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Corporation
News
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Office of Public Affairs
(212) 207-6273
Media and the Immigration
Debate
The U.S. media have hindered effective policy making on immigration
for decades, says a new Carnegie Corporation-funded report by the
Governance Studies
Program at the Brooking Institution. The media’s impact
has been increasing in recent years as a result of an ongoing evolution
in the news industry. Read the report
or executive
summary.
The report’s primary authors, E.J. Dionne, Jr., a syndicated
columnist with The Washington Post, and Banu Akdenizli, argue that
deeply-ingrained practices in American journalism have produced
a narrative that conditions the public to associate immigration
with illegality, crisis, controversy and government failure.
Meanwhile, new voices of advocacy on the media landscape have succeeded
in mobilizing segments of the public in opposition to policy initiatives,
sometimes by exaggerating the narrative of immigration told by traditional
news organizations. The combined effect is to promote stalemate
on an issue that is inherently difficult to resolve and that is
likely to resurface on the public agenda when a new administration
and a new Congress take office in January 2009.
Support for immigrant
integration is a fundamental component of Carnegie Corporation’s
efforts to ensure that all Americans continue to be able to participate
in our national life and, in turn, share the responsibility for
the success of our democracy. Grantmaking activities include research,
policy analysis and advocacy, communications, support for promising
innovations, demonstration programs and replications, and support
for capacity-building in selected institutions.
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