IMMIGRATION, WORK AND HEALTH: THE BIG ISSUES

Various surveys ask Latinos in the United States about the issues that concern them most, especially before each election cycle. The majority question Hispanic voters, which is to say they exclude undocumented people, although sometimes the people who respond live with immigrants who do not have papers – what are referred to as mixed-status families – or have relatives in those circumstances. To compare coverage in Spanish-speaking media, we used a set of five surveys conducted between 2016 and 2020 as a reference: two from the PEW Research Center organization and three for Univision Noticias from the Latino Decisions polling firm.

Between 2016 and 2020, the issues that most concerned Latinos nationally have been, above all, the high cost of healthcare (and this is why we understand the value of health insurance), as well as employment and wages. Immigration/immigrant rights changes ranking depending on the particular time: in 2016 a PEW Research Center survey ranked it fifth. The economy and healthcare were priorities.

Another PEW survey, conducted at the end of 2019, ranked immigration as “the main problem” in the country, according to the Latinos surveyed. And when Latino Decisions surveyed them, in June of the same year, “immigration” was the third most important issue.

However, among those who respond to surveys in Spanish, immigration is especially important. In the same Latino Decisions poll from June 2019, “protection of immigrant rights” was the second-most important topic for respondents in Spanish, surpassed only by wages. And in September, Latinos who did another interview in Spanish said that immigrant rights were the most relevant issue in their community. They ranked healthcare costs second.

Within these parameters, we wanted to know what the coverage of these three topics by the Spanish-speaking media was like.

IMMIGRATION COVERAGE DECREASED

Of the three major issues that most interest Latinos, immigration is the one that receives the most attention from the Spanish-language media. However, the percentage of coverage of this issue by the media outlets studied – in this case the local media – has been falling since the first months of the Trump administration despite Latinos’ growing interest in immigration. The proportion of stories that contain words like “immigrants,” “immigrant,” or “immigration” in Spanish fell by almost half between 2017 and 2019.

In 2017, the average monthly percentage of articles on immigration was 9.6%, according to the data analyzed. That figure decreased to 8.6% in 2018, despite the fact that the total content published by these media outlets increased 20% that same year.

For 2019, coverage on immigration was 6% per month on average, a figure even lower than in 2016, in the middle of the political campaign, when an average of seven out of 100 stories that these media outlets published per month addressed immigration.

In 2018 and 2019, there was a monthly drop of 36% in immigration coverage, and a reduction of almost 50% in the total number of immigration-related stories, going from 20,286 published stories in 2018 to 11,505 in 2019.

The daily percentage of stories containing the words “immigration” or “immigrants” went down from 55.5% in 2018 to 31.5% in 2019, a 43% drop. The total number of published stories for 2019 is lower than that of 2017, where an average of 50.1 stories were published. Compared to the first year of the Trump administration the total percentage of articles on immigration dropped 37%, a remarkable figure given that the drop in the total number of published stories was 2%.

For the first 20 days of January 2020, the daily percentage of articles on immigration was just 3.75%, a lower percentage than the same period the two previous years (9.75% in 2018 and 6.41% in 2019). 1

Declining immigration coverage

In 2018, the Spanish-speaking media outlets studied increased the amount of content they were producing. However, coverage of immigration issues has been falling since the first year of the Trump administration.

Declining immigration coverage

Cobertura de inmigración en descenso

Data between 01/20/2017 – 01/20/2020 | Source: MediaCloud/CCM

Declining immigration coverage

In 2018, the Spanish-speaking media outlets studied increased the amount of content they were producing. However, coverage of immigration issues has been falling since the first year of the Trump administration.

Declining immigration coverage

Cobertura de inmigración en descenso

Data between 01/20/2017 – 01/20/2020 | Source: MediaCloud/CCM

The reason for the increase in the total number of articles during 2018 remains to be seen. However, the increase in stories on immigration that year was probably influenced by the intense coverage that the media devoted to family separation on the border with Mexico, especially after June of that year, when the investigative site ProPublica revealed the drama children in detention centers were experiencing.

