The study was published recently in Diplomatica: A Journal of Diplomacy and Society.
Vanessa Bravo, associate professor of strategic communications and chair of the Department of Strategic Communications, co-authored an article regarding the perception of Mexican immigrants during the presidency of Donald Trump.
The article, “Contesting the ‘Bad Hombres’ narrative: U.S. and Mexican media diplomacy and presidential strategic narratives about immigrants,” was recently published in Diplomatica: A Journal of Diplomacy and Society, with Bravo as the first author and co-written with Maria De Moya, associate professor and Chair of advertising and public relations at DePaul University.
Questions that Bravo and De Moya explore in the article are: How was the United States framing Mexican immigrants and immigration in the official discourse during the government of Donald Trump; how was the Mexican government trying to counter the narrative of the “bad hombres” put forth by the former U.S. president; and what were the implications of these opposing framings for public diplomacy in each country?
In the article, Bravo and De Moya analyzed, through a qualitative content analysis, 209 news stories published in two U.S. newspapers (the New York Times and The Washington Post) and two Mexican newspapers (El Universal and Reforma) during the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency.
While the U.S. government framed Mexican immigrants, at the time, as criminals and “bad hombres,” emphasizing on the need to “build the wall,” the Mexican government of President Enrique Peña Nieto fought that framing and instead presented Mexican immigrants as hard-working contributors to the U.S. economy and as agents of development for their country of origin.
Both frames were picked by transnational media, but the U.S. narrative dominated the media coverage, accomplishing the goal of igniting Trump’s “base” of followers, paving the way for changes in policies and practices, and hindering long-standing public diplomacy efforts in and among both countries.
As part of its theoretical framework, the article uses framing theory and the concept of strategic narratives in political communication. One of the main theorists of this strategic-narratives perspective is another Elon colleague, Laura Roselle, professor of political science and policy studies.