Football players or criminals: polarization of the TV image of immigrants in the informative genre

Abstract

Immigrants are represented in two very different and conflicting ways in the genre of television. In the first way, immigrants often are elite athletes or artists with a great job security, famous, peaceful, lawabiding and without trouble in their socioeconomic integration. In the second way, by contrast, are not famous and appear regularly in the accidents and crime reports; often linked to criminal activities, either as attacker or as victims; have worse labour categories and their scarcity of resources is greater. These two polar opposites in real life are two minority groups, that in the television are overvalued by their constant appearance on the news and reports. This image is biased and maybe it isn’t contributing the integration of people of foreign origin.