It seems wholly intuitive that the mass media would have a strong impact on how people perceive immigrants.  Nonetheless, recent research from the University of Bern provides an interesting insight into the scale of this impact, especially in forging and underpinning the prejudices we feel towards immigrants.

The researchers examined the various prejudices felt towards two groups (Roma and Kosovo Albanians) that are largely perceived in a negative way, and then immigrants who are largely perceived in a positive way (Italians).  The research was conducted in the Czech Republic and Switzerland, with participants given a number of fake newspaper stories to read.  The stories were either positive, negative or mixed in their reporting of the behavior of immigrants.  Interestingly, it took just a single article for prejudices to be altered.

“Positive reports led to less pronounced prejudice, while negative reports led to more pronounced prejudice against the described minority group,” the researchers explain.

Indeed, even reports that contained both positive and negative information were useful in reducing prejudice, suggesting that positive news has a dampening affect upon negative news.

Ways of reporting

The study also suggests that whilst the positive or negative tone of reporting on such an emotive topic is often quite evident, stories can also contain much subtler clues that can nonetheless shape our views.  This can include the way the ethnicity of immigrants is described.  For instance, are Italian migrants described as an immigrated Italian or an Italian immigrant?

The research built upon previous studies that had shown how nouns used to describe people are influential in underpinning our perceptions, and indeed are more influential than adjectives.  For instance, in these studies, it was found that people thought a Catholic would be more religious than a Catholic person.

The team believe their work is the first to systematically assess the different impact nouns and adjectives have in both positive and negative texts.  The research found that nouns describing ethnicity were much more likely to lead to prejudiced feelings than adjectives were.

“Nouns enhance existing prejudice more than adjectives, independently of the positivity or negativity of newspaper articles – even if news report on positive events,” the authors conclude.

It’s perhaps a bit much to expect the media to use these findings to have a more responsible approach to their work, but we can but hope.