Exploring visual dysphemisms in pieces of news related to immigrant minors in a Spanish newspaper

Abstract

This article describes the main visual characteristics used in different multimodal pieces of news related to immigrant minors in the newspaper El País, which is one of the most important newspapers in Spain. The corpus of examples consists of all the pieces of news dealing with immigrant children published from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011. For the framework of analysis, the study draws on visual grammar and critical discourse analysis. The study reveals that immigrant minors are represented dysphemistically in the multimodal texts analysed so that the most pejorative side of their reality is portrayed. The author thus aims to provide a visual analysis of the way in which immigrant minors are represented visually in a serious Spanish newspaper. In doing so, she aims to show visual ways of manipulation and reinforcing of stereotypes related to immigrants, in general, and immigrant minors in particular.