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The media plays an important role in determining the ways in which the monster metaphor is developed among the public, and more often than not, leads to the creation of negative perceptions. This paper examines the impact that media coverage of immigration has in the United States, and determines that media coverage has lead to the public opinion that immigrants are monstrous beings. In order to assess the impact of media reports, I will discuss the influence of the most common portrayals of immigration in media and the caused effect on the public, the word and image choices made by the media, and the representation of specific immigrants groups in the news.
Common Portrayals of Immigration in the Media When immigration is highlighted in the media, it is frequently noted that immigration is portrayed in the negative light far more often than it is in the positive (Steinberg, 2004; De Zúñiga, Correa, & Valenzuela, 2012; Esses, Medianu, & Lawson, 2013). The media tends to show the unfavorable side of immigration, and in doing so causes negative opinions from the public to arise.
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For example, it was found that among different media sources, “portrayals, of immigrants and refugees...have become increasingly negative, with the media focusing on the threats that immigrants and refugees pose to members of host societies” (Esses et al., 2013, p. 520).
By focusing on threats, the media only represents immigrants as dangerous to the country they are entering, and it shapes the public opinion to correspond with that view portrayed. In order to thrive, the media has to create stories that are eye catching and will interest the everyday reader, so, the media tends to show the negative sides of immigration as opposed to the positives.
While this is beneficial to the media, it’s only highlighting the imperfect qualities that immigration brings to the receiving country, which in turn creates misperceptions among the public’s eye. Hassell (2015) says, “the more that news stories supply pessimistic or downbeat conclusions about immigration...the more Americans are likely to oppose immigration” (p. 162). This quote emphasizes the impact that the media can have on the public, clearly stating the direct relation between media representation and the public’s beliefs regarding immigration.
Many Americans rely on media sources to keep them up to date on current events happening in our country, so when the media chooses to consistently represent immigrants as illegal criminals, the public agrees with these representations. Media often portrays immigrants with an adverse view, whether it be stereotyping that all immigrants are illegal, or the common portrayal of immigrants as criminals, which impacts the views and ideas that the public has regarding immigration. Negative portrayals of immigration in the media are frequently seen or heard of, and these representations influence the public opinion to align their views with the depictions the media displays. Tying this back to the monster metaphor, these constant media portrayals of immigrants being a danger to society and the country they are entering, causes the public to feel vulnerable. In response to these portrayals, the public feels fear and anger because of the monstrous light immigrants are depicted in, and these feelings develop the monster metaphor. The general population believes the representations the media conveys, which is that immigrants are in fact monsters and criminal beings because they are unaware of any other depictions. Showing only the negative sides of immigration to the public develops the monster metaphor since the public believes the negative portrayals.
This leads to the misconception that all immigrants are monstrous beings that don’t belong in society. When the public is only informed about illegal immigration, or sees the word criminal when immigration is being discussed in the media, it leads to these two ideas being immediately associated with each other, which creates misperceptions and causes the public to think of immigrants as monstrous, thieving beings. Word and Image Choices Made by the Media Immigration in the media shows how word and image choices have a big impact on the public’s views. More specifically, media illustrations can create misperceptions among the public which can be seen in the quote, “the most common term used to refer to undocumented immigrants is ‘illegal aliens.’ This term...attributes a certain ‘non-human’ quality to them” (Steinberg, 2004, p. 116). The media makes decisions on the illustrations and word choices based on what will be the most eye catching or cause readers and listeners to take the time to pay attention. By depicting all immigrants as unauthorized, alienated beings, it leads to the common thought among the American public that immigrants do not belong in American society. These words are dehumanizing, which causes the public to ignore the fact that immigrants are still human beings too; the dehumanizing words cause the public to lack empathy towards immigrants. Words such as “alien” or illegal have a negative connotation, and being that these words are regularly used in the media, it causes misperceptions among the public because of word association (Steinberg, 2004, p. 116).
Hearing the media constantly refer to immigrants with these terms causes the public to tie immigration to these identifying words that are repeatedly used in the news. Even if an immigrant has documentation, and is living in the country legally, the word association creates the misperception that most immigrants are illegal and do not belong in the American community. Supporting this idea, research showed that there was a distinct correlation between Latinx immigrant groups and the negative ways the media chooses to depict this ethnic group of people (De Zúñiga et al., 2012). It was found that Latinx are “depicted as a burden for society in issues related to illegality, crime, and affirmative action,” which is a generalization about an entire group of people, and shows that word choice can have a significant impact on the shaping of ideals that the public establishes (De Zúñiga et al., 2012, p. 602). From these misleading, negative depictions, the public presumes that the actions of a few immigrants speaks for the way that all immigrants of Latinx descent act. Any crime that is committed, including illegal immigration, will be exaggerated in the eyes of the media in order to capture an audience. This causes misperceptions among the public that all immigrants of this specific ethnic group act in the ways shown. The media’s depiction that immigrants of Latinx descent are not good for the American community is often in relation to the idea that immigrants steal resources of lower class Americans. This supports the monster metaphor in that it develops the thought that immigrants are thieving beings.
