Constructing versions of the other : a textual analysis of ethnic minorities' contemporary representation in local newspapers

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse how ethnic minorities are represented today in local newspapers. I used two textual analysis tools, semiotic analysis and content analysis, to investigate the research question. The first part of the study consists of a content analysis of the four local daily newspapers over a three months period. The second part of the research is a semiotic analysis of two front page articles, of two daily newspapers reporting a crisis where immigrants were involved. This study concludes that ethnic minorities’ representation in the news is somewhat distorted, as there is a kind of pattern that prevails. Ethnic minorities are predominantly represented as individual male criminals. This pattern changes with illegal immigrants, who are represented as groups, are identified by their status and are more represented as victims. But this does not change the fact that the representation of ethnic minorities is some what distorted in local newspapers.