Represenatation of Imigration in the Media

I have been thinking long and hard about my project and the type of story I want to tell by means of filmmaking.

Filmmaking is about storytelling, it’s about telling meaningful stories, stories that prompt change or reflection, stories that matter. I found myself struggling to decide what to tackle for my big project, I decided I should take on something I’m passionate about, a story that matters both to me as a very amateur filmmaker and to my intended audience. I am an immigrant. Living in a third-world country gives you a very different perspective on the world, I saw first hand why people are fighting through inhuman conditions to make it to America, they’re fighting for more than stability, they’re fighting to live another day. I don’t enjoy engaging in politics, my project is not about that, it’s about showing the raw reality, no filter; I don’t see how our nationality makes us different, I see us as human and my project will strive to convey what fellow human beings are going through in search for a glimpse of hope, and with what division and hate they’re being met with.

There are two predominant ways immigrants are represented in the mainstream media. The large majority of the media, especially that which tends to lean liberal, represents immigrants as people
running away from war, poverty, and eliminate danger, in search for better lives. Although this representation is extremely close to reality, the media usually misses the heart-crushing aftermath of the journey by focusing on specific situations like the border “caravan”, undermining that immigrants all over the country who are discriminated against on a daily bases, many of which have PTSD from their journey to the United States. In addition, the media always focus their attention back into politics and government instead of keeping the story what it is, a humanitarian crisis. On the other side, the conservative media demonizes immigrants by warning the public about potential criminals infiltrated in immigrant crowds. The conservative media takes the advantage of immigrant events, like the “caravan”, to push a political agenda to tighten border security, often facts are misleading and bias.


I don’t fully agree with either representation, the liberal media and conservative media alike use immigration as a way to advance the political conversation, if successful, they quickly change their coverage to politics, forgetting the people who die daily. I must admit that liberal coverage is a fair representation of immigration; unlike conservative coverage which I find ridiculous and unfair. Although possible criminals could be found in large immigration groups, they are BY FAR a minority, being that close to 0 "terrorist" are identified as entering illegally at the border every year. This representation is unfair to immigrants who are coming to work hard and survive.

In my opinion, it’s incorrect to focus only on illegal immigrants, many legal immigrants are treated unfairly once inside the country; to change this, my project will follow the story about a legal immigrant who arrived at the border illegally, I feel this way I can cover both important aspects of immigration. I plan to retain the display of immigrants at the border (or a representation of this) in the rawest form.

I hope that through my project I will be able to showcase not politics, but humanity. I am truly in for a challenge because the project can only last 2:00 minutes, but I am optimistic that I will be able to develop the beginning of what could be an amazing story about unity.

*The theme & story orientation for my project is not final yet and may be subject to change.