Threats, victims, or heroes? Media frames about migration in the United Kingdom and Brazil

Abstract

Conservative media often frames migrants negatively, echoing discourses of othering driven by populist leaders. Previous studies have examined the intersections between media framing, migration, and populism, but comparative studies on migration framing including Brazil remain scarce. This study uses quantitative content analysis to explore media frames of news items published in the United Kingdom and Brazil. It aims to contribute new insights regarding migration media framing by comparing conservative news coverage of two countries that experienced a rise in populism wave in the last years. We found that new items in both countries tended to frame migration in similar ways, suggesting a pattern in two different contexts. Findings show the prevalence of negative framing over positive framing, with significant differences for victim frames, and non-significant differences for hero and threat frames. This study contributes by providing new insights into the intersections between media framing, migration, and populism.