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Fortress of Fear and Borders of Control: How the U.S FORTRESS OF FEAR AND BORDERS OF CONTROL: HOW THE U.S. MEDIA CONSTRUCTS MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS AS A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Chris G. Crews November 2007 This thesis titled FORTRESS OF FEAR AND BORDERS OF CONTROL: HOW THE U.S. MEDIA CONSTRUCTS MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS AS A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT by CHRIS G. CREWS has been approved for the Department of Political Science and the College of Arts and Sciences by Hector Perla Jr. Assistant Professor of Political Science Benjamin M. Ogles Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Abstract CREWS, CHRIS G., M.A., November 2007, Political Science FORTRESS OF FEAR AND BORDERS OF CONTROL: HOW THE U.S. MEDIA CONSTRUCTS MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS AS A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT (174 pp.) Director of Thesis: Hector Perla Jr. This thesis seeks to document the construction of Mexican immigrants as a national security threat in the U.S. media during the 2006 Congressional debates over immigration reform. This is done with both a qualitative newspaper content analysis and a qualitative critical discourse analysis. A random sample of 107 newspaper articles printed between 1/1/06 and 6/30/06 are analysed from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle and USA Today. Using an analysis of two framing metaphors— Immigrant as Threat and Immigrant as Dangerous Waters—this thesis documents how Mexican immigrants, by being framed as a national security threat, have been used to forward a call to secure and defend the borders from a perceived threat to U.S. Anglo culture. This thesis shows how these calls are partially rooted in beliefs about white nationalism and the fear of Mexican immigrants seen as a foreign invasion. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Hector Perla Jr. Assistant Professor of Political Science This thesis is dedicated to Guy Milton Crews, who taught me the joy of language. Acknowledgments There are a number of people who deserve thanks for helping to see this project to completion. First to my roommate CJ, who has put up with endless hours of my questions, ideas and frustrations over the past several years as I worked on this project. I would also like to thank Dr. Hector Perla for his invaluable advice and suggestions, both on this project and in learning to become a better critical educator. Thanks are also in order for my additional committee members Dr. Julie White and Dr. John Gilliom for their patience and encouragement as I swerved my way through graduate classes. Thanks also go to Dr. Taka Suzuki for his many useful suggestions that helped to guide me here. To Dr. Sung Ho Kim, Dr. Sholeh Quinn, Dr. Steven Hays and Dr. Katherine Jellison, thank you all for your support and inspiration over the years. To the Classical Department at OU, thanks for an excellent training as an undergrad, even if I never did finish those Greek lessons. I also want to thank my classmate and compañera Edyael for her insights on Latina political identity, as well as her wonderful company over drippy ice cream. Finally, to my parents and family for putting up with me through years of schooling, headaches, politics and who knows what else, I will never forget it. To anyone I may have forgotten, as I am sure there are many, your help is deeply appreciated. 6 Table of Contents Page Abstract................................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgments................................................................................................................5 List of Tables....................................................................................................................... 9 Section I: Introduction....................................................................................................... 12 Section II: A Brief History of Immigration in America.................................................... 17 Immigration in Perspective.......................................................................................17 The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986..................................................23 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act...........................27 Proposition 187 and Operation Gatekeeper..............................................................27 Section III: Literature Review and Methodology.............................................................. 33 Immigration in Perspective: Critical Discourses......................................................33 Immigration in Perspective: Anti-Immigrant Discourses.........................................39 Quantitative Content Analysis..................................................................................47 Variable 1: Themes...................................................................................................50 Variable 2: Metaphors.............................................................................................. 50 Variable 3: Article Depth......................................................................................... 50 Variable 4: Immigrant Framing................................................................................51 7 Variable 5: Sources...................................................................................................53 Variable 6: Source Affiliation.................................................................................. 53 Variable 7: Source Gender....................................................................................... 54 Variable 8: Source Framing of Immigrants..............................................................54 Qualitative Critical Discourse Analysis................................................................... 55 Section IV: Quantitative Analysis of Themes................................................................... 61 Analysis of Themes.......................................................................................................66 911, Terrorism and Homeland Security Themes......................................................66 Crime and Drugs Theme.......................................................................................... 70 Border Theme...........................................................................................................74 Congressional Legislation Theme............................................................................ 85 Economics Theme.................................................................................................... 88 Culture and Identity Theme......................................................................................92 Immigration Protests Theme.................................................................................... 96 Education Theme....................................................................................................100 Government Spending Theme................................................................................103 Themes Review...................................................................................................... 104 Immigrant Metaphors............................................................................................. 106 Section V: Textual Analysis of Immigration Coverage...................................................111 Using Metaphors: Immigrant as Threat, Dangerous Waters..................................112 Immigrant as Dangerous Waters............................................................................ 112 8 Immigrant as Threat............................................................................................... 125 Section VI: Conclusion....................................................................................................138 Strategies of Resistance..........................................................................................143 Bibliography.................................................................................................................... 149 Appendix A: Content Analysis Coding Sheet................................................................. 156 Appendix B: Coding Guide............................................................................................. 160 Appendix C: Content Analysis Coding Sheet for Coder................................................. 166 Appendix D: Additional Source Coding Page.................................................................169 Appendix E: Conceptual Media Framing Map................................................................170 Appendix F: Additional Data - Gender............................................................................171 Appendix G: Additional Data – Source Affiliations........................................................172 Appendix H: Additional Data – Source Designations..................................................... 173 Appendix I: Statistical Data.............................................................................................174 9 List of Tables Page Table 1: Article Frequency by Newspaper Source............................................................ 63 Table 2: Article Distribution by News Section..................................................................64 Table 3: Article Depth and Immigrant Frame Crosstabulation........................................
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