Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:32:39.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aizenman, Nurith Celina (2006). Immigration Debate Wakes a “Sleeping Latino Giant.” Washington Post, April 6, A1.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Harry (1992). Stopping Flood of Illegal Immigrants. Los Angeles Times, June 9, D3.Google Scholar
Bigham, Will (2007). Activists Wary of Boycotts. Speakers Call for Other Ways to Help Illegal Immigrants. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Pomona, CA), January 28.Google Scholar
Branch-Brioso, Karen (2006). Daughter Carries Her Family's Hope. Tampa Tribune, May 2, A1.Google Scholar
Brown, Jennifer (2006). A Roar for Respect; Local: 75,000 Join Capitol Throng for “We Are America”; Nation: Over One Million March in Cities Coast to Coast; Dissent: Debate Turns Loud, Lively at Counterprotest. Denver Post, May 2, A1.Google Scholar
Bush, George W. (2004). President Bush Proposes New Temporary Worker Program. Remarks by the President on Immigration Policy, Washington, DC, January 7. ⟨http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040107-3.html⟩ (accessed March 19, 2007).Google Scholar
Chilton, Paul A. (1996). Security Metaphors: Cold War Discourse from Containment to Common House. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Christian Science Monitor (2006). A “Guest Worker” Plan Isn't a Solution. May 2, E8.Google Scholar
Davey, Monica (2006). Producing Smaller Numbers, but Laying Claim to Majority. New York Times, May 2, A18.Google Scholar
Fernández, Celestino and Pedroza, Lawrence R. (1982). The Border Patrol and News Media Coverage of Undocumented Mexican Immigration During the 1970s. Tucson, AZ: Mexican American Studies and Research Center, University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Ferriss, Susan (2006). 1 Million Protest; Immigrants, Backers Speak Up: “My People Do the Dirty Work.” Sacramento Bee, May 2, A1.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977. Edited and translated by Gordon, Colin. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy (1990). Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution in the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy. Social Text, 25/26: 56–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frege, Gottlob (1892 [1980]). On Sense and Reference. In Geach, Peter and Black, Max (Eds. and Trans.), Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege, 3ed., pp. 36–56. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Cindy and Burbach, Chris (2006). Organizers Hope to Build on Momentum of Marches. Omaha World-Herald, May 2, 03B.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Juan (2006). On Streets of New York, Solidarity Reigns. Daily News (New York), May 2, A6.Google Scholar
Gorak, Dave (2006). Are Immigrants Putting Justice on Parade? No. What We are Seeing is a Large Number of Foreign Nationals Showing They Don't Respect the Law. Chicago Sun-Times, May 2, E31.Google Scholar
Gorman, Anna, Miller, Marjorie, and Landsberg, Mitchell (2006). The May Day Marches: Marchers Fill L.A.'s Streets; Immigrants Demonstrate Peaceful Power. Los Angeles Times, May 2, A1.Google Scholar
Gwertzman, Bernard (1982). Haig Fears Exiles from Latin Areas May Flood the U.S. New York Times, February 23, A1.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen (1989). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Translated by Thomas Burger, with Frederick Lawrence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Himmelfarb, Gertrude (1996). Strictly Family: Book Review of George Lakoff's “Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don't.” Times Literary Supplement, August 12, p. 12.Google Scholar
Jackson, Jesse (2006). Are Immigrants Putting Justice on Parade? Yes. They Are Marching to Make Known Their Humanity and Their Views. Chicago Sun-Times, May 2, E31.Google Scholar
King, Peter H. (1992). Sitting On the Fence. Los Angeles Times, July 5, A3.Google Scholar
Klein, Rick (2006). Cities, Businesses Feel Effects of Boycotts. Boston Globe, May 2, B4.Google Scholar
Lafont, Cristina (1999). The Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George (1993). The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. In Ortony, Andrew (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought, 2ed., pp. 202–251. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: Chicago University of Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lecker, Kelly (2006). Latino Protesters Take their Plea to Lawmaker; Serenade is Part of Nationwide Rally. Columbus Dispatch, May 2, 08A.Google Scholar
Lochhead, Carolyn (2006). A Million Say: Let Us All Stay; Repercussion: A Backlash Could Hamper Changes for Reform. San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, A1.Google Scholar
Martin, Gary (2006). Compromise Still Far Off on House, Senate Bills. San Antonio Express-News, May 2, 7A.Google Scholar
McChesney, Robert W. (2000). Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
McChesney, Robert W. (2004). The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
New York Times (2006). They Are America. May 2, E24.Google Scholar
Ngai, Mae M. (2005). Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Gerald V. (2003). Indigestible Food, Conquering Hoards, and Waste Materials: Metaphors of Immigrants and the Early Immigration Restriction Debate in the United States. Metaphor and Symbol, 18(1): 33–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, Ellen (2006). Alien Citizen: Headline Analysis. Term Paper, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Pyle, Encarnacion (2006). Area Latinos Celebrate Their Contributions. Columbus Dispatch, May 2, 01A.Google Scholar
Ramírez Berg, Charles (2002). Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, Bill (2006). Immigration Fix? A State-Federal Team; New Mexico's State of Emergency Last August was Directed at Securing its Border with Mexico. Promised Federal Agents Hadn't Arrived. Sacramento Bee, May 2, B7.Google Scholar
Rocky Mountain News (2006). Letter to the Editor. May 2, A36.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Roberto (2006). How Media Contributes/Hinders Mexican/Latino Indigenous Identity in the U.S. Copyrighted Manuscript.Google Scholar
Rosenblatt, Susanna and Powers, Ashley (2006). Marchers Crowd Inland Streets; With Trumpets, Drums and Mexican and U.S. Flags, Thousands Demonstrate in Support of Immigrant Rights. Los Angeles Times, May 2, B1.Google Scholar
Sacchetti, Maria and Tench, Megan (2006). Many Skip Class to Join Protest. Boston Globe, May 2, B4.Google Scholar
Salt Lake Tribune (2006). Utah Latinos Rally in the Thousands Over Immigration Reform. May 1, News First Story Section. ⟨http://saltlakecity.about.com/b/a/257310.htm⟩ (accessed February 23, 2007).Google Scholar
Santa Ana, Otto (2002). Brown Tide Rising: Metaphoric Representations of Latinos in Contemporary Public Discourse. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Santa Ana, Otto (2006). Journalists Aren't Vigilantes, So Why Do They Talk Like Them? Hispanic Link, May 21.Google Scholar
Schudson, Michael (2003). The Sociology of News. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Soraghan, Mike (2006). Opposition Signals Solidarity: Those Who Want A Wall Along the U.S.-Mexico Border Send Congress Some Pieces of Their Minds. Denver Post, May 2, A15.Google Scholar
Spagat, Elliot (2006). Republicans Launch Immigration Hearings. Associated Press, July 5.Google Scholar
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) (2006). A Day Without Immigrants; A Nation Confronts Its Hidden Population. May 2, 8A.Google Scholar
Tampa Tribune (2006). Immigration Rally. May 2, A12.Google Scholar
Van Dijk, Teun A. (1993). Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse and Society, 4(2): 249–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wetherell, Margaret and Potter, Jonathan (1992). Mapping the Language of Racism: Discourse and the Legitimation of Exploitation. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar