Telling the Story of Migration

Supervised By: Dr. Frank Sobchak, Tufts University

As I scroll through all the available news channels at night, I see one anchor describing a border crossing as a “humanitarian emergency” while another screams about “invasion.” Social media sites like Tik Tok and Instagram are no less polarized, with uncensored comment sections riddled with hate speech and uninformed opinions. The more I read about the 2018 family separations, the pandemic-era use of Title 42, the cyclical surges in media attention on migration, the more convinced I became that the language we use does not merely reflect our reality, it constructs it. Meaning, when the media frames migration as a “crisis,” politicians respond and put forward policy accordingly. As ICE tears through countless towns in America and nationalism rises around the world, the question of how different media framing of migration affects migration realities feels more prescient than ever. This project investigates that relationship directly, tracing how "crisis" framing in major media outlets influences the timing and severity of U.S. migration policy decisions.

Over six weeks, I will conduct a structured, multi-outlet case study of U.S. migration coverage and policy decisions from 2018 to the present. The study will focus on three moments of heightened media attention: the 2018 family separation policy, the rollout and repeal of Title 42 during COVID-19, and the most recent wave of border coverage. These cases were chosen because each involved a distinct political context, set of actors, and policy response. I will collect and code articles from a range of major outlets and systematically codify the presence and intensity of "crisis" language in headlines and body text, but also comment sections and responses. In parallel, I will build a granular timeline of policy actions taken during the same periods, noting the lag time between dominant media framing and political response.

The analytical core of the project involves comparing these two timelines: where do spikes in crisis language precede policy escalation? Where do they follow it? Are certain outlets more strongly correlated with action at the federal versus state level? I will meet weekly with Dr. Sobchak to refine my coding framework, discuss my findings, and check that the analysis remains grounded in established political science methodology.

Ultimately, I hope to work as a journalist covering migration, and I cannot do that ethically without understanding how the profession I am entering shapes the stories it tells. By studying the gap between how migration is framed and how the people affected by it actually live, I hope to develop the analytical instincts that responsible reporting requires. Moreover, in a political landscape that continues to dehumanize migrants, I hope this project contributes to real dialogue and empathy.