Empirical analysis of media consumption, salience and credibility as explanatory factors of attitudes towards immigration

Abstract

Although today we know the importance of media in defining the reality of the immigration (Igartua et al. 2005; Cea D’Ancona, 2004), becomes highlighted the need for indicators capable of measuring media influence in the rise of racism and xenophobia. For this reason, the purpose of this research is aimed to advance in the design of survey indicators that make possible a better understanding of reproduction processes of attitudes toward immigration, and specifically those associated to media consumption. Thus, this study presents the results for a survey of 377 students of different degrees at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The questionnaire had two blocks designed with differentiated questions. First, an initial section referred to the consumption of media news. The second block was focused on the measurement of attitudes toward immigrants. The exploratory data analysis shows significant relationships between attitudes towards immigration and differential media consumption and the framing of immigration in news.