The Language in The News: Immigration

-
     The words which we use when describing things come with the connotations our society has attributed to these words. Take, for example, "scent" or "odor." When I think of "scent," I think of light smells of lavender or vanilla. When I think of "odor," I think of rotting banana peels or moldy yogurt. 
     Certain words can paint negative or positive pictures in our minds, and this effect is often used by news outlets when describing current events. These words can negatively or positively frame a situation, whether or not the connotations are factually supported. 
     I examined the language used by The Huffington Post and Fox News in articles concerning the impending release of undocumented immigrants into sanctuary cities. The first contrast I could immediately see was the difference in describing the actions of President Trump. The Huffington Post used words like "declared" when describing Trump's announcement, while Fox News used words like "proposed." Even though the differences are small, they do carry some weight. Saying "declared" connotes an air of forcefulness and finality, which falls into The Post's negative view of Trump. Saying "proposed" makes Trump seem more reasonable and open to compromise, which backs up their more positive view of Trump.
     This minor change in diction causes completely different moods to form around certain issues. For instance, when Fox News calls the immigrants "undocumented detainees," it causes a very different image to form around these people than when The Huffington Post calls them "asylum seeking refugees." The striking difference in emotion towards immigrants in these descriptions influences the compassion and understanding the audience is encouraged to have. 
     This phenomenon impacts how certain people interpret current events and the news, because those who frequently read Fox News are going to have a different picture of the truth than those who always read The Huffington Post. This serves as a good reminder to always check our sources of information, and to make sure we get all sides of the story when hearing the news. :)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MissRepresentation

-
Image
The moments that stood out most to me during this documentary were the comments made by male newscasters. I was absolutely appalled by their fundamental perception of women. They truly believe women are nothing more than their faces, their bodies, their boobs. They take any little thing a woman does and completely belittles them, despite the fact that not even themselves are perfect. Women in media have to be literally perfect to escape the undeserved and unreasonable criticism from men in the news. There can't be too much leg, but she can't be wearing pants. There can't be too much cleavage, but if there isn't enough she is a prude. She can't be too dumb, but if she is too smart she will be seen as a threat. If she shows passion and emotion for an issue, she is delusional and unfit for a leadership role. But, if a man shows passion and emotion, he is driven and truly cares about his work. The amount of hypocrisy and sexism in this is infuriating. I cannot expres
Read more

Do Plants Have A Memory?: An Analysis of Media's Ability to Share Knowledge

-
Image
The other day my mom and I were listening to Radio Lab on NPR, and the episode was called Plant Parade. It discussed one of the most fascinating science experiments I have heard about. This experiment started with dogs and their food. Right before the dogs were fed, a bell would be rung. This pattern of bell then food carried on for a bit of time. Then, they started ringing the bell without feeding the dogs. This experiment trained the dogs to expect the food with the ring of the bell, so they began to salivate and whine even though there was no food presented. This immediately reminded me of The Office, when Jim gave Dwight a mint every time he restarted his computer, so that he would start to salivate at the sound of his computer restarting. Our brains use association to build expectations, through associating certain happenings with others. They wanted to test if plants were able to remember patterns and associate things as we do, despite them not having neurons or a brain. They s
Read more

Spy Kids

-
Image
Recently, I noticed many things about the original Spy Kids movie, and the Spy Kids series in general. With MissRepresentation on my mind, I have been paying closer attention to the portrayal of women in the media. So, I began contemplating this while watching Spy Kids two days ago. This movie series was pretty prominent in my childhood, and I am sure it has influenced my perception of the world in one way or another.  The first thing I noticed was that the 2 main female characters are both dominant in their character relations, and take charge of situations. The mother is shown having a great amount of control over her husband, and she is able to convince him to make many decisions. She is also the one who figured out how to escape the first time, while her husband didn't know what to do. I feel their relationship is equal overall, which contrasts many other movies of this time. Carmen, the daughter of the family, is very intelligent and creative. She is pretty stubborn and r
Read more