Sunday, March 28, 2010

Media bilingualism and immigration reform

Matthew Yglesias points to how Lindsey Graham spreads a different message about immigration depending on whether he is talking to English or Spanish language media:  "In English, Graham is threatening to blow up any hope of an immigration deal over the health care bill. In Spanish, not so much."

This is not new, and really deserves more analytical attention (or at least I am not aware of any empirical studies focusing on it).  I noted the issue during the presidential campaign, but I'd love to see an analysis of precisely how politicians fine tune their messages in the two languages and how much those messages may in fact contradict each other.  Do the two parties approach this issue in the same way?  Does one or the other diverge more in terms of their bilingual messages?  I would imagine that Republicans would diverge more, because their constituencies are much more divided on immigration.  Plus, the most rabid anti-immigrant constituency is not likely ever to know that a pro-immigration message was expressed in Spanish.

1 comments:

Defensores de Democracia 3:47 PM  

Immigration Foolishness and Jokes : Build a twenty-foot fence and hundred-foot moat on the southern border, and then hire some brown guys cash-in-hand to do maintenance and garden work - Inside Turtle Polics

Politics is the Art of Hypocrisy :

Tom Tancredo, the Minutemen and Teabaggers : Do they move votes ??

Shaking the tree with a lot of noise but poor collecting of nuts !

Do as Lindsey Graham and John Mc Cain : say one thing in English and the Contrary Thing in Spanish ! ( Clever guys !!! )

Do as “Lindsay Grahamnesty” and Lou Dobbs that square the circle and duplicate the cube ( They have more Great Paradoxes than the books of Greek Philosophers ! )

They apply the Gospel Maxim : "that the Left Hand Does not know what the right hand is doing".

Immigration Lawyers kneel all days at 5 am and pray for the Good Health of Anti Immigration Wackos so that Illegals are scared and pay to be defended or legalized.

“My mom is against illegals” : But how many votes does your mom move ??

Turtle Politics recommends : Democrats can go as safe as turtles and vote the "Dream Act", that is so logical that it can not cause an uproar anywhere.

Immigration is Kryptonite for Super Obama, he should learn to manage Kryptonite with lead aprons and robes, so that he is not left sterilized in his testicles.

Youth, Minorities, Politics :

Milenials.com

Vicente Duque

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