Read item 1--the first article- * What questions did the author(s) have when they started this research? What were they wondering about?* According to the article, what have other researchers said

The View of the Border: News Framing

of the Definition, Causes, and Solutions

to Illegal Immigration

Sei-hill Kim

School of Journalism & Mass Communications

University of South Carolina

John P. Carvalho, Andrew G. Davis, and

Amanda M. Mullins

Department of Communication & Journalism

Auburn University

Analyzing newspaper articles and television news transcripts ( 484), this

study explores how American news media have framed the issue of illegal immi-

gration. More specifically, we analyze the way the media present the questions of

why illegal immigration is a problem, what the causes are, and how to fix the

problem. We also make a comparison across different media outlets (border-state

newspapers vs. papers elsewhere; newspapers vs. television news), looking at

whether news coverage of the issue has been consistent across the media.

Sei-Hill Kim (Ph.D., Cornell University, 2001) is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communications at University of South Carolina. His research interestsinclude political communication, public health, and public relations.

John P. Carvalho (Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1999) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication & Journalism at Auburn University. His research interestsinclude sports media history, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s.

Andrew G. Davis (M.A., Auburn University, 2008) is an instructor in the Department of Communication & Journalism at Auburn University. His research interests include mediaculture and history.

Amanda M. Mullins (M.A., Auburn University) is a graduate of the Department of Communication & Journalism at Auburn University.

Correspondence should be addressed to Sei-hill Kim, School of Journalism & Mass Commu- nications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. E-mail: [email protected]

Mass Communication and Society, 14:292–314, 2011 Copyright #Mass Communication & Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass CommunicationISSN: 1520-5436 print =1532-7825 online DOI: 10.1080/15205431003743679

292 Over the last two decades or so, illegal immigration to the United States has

almost tripled from an estimated 4 million undocumented residents in 1986

to about 11.2 million in 2008 (Camarota & Jensenius, 2008). With the

fast-growing number of illegal immigrants, the issue is now an increasingly

important topic in American politics, producing a substantial amount of

public debate (Dunaway, Abrajano, & Branton, 2007).

At the center of the debate are the questions of what causes the problem

and how to fix it. How to define causal and solution responsibility is parti-

cularly important because it shapes the overall policy direction and, more

important, the domain of society to which the effort to make changes should

be applied (Salmon, 1989). News media play a significant role in the process

of defining a social problem (Kim & Willis, 2007). The media can ‘‘frame’’

an issue in a certain way, telling the public what is important to know about

and how to think about it (Gitlin, 1980).

Analyzing newspaper articles and television news, this study offers

a comprehensive analysis of illegal immigration coverage. Although

unauthorized immigrants are coming from all over the world, the large

majority are from Latin America. 1Our analysis is limited to illegal immi-

gration from Mexico and other Latin American nations. Our analysis is also

limited to news stories published or aired between 1997 and 2006. This

10-year period was selected because the number of illegal aliens has risen

most rapidly since the mid-1990s. 2

We first explore how American news media have defined illegal immi-

gration as a social problem. Why is illegal immigration a problem? What

are the potential consequences? Our study examines which definitions of

the issue are most prominent in news coverage. We then analyze how the

media have presented the question of causal and solution responsibility.

What are the most important causes of illegal immigration? What can be

done to fix the problem? We examine which causes and solutions are

mentioned more often than others in the news.

NEWS FRAMING OF A SOCIAL PROBLEM

News media seek to reduce the complexity of an issue by presenting it in an

easy-to-understand, interpretive package. Framing serves as an organizing

1According to an estimate in 2004 (Passel, 2005), more than 80% of the unauthorized immi- grants are from Latin America, with about 57% coming from Mexico. 2Between 1986 and 1995, the number of illegal immigrants in the United States increased from an estimated 4 million to 5 million. In the next 10 years (1996–2005), the number has morethan doubled to more than 11 million (Passel, 2005).

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 293 theme that connects otherwise discrete pieces of information into a package

(Berinsky & Kinder, 2006; Gitlin, 1980). This packaging process necessarily

involves selecting certain aspects of the issue and making them more salient,

while leaving out other aspects (Entman, 1993). It is in this selection process

that the media can promote a particular problem definition, leading the

audience to a certain line of reasoning or interpretation (Scheufele, 1999).

According to Entman (1993), framing defines a problem by explaining

what its effects are or who is affected, diagnoses the causes by identifying

the factors producing the problem, and suggests remedies by justifying parti-

cular solutions. In this way, the media can lead the audience to make

attributions of responsibility based on different interpretations or frames

offered for the same factual content. In a series of experiments, Iyengar

(1991) well demonstrated that the way television framed a social problem

influenced viewers’ perceptions of who was responsible for causing and

solving the problem.

By highlighting certain aspects of an issue, the media can affect the way

the audience thinks about the issue (Gamson, 1992). Framing a social prob-

lem in a certain way, the media tell the audience which aspects of the prob-

lem are most important to think about when making a judgment (Kim,

Scheufele, & Shanahan, 2002). A number of studies have well demonstrated

that the media can tell the audience how to think about a social problem and

how to evaluate different solutions (e.g., Domke, McCoy, & Torres, 1999).

HISPANIC IMMIGRATION AND THE MEDIA

Little effort has been made to examine the definitions, causes, and solutions

to illegal immigration presented in the media. Instead, most studies have

focused on how immigrants were depicted in the media, looking particularly

at the metaphors, images, and symbols employed to produce unfavorable

portrayals of legal or illegal immigrants.

