Why Immigrant Storylines on TV Are So Important for Real-Life Immigration Issues

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“Orange Is the New Black,” “Superstore” and “Madam Secretary” viewers are among the biggest allies for immigrants, new report finds

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
Netflix

The 2020 “Change the Narrative, Change the World” study has found that depicting immigrant characters on TV can have a positive impact on viewers. A partnership between the nonprofit media advocacy group Define American and the Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg, the second-annual report found that viewers who consumed televised immigrant storylines — namely the fictitious ones — had more inclusive attitudes toward immigrants and were more likely to take action on immigrant-related issues than those who did not see those storylines. For example, viewers of “Orange Is the New Black” and “Superstore” have disproportionately vocalized support for immigrants on social media, and “Madam Secretary” viewers were more likely to attend rallies and community events in support of immigrants. The findings were derived from an analysis of 129 unique immigrant characters across 97 episodes of 59 scripted, narrative TV shows on broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms that aired between August 2018 and July 2019. The report also found a positive correlation between viewers who felt that the U.S. should open its arms to more immigrants and viewers who watched shows featuring immigrant characters. Viewers were also more comfortable meeting undocumented people and felt opposed to criminal charges against undocumented immigrant parents. While these shows were found to have more influence on rural viewers in terms of decreasing support for anti-immigrant policies, however, they had less influence on religious viewers. On the whole, the report shows that immigrant portrayals on TV are getting better — but there is also a lot of room for improvement. Crime is still overrepresented in immigrant storylines, as 22% of immigrant characters were associated with some sort of crime. That’s down from 34% in 2018. 47% percent of immigrant characters had an accent, down from 77% in 2018. Undocumented and asylum-seeking immigrants are overrepresented as characters on TV compared to the percentage they actually take up amongst real immigrants in the U.S. 63% to 24% respectively. In terms of storylines, the most commonly represented immigration issues per episode were deportation, ICE, and mentions of the terms “illegal” and “undocumented.” Within the immigrant community, some types of characters are portrayed more often than others. Namely, Middle Eastern and Muslim characters were overrepresented on TV in 2019, while  Asian/Pacific Islander (API) characters, Black undocumented characters, and older, disabled, LGTBQ and women immigrant characters were underrepresented. And for the second year in a row, in 2019 there were no transgender immigrant characters on TV at all. The report also offered some recommendations for storytellers to improve their portrayal of immigrants: in order to tell more authentic stories, they can consult immigrant communities and hire writers who themselves are immigrants from underrepresented communities; avoid stereotypes that perpetuate myths of immigrants as criminals; choose empathetic storylines rather than fear-based; and drive attitude changes through positive emotions associated with immigrant characters. Read the full report here.

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