Discursive and photographic representations of migrants in the media: the case of Ceuta and Melilla

ABSTRACT

The Spanish autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla have long been sites of undocumented migration to Spain. Owing to both anti-immigration attitudes often perpetuated in political discourse and the challenges involved in blocking migration in cities that are geographically separated from Spain’s mainland, this migratory context has been heavily debated in Spain. However, it is critical to examine attitudes towards migrant populations of different legal statuses, and particularly essential to look at widely disseminated discourse such as mass media, which has the power to be impactful in shaping popular opinions. In this study, I analyse such discourse, and examine how migrants are represented in Spanish media. Using critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2003) and media framing (Littlejohn, Foss, and Oetzel [2021]. “The Medium.” In Theories of Human Communication, 151–154. Waveland Press), this study looks at 100 online news articles published over a 10-year period (2013–2022). Findings indicate that news outlets use both text and photos to dehumanise and criminalise migrant populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Ceuta
• Melilla
• media discourse
• migrant identities
• anti-immigration discourse

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Niesha Lewis for her work in the early stages of this project, including data collection and coding.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by J. William Asher and Dorothy A. Asher Fund in the Social Sciences.