(Im)migration in Italian online press through the lens of the social representations theory

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis contribution is part of a broader research programme – inspired by the ‘modelling’ paradigmatic approach to Social Representations Theory – articulated in ‘field’ and ‘media’ studies. The latter are aimed at detecting social representations of (im)migrants in relation to social inclusion/exclusion, identity affiliations and ideological positions in the ‘multivoiced’ and ‘multiagent’ 10.074 sources from: (a) scientific discourse, (b )political-institutional discourse, (c) media discourse in newspapers and broadcast, (d) social discourse ‘by’ and ‘for’ lay people via four social media. This contribution analyzes 908 articles about ‘(im)migration’ published in 2017–2019 in four Italian online newspapers of different political orientations. The results here presented illustrate the five Clusters emerged by Descending Hierarchical Classification by IRaMuTeQ. Crossresults concerning the transversal analysis of other sources from different media are also briefly presented in the conclusions, highlighting the consistency of the polarized discourse on (im)migration, depending on the ideological political positioning of the multi-voiced and multi-agent social actors.