Specifically for the studied media outlets analyzed, the separation of immigrant children from their parents on the southern border of the United States was the main immigration news event during the first three years of the Trump administration, if measured by the total number of published stories and the percentage of attention they devoted to the subject.

Over the three years in question, Tuesday, June 19, 2018, was the day that the group of media outlets we studied published the most stories containing the words “immigration,” “immigrant,” or “immigrants.” There was a total of 163 articles that day.

That happened a day after ProPublica published the audio of undocumented children crying after being separated from their parents, who had been apprehended at the border. On the same Tuesday, June 19, President Donald Trump gave a speech in which he defended the practice of separating immigrant families.

Immigrant children’s cries: the news story that received the most attention

Daily articles that mention “immigration” or “immigrants,” published by 40 media outlets in Spanish in the first three years of the Trump administration. The peak came after ProPublica revealed audio of children detained at the border.

Immigrant children's cries: the news story that received the most attention

Data between 01/20/2017 – 01/20/2020 | Source: MediaCloud/CCM

Immigrant children’s cries: the news story that received the most attention

Daily articles that mention “immigration” or “immigrants,” published by 40 media outlets in Spanish in the first three years of the Trump administration. The peak came after ProPublica revealed audio of children detained at the border.

Immigrant children's cries: the news story that received the most attention

Data between 01/20/2017 – 01/20/2020 | Source: MediaCloud/CCM

The week between June 17 and 23, during coverage of the separation of children from their parents at the border, was the week that saw the most stories about immigration in the three years studied: 814 articles. In percentage terms, 16.4% of all content published by the media outlets in question that week mentioned immigrants or immigration, the highest weekly figure recorded in the study period. A similar weekly percentage was recorded on only one other occasion: the week of January 29 – February 4, 2017, after Trump signed the immigration ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, on Friday, January 27.

In percentage terms, the three days with the most media attention devoted to immigration issues during the first three years of the Trump administration were:

  1. January 30, 2017, after the weekend in which the president established the immigration ban. That day, 23 out of every 100 articles published contained the words “immigration,” “immigrants,” or “immigrant.” 
  2. February 16, 2017, the date on which several cities in the country held “day without immigrants” events as a rejection of Trump’s immigration policy. That day, 22% of the articles addressed the issue of immigration.
  3. June 20, 2018, two days after ProPublica revealed audio of children crying after being separated from their undocumented parents at the border. That day, a Wednesday, 19 out of 100 articles mentioned immigration.

NATIONAL MEDIA OUTLETS PAY MORE ATTENTION TO IMMIGRATION

When we compare the combined immigration coverage of the two largest national media outlets – Telemundo and Univision – versus 38 local media outlets, we see that the content of the former is more focused on immigration than that of local outlets. The monthly average of articles containing the words “immigrants,” “immigrant” or “immigration” for Univision and Telemundo during the three years of the Trump administration is 26%, while it is 7% for the group of 38 local media outlets. In other words, of every 100 stories published by Telemundo and Univision per month, an average of 27 address immigration in some way, while for local media that rate is 7 for every 100 stories.

Greater attention to immigration from national media

This is the daily percentage of articles that mention “immigrants” or “immigration” on Univision and Telemundo, compared to the same content from 38 local US media outlets.

Greater attention to immigration from national media

Data between 01/20/2017 – 01/20/2020 | Source: MediaCloud/CCM/Univision

Greater attention to immigration from national media

This is the daily percentage of articles that mention “immigrants” or “immigration” on Univision and Telemundo, compared to the same content from 38 local US media outlets.

Greater attention to immigration from national media

Data between 01/20/2017 – 01/20/2020 | Source: MediaCloud/CCM/Univision

The proportion of articles that mention immigrants or the phenomenon of immigration has been decreasing since 2017 among the group of 38 local media outlets. It went from a monthly average of 8.9% that year, to 4.8% during 2019. The first 20 days of 2020 saw a 5.6% share of immigration content in these newsrooms.

