1. Mexican and American Newspaper Views on the Security Fence Thea Nielsen Government and Politics
Research Question: How does newspaper coverage about the security fence on the United States’ Southwestern border differ among Mexican and American newspapers?
Context
▪ In December, 2005 the House of Representatives passed ( ) a bill to erect a 700 mile-long fence along the Southwestern border of the U.S.
▪The Senate is now discussing the bill.
▪The fence is estimated to cost at least $2.2 billion.
▪In 2005, 473 Mexicans died trying to illegally cross the border.
Mexican Newspapers
▪ The Mexico National Human Rights Commission described the U.S. measure as “part of a tendency to criminalize migration with a wall that calls to mind the Berlin Wall." –Associated Press reporting from Mexico City.
▪The Mexico City showed a deep concern for the thousands of Mexicans who have died trying to cross the border.
▪The Latin America Weekly Report stated the fence would increase the number of fatalities.
Limitation to the Study
Because of time constraints, the number of articles analyzed was limited to 40. With greater time and resources, more articles could have been included in the study. This would have made the conclusion stronger and graphical analysis would have been appropriate. Also, it is hard to be completely objective when trying to conclude whether or not an article is biased.
Conclusions
▪ Papers that are nationally known and have a wide audience are more likely to state general facts and therefore were less likely to have biased opinions.
▪ Mexican newspapers used more quotes that were in opposition to the security fence. These newspapers also reported about the number of Mexican deaths due to crossing the border.
▪American newspapers tended to have less emotion on the subject and less bias. However, when there was bias it was either sarcastically against the security fence, or very much in support of it.
Method
Newspapers from the United States and Mexico were analyzed in terms of content, use of quotes and wording. After the article was read, it was determined to be bias towards the fence, bias against the fence or unbiased. Some Mexican newspapers were translated into English, while others were read in Spanish. The selected articles were all written within the past three years, most of them from the last six months. Forty newspaper articles were analyzed for the study.
American Newspapers
▪ “During his talk, Goldwater promised to use National Guardsmen to shore up border security and said he wants to house arrested illegal immigrants in tent cities and use them as labor to build a fence along the Arizona-Mexico border.”- The Sun
▪ The Economist had a sarcastic tone against the security fence, citing five cases of how walls have failed in the past.
▪ “Some ranches say as many as 30 illegal immigrants cross their land each night. Sometimes the immigrants destroy cattle.”- New Reader’s Press