541741

research-article2014

VCJ0010.1177/1470357214541741Visual CommunicationMartinez Lirola

visual communication
A rticle

Exploring visual dysphemisms in pieces

of news related to immigrant minors in a
Spanish newspaper

M aria M artine z L irola

University of Alicante, Spain and
University of South Africa (UNISA)

A b stract

This article describes the main visual characteristics used in different multimodal pieces of news related to immigrant minors in the newspaper El Pas,
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.
K e y words

immigration newspapers social actors visual dysphemisms visual

grammar

1 . I ntroduction

Irregular immigration of immigrant, unaccompanied minors (children, young

people and adolescents) has been taking place over several years as part of
the contemporary migratory phenomenon in Europe. These migrations must
be framed within the context of adult migration as well as receiving transnational treatment. The majority of immigrant minors arrive without their
families, which means they are in Europe without any help or legal representation. Thus, it is necessary to analyse the situation of the countries where
minors come from in order to understand this kind of migration. The majority of them come from Morocco, whose population has a quite young average
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age, and a great majority live in the countryside. In this sense, we agree with
Lorente y Rubn and Jimnez (2006: 7) that migration of minors in Morocco
cannot be understood as an isolated phenomenon but as part of a complex
social reality.
The decisions relating to how to represent the reality of immigration in
the press point to factors such as who communicates with whom and who has
the power to represent the reality of immigration in a particular way (Ban,
2002; Martnez Lirola, 2008a, 2010; Van Dijk, 2005, 2006, 2008). The press
commands power over a population because it can transmit facts in a specific
way that is appropriate to its objectives, such as selling newspapers or showing
that it is the majority group of the population that has power. People who do
not have any real or constant contact with the Other (immigrants) will take
the image offered by the media as a frame of reference. Therefore the discourse
of the media will be the one that will inform and sustain these peoples image
of immigrants, making it limited and reduced (Alonso Belmonte et al., 2010).
Among the people coming from other countries in search of a better
future, minors are the most vulnerable group. They are usually boys younger
than 18, mostly from poor families and, in many cases, they are illiterate. The
fact that they have a low social status implies that often their families have
encouraged immigrant minors to leave their country and try to find a better
future. They mainly leave their country in fishing boats (pateras) or in the
back of a lorry, with various ambitions such as wanting to be independent
and to find work in Europe as quickly as possible so that they can earn some
money and help their families in their country of origin. This type of immigration first started in the mid 1990s (Lorente y Rubn and Jimnez, 2006: 10).
In the press, there are predominantly two stereotypes of immigrant
minors without documentation: one is related to the magnitude/order of the
phenomenon, i.e. there is an invasion taking place; and the other is related
to their origin, i.e. they are street children who are dangerous and violent
(Jimnez lvarez, 2003: 6). For this reason, our main research questions are:
In what ways are immigrant minors portrayed in a sample of the Spanish
press? What are the more frequent visual strategies used to depict immigrant
minors as social actors?
In order to answer these questions, the aim of this research is to offer a
critical analysis of the main visual elements involved in the representation of
immigrant minors in a sample of the Spanish press and the possible relationship between these elements and the reproduction of stereotypes and/or ethnic and racial prejudices. More specifically, I will analyse in detail a selection
of four images concerning immigrant minors found in the newspaper El Pas
published in 2011. In each of these texts, I will focus on the image and, as far
as the verbal element is concerned, I will analyse the discourses appearing in
the caption of the photograph as well as those in the headlines.
Multimodal resources can construct