Media representation of immigration in the Chilean written press during 2015–2019

ABSTRACT

The current migration flows in Chile have undergone changes and transformations that have impacted the country and its public policies, which, in turn, has echoed in the media. By employing media framing and a longitudinal content analysis of the media corpus, the main objective of this article is to critically scrutinize media frames of immigration in Chilean local written press during 2015–2019. The analysis results demonstrate that the three newspapers represent immigration based on the statistical frames and public policies. The first frame places the phenomenon of immigration quantitatively, stating its existence and importance in terms of supposed massiveness. The second frame allows qualitatively characterizing the phenomenon, establishing it as a problem for the state regarding public policies. The study demonstrates little media pluralism in the corpus. It concludes that the three newspapers follow a similar media agenda on immigration by reproducing official speeches directly related to the dominant political agenda.

RESUMEN

Los flujos migratorios actuales en Chile han sufrido cambios y transformaciones que impactaron al país y sus políticas públicas, lo que, a su vez, ha tenido eco en los medios de comunicación. El artículo investiga la cobertura mediática de la inmigración en la prensa escrita local chilena durante 2015-2019. Para lograr este objetivo, realizamos un estudio de contenido longitudinal del corpus publicado en tres diarios chilenos durante 2015–2019. Los resultados del análisis demuestran que los tres periódicos tienden a representar la inmigración con base en los marcos estadísticos y las políticas públicas. El primer encuadre sitúa cuantitativamente el fenómeno de la inmigración, enunciando su existencia e importancia en términos de supuesta masividad. El segundo encuadre permite caracterizar cualitativamente el fenómeno, situándolo como un problema del Estado en términos de políticas públicas. El estudio demuestra poco pluralismo mediático en el corpus y concluye que los tres periódicos siguen una agenda mediática similar sobre inmigración al reproducir discursos oficiales directamente relacionados con la agenda política dominante.

KEYWORDS:

• Media
• written press
• immigrants
• representation
• Chile

PALABRAS CLAVES:

• Medios de comunicación
• prensa escrita
• inmigrantes
• representación
• Chile

Acknowledgments

The article was financed by the FONDECYT Research Grant 11180178 from the National Research and Development Agency (ANID), Chile.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Proyecto de Ley de Migración y Extranjería: Principales hitos de su tramitación legislativa, Comisión Elaborado para la Comisión de Derechos Humanos y Pueblos Originarios, de la Cámara de Diputados (Boletín N° 8970–06).

2. https://transparenciaactiva.presidencia.cl/Otros%20Antecedentes/Inst.%20Pres.%20N%C2%BA5.pdf (accessed 9/10/2023).

3. https://www.gob.cl/noticias/presidenta-bachelet-firmo-proyecto-de-ley-de-migraciones/ (accessed 9/10/2023).

4. https://cdn.digital.gob.cl/filer_public/b0/09/b0099d94-2ac5-44b9-9421-5f8f37cf4fc5/nueva_ley_de_migracion.pdf (accessed 9/10/2023).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (11180178).

Notes on contributors

Anna Ivanova

Anna Ivanova is an Assistant Professor at the Universidad de O’Higgins, Chile. Her research focuses on the media framing of immigration in Latin America. She has published on visual and textual framing of immigration in the Chilean press. She is currently working on a manuscript that explores the process of media securitization of migration in Chile.

Lucero Burón

Lucero Burón is an Anthropologist and Master in Anthropology from the Catholic University of Temuco and a doctoral student at the University of Buenos Aires. She has specialized in working with migrant communities in the south of Chile. In 2019, she published the research article (Burón, L. and Diaz Crovetto, G.) “To be Colombians Forever: Private and Public Spheres for the Genesis and Construction of a Migrant Collective in Temuco”. She has also researched cultural management, art and heritage in La Araucanía (Chile). She is currently collaborating with Anna Ivanova in her research on the representations of migration and migrants in the Chilean press.