Inmigración e ilegalidad: la representación mediática del "otro" como problema

This paper, adopting a theoretical frame that combines the constructionist approach with the techniques of critical discourse analysis (CDA), explores, qualitatively, the discourse that the media generate about irregular or illegal immigration. To do so, a representative sample of articles published in newspaper El País throughout 2002 is studied. The results suggest that media discourse, through the strategic use of tire legal-illegal axis, serves an institutional function that legitimizes a policing and judiciary vision of immigration focused on the idea of exclusion and the construction of the «other» as non-citizen, as the only possible interpretations for this phenomenon.