Beyond the headlines: Tracing the shifting depiction of immigrants and crime in local television news

• In Event: From Reddit to the Ballot Box: Immigrant Integration, Public Opinion, and Political Reactions

Abstract

Despite substantial evidence disproving a link between immigration and crime, news media frequently suggest otherwise—shaping public perceptions and bolstering support for punitive immigration policies. Local television news, one of the most widely consumed sources of crime information, plays a central role in constructing these narratives. Prior research has documented its tendency to overrepresent racial minorities as perpetrators of violent crime, yet less is known about how immigrants are depicted in local television crime coverage or how these portrayals have evolved amid shifting political discourse around immigration.

Drawing on minority threat theory and media framing perspectives, we analyze a nationally representative sample of local television newscasts aired between 2008 and 2018 to assess how immigrants are portrayed in violent crime reporting. The findings reveal a persistent pattern of asymmetrical and racialized representation. Immigrants were depicted as perpetrators more than twice as often as they were portrayed as victims—a disparity that widened significantly after 2014. This shift coincided with a marked increase in references to undocumented status, which appeared in perpetrator frames more than four times as often as victim frames. Similarly, when country of origin was noted, perpetrators were most frequently identified as being from Mexico or Central America, while victims were more likely to originate from countries in Africa.

These findings underscore the enduring salience of racialized crime narratives in local television news and illustrate how immigrant-involved crime foregrounds markers of illegality. The pronounced rise in portrayals of undocumented perpetrators—particularly those identified as Latin American—closely parallels the escalation of anti-immigrant rhetoric during the 2016 presidential campaign, suggesting a convergence between media framing and political discourse. By highlighting how local news amplifies minority threat narratives, this study demonstrates news media's power to shape public attitudes, particularly during a period of heightened political hostility toward immigrants.

Author

• Ashley Nicole Muchow, University of Illinois, Chicago
  Presenting Author