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ImmigrationProf Blog
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Corporate-Owned Papers Near the Border More Likely to Run Anti-Immigrant News and Views

By immigrationprof

Lee Drutman on AlterNet has a fascinating story on news reporting on immigration:

 “[P]olitical science professors Regina P. Branton of Rice University and Johanna Dunaway of Louisiana State University examined 1,227 immigration news stories and opinion pieces that appeared in 95 English-language California newspapers between March 1, 2004, and March 1, 2005, coding all coverage as negative, neutral or positive. They found that those papers closest to the U.S.-Mexico border tend to provide the most negative news and opinions on immigration. And being corporate-owned makes the papers even more anti-immigrant in their coverage.” (emphasis added).

The study offers some interesting reasons for the one-sided reporting on immigration in the border press.  The bottom line is that it sells papers.

KJ