Report on the Media and the Immigration Debate

This is not a new report, folks (sorry), but it's still well within the statute of limitations for importance. The Brookings Institution's Governance Studies program teamed up with the Norman Lear Center at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California to investigate the role of the media (mostly television news, newspapers, and blogs) in the ofttimes incendiary issue of immigration. They published their findings in a 2008 83-page report which is divided into two parts. The first and largest part is devoted to a content analysis of media coverage of immigration since 1980 with greater emphasis on recent years. The second section is composed of two essays, one focusing on coverage for one year (2007), the other on the role of public opinion in the debate. The Report does not hold out much hope for the media playing a role in resolving the crisis which, though the message is bad, is at least honest.

Report on the Media and the Immigration Debate is freely available in PDF.