Community Matters: Content Analysis of Children in Immigration Media Coverage, 1990-2020

What role do children play in media coverage of immigration, and what might this tell us about coverage of (and attitudes about) immigration more broadly? This study examines U.S. newspaper coverage of immigration from 1990 to 2020. Using multiple content analytic approaches, I find that newspaper coverage of immigration that includes mentions of children: (a) tends to be more positive in net sentiment, (b) tends not to focus on topics of politics and violence, and (c) tends to correlate with topics about family, education, religion, and community. Threat is found to be a regular feature of this news coverage; however, threat language does not vary systematically with the language of childhood or race. In all, these findings point to the salience of (positive) language about community in coverage about immigrant children. These findings are discussed as they relate to the impact of childhood representation in news coverage about immigration in the U.S., and how cueing community, such as family, when evaluating immigrants has the potential to produce more pro-immigrant attitudes amongst the American population.