Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

A report released by the Brookings Institution in September asserts that the media’s framing of the immigration debate is to blame for the failure of comprehensive immigration reform in 2006 and 2007. The media’s narrative about immigration is one of “illegality, crisis, controversy and government failure,” the report states, and this narrative is open to exploitation by extremists on both sides. The result, say the studies authors, is stalemate.

The authors, including Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, looked at nearly three decades’ worth of media representations of immigration and found that the media focus on sensational aspects of the immigration debate. One especially egregious example was the Elian Gonzales incident, but the report says that the oft-cited 12 million illegal immigrants, who are a minority of all immigrants, also receive too much play.

The study paid special attention to new media, which is said “amplified discrete sectors of public opinion to help block legislative action.” Spanish-language media, it says, used its power to popularize pro-immigration rallies, and conservative websites, cable shows and talk radio programs helped to defeat “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.

If this is the case, perhaps all our reporting about the immigration “debate” is only hurting the situation. Coverage of immigration by this blog, for example, has focused on electoral contests and lawsuits where immigration is an issue, massive ICE raids and the increasing demographic and electoral power of immigrant groups. Are we making too big a deal out of the issue?

On the other hand, isn’t the role of the media to provide oversight of goverment? And isn’t one role of the Internet to serve as a public forum? The report does not fully explain how journalists can strike a balance, except that we should pay more attention to how consumers and businesses fit into the immigration question.

President-elect Obama will have to face the economy before he does anything else, but the perennial issue of immigration reform is bound to come up again. When it does, should the media be careful about how it tells the story?