Only one out of ten stories dealing with irregular, or “illegal” immigrants features interviews of said people, quantitative analysis of US, French and Norwegian media reveals. The comparative analysis, taken on by Kjersti Thorbjørnsrud and Tine Ustad Figenschou, both of University of Oslo, also paints a more nuanced picture of the immigrant’s portrayal.

In contrast to previous research, the authors note that when immigrants are interviewed, they are represented as diverse individuals with genuine agency. In short, the quality of representations is acceptable, where as the quantity is still lacking. Another finding is that the newspieces’ stance on immigration issues is different between stories that do feature illegally immigrated people, and those that do not.

The article was published as an online first article of the journal Journalism Studies and it can be accessed online here (abstract public).