Media and Migrants: A Critical Analysis of Spanish and Irish Discourses on Immigration

How are migrants referred to in the media? What roles do they play and when are they quoted in news reports on immigration? Whose views are implicitly reinforced? Have these changed similarly in different European newspapers in recent years? Media and Migrants systematically addresses such questions by exploring the representation of immigration in two relatively new reception countries, Spain and Ireland, over the past decade. It focuses on the discourses (re)produced in four newspapers (El Pa s, ABC, The Irish Times and the Irish Independent) in 1990, 1996 and 1999-2000. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are combined within a Critical Discourse Analysis framework, mainly based on discourse-historical and socio-cognitive approaches. The analysis of descriptive and content categories is followed by the scrutiny of strategies of reference, predication, intertextuality and argumentation. The results illustrate an ongoing convergence of perceptions and discourses on ethnic alterity in Europe, as collective 'self' and 'other' are being redefined in the context of supranational integration and increasing migration worldwide.

The Author: Fernando Prieto Ramos (BA in Translation, Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics) is a member of the Centre for Translation and Textual Studies at Dublin City University. In 1998, he received a National Award in Translation Studies from the Spanish Department of Education. He also received a European Label Award for Innovative Methods in Language Teaching in 2001 for a critical language awareness project. His work focuses on discourse analysis, legal translation and intercultural communication.