Immigration news in the Global South: A comparative analysis of media content and journalistic decisions and practices in Latin America A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Fernando Severino IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Giovanna Dell’Orto August 2020 Fernando Severino © Acknowledgments There is a large group of people to whom I am grateful for the help and support they have given me during this very challenging years-long process. As an academic project, my enormous gratitude is for Professor Giovanna Dell’Orto. She is not only the best advisor, facilitator, and mentor a student can have, but she brings the “personal touch” (as she likes to call it) into academia, and you can feel how she really cares about you. Her passion for journalism and her scholarly work definitely inspired me in the early stages of my Ph.D. Thank you, Giovanna, without you, this dissertation will not be possible. I am also very grateful for my incredibly supportive committee – not only for this dissertation but during the prelims, job market process, and many other things. Professor Matt Carlson was always willing to share some piece of valuable wisdom about life in academia, and I appreciate that. Professor Ben Toff, as an amazing scholar, always has his door open for answering questions and guiding with very smart perspectives about research. I also thank Professor Lisa Hilbink for being willing to be part of this project and also offer insightful feedback about my research and scholarly work based on her experience working in Latin America. I would like to also thank all people at Murphy Hall: Faculty members, graduate students, and administrative staff. During the last four years of my Ph.D., I found a caring and helpful community. Special thanks to Professors Susan LoRusso and Christopher Terry for believing in my research ideas and coauthoring together. One of the reasons I decided to pursue a Ph.D. was to engage in multidisciplinary work. I think Mass Communication allows that. Therefore, I am happy to have crossed paths with Daniel Ortega, an incredible computer scientist. I look forward to many collaborations in the future. The same goes for my coauthors and friends from Political Science, in particular Valentina Salas. Vale you made grad school more livable. I thank the journalists interviewed for this project. I admired the work you do in countries that need more passionate fact-seekers and storytellers like you. This project was full of challenges. During the last twelve months of this dissertation, the world changed in ways I did not anticipate. In Fall 2019, Chile, my country, faced a historical, social revolution. I witnessed everything from far away, and it was hard not to be emotionally affected. In Spring 2020, the Covid-19 global pandemic plus protests against racial discrimination exploded here in Minneapolis after the killing of George Floyd. This, on top of my grandad passing away on Father’s Day 2020. It was impossible to compartmentalize being away from family and all that. Here, the support of my wife was essential. Javi, you took the heavy lift, you made this happen, and you know how much I value your companionship and love. My two “gringuitos,” Trini and Santiago, are the source of my exhaustion but also my strength. You guys keep me grounded. I hope to make up the time I missed with you while writing this “chapter book with no pictures” (as Trini told me). Also, I want to thank my parents (Fernando and Fresia), brother (Felipe), and sister (Francisca), their families and my mother in-law (Maria Elena). You are an inspiration to me and my happy place. i We came to the U.S. with my wife initially for two years, and here we are after eight years and two kids. This work also goes for all the people trying to move across borders (real and imaginaries) despite all the challenges. ii Abstract This dissertation analyzes the news media representation of intraregional immigration in Latin America in connection with the journalistic decisions that partially shape this content. Based on an analysis of 1,690 news articles from 16 print and web outlets in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico (sampled from a database created uniquely for this dissertation), this project examines frames, word choices, sources, and other elements of news stories from 2014-2018. It also uses twenty interviews with journalists in these countries ––working for the news outlets analyzed here–– to establish relationships between the coverage produced in these newsrooms and the approach reporters take to write about immigration. Overall, the findings show a predominant presence of two frames in the way news media decides to tell the story about immigration: A victim – humanitarian/human rights frame and a political responsibility–policy solutions and debates frame. These frames are heavily influenced by governmental voices and official messages that are the sources most used by reporters. News articles about the benefits of immigrants and immigration are minimal. The lack of specialization in newsrooms about reporting immigration, limited resources, and the context of violence negatively impact the presence of counternarratives to the official discourse. However, there is an agreement among journalists on writing about immigration in ways that avoid promoting xenophobia and stereotyping. Thus, the storytelling does not use charged labels about the newcomers, and concepts such as "illegality" are virtually absent. iii From a theoretical perspective, this dissertation provides arguments about the role of professional journalism and journalists in developing countries as a crucial institution for democracy. From a more practical perspective, this project's results could benefit the work of reporters writing about immigration across newsrooms in the Global South. iv Table of Content Chapter 1: Introduction, theoretical foundations and scope of the project …………………… 1 Chapter 2: Immigration context ……………………28 Chapter 3: Immigration news and methods ……………………56 Chapter 4: Case study – Chile ……………………105 Chapter 5: Case study – Colombia …………………… 152 Chapter 6: Case study – Mexico …………………… 206 Chapter 7: Comparative analysis and discussion ……………………264 References …………………… 304 Appendices …………………… 326 v List of Tables Chapter 3 Table 1: List of sources to assess media environment and outlet selection ……..89 Table 2: News sources by country……………………………………………….90 Table 3: News articles and sampling…………………………………………….93 Table 4: Definitions of frames…………………………………………………...95 Table 5: List of interviews……………………………………………………….100 Chapter 4 Table 1: News articles per outlet…………………………………………………110 Table 2: Most common frames…………………………………………………...116 Table 3: Traditional vs. non-traditional…………………………………………..118 (Frames as percentage of each newspaper coverage). Table 4: Word choice for headline and news text after headline………………...123 Table 5: Labels in the lede and rest of the text…………………………………...124 Table 6: Nation of origin…………………………………………………………124 Table 7: Most common sources (first source listed) …………………………….128 Table 8: Numbers in headlines as a proxy of a more thematic coverage………...132 Chapter 5 Table 1: News articles per outlet…………………………………………………157 Table 2: Most common frames…………………………………………………...161 Table 3: Traditional vs. non-traditional…………………………………………...169 (Frames as percentage of each newspaper coverage). Table 4: Word choice for headline and news text after headline…………………175 Table 5: Common words use as labels for the influx…………………………….176 vi Table 6: Most common sources (first source listed) …………………………….180 Table 7: Numbers in headlines as a proxy of a more thematic coverage………..184 Chapter 6 Table 1: News articles per outlet…………………………………………………212 Table 2: Most common frames…………………………………………………...214 Table 3: Traditional vs. non-traditional…………………………………………..223 (Frames as percentage of each newspaper coverage). Table 4: Word choice for headline and news text after headline…………………231 Table 5: Preferred word uses for Central American migrants……………………231 (body of the news) Table 6: Most common sources (first source listed) …………………………….236 Table 7: Numbers in headlines as a proxy of a more thematic coverage………...239 Chapter 7 Table 1: Most frequent frames present in each newspaper………………………271 Table 2: Comparing Immigration News Coverage in Latin America……………279 vii List of Figures Chapter 4 Figure 1: News articles per year…………………………………………………110 Figure 2: Most common frames…………………………………………………116 Figure 3: Presence of words linked to race……………………………………...126 Chapter 5 Figure 1: News articles per year…………………………………………………157 Figure 2: Most common frames………………………………………………….167 Figure 3: Words linked to the historical connection between Colombia and Venezuela………………………………......178 Chapter 6 Figure 1: News articles per year…………………………………………………212 Figure 2: Most common frames………………………………………………….222 Figure 3: Words linked to Solidarity frame……………………………………...234 viii CHAPTER 1 Introduction This dissertation is about the representation of intraregional immigration and immigrants in the news in Latin America and how certain journalistic practices might help shape the coverage we consume. This research project is inspired, in part, by my own experience as an immigrant in the United States and also heavily influenced by the context where I conducted my doctorate program. I started my studies right before the 2016 presidential election in the United States. There is a noticeable “Trump” effect on my