This entry's purpose is to give conclusion to my study of the U.S. Immigration beat. Through out this process I have learned much about the issues our country faces with immigration law and reform. While the coverage seemed to be random, there were themes that shined through every couple of weeks.
I used a very broad amount of sources so it would be difficult to claim one as better than the other. The New York Times website had just less than third of the articles I used in my study. They also devote an entire section on their site to explain the U.S. immigration situation. I chose the NYT because they are most often the Agenda Setter for news publications nationally. The other websites I used were Google News and CNN News. These were very helpful for finding articles which showed local coverage. Often these articles would come from local newspapers near the U.S./Mexico border in Arizona, and California. The local stories were often more poorly written but has a higher human interest quality to them than the articles that covered the issue more broadly.
While there were no major stories and developments in this beat, the articles covering fake immigration lawyers, and the "tent city" illegal immigration camp in Phoenix, AZ were covered nationally.
I felt like there wasn't very much coverage of immigration reform groups from both sides. All the articles were relatively one sided, and showcased a human interest aspect(s) which made the reader feel for the individual(s) at hand.
If I were in charge of a reporter, I would have him/her give a weekly updated report showing the strives for change on all sides for immigration reform. I want to know what politicians, citizens, and activists have to say about it.
In conclusion I am not sure I learned too much more about media coverage in general. I was able to find the themes, or consistent issues in immigration coverage specifically though. After the thrid beat entry, I had a good understanding of what I was looking for, and who/where to go to for that information. Overall this has been a good learning experience, which taught me how to understand and create a successful, comprehensive beat.
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This blog was created for educational purposes at the University level. I will be covering the topic of "immigration in the U.S.," until the end of winter term. Any and all comments are welcome barring those of a negative nature, or involving hateful language. Please feel free to post links to sources I may find helpful, or post information that I may have looked over. I hope you find this journal useful in finding your own opinion on the broad topic of immigration.
Good wrap-up, Daniel. I agree there hasn't been much significant news about immigration reform in the last three months. The only story that really comes to my mind is the human-interest angle of undocumented Mexicans pretty much staying put despite the recession. It's also tru that local papers sometimes provide the best reporting on this topic, as they are right there seeing it for themselves. Good journalism doesn't always have to be great writing. If you're seeing, verifying, documenting and publishing news, your readers will often forgive you for less than stellar writing. I'm glad you did this beat. It's important stuff. Score: 10.
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