Abstract
- Study examines two days of US tv news coverage of the May 1, 2007- immigration rights rally in LA. Evaluated 51 television news reports frim three networks and five local stations using three complementary analyses:
Framing
Visual coding
Critical spoken discourse analysis
- News reporters on the ground at the time framed the events as a police attack. Blamed the victims by reframing the events as a violent provocation. Manipulated public opinion about domestic immigration policy.

Introduction
- The great May Day marches of 2007 began a new social movement on the issue of immigration. Its outpour forced US citizens to consider the existence of immigrant workers in society.
Moral legitimacy
The nations perception of immigrant-rights marchers is a crucial factor that helps shape national attitudes towards immigrants and immigration policy.
How TV depicted the assault by Alabama police and state troopers with truncheons and tear gas on 600 nonviolent civil right marchers in Selma in 1965.
- May Day 2007- two separate marches took place in LA
Morning- took place as normal without any incident
Afternoon- ended violently. LA police suddenly attacked 7000 peaceful demonstrators.
Paralleled an earlier episode of LA police misconduct- Marked a turning point in Chicano Moratorium
- 40 years ago the nations perception of the marchers was not crucial Today, the medias portrayal of immigrant rights is key to the public perception and to the ultimate success of this new social movement.
- Research on television news representation has underscored its power in the framing of social movements, Latinos and immigrants.
The mass media present the news regularly document the use of crude and demeaning Latino stereotypes
These depictions reflect the restricted access Latinos have to all kinds of media
One decade later, research shows that Latinos