Conservative media often frames migrants negatively, echoing discourses of othering driven by populist leaders. Previous studies have examined the intersections between media framing, migration, and populism, but comparative studies on migration framing including Brazil remain scarce. This study uses quantitative content analysis to explore media frames of news items published in the United Kingdom and Brazil. It aims to contribute new insights regarding migration media framing by comparing conservative news coverage of two countries that experienced a rise in populism wave in the last years. We found that new items in both countries tended to frame migration in similar ways, suggesting a pattern in two different contexts. Findings show the prevalence of negative framing over positive framing, with significant differences for victim frames, and non-significant differences for hero and threat frames. This study contributes by providing new insights into the intersections between media framing, migration, and populism.

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The news media plays a role in shaping audiences’ perceptions toward different political issues, such as the acceptance of migrants. However, news items usually promote the silencing of migrants by citing mainly political actors and highlighting stereotypical representations. This study examines the associations between sourcing practices and the tone of representation of migration issues in news coverage from the United Kingdom (UK) and Brazil. Using a quantitative content analysis of news items published in four widespread newspapers between 2016 and 2018 (N = 1312), the findings show that newspapers in the UK and Brazil represent migrants negatively and that the most cited source of information is public sector actors, while migrants are rarely allowed to speak. From exploring different sources as predictors of the tone of representation of migrants, the results show that the more news items cite public sector sources, the more likely they are to cover migration issues negatively. By contrast, the more they cite migrants’ sources, the more likely the news items will be in a positive tone. These findings on the association between sourcing and the tone of framing provide insights into the importance of capturing the plurality of voices for a more inclusive representation. 

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Dehumanizing metaphors of immigration prevail in public discourse in different contexts. Their use can arouse negative emotions, such as hatred and fear, contributing to hate speech, hate crimes, and increasingly restrictive public policies toward immigrants and refugees. Although previous studies have investigated metaphor use, their research designs are often based on a single country and focused on immigrants. This study adds to the literature by examining newspapers from two countries and centering on immigrants and host countries, as well as discursive oppositions between the two. It conceptualizes the immigration metaphors in Brazilian and British newspapers by drawing on Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA). The findings show that metaphors used for immigrants are primarily dehumanizing, while nations are represented as endangered containers or houses. This study expands the existing literature by systematically examining the use of metaphors in Brazil and the UK, suggesting a new perspective for studying metaphors of immigration beyond the Global North. 

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In recent decades, increased scholarly attention has been paid to the interactions between immigration, media coverage, framing, and the rise of populism. This paper draws on these interactions to systematically review peer-reviewed articles related to media representations of immigrants and refugees in Brazil and the United Kingdom (UK). The objective was to identify the tone used in such representations and the research methods applied in the articles. This is the first systematic literature review that compares studies on media and immigration including both Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) and non-WEIRD countries. This paper uses Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) to collect, map, and systematize 47 peer-reviewed articles published in the past two decades. The findings show that, in the studies we analyzed, the tone of representation of refugees in the media in both countries is negative. Mass media underrepresent the main actors and use stereotypes and discourses of otherization. This paper contributes to our understanding of the differences between studies, including those conducted in the UK and Brazil, and calls for more comparative studies that include countries from the global south and global north. It also demonstrates the standardization of frames and tone of representation on immigration in both countries, suggesting similar patterns across different countries. 

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