However, for Univisión and Telemundo that same figure went from 23% per month, on average, during 2017, to 31.5% in 2019. The content of these two national media outlets that contains words about immigration increased especially between the months of March and October 2019, a period in which it exceeded 30% of all the journalistic material produced monthly by both outlets. The only time they had surpassed that number before was in January and February 2017, at the start of the Trump administration.

It remains to be seen whether the recent changes to both both networks’ digital teams – both the dismantling of Univision’s digital team that occurred in mid-2018 and the constant turnover of staff  since then, as well as the process of strengthening Telemundo’s digital team since mid-2019 – bear some relationship to the growing percentage of coverage of immigration on both outlets.

EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES

Articles containing the words “employment,” “work,” “unemployment” or any of the other 11 terms related to jobs or economic and wage issues that we included in our searches to the database, were barely 1% of the monthly total. Over the course of the three years analyzed, only six months (January, March, May, June, October and November 2017) saw a figure greater or equal to that.

And as with the other two big issues for Latinos, the number of articles on employment and wages in the media outlets studied also decreased in the first three years of the Trump administration. In 2017, articles that addressed this topic represented, on average, 0.93% of all stories published monthly. For 2018 this figure went to 0.79% and in 2019 it was at 0.53%.

Employment: declining coverage

Stories about employment barely exceed 1% per month among the Spanish-language media outlets analyzed. That percentage peaked during the first months of the Trump administration, but has since declined.

Employment: declining coverage

Source: MediaCloud/CCM

Employment: declining coverage

Stories about employment barely exceed 1% per month among the Spanish-language media outlets analyzed. That percentage peaked during the first months of the Trump administration, but has since declined.

Employment: declining coverageEmpleo: cobertura en caída

Source: MediaCloud/CCM

During the period analyzed, three of the five days with the highest proportion of stories on employment were dates on which the Labor Department announced monthly employment data.

However, the day with the highest percentage of articles on employment and wages in the first three years of the Trump administration was Monday, November 27, 2017, when Congress returned from its Thanksgiving recess to begin debate on tax reform. That day, some of the Spanish-language media also reported that a McDonald’s bun supplier had lost 800 workers after an anti-immigration operation. In addition, the University of Puerto Rico revealed that at least half of the population was at or below the poverty line. That day, articles about jobs accounted for 3.3% of all published content.

Generally speaking, only three days in these three years studied saw a percentage of employment or salary issues coverage greater than 3%.

Aside from November 27, 2017, these days are:

  • January 11, 2018 (3.27%): The closure of three Sam’s Club stores in Puerto Rico was reported. In addition, Walmart, the owner of the chain, announced improvements in the working conditions it offers more than one million workers.
  • September 1, 2017 (3.30%), when the Labor Department published the employment figures for August of that year.

HEALTHCARE COSTS

To analyze health insurance coverage by the Spanish-speaking media, we made two different searches in the database, one specifically for stories that contained the terms “Medicare,” “Medicaid,” “Obamacare” and “Trumpcare” and another using the words “health,” “insurance” and 56 other terms related to healthcare.

Medicare and Medicaid are government healthcare programs. The former is run by the federal government and provides health insurance mainly to people over 65 and younger people with a disability. The latter is administered by each state and provides health coverage to low-income individuals who qualify under state rules. Just over 8% of Medicare recipients – some 4.8 million people – are Hispanic and about 17.3 million Latinos are covered by Medicaid, a third of all recipients of that program.

Signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, expanded health coverage and access to preventive medicine for low-income Americans. At least 20 million people have obtained health coverage since this law was passed. Latinos are the group that benefited the most from this law. The percentage of uninsured Latinos fell 7.1% after the main Obamacare reforms went into effect.

President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017, which would have reduced the number of people with health coverage. The Republican reform, known as “Trumpcare,” passed the House of Representatives, but failed in the Senate.

