The mass media through their power of mass persuasion have an impact on the readers’, viewers’ or listeners’ perceptions of social phenomena. This paper reports on a quantitative content analysis of articles appearing in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, and Arizona Daily Star between 1972 and 1978 that dealt with the subject of undocumented (illegal) immigration from Mexico to the U.S. In this way, it is an empirical study in the sociology of knowledge that examines the social reality constructed by the news media regarding this complex social issue. We found a significant increase in the number of articles appearing each year on this topic. Relatively few were written by Spanish-surnamed individuals or used undocumented immigrants as sources of information. In fact, most of the information presented in the articles was obtained from the Border Patrol, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and politicians. We conclude that news media coverage of undocumented Mexican immigration was not balanced and that the American public accepted the biased information they read as an accurate reflection of social reality.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-330).

A preliminary theoretical framework for analyzing the role of the press in the public process of defining important social issues and labeling of politically marginal minorities is developed. This theory employs the concept of newsworthiness and stresses the effect of the social organization of news work as a factor in press gatekeeping and agenda setting. It is the object of our research to demonstrate that the "objective" perspective of the news media is, in actuality, a biased one which is imbalanced and slanted towards representation of dominant group interests. Two cases, illegal Mexican immigration, and the 1984 Ferraro-Bush campaign, are analyzed to determine how reporting practices result in imbalanced coverage. Our empirical analyses of news content on these issues will show that a favorable rate of access to the press for dominant group, rather than minority group representatives exists. As a result, news coverage of undocumented Mexican workers and the 1984 woman vice-presidential candidate was imbalanced.