Major Papers

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

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