Immigration & Journalism: Bridging the Socio-political Disconnect
By Marivir Montebon
New York – During the community conversation on immigration and journalism, the urgency of crafting a needs-based immigration law in the US could not be overemphasized. With the relentless entry of newly arrived immigrants at the border, America must come to its senses in responding to its complicated immigration problems.
The local community also saw the imperative for journalists to always write stories on immigrants in socio-political and historical context to give the public a wider perspective of immigration.
Immigration lawyer Licelle Cobrador giving her reaction to my doctoral presentation on immigration and journalism. Other remarks were given by immigration lawyer Cris Godinez and Fr. Julian Jagudilla.
These were the reactions to my doctoral research presentation on immigration and journalism on July 24, 2024, at the Apicha Community Health Center in Queens. It was an honor to be with the Filipino community for a debut presentation since I graduated in May from the HJ International Graduate School for Peace and Public Leadership.
Immigration lawyer Licelle Cobrador said that a needs-based immigration law must be legislated by Congress to address the broken immigration system of the US. “We need to know our numbers. How many jobs do we need for each industry, and how many humanitarian visas can you really accommodate. If we don’t know those numbers, we are just throwing darts in the dark. America is doing that for a long time. We really need to galvanize everybody, to be political. To tell your officials to reform immigration because this is us. This is what makes us the United States.”
Cobrador added that media has been an active part in polarizing society on their understanding of immigration. “There were only a few articles that I saw citing immigrants as responsible for innovation in the economy. It is disheartening because immigrants are the backbone of the economy.”
Fr. Julian Jagudilla, executive director of Migrant Center at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, was emphatic in citing the need to stop the intake of immigrants at least for a year.
“Immigrants can be given a fresh start as America needs workers and experts. It is a matter of planning. The Federal government must hold the entry of immigrants at the borders for the time being, at least for a year. You cannot continue to admit immigrants without an immigration plan.”
Lawyer Cristina Godinez shared that the Migrant Center has also been providing immigration education to the public other than directly helping distressed immigrants go through the legal immigration pathways.
Consul Paolo Mapula of the Philippine Consulate in New York encouraged media to be “report the truth and careful not to put a negative or an extremely positive bias to a story.”
Titled “Bridging the Political Divide of US Immigration Reporting through Transformative Journalism,” I labored on this research for nine months. It is a historical examination of how corporate and ethnic media (conservative and liberal) have reported immigration issues in the US.
Thank you to Edwin Josue for this picture.
It is a timely piece of work which I dedicated to my daughter, Leani Alnica M. Auxilio. The tedious research would not have been completed without the expansive minds and patience of Dr. Drissa Kone and Dr. Thomas Ward and the generosity of time given by my study informants and experts.
This study adapts Transformative Journalism as a tool that would help bridge the socio-political gap and focused on the experience of the Migrant Center at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in providing legal immigration services to distressed migrants in New York City.
Qualitative in nature, the study had two groups: ten journalists in New York, New Jersey, and Washington, DC and 20 volunteers of the Migrant Center.
The Migrant Center respondents underscored the need for reporting the accountability of US leaders and legislators on immigration reforms that could effectively fix the broken immigration system of the US and make it responsive to current times.
Eighty percent of the respondents of the study believe that contextual writing could help bridge the political gap of immigration reporting. The other twenty percent don’t believe that the media could bridge such understanding because of the business and ideological biases of the media organizations.
The problems identified in this study are:
1. The lack of historical contextual media reporting on immigration makes news and information vulnerable to off-context and misinterpretation of facts.
2. The use of demeaning language to describe or identify immigrants, creating an isolating and hateful attitude towards immigrants since the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, up to the present.
3. Reporting on immigration issues using solely the lens of partisan politics in the US.
Let me share the executive summary:
Media coverage on US immigration issues has historically and continuously been politically polarized.
This study has found that political polarization of immigration reporting on issues and immigrants are incubated in the newsrooms whereby raw information gathered by journalists from the ground is filtered (through editing) and interpreted by editors, commentators, and executive producers to suit their specific ideological or political narrative and target audiences.
Interpretations of news information contained in commentaries are used and amplified through the commentary sections 4-5 exposure times compared to the one-time exposure of the straight news coverage in a day.
The interpretation of news influences public perception and opinion more than the news information itself because of disproportionate exposure times.
Participant journalists from liberal and conservative media organizations in the US East Coast in this study keep up with the highest ethical standards of journalism which is the adherence to truth and accuracy in gathering news and information.
Historically, immigration reportage has failed to reach a level of explicatory and contextual reporting that would transform political rhetoric into legislative action. The lack of context in reporting makes immigration news less understood and vulnerable to misinterpretation and demonization of immigrants.
When information is being interpreted and re-interpreted in the process of news writing, editing, and delivering, the information is filtered by the interests and biases of the writer, editor, and producers.
By and large, interpreted information is released more frequently than the news information itself, thus providing more nuanced messages to the public based on the political and business interests and biases of the editors and producers.
To help bridge this political divide, the study recommends the practice of Transformative Journalism, which is intentional, not just informational, and contextual. The researcher believes that this will broaden the public’s understanding of the relatedness of current immigration socio-political and cultural issues with history or political conditions.
Transformative Journalism begins with the empathetic listening skills of journalists. It is also enhanced by the collaborative partnerships of news organizations in sharing contextual, truthful content, many times over during the day.
I take on the nudging of Dr. Derly Fernandez, moderator and emcee of the presentation, to present doctoral studies to local and national legislators for policy action. So much effort is given to the birthing of social researches that we should not let them simply gather dust in libraries. Thank you, Dr. Fernandez, I will keep the conversation going. #
