Humanitarian crisis and public opinion. Treatment of immigration in the Spanish media

Abstract

According with several authors (Entman, 1993; Goffman, 1986; Gitlin, 1980; Snow et al, 1986; De Vreese & Claes, 2005; Reese, 2007; Scheufele, 1999) framing is a process of generating emphasys about a certain piece of information in news. We are interested in knowing how do Spanish media of reference frame immigration issues in the Mediterranean Sea. Through a mixed method of content analysis in over 774 news, we made a comparison between the last five months of the former President Rajoy´s Administration and five months of the actual Sánchez´s Administration. The findings suggest that in the most read newspapers in Spain the coverage changes between both Administrations. Also, that the coverage of the issue is focused more in the informative aspect of the irregular immigration, than in the political and economical conditions of the migrants. Besides, the political actors that are present in the news are mostly Governamental Institutions or NGO´s, and the presence of the migrant voice is rather low. The problematic news frame about immigration is hegemonic; the benefits of immigration is mostly absent in their news coverage.