In Rhetoric and Reality On The U.S. – Mexico Border, The University of Texas at San Antonio’s K. Jill Fleuriet describes the often yawning chasm between the rhetoric of the border between America and Mexico as portrayed by politicians and the media, and the reality of life in the region.

She describes in particular how potent the media have been in crafting a vision and a narrative about the border as not only a lawless and dangerous place but also a place that is far away and alien to the “average” American.

It’s a theme continued in recent research from the University of Michigan, which explores how the images used by the media of immigrants affect the attitudes they have towards immigrants and immigration.

Distorting perceptions

The study reveals that common images of immigrants, such as the migrant caravan, are likely to decrease public support for immigration.  By contrast, when images of individual immigrants are used, it tends to have the opposite effect.

The researchers refer to this as “person positivity”, and believe personalized images increase support because they diminish the supposed threat immigrants pose.

Sadly, the reality is not often like this, as the surge in news coverage about immigration in the last decade has often portrayed immigrants as a mass of people surging towards the U.S. – Mexico border seeking refuge.  This narrative then helps to distort the image and sentiment the public has about immigrants in general.

Public sentiment

Participants in the research were asked to read a random news story that contained either an image of an individual immigrant, a crowd of immigrants, or no image.  They then completed an online survey where they reported their support for immigration and policies impacting immigration, as well as various questions from the “Trait Fear Scale”.

The results show that the use of photos significantly affected those who were already sensitive to threats, with those viewing images of immigrants as a large mass of people were far more likely to oppose immigration because they viewed them as a threat.  When they viewed immigrants as individuals, this threat vanished.

“Amongst threat-sensitive Americans, then, the ways in which media photos capture immigration can make an important difference to attitudes toward immigration,” the researchers say.

So, while it’s fair to say that not everyone is affected by the media’s representation of immigrants, it is also fair to say that most of those who are opposed to immigrants are likely to be those who score highly on the trait fear scale.

“They suggest, rather, that the impact of photos is conditional on other preexisting attitudes and predispositions,” the researchers explain.

It’s also fair to say that it is dependent on the media reporting the reality of the migrant situation rather than deliberately creating a misleading narrative that is designed to stoke the very fears spoken about in the research.  That is perhaps going to be a harder situation to change.