Mexican and American Newspaper Views on the Security Fence Thea Nielsen Government and Politics tnie

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Mexican and American Newspaper Views on the
Security FenceThea NielsenGovernment and
Politicstnielsen_at_umd.edu
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 (260-159) 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 Readers
Press
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