Today, one in three Latinos in the United States is covered by government health insurance, according to the Census Bureau. With 82% of people insured, they are the ethnic group with the lowest health insurance coverage rate in the country. It is not surprising that the cost of insurance is one of the issues that concern them most, according to several surveys by various organizations

Despite being a top concern for Latinos, coverage of government health programs by the Spanish-language media outlets is barely 1% of all the content they publish daily. The monthly percentage of articles on health insurance reached or exceeded 2% on two occasions over these three years: March (2.6%) and July 2017 (2.1%). It was specifically in the first half of 2017 that we noted the most coverage on health insurance. These were the first months of the Trump administration and Republicans in the Senate tried to repeal Obamacare.

The fight to repeal Obamacare defined coverage of government insurance

The monthly percentage of articles on Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare exceeded 2% only twice between 2017 and 2020. This was during the months that Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The fight to repeal Obamacare defined coverage of government insurance

Source: MediaCloud/CCM

The fight to repeal Obamacare defined coverage of government insurance

The monthly percentage of articles on Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare exceeded 2% only twice between 2017 and 2020. This was during the months that Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The fight to repeal Obamacare defined coverage of government insurance

Source: MediaCloud/CCM

In 2017, the monthly average of news items that mentioned government healthcare programs was 1.45%. In other words, one out of every 100 news stories published each month during this period of time addresses this issue. The figure decreased over the following years, dropping to 0.69% in 2018 and 0.56% in 2019.  In the first three weeks of January 2020, this percentage was 0.26%, lower than the same period the two previous years (1.07% in 2018 and 0.67% in 2019).

The total number of stories addressing healthcare programs dropped 53% between 2017 and 2019, going from 2,389 to 1,112.

Over the period studied, the day the media outlets studied devoted the most attention to government health insurance was Friday, March 24, 2017, when coverage represented 7.40% of all published content. That day, Republican representatives abandoned their effort to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act before the first 100 days of the Trump administration, which represented a defeat for the president and the Republican Party.

Monday, February 27, 2017, was the day with the second highest percentage of coverage (5.8%) of healthcare programs. That same day, Trump publicly admitted that he did not know how complicated it is to change healthcare laws in the United States.

Generally speaking, Trump’s failed healthcare reform has been the news event that defined the Spanish-language media’s agenda during the time period analyzed. The 10 days with the highest percentage of published news items mentioning Medicaid or Medicare were in 2017 and are related to efforts to repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

A more general search on health and insurance topics – excluding the words Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, or Trumpcare – returns results similar to those described above.

Monthly content on health insurance declining

Each month, barely 1 in 100 stories published by the group of 41 Latino media outlets addresses health insurance issues. Over three years of the Trump administration, coverage of these issues exceeded 2% per month on one occasion: March of 2017.

Monthly content on health insurance declining

Source: MediaCloud/CCM

Monthly content on health insurance declining

Each month, barely 1 in 100 stories published by the group of 41 Latino media outlets addresses health insurance issues. Over three years of the Trump administration, coverage of these issues exceeded 2% per month on one occasion: March of 2017.

Monthly content on health insurance declining

Source: MediaCloud/CCM

In general, the monthly content on “health” and “insurance” barely exceeds 1% of all the content published by the analyzed media outlets. That figure was surpassed in only six of the 37 months analyzed, with five of those coming in 2017, in addition to January 2018.

And the average monthly percentage of articles that address the topic of healthcare or medical insurance has been decreasing in the media outlets studied. In 2017, that coverage represented, on average, 1.22% of all content. The figure fell to 0.83% in 2018 and 0.65% in 2019.

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1 It bears noting that we excluded the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día from the analysis of content related to immigration, in order to focus on coverage in media outlets that serve immigrant audiences in the country’s cities. We believe that immigration does not necessarily receive the same attention in El Nuevo Día on a daily basis because its audience, especially Puerto Ricans, are U.S. citizens and do not experience the same legal difficulties as immigrants.

However, we would like to clarify that when we included content from El Nuevo Día in our analysis, the data on immigration show the same decreasing trend in coverage.