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UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Emily Regis Cabaniss (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Jill E. Fuller

Abstract: "This study uses critical discourse analysis to examine the ways in which one preeminent newspaper, The New York Times, contributed to the social construction of the American immigrant between 1892 and 1924, when Ellis Island operated as the nation's primary federal immigration station. Hypotheses were informed by Foucault's understanding of the enmeshment of power relations in discourse as well as by Blumer's group position model, while theoretical concepts were operationalized using van Dijk's understanding of the reproduction of racism by the media and Boreus' identification of linguistic expressions of discrimination. Results indicate that immigrants were typically undervalued and considered inferior; more notably, only lower class travelers were identified as immigrants and more affluent travelers were neither informally identified as immigrants nor formally counted as immigrants by the federal government until 1903. Moreover, assimilation and conformity were considered to be the only acceptable behaviors for immigrants in the United States."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2006
Keywords
Newspaper, New York Times, social construction, American immigrant, Ellis Island, Foucault, Blumer, van Dijk, Boreus, discrimination
Subjects
Immigrants--United States--History--Social conditions
Emigration and immigration--Press coverage
New York times--History

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