Analyzing news coverage of the U.S. Immigration Reform and Control

Act of 1986, Coutin and Chock (1997) found that newspapers promoted

stereotypical images of illegal immigrants, calling them greedy, lazy, and a

threat to social stability. From an analysis of the 1994 debates over

Proposition 187 in California—an anti-immigration referendum—Santa

Ana (1999) found that Los Angeles Times writers employed such dehuma-

nizing metaphors as ‘‘employers hunting out foreign workers,’’ producing

a discourse of ‘‘immigrants as animals.’’

Dunaway et al. (2007) explained that media portrayals are largely nega-

tive because illegal immigration is often associated with drugs, crime, human

smuggling, and trespassing. Furthermore, there is a general perception that

294 KIM ET AL. immigrants—legal or illegal—create economic tension as they introduce

increased competition for jobs and become a burden on government ser-

vices, particularly in border states (Borjas, 1999). On the contrary, it is

not easy to find the media talking about the contributions that illegal immi-

grants make to the U.S. economy, such as the cheap labor subsidizing

consumer food and housing costs (Chavez, 2006).

Studies also examined whether geographic proximity to the United

States–Mexico border influenced the way the media presented the immi-

gration issue. By comparing newspapers in California located close to and

farther removed from the border, Branton and Dunaway (2006) examined

the relationship between spatial proximity to the border and the way immi-

gration is presented. They found that newspapers close to the border were

more likely to report negative and illegal aspects of immigration (e.g.,

arrests, violence, drugs, and human trafficking).

There are several reasons to expect differences between border-state news-

papers and the papers elsewhere. First, to the papers in border states, illegal

immigration is a local issue that has a great and immediate impact. In other

states, the same issue is viewed rather as a national topic with potential impli-

cations mostly in other regions of the country (Fairman, 2007). Second, the

amount of people’s direct exposure to Hispanic immigrants is still different

between border states and elsewhere (Sizemore & Milner, 2004), even though

the growth of the Hispanic populations in some nonborder states, like

Georgia and North Carolina, has been phenomenal recently (Vargas,

2000). As such, the differences between regions may affect not only the

amount but also the nature of news coverage (Branton & Dunaway, 2006).

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: DEFINITIONS, CAUSES,

AND SOLUTIONS

Immigration has been a major political issue since the mid-19th century. In

the 1840s and 1850s, the focus was Irish Roman Catholics. Between 1880

and 1930, the wave of immigrants from Asia and Europe also provoked

political concern (Gabaccia, 2008). Concern about preserving ‘‘the

American race’’ led Congress to pass the Immigration Act of 1924, which

set immigration quotas by the ethnic proportions of the 1890 Census (Cose,

2008). By the 1980s, the focus had shifted to illegal immigration, particularly

from Central and South America. In response to an illegal immigrant

population that had swelled to 4 million, Congress passed the Immigration

and Reform Control Act of 1986. The law, however, proved ineffective in

slowing the rate of illegal border crossings, which was estimated at

100,000 a month by 1988 (Whitman, 1988).

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 295 As the various definitions of the problem demonstrate, illegal immi-

gration is a complex issue. Some define it as a crime problem , raising concern

about public safety. Drug smuggling, human trafficking, and other violent

crimes are often linked to illegal immigration (Rumbaut & Ewing, 2007).

Anti-immigration groups claim that the influx of immigrants will severely

burden social programs , including school systems, Medicaid, and law

enforcement, particularly in border states. The Center for Immigration

Studies estimates that illegal-alien households imposed more than $26.3 bil-

lion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in

taxes (Camarota, 2004). However, evidence is mixed, and there are several

studies reporting that the economic impact of undocumented workers is

positive overall rather than negative (e.g., Passel & Fix, 1994). To many,

national security is another concern. Such a restrictionist group as the

Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) contends that illegal

aliens endanger the national security by creating a demand for false identity

documents and smuggling networks that could potentially assist terrorists in

entering the country (FAIR, 2005). The safety of illegal immigrants them-

selves is also a problem. According to Guerette (2007), more than 300

migrant deaths were reported along the border each year since 2000. Many

critics define the immigration issue in terms of jobs lost to illegal workers

seeking higher pay. Sum, Harrington, and Khatiwada (2006) reported that

between 2000 and 2005, the number of young native-born men (16–34) who

were employed decreased by 1.7 million; at the same time the number of new

male immigrant workers went up by 1.9 million.

In discussing the causes, the weak economy in Latin America , particularly

Mexico, is often cited. Mexican immigrants can earn about twice as much in

construction and manufacturing jobs as they do working in their home

country (Kochhar, 2005). Others blame restrictive legal immigration pro-

cesses , claiming that the process of becoming a legal worker or resident is

so slow and complicated that many foreigners opt to cross the border

illegally rather than apply for a legal status (Haines & Rosenblum, 1999).

Lax border enforcement is another cause (Segal, 2008). One newsmagazine

editorial described the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the

Border Patrol as ‘‘among our least competent federal bureaucracies’’

(Barone, 2007). Many people blame weak enforcement of federal laws against

illegal immigration , referring to the lack of will to impose harsh punishment

on both illegal immigrants and employers hiring them (Lee, 2009).

Solutions are both divergent and passionately debated. Some experts cite

a plan to promote economic development in Mexico (e.g., Massey, Durand, &

Malone, 2002). They argue that although the plan will not end illegal

immigration overnight, it will help Mexicans think about their future in

their own country rather than plan for an exit north. Others agree that

296 KIM ET AL. the process for gaining legal entry needs improvement (Motomura, 2006).

Making the process reasonably simple and affordable can reduce illegal

immigration. Many immigration opponents call for tougher border control ,

applauding actions like President Bush’s decision to deploy National Guard

soldiers to patrol the border (Billeaud, 2006). In 2006, the president also

signed a bill authorizing the construction of a 700-mile fence along the

border with Mexico. A similar solution involves stricter law enforcement .

A focus needs to shift away from providing tighter border control and

instead concentrate on interior law enforcement with an emphasis on illegal

aliens already in the country and employers hiring undocumented workers

(Lee, 2009).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES

Our first research question (RQ1) explores how the media define illegal

immigration as a social problem. More specifically, we examine how the

media discuss the negative consequences of illegal immigration:

RQ1: How do the media present the question of why illegal immigration is a

problem? Have certain negative consequences appeared more often

than others in the media?

When examining the research question, we look into whether there are

some meaningful differences between television and newspapers in the

way they present the immigration issue. Compared to newspapers, television

news is distinctively episodic and event oriented (Iyengar, 1991). That is,

television messages must provide dramatic stories with appealing visuals

(Shoemaker & Reese, 1991). In this regard, crime stories become a regular

choice of television news because they often involve a dramatic story to tell

and a sensational image to present. Studies have demonstrated television’s

heavy reliance on crime reporting and its tendency to depict non-Whites

as violent and threatening (e.g., Entman, 1990). More recently, a report

(Montalvo, 2006) prepared for the National Association of Hispanic

Journalists showed that Hispanic immigrants are frequently linked to crimes

in national network news. We therefore hypothesize the following:

H1a: Television news stories will be more likely than newspaper stories to

mention crime as a consequence of illegal immigration.

We also compare newspapers in border states (Texas and California) and

the papers where Hispanic immigrants account for only a small portion of

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 297 the population (Missouri and Pennsylvania). First, we expect that newspa-

pers in border states are in great need to explain why illegal immigration

is a serious problem because the issue is an immediate concern that has

direct impacts on the lives of their audiences (Fairman, 2007). Opinion polls

have indicated that residents in border states are more likely than people

elsewhere to perceive illegal immigration as one of the most important

issues facing the country (Dunaway et al., 2007). We hypothesize the

following:

H1b: Newspaper stories in border states will be more likely than the paper

stories from elsewhere to talk about negative consequences of illegal

immigration.

Local newspapers have many reasons to make their news stories as

appealing as possible to the interests of the immediate communities

(Branton & Dunaway, 2007). It is likely that border-state newspapers tend

to define illegal immigration in terms of local context, focusing more on its

local implications. Among the negative consequences examined, crime,

social costs, and job competition can be considered more locally oriented

consequences, whereas national security and safety of illegal immigrants

have more national implications. We, therefore, put forth the following

hypotheses:

H1c: In talking about illegal immigration, stories in border-state newspapers

will be more likely than newspaper stories from elsewhere to mention

crime as a negative consequence.

H1d: Stories in border-state newspapers will be more likely than newspaper

stories from elsewhere to mention social costs as a negative consequence.

H1e: Stories in border-state newspapers will be more likely than newspaper

stories from elsewhere to mention job competition as a negative

consequence.

Our second research question (RQ2) addresses how the media frame the

causes of illegal immigration:

RQ2: How do the media present the causes of illegal immigration? Which

causes have appeared more often than others in the media?

Television is a visual medium; television news must be able to report a

story in pictures (Wallack, Dorfman, Jernigan, & Themba, 1993). In this

regard, talking about illegal immigration in connection with border control

is likely to become a regular choice of television news because it does

298 KIM ET AL. provide vivid images of illegal border crossing. Proportionally speaking,

television will be more likely than newspapers to focus on border control

when talking about illegal immigration:

H2a: Television news stories will be more likely than newspaper stories to talk

about weak border control as a cause of illegal immigration.

Of the potential causes examined, weak border control and lack of law

enforcement may represent local-level causes, whereas the troubled

economy in Latin American and the failure of the immigration system

have more international or national implications. We hypothesize the

following:

H2b: Newspaper stories in border states will be more likely than the paper

stories from elsewhere to talk about weak border control as a cause

of illegal immigration.

H2c: Newspaper stories in border states will be more likely than the paper

stories from elsewhere to talk about lack of law enforcement as a cause

of illegal immigration.

Our last research question (RQ3) addresses how the media frame the

solutions to illegal immigration:

RQ3: How do the media present the solutions to illegal immigration? Which

solutions have appeared more often than others in the media?

The solutions examined in this study (helping the Latin American econ-

omy, immigration reform, tougher border control, stricter law enforcement)

are directly matched with the potential causes (troubled economy in Latin

America, failure in immigration system, weak border control, lack of strong

law enforcement). In comparing television and newspapers, and in compar-

ing border states and states with a small Hispanic population, we put forth

the following hypotheses, which are quite similar to the ones presented

earlier:

H3a: Television news stories will be more likely than newspaper stories to

mention tougher border control as a solution to illegal immigration.

H3b: Newspaper stories in border states will be more likely than the paper

stories from elsewhere to mention tougher border control as a

solution.

H3c: Newspapers stories in border states will be more likely than the paper

stories from elsewhere to mention stricter law enforcement as a

solution.

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 299 METHODS

Sample

We used a keyword search of the LexisNexis database to locate news articles

and transcripts for analysis. Our analysis included news stories published or

aired between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2006. Using the keywords

‘‘illegal immigration’’ appearing in the full texts, we retrieved articles from

six regional and national newspapers. The Houston Chronicle and the Los

Angeles Times represented Texas and California, border states with large

Hispanic populations. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the St. Louis

Post-Dispatch were from Pennsylvania and Missouri, where the size of the

Hispanic population is only minimal. 3The New York Times and USA Today

were selected as national newspapers. Because the Los Angeles Times was

available in LexisNexis for the most recent 1-year period, our analysis of this

paper included the articles published in the year 2006 only. 4Using the same

keywords, we also retrieved news transcripts from three national television

networks (ABC, CBS, NBC).

The search produced a total of 2,921 newspaper articles and 473 tele-

vision news transcripts. Using systematic sampling, we then selected a

manageable sample of 50 articles from each newspaper and 50 transcripts

from each network (300 articles and 150 transcripts). It was our goal to

analyze 50 articles or transcripts from each news outlet.

As our analysis proceeded, we identified a substantial number of items

unrelated to the issue, including stories about illegal immigrants from coun-

tries outside of Latin America. Many items were also duplicates (the same

article appearing in different weekly editions or a tease for later in the

3According to the 2000 U.S. Census (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001), Hispanics and Latinos accounted for about 3.2% and 2.1% of the entire populations in Pennsylvania and Missouri. In Texasand California, Hispanics and Latinos compose d about 32.0% and 32.4% of the state populations. 4Without question, including only the 2006 articles has a number of limitations. In making a comparison between border and other states, in particular, the 2006 articles are overrepresentedin the border states. Because it is possible that the 2006 articles are somewhat different fromother years, overrepresenting the year 2006 in the border states may bias the comparison.We carried out a multivariate analysis to compare border and other states, controlling for the effect of different years (not reported in this article). Findings from the multivariate analysiswere not much different from the univariate analysis (the ttests reported in this article), suggest- ing that using only the 2006 articles does not make a significant difference in terms of the overallconclusions of the study. We also have to mention that because of the large number of articlespublished in the year 2006, the 2006 articles accounted for about 50% of the entire news articlepopulation (see Figure 1). Accordingly, about 50% of our sample was also from 2006. Eventhough the Los Angeles Times articles are all from 2006, the possibility to bias our findings is only minimal because about 50% of all other newspapers are also the 2006 articles anyway.

300 KIM ET AL. program). About 36.5% of the articles and transcripts were unrelated and

thus removed from the sample. Because we wanted to analyze at least 50

from each news outlet, we carried out another round of sampling, and

eventually ended up analyzing a little more than 50 articles and transcripts

from each newspaper and each television network.

Coding

Table 1 presents the coding instrument used to specify what may constitute

each definition, cause, and solution for illegal immigration. The coding

FIGURE 1 The number of news stories talking about illegal immigration (1997–2006). Note. The amount of newspaper coverage includes articles from the Houston Chronicle, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the New York Times, USA Today matching the key- words ‘‘illegal immigration’’ appearing in the full texts. The Los Angeles Times was not included because the articles were available for the year 2006 only. The amount of television newscontains news programs from ABC, CBS, and NBC matching the same keywords.

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 301 categories were developed through an extensive review of news articles,

scholarly journals, and Internet websites about the issue. The coding sheet

was revised several times to its final version as our analysis proceeded.

TABLE 1 Illegal Immigration: Definitions, Causes, and Solutions (Coding Sheet and Intercoder Reliability)

Defining illegal immigration as a social problem (Why is illegal immigration a problem?)Crime ( Scott’s pi .86): Increasing crime committed by illegal aliens; Immigration-related crimes (e.g., drug smuggling, human trafficking); etc.Social costs ( p .79): State aid to education and medical services; Increased demand for prison space; etc.National security ( p .87): Possibility that terrorists sneak into the United States through Mexico; etc.Safety of illegal immigrants ( p .85): Potential accidents and injuries in the process of crossing the border; etc.Taking jobs away ( p .92): Undocumented workers taking jobs away from native-born Americans; Increased job competition; etc.Others ( p .90): Population overgrowth; Cultural clashes; Immigrants bringing contagious diseases into the United States; etc.

Causes of illegal immigrationTroubled economy in Latin America ( p .92): Poverty and job shortage in Latin American countries; Global economic integration (e.g., the North American Free Trade Agreement:NAFTA); etc.Failure of current immigration system ( p .74): Unnecessarily restrictive and time-consuming process of getting a U.S. visa or legal status; etc.Weak border control ( p .88): Lack of manpower, technology, and the will to strengthen border control; etc.Lack of strong law enforcement ( p .85): Absence of harsh punishment for illegal border crossing; Failure to sanction employers for hiring undocumented workers; Limited politicalwill due to U.S. labor needs; etc.Others ( p .79): Local law enforcement has no authority to enforce federal law; Wealthy Americans expanding use of cheap servants; etc.

Solutions to illegal immigrationHelping the Latin American economy ( p .79): Making investments in Mexico; Repealing NAFTA; etc.Immigration reform ( p .69): Making legal entry =stay less complicated and time-consuming; Allowing for a larger number of legal and permanent immigration with well-prepared workerprograms (e.g., guest worker program, amnesty of illegal aliens, etc.); etc.Tougher border control ( p .87): Providing more border patrol enforcement (e.g., more rangers, sending the National Guard to the border, new border patrol technology, etc.);Building a large fence along the U.S.-Mexico border; etc.Stricter law enforcement ( p .71): Enhanced punishment for illegal entry and reentry; Tougher enforcement on employers hiring undocumented workers; Greater manpower, advancedtechnology, and a stronger will to enforce current immigration law; etc.Others ( p .94): Restructuring INS; Banning landlords from housing illegal immigrants; etc.

302 KIM ET AL. Definitions of the issue included potential negative consequences of

illegal immigration, which all could explain why illegal immigration was a

significant problem (see Table 1). These definitions were categorized into

six negative consequences: Crime, Social Costs, National Security, Safety

of Illegal Immigrants, Taking Jobs Away, and Others. For example, the arti-

cles mentioning increased crime as a consequence of illegal immigration

were categorized as defining the issue as a crime problem.

Attribution of causal responsibility was categorized into five causes

(Troubled Economy in Latin America, Failure of Current Immigration

System, Weak Border Control, Lack of Strong Law Enforcement, Others;

see Table 1). Solution responsibility was also categorized into five solutions

(Helping the Latin American Economy, Immigration Reform, Tougher

Border Control, Stricter Law Enforcement, Others), which directly corre-

sponded to the five causes examined.

The entire text of each story was analyzed for the definitions, causes, and

solutions. Two graduate students coded the articles and transcripts after

having participated in a number of training sessions and pilot tests, where

they discussed and agreed on what might constitute each definition, cause,

and solution. Intercoder reliability was estimated by double-coding a

random subsample ( 80) of the articles and transcripts. Intercoder

reliability corrected for agreement by chance (Scott’s pi) ranged from .69

to .94 with an average reliability of .83 (see Table 1).

The coders first examined whether each news story mentioned any one or

more of the six issue definitions (including Others). Each definition was

coded as either 0 ( not present )or1( present ). The coders then determined

how many mentions of definitions were made in each story. Although a

number of articles ( 147) and transcripts ( 84) contained no mention

of definitions, there were also many stories referring to more than one of

the six definitions. In many cases, the same definition was mentioned more

than once in a single story. No matter how many mentions were made, we

counted them as a single mention as long as they came from the same article

or transcript. Therefore, the total number of definition mentions was a mea-

sure of how many different definitions appeared in an article or transcript,

which ranged from zero to six. Using the same method, we counted how

many causes and solutions were mentioned in each story. This time, the total

number of mentions ranged from zero to five, respectively.

FINDINGS

Figure 1 presents the total numbers of news stories over 10 years (1997–

2006) matching the keyword ‘‘illegal immigration.’’ The same figure also

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 303 shows adjusted amounts, which are the total numbers after adjusting for

estimated amounts of unrelated items (e.g., Chinese immigrants) and dupli-

cates. 5In 1997, there were only 195 articles (83 after adjustment) published

in five newspapers. 6In 2006, the number increased to 1,048 (783 after

adjustment). Network news coverage (ABC, CBS, NBC) also indicates a

sudden increase from 28 news items (15 after adjustment) aired in 1997 to

over 240 (176 after adjustment) in 2006.

This obviously is not an unexpected increase given the fast rise in the

number of undocumented aliens. Figure 2 clearly shows a rapid increase in

illegal immigration since the early 1990s. As the problem has become more

prevalent, the amount of social attention—news coverage in particular—

seems to have corresponded with its increased social significance. A close

look at Figure 1, however, reveals that the amount of news coverage had

remained quite stable until 2003; it is since 2004 that the volume of news

coverage has grown substantially. Taken together, these two figures indicate

that even though illegal immigration has increased rapidly since the early

1990s, it was not until recently that the media began to pay great attention.

Tables 2, 3, and 4 present the frequency with which each definition (or a

negative consequence), cause, and solution appeared in the six newspapers

and three television networks. Table 2 shows that the six definitions (including

Others) appeared 393 times in the 484 news articles and transcripts analyzed.

That is, there was an average of .81 definitions in each news story. Mentions

of a cause, as presented in Table 3, were substantially less often with an aver-

age of .25 appearances (116 mentions in 484 news reports). The most fre-

quently mentioned were the solutions (see Table 4). The five solutions

(including Others) were mentioned 671 times in 484 news stories, an average

of 1.39 in each story. A series of paired-sample t tests confirmed that references

to a solution significantly outnumbered mentions of a cause ( 20.86,

p<.001) and a definition ( 9.06, p<.001). There seems to be a considerable

unbalance in the media’s treatment of the causes and solutions, with the solu-

tions being discussed far more often than the causes (671 vs. 116).

RQ1 asks how the media have presented the question of why illegal immi-

gration is a problem. Table 2 shows that the media, both newspapers and

5The total number of unrelated items and duplicates was estimated from their proportions in the news articles and transcripts sampled each year. Across different years, the unrelated itemsand duplicates accounted for 25.0% (2005) to 60.0% (2003) of the newspaper articles and 25.0%(2004) to 72.7% (1999) of the news transcripts. Adjusting for these numbers, we could estimatethat the total amount of illegal immigration coverage would be about 1,873 articles from the sixnewspapers and about 300 newscasts from the three networks. 6The Los Angeles Times was not included in calculating the total numbers each year because the articles were available only for the year 2006 in LexisNexis.

304 KIM ET AL. television, mentioned Crime most often as a negative consequence. A total

of 114 articles and transcripts referred to crimes involving illegal immi-

grants. Following next were Social Costs and National Security, which were

found in 82 and 68 news stories, respectively. Safety of Illegal Immigrants

and Taking Jobs Away were mentioned least often, appearing 47 and 41

times each. Paired-sample t tests indicated that references to crimes

(M .24, or 114 of 484 total) significantly outnumbered mentions of social

costs ( M .17, 2.70, p<.01), national security ( M .14, 4.13,

p<.001), safety of illegal immigrants ( M .10, 6.39, p<.001), and

taking jobs away ( M .08, 6.50, p<.001).

H1a predicted a higher likelihood of mentioning crime in television news.

Even though television indicated slightly more frequent mentions of crime

FIGURE 2 The estimated number (millions) of illegal immigrants in the United States. Source : The Pew Hispanic Center (http://www.Pewhispanic.org).

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 305 per story ( M .26, or 42 mentions in 163 stories) than newspapers ( M .22,

or 72 mentions in 321 stories), the difference was not statistically significant.

H1a was not supported. Compared to non-border-state newspapers

(Missouri, Pennsylvania), a greater proportion of border-state papers

(California, Texas) mentioned a negative consequence of illegal immigra-

tion. The Houston Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times , when combined,

made an average of .94 mentions (102 of 108 total), whereas there were

.68 mentions in each Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and St. Louis Post-Dispatch

article (75 of 111). This difference was statistically significant ( 2.18,

p<.05), supporting H1b. Table 2 also reveals that the proportion of

border-state newspapers mentioning social costs as a consequence (26 times

out of 108, M .24) was greater than that of the papers in non–border states

(14 times out of 111, M .13). Again, the difference was statistically signifi-

cant ( 2.21, p<.05), supporting H1d. However, neither of the other two

hypotheses about crime (H1c) and job competition (H1e) was supported.

RQ2 questioned which causes of illegal immigration appeared more often

in the media. Table 3 shows that Troubled Economy in Latin America was

TABLE 2 Defining Illegal Immigration as a Social Problem (199 2006)

Why is illegal immigration a problem (Negative consequences)?

Media (N) Crime SocialCosts NationalSecurity

Safety ofIllegalImmigrants

TakingJobsAway Others Total

Houston Chronicle (54) 17 12 10 8 8 5 60 Los Angeles Times a(54) 9 14 5 3 6 5 42 Total (border states, 108) 26 26 15 11 14 10 102Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (55) 10 8 8 1 5 2 34 St. Louis Post-Dispatch (56) 12 6 4 7 5 7 41 Total (states with smallHispanic populations, 111) 22 14 12 8 10 9 75

New York Times (50) 10 9 7 5 4 5 40 USA Today (52) 14 7 12 3 6 4 46 Total (national papers, 102) 24 16 19 8 10 9 86Newspaper total (321) 72 56 46 27 34 28 263ABC (50) 15 9 11 6 4 4 49CBS (53) 10 9 4 6 2 3 34NBC (60) 17 8 7 8 1 6 47Television total (163) 42 26 22 20 7 13 130Media total (484) 114 82 68 47 41 41 393

Note. Entries are the number of news articles and transcripts mentioning each definition of the issue.aLos Angeles Times includes articles published in the year 2006 only.

306 KIM ET AL. mentioned most often, appearing in 41 articles and transcripts, followed by

Lack of Strong Law Enforcement (27 mentions). Weak Border Control and

Failure of Current Immigration System were found considerably less often,

appearing in only 19 and 6 news stories, respectively. Paired-sample t tests

indicated that mentions of Troubled Economy ( M .08) significantly out-

numbered references to Weak Border Control ( M .04, 3.01, p<.01)

and Failure of Current Immigration System ( M .01, 5.24, p<.001).

When it comes to between Troubled Economy and Lack of Strong Law

Enforcement ( M .06), the difference approached, but did not reach,

statistical significance ( 1.88, .061).

H2a predicted that television news stories would be more likely than

newspaper stories to mention weak border control as a cause of illegal immi-

gration. In comparison to newspapers ( M .02), as predicted, a larger pro-

portion of television news stories ( M .09) made references to weak border

control, supporting the hypothesis ( 3.05, p<.01). However, none of the

TABLE 3 Attribution of Causal Responsibility (199 2006)

Causes of illegal immigration

Media (N)

TroubledEconomy in LatinAmerica

Failure ofCurrentImmigrationSystem

WeakBorderControl

Lack ofStrong LawEnforcement Others Total

Houston Chronicle (54) 5 0 1 3 1 10 Los Angeles Times a(54) 5 0 0 0 0 5 Total (border states, 108) 10 0 1 3 1 15Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (55) 2 0 0 2 1 5 St. Louis Post-Dispatch (56) 6 1 1 5 8 21 Total (states with smallHispanic populations, 111) 8117926

New York Times (50) 3 0 1 1 0 5 USA Today (52) 4 3 2 6 5 20 Total (national papers, 102) 7 3 3 7 5 25Newspaper total (321) 25 4 5 17 15 66ABC (50) 6 1 2 6 2 17CBS (53) 1 1 4 1 3 10NBC (60) 9 0 8 3 3 23Television total (163) 16 2 14 10 8 50Media total (484) 41 6 19 27 23 116

Note. Entries are the number of news articles and transcripts mentioning each cause of illegal immigration.aLos Angeles Times includes articles published in the year 2006 only.

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 307 comparisons between border-state papers and papers elsewhere revealed a

significant difference. H2b and H2c were not supported.

As far as how to solve the problem (RQ3), the media made frequent refer-

ences to Immigration Reform and Tougher Border Control (see Table 4).

These two solutions were mentioned in 217 and 203 news stories, respect-

ively. It is interesting to note that these two popular solutions are in fact

related to the two unpopular causes of the problem (Failure of Immigration

System, Weak Border Control) that appeared in the media least often (see

Table 3). Following next was Stricter Law Enforcement, which was men-

tioned in 109 stories. Helping the Latin American Economy was hardly

mentioned, appearing only in 10 articles and transcripts. Paired-sample t

tests confirmed that references to Immigration Reform ( M .45) signifi-

cantly outnumbered mentions of Stricter Law Enforcement ( M .23,

8.04, p<.001) and Helping the Latin American Economy ( M .02,

18.54, p<.001). Tougher Border Control ( M .42) also significantly

outnumbered Stricter Law Enforcement ( 7.04, p<.001) and Helping

TABLE 4 Attribution of Solution Responsibility (199 2006)

Solutions for illegal immigration

Media (N)

Helping the LatinAmericanEconomy ImmigrationReform

TougherBorderControl

StricterLaw Enforcement Others Total

Houston Chronicle (54) 0 18 22 18 18 76 Los Angeles Times a(54) 2 25 25 11 19 82 Total (border states, 108) 2 43 47 29 37 158Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (55) 0 33 26 14 15 88 St. Louis Post-Dispatch (56) 2 20 16 12 14 64 Total (states with smallHispanic populations, 111) 2 53 42 26 29 152

New York Times (50) 2 24 15 9 21 71 USA Today (52) 2 27 21 14 11 75 Total (national papers, 102) 4 51 36 23 32 146Newspaper total (321) 8 147 125 78 98 456ABC (50) 0 28 27 14 14 83CBS (53) 2 20 23 9 12 66NBC (60) 0 22 28 8 8 66Television total (163) 2 70 78 31 34 215Media total (484) 10 217 203 109 132 671

Note. Entries are the number of news articles and transcripts mentioning each solution for illegal immigration.aLos Angeles Times includes articles published in the year 2006 only.

308 KIM ET AL. the Latin American Economy ( 16.91, p<.001). However, there was no

significant difference between Immigration Reform and Tougher Border

Control ( 1.07, ns).

H3a predicted more frequent references to tough border control in tele-

vision news stories than in newspaper stories. As predicted, each television

news story ( M .48, or 78 of 163 total) was slightly more likely than a given

newspaper article ( M .39, or 125 of 321) to mention tough border control

as a solution. The difference, however, did not reach conventional levels of

statistical significance ( 1.87, .063). H3a was not supported. Again,

none of the comparisons between border-state papers and papers elsewhere

indicated a significant difference. H3b and H3c were not supported either.

DISCUSSION

Analyzing newspaper articles and television transcripts, this study explored

how American news media have framed the issue of illegal immigration.

More specifically, we examined how the media have presented the questions

of why illegal immigration is a problem, what the causes are, and how to fix

the problem. We also made a series of comparisons across different media

outlets, looking at whether there are some noticeable differences in present-

ing the issue. What do our findings tell us about news coverage of illegal

immigration? How does this study contribute to the framing literature?

Although illegal immigration has long been a concern, it is only in recent

years—particularly since 2004—that the issue has produced a substantial

and increasing amount of news coverage. The year 2004 was when President

Bush introduced the Fair and Secure Immigration Reform proposal. In

2005, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson declared, for the first time, a

state of emergency, claiming that the state had been devastated by the

ravages of human and drug smuggling and murder, all produced by illegal

immigration (Branton & Dunaway, 2006). In 2006, California governor

Arnold Schwarzenegger publicly demanded that Congress take action on

illegal immigration. That same year, hundreds of thousands of people par-

ticipated in pro-immigrant rallies across the nation. Chavez (2006) also

pointed out that a few political talk-show hosts, such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs,

Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly, and syndicated radio host Rush

Limbaugh have contributed significantly to the increase in immigration

news over the recent years. These all suggest that it was probably not just

the significance of the issue itself but the prestige of a few political figures

and events that defined the issue as a social problem important enough to

deserve great media attention. This finding is quite consistent with the

agenda-building literature showing that the actual seriousness of a problem

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 309 is not necessarily correlated with the amount of news coverage (Shoemaker

& Reese, 1991; Wallack et al., 1993). Rogers, Dearing, and Chang (1991),

for example, found that the fast increase in the actual number of AIDS cases

during the 1980s was not attracting the media’s attention. Instead, it was the

stories about Rock Hudson and Ryan White that in fact vastly expanded

news coverage of the AIDS issue in the media.

Our findings also tell us about the factors that may affect the media’s

selection of specific frames. Although many journalists may argue that their

choices of specific frames are determined by the facts that are believed to be

most important, importance is often a negotiated concept, particularly given

the complexities journalists have to face when they seek to make sense of a

given event (Tewksbury, Jones, Peske, Raymond, & Vig, 2000). A number

of other factors, such as social values, organizational constraints, and

journalistic routines, have been known to play an important role in shaping

the way news is framed in the media (Scheufele, 1999). Most important,

news organizations are for-profit organizations; the stories that attract a

large audience become a regular choice (Wallack et al., 1993). In this regard,

it is not surprising that the media were most likely to refer to crime when

talking about negative consequences of illegal immigration. Linking illegal

immigration to a crime story must be a preferred way of talking about

the issue because it will necessarily involve drama, conflict, good, and evil,

the ingredients to attract a larger audience (Denton, 1999). As Branton and

Dunaway (2006) explained, the push for higher ratings and circulation, com-

bined with the public’s unfavorable perceptions of illegal immigrants, seem

to motivate the media to produce a large amount of crime stories.

Newspapers are, unless they are national papers, in general obligated to

represent the interest of local communities (Hamilton, 2004). As the news-

papers market themselves as a vital source of local news, they may become

subject to the organizational pressure to frame a story in a local context. As

such, it is likely that newspapers in border states have framed illegal immi-

gration with a more local focus. Supporting this argument, we found that a

larger proportion of border-state news articles, when compared to

non-border-state papers, talked about the social costs associated with illegal

immigrants. Overall, we also found that each border-state news article was

more likely to discuss negative consequences of illegal immigration than an

article from a non–border state. Border states directly experience the effects

of illegal immigration, such as higher demands for education and increased

government spending. In addition to simply having more stories to report,

these states may be highly motivated to justify why illegal immigration is

a serious problem, trying to raise national concern about the issue.

What do our findings tell us about illegal immigration? What are some

implications for immigration policies? First, the media’s heavy focus on

310 KIM ET AL. crimes raises concern that the media can promote a stereotypical perception

that there is a strong link between crime and immigration, reproducing

racism and immigrant stigma (Wieskamp, 2007). According to a recent

report (Rumbaut & Ewing, 2007), immigrants are in fact less likely than

native-born Americans to commit crimes. The report shows that among

male adults age 18 to 39, who make up the majority of the prison popu-

lation, the 3.5% incarceration rate of the native-born was 5 times higher

than the .7% incarceration rate among immigrants in 2000. These numbers

were estimated without considering legal or illegal immigration status. But

the report reveals that native-born American males between 18 and 39 are

8 times more likely to be imprisoned for crimes than unnaturalized Mexican

immigrants of the same age—a group very likely to have a high percentage

of undocumented aliens. Presenting illegal immigration as a crime issue,

combined with the images of illegal border crossing, may not only highlight

the unlawful entry into the United States but also depict immigrants as

pathologically lawless, impeding more constructive cross-cultural interac-

tions between the countries (Demo, 2005). Linking illegal immigration to

crime is somewhat problematic in a sense that it may likely create nonrealis-

tic and stereotypical portrayals of immigrants.

An interesting finding from our study is that immigration reform and

tougher border control as solutions were equally prominent in the media.

In our study, immigration reform, as a category, referred to the effort to

correct the restrictive and complicated process to become a legal alien. On

the contrary, tougher border control represents, at least symbolically, an

effort to seal the border and keep out foreign nationals. These two solu-

tions can be seen as opposite approaches to reducing illegal immigration.

The coexistence of two contradicting solutions may well reflect the funda-

mental philosophical disagreement in America on how to approach the

issue, one to produce fewer illegal aliens by making it reasonably easy

to become a legal and the other to halt the flow of immigration (Simon

& Alexander, 1993).

Another significant finding of this study emerges from a comparison

between Tables 3 and 4. Although Troubled Economy in Latin America

was the most frequently cited cause of illegal immigration, Helping the Latin

American Economy was the least cited solution. This finding may suggest

that the issue of illegal immigration is far more complex than suggested

by American news media. Illegal immigration is not a self-contained issue.

It is directly correlated to larger economic factors, such as the enactment

of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Lara & Rich, 2003). As

such, reforms to current immigration policy, heightened border control,

and stricter law enforcement may merely address the symptoms of a more

pressing issue—economic instability in Latin America, particularly in

THE VIEW OF THE BORDER 311 Mexico. Illegal immigration to the United States will likely continue to be an

issue as long as viable solutions for economic stability in the region remain

elusive (Massey et al., 2002). Nonetheless, it is very likely that this particular

approach may sound too radical to the mainstream audience and thus be

rejected in news coverage in favor of less drastic measures.

Our study offers a comprehensive analysis of news framing of illegal

immigration, looking at the key functions of framing: defining a problem,

diagnosing its causes, and suggesting solutions (Entman, 1993). News fram-

ing has important implications in political communications. First, the media

can affect the way the audience evaluates the issue, influencing their judg-

ment (Gamson, 1992). Second, the way the public makes sense of the issue

can in turn affect their support for particular policies (Kim et al., 2002).

Third, different ways to frame illegal immigration may shape not only

public opinion on the issue itself, but also people’s perceptions of Hispanic

immigrants or Hispanics in general. Future research building on our

findings needs to examine whether news framing of the issue does in fact

influence the audience’s views on immigration policies and the immigrants

themselves.

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314 KIM ET AL.

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