The quote, “Immigrants cost taxpayers too much by using government services like public education and medical services,” supports this idea because the public hears or sees that immigrants are added expenses or are using government aid too much, therefore causing them to be thought of as stealing from American taxpayers (Segovia & Defever, 2010, p. 381). Immigrants are shown in the media to either be using too much government aid paid from taxpayers, or as stealing the jobs of the American working class. These portrayals impact the monster metaphor concerning immigration because the word choice develops the thought that all immigrants are thieves stealing from the American public. Through these word choices and the “non-human” aspect it creates, the monster metaphor is reinforced by the media because it allows the public to think that it’s normal for immigrants to be depicted in this light (Steinberg, 2004, p. 116). Word choices made by the media influence the development of the monster metaphor through the creation of misperceptions, which leads to the public thought that immigrants are monstrous beings. The word choices directly lead to the thoughts that immigrants hamper the American community and do not belong in our society since they don’t abide by our values and laws.
Since immigrants are depicted in this light by the media and many Americans use the news as a way to learn about current events in the country, it causes the public to agree or believe that these negative representations based on word choice are the only ways that immigrants affect American society. This strengthens the monster metaphor because it gives Americans a reasoning behind their assumptions, and generalizes that all immigrants are monstrous intruders that should not be affiliated with the American community. Representation of Specific Ethnic Groups in the Media The media often highlights certain ethnic immigrant groups in a negative light, while choosing to not mention immigrants of other descent at all, or choosing to show that they are accepted into society. The negative light that these individual groups of immigrants are shown in causes stereotypes to form in the public’s views. This is a common occurrence when white immigrants of other countries enter the United States as opposed to immigrants of color.
As stated by Steinberg (2004), “United States immigration policy has disproportionately favored immigrants from European as opposed to other countries,” (p. 114) which demonstrates that certain immigrants are socially accepted into society, while others are still thought of as criminal beings that do not belong. The preference of one group opposed to another based on their home country, creates misperceptions that these specific ethnic groups are the only groups entering the country. The illustrations create stereotypes because of the ways that these immigrant groups are represented in the media. While Hispanic immigrants are constantly portrayed as taking advantage of government aid as discussed in the previous paragraph, immigrants from Europe are not being mentioned at all, which causes judgement toward individual ethnic groups. This stereotypical concept is mentioned by Brader, Valentine, and Suhay (2008) when they discovered that when the news emphasizes, “Latinos in discussions about immigration, white citizens may come to believe that immigrants pose an even greater problem than if white Europeans were featured” (p. 960). The thoughts that Americans have about immigration are illustrated in a way that shows they are biased toward other ethnic groups because of the way they are described in multiple media sources.
This specific example shows the impact that biased media sources can have on the public. The American community begins to align their views with the media sources they pay attention to since the public frequently hears or sees these representations. The media depiction of different ethnic groups of immigrants causes misconceptions among the public, especially when the media illustrates only some immigrant groups in a monstrous light, while displaying other groups infrequently or showing that they are accepted into society. The differing depictions of immigrants shows the prominence of the monster metaphor in today’s society due to the choices that the media makes to describe specific groups of immigrants as opposed to others. When immigration is mentioned in the news, the most common people shown are immigrants of color, and these depictions lead to generalizations about the population being illustrated. The portrayals relate to the monster metaphor because as discussed in a previous paragraph, the stereotypes that are generated among the public cause only certain immigrants to be thought of as depleting resources that could be used for the American population. Showing only certain groups of immigrants in the media and consistently representing them by only the negative impacts that have occurred, leads to the public opinion that only these specific immigrants are monstrous beings that are negatively affecting the American public.
From the research conducted, it’s clear to see how and why immigration is often linked with the monster metaphor due to media portrayals. Immigration is frequently seen as only negative, and with no further research, the American public believes that it is not beneficial to the country. While common portrayals, word and image choices, and the development of stereotypes in the media all impact the perceptions the American community has concerning immigration, there are many ways to find a solution to the problem. For starters, the public can learn more about the truth of immigration, rather than solely believing media sources. Since varying media sources depict immigration differently depending on what their audience responds to, paying attention to several media-outlets may also be beneficial to the American public so they are exposed to a wide variety of ideas. Becoming less ignorant of the positive impacts that immigration has, when not being portrayed in a monstrous manner, is another way of breaking down the misperceptions generated by the media. The importance of media literacy can also be noted, since being able to analyze what the media is portraying is an important part of deciphering between accurate and fake news. When Americans start to take interest in views, other than those portrayed by the news, the public idea that immigrants are monstrous beings could potentially disappear.
Monster Metaphor of New Creations or Ideas. (2022, Jan 27). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/monster-metaphor-of-new-creations-or-ideas-essay
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