3
One cannot think about the border, the subject of ICA’s 53
rd
Conference, “Communication in
Borderlands,” without visualizing the phantasmagoria of immigrants who live in or have crossed the
Mexico-U.S. borderlands. Communication about immigration on the U.S.-Mexican border and across
borders around the globe is a central topic for communication scholars because of its growth as a national
and global issue during the 20
th
century.
The focus of this study is media coverage of Mexican immigration – much of it taking place on
the border where we find ourselves at this conference. Immigration is not only a key aspect of U.S.
foreign policy with Mexico but has become a hub topic in U.S. domestic policy – because of links to
issues like access to health care, education, workplace safety regulations, and cultural conflicts. Mexican
immigration has also changed the profile of the U.S. population. Today 66% of the 32.8 million people
who identify as U.S. Latinos or Hispanics are of Mexican heritage. Approximately one in eight people in
the United States is of Hispanic origin (Therrien & Ramirez, 2000).
The objective of this study is to examine U.S. network television coverage of Mexican
immigration to the United States from the earliest television footage available (1971) through the end of
the 20
th
century. The study is in two parts. The first, guided by the literature on international news
determinants and media content influences, is a quantitative analysis of the immigration stories’
frequency, prominence, datelines, sources, and relationship to events and announcements. The second,
flowing from literature on visual communication along with media content influences, is a qualitative
analysis of Mexican immigration stories, including observations about the patterns observed in news
footage, graphics, and verbal narration. Although some scholars limit their definition of visual
communication to “lens-based” media (Griffin, 2001), this study also examines computer-generated
graphics, along with symbols and text produced before computer graphics were ubiquitous.
The intent of the research is threefold: to add to the descriptive information we have about U.S.
news coverage of Mexico; to compare immigration coverage with U.S. immigration legislation, trends,
Convention