Journalism and the war against the I-Word
As journalists we have to carefully select our words when talking about minorities in the media. Our words have the power to sway political opinions and inspire violence against racial groups at the same time. When it comes to the issues of illegal immigration, the media is split on what term to describe people who reside in a country illegally. Some argue that “illegal immigrant” is the correct term. Others, say that “undocumented immigrant” should be used.
Why is this debate pertinent to our society one may ask? Currently there are 12 million undocumented immigrants who reside in the U.S; these are 12 million media consumers who may feel offended by how they are portrayed in the mainstream media.
AP Style recommends the use of the the term “illegal immigrant” as long as the word “illegal” isn’t used as a noun however, Fox News uses it without discretion.
The AP Style Guidelines state that “illegal immigrant” is the preferred term. However, it also states that illegal should not be used as a noun. In fact, I argue that this is the most recognized term. I searched these terms using the Google News database. The search produced 16, 200 results of news articles using that said “illegal immigrant” and 1,550 results for the other.
Colorlines, a magazine published by the Applied Research Center, which describes itself as a “a racial justice think tank using media, research, and activism to promote solutions” believes that the “I-word” (illegal) is a derogatory statement that promotes discrimination against immigrants regardless of their immigration status. Their campaign, Drop the I-Word, strives to eradicate the term from the mainstream media. Spanish-language media agree. In an article by New American Media, it states that Spanish-language media do not use the I-Word and instead prefer to use “Undocumented”. Chinese media, on the other hand, strictly uses the I-Word.
Unfortunately, our media market in the United States is not a stranger to bias. Some news organizations conceal their political intentions diligently, while others like Fox News do not. Fox News and CNN are considered by many to have completely different approaches to their media coverage, especially in regards to politically sensitive issues such as immigration. Fox News tends to have an openly conservative bias especially against stories about illegal immigrants. Their online search database revealed 35,955 stories with the term “illegal immigrant” versus 6,311 that say “undocumented immigrant”. CNN, considered to be at the opposite political spectrum as Fox News had 4,385 stories with the I-Word and 685 with the other in their most recent archives.
Undocumented immigrants are of different ethnicities, however, Hispanics are usually depicted as “Illegals”
The I-Word has a negative connotation that not only discriminates against immigrants, but also damages the credibility of the news organizations that use it. Most importantly however, is in what context the word is used, and what images are associated with it. The United states is a melting-pot of immigrants from all over the world, yet, Hispanics are often associated with the I-word.
Four Seventy 