abdelaaty
Capstone Major
Political Science
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
Mass Communication | Political Science | Social Influence and Political Communication | Social Media
Abstract
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's 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.
Recommended Citation
Lantigua, Carolee, "A Content Analysis of the 2014 Immigration Crisis Media Coverage: An Intergroup Threat Theory Approach on the Age of Immigrants" (2017). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 1042.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1042
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Included in
Mass Communication Commons, Political Science Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Social Media Commons
