Keywords
CDA, framing, immigrants, news, Venezuela
Abstract
The Venezuelan migration phenomenon is currently the second-largest external displacement crisis worldwide. As the number of Venezuelans leaving their country has risen, migration policies in Latin American countries have become more restrictive. In Peru, the second-largest recipient of Venezuelans and the largest host of Venezuelan asylum-seekers worldwide, the securitization of migration policies started in August 2018 with a passport requirement for Venezuelans, and intensified in June 2019 with another, yet virtually unreachable requirement: the Humanitarian Visa. Utilizing media-framing theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study analyzed the media discourse built by El Comercio newspaper between April 1 and June 30, 2019. CDA was performed on a total of 63 news stories of different journalistic genres, and findings are consistent with the academic literature pertaining to the media representations of immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers around the globe. Overall, there is a tendency to frame Venezuelans negatively, portraying them as threats and accusing them of Peru’s structural flaws. In addition, specific findings suggest a lack of rigour in the journalistic practices of El Comercio as well as larger discursive strategies involving political purposes.
Primary Advisor
Dr. Valerie Scatamburlo-D'Annibale
Program Reader
Dr. Kyle Asquith
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Communication, Media and Film
Document Type
Major Research Paper
Convocation Year
2022
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Discourse and Text Linguistics Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Political Economy Commons, Social Justice Commons