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Book Review: Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison, by Rodney Benson

Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison. Rodney Benson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 281 pp. $121.74 hbk.Immigration is an important aspect of society both in the United States and in France, but it has always been a sensitive issue especially depending on factors such as political leadership and the health of the country's economy. Rodney Benson's book, Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison, is based on extensive cross-cultural analysis of immigration coverage in leading newspapers and television channels of the United States and France from the 1970s-2006; in-depth interviews with journalists, scholars, political officials, immigration activists; as well as information from various relevant reports. It is a serious attempt to look beyond the pro- and anti-immigration coverage. The author states that "the test for journalism is how well it helps citizens and policymakers understand the causes and consequences of immigration, as well as the backlash against it." He emphasizes that focusing on civic-cultural issues rather than commercial or political ones results in stories that shed a better light on immigrant issues.The book provides many insights on the similarities and differences in the news coverage in the United States and France in general as well as the immigration news coverage in the two countries based on the structural changes in the field. The author states many reasons for comparing these two countries. For one thing, they are both in the top five migrant-receiving countries in the world and during the three decades examined in this book, the immigrant population has increased in both countries, reaching 10% in France and nearly 13% in the United States in 2006.Journalists in both countries are not ethnically diverse and belong to a similar social class and educational background, and media audiences tend to be elitist in both France and the United States. The differences Benson points out are that the United States follows a more business-driven model, while French newspapers publish politically engaged essays. Another difference he mentions is that journalism is viewed as investigative and personalized narrative in the United States, but in France it is seen more as "ideologically diverse analysis and debate of ideas."The author identifies ten immigration frames that portray immigrants as victims, heroes, and as a threat. Overall, in the United States, he found that immigration stories were more about racism, as a threat to public order, and humanitarian narratives on immigrant problems. In France, in addition to the racism and humanitarian frames, the global economy frame remained in the forefront unlike in the United States. Benson also points out that although the government offers greater financial support to newspapers in France, French immigration stories had more critical statements than did the U. …