Imagen y discursos sobre la inmigración: la campaña electoral del 14 de marzo de 2004 en los medios de comunicación escritos

Abstract

The author discusses the general election of March 14th, 2004 in Spain as a way to highlight the social, cultural and political atmosphere reigning in the country toward the issue of immigration. By analyzing the coverage of the 15-day election campaign by four major newspapers —El País, ABC, El Mundo and La Vanguardia—, he points to a number of recurrent themes in the editions: the absence of the immigrant as main actor, the overproduction of news portraying immigration as conflictive, the emphasis on the need of monitoring immigration, the lack of positive news regarding integration, and little political debate on the whole matter. In sum, immigration was not a major issue in the campaign, while the media —notwithstanding some significant differences— projected oft-repeated stereotypes of the subjetct as problematic and conflictive. It was only after the election that the immigrant emerged as news-maker himself.