The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Corpus Linguistics Analysis of U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Latinx, 1996-2016

This project provides nuanced findings in the Latinx body of research. Given the significant impact that the media can have for identity groups, developing a deeper understanding of the tone of articles about Latinx in... [ view full abstract ]

This project provides nuanced findings in the Latinx body of research. Given the significant impact that the media can have for identity groups, developing a deeper understanding of the tone of articles about Latinx in American newspapers is vital to identifying how the media influence self-perceptions as well as attitudes and policies that directly affect Latinx in the United States. Research on media representations of Latinx has largely focused on negative associations. Using a computer-assisted method that allows us to survey over 185,000 articles drawn from seventeen US newspapers over a 21-year period, we assess the extent of this negativity and the prevalence and significance of different negative themes commonly identified by existing scholarship. Our results indicate that criminality is by far the most powerful theme within our corpus of newspapers, and that illegal immigration is another potent source of negativity. However, our analysis also suggests that Latinx is not portrayed more negatively than a neutral corpus, contrary to perceptions and existing literature.