Covering the border war: How the news media create race, crime, nation and the United States of America-Mexico divide.

摘要

This study analyzes the media's coverage of the USA-Mexico border over a 10 year period of heightened border enforcement. The theoretical motivation of this study is an analysis of everyday discourse for covert racist constructions. Using discourse analysis, the study examines articles from the major dailies in the four border states: Los Angeles Times, Arizona Republic, Albuquerque Journal, and Houston Chronicle. The analysis reveals nativist discourse disguised in embodied language. Immigrants are constructed in several ways: as animals, forces of nature, illnesses and enemies. By contrast the nation is constructed as: a susceptible body, house with an open door, locality at risk to severe weather, and a nation at war. Race, class, and gender constructs are analyzed in light of religious, scientific and sexual undertones at play in the discourse.