Media Framing and Immigration Reform: an Examination of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013
Start Date
April 2020
End Date
April 2020
Major Field of Study
Political Science
Student Type
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
Alison Howard, MA
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
Illegal immigration to the United States has dramatically increased within the last two decades, with an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Recently, the topic of immigration in the United States has become more controversial. In 2013, the U.S. Senate passed S 744 the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. When this bill was introduced many believed that it had a good chance of making it through the legislative process. The bill represented a compromise between Republicans and Democrats and addressed many problems associated with immigration. However, the bill was not passed by the House of Representatives; leaving the issue of immigration reform unresolved. The role of the media is to provide information to the public, to the best of its ability, about what the government is doing. Once information is presented by the media, members of the public can form their own opinions about the issues being addressed by elected officials. The media employs a process referred to as framing to package information for presentation to its audience. Framing is an important aspect in how information is communicated. What people know about issues and how much they know can affect what people think about issues. What kind of information did the public have about immigration reform during the time the bill was being debated by the Senate and how was this information framed? This thesis examines articles from the New York Times and The Hill during the time that the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 was being debated by the Senate to determine how these media outlets framed immigration policy and reform.
Media Framing and Immigration Reform: an Examination of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013
Illegal immigration to the United States has dramatically increased within the last two decades, with an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Recently, the topic of immigration in the United States has become more controversial. In 2013, the U.S. Senate passed S 744 the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. When this bill was introduced many believed that it had a good chance of making it through the legislative process. The bill represented a compromise between Republicans and Democrats and addressed many problems associated with immigration. However, the bill was not passed by the House of Representatives; leaving the issue of immigration reform unresolved. The role of the media is to provide information to the public, to the best of its ability, about what the government is doing. Once information is presented by the media, members of the public can form their own opinions about the issues being addressed by elected officials. The media employs a process referred to as framing to package information for presentation to its audience. Framing is an important aspect in how information is communicated. What people know about issues and how much they know can affect what people think about issues. What kind of information did the public have about immigration reform during the time the bill was being debated by the Senate and how was this information framed? This thesis examines articles from the New York Times and The Hill during the time that the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 was being debated by the Senate to determine how these media outlets framed immigration policy and reform.
Comments
This presentation was accepted for the Scholarly and Creative Works Conference at Dominican University of California. The Conference was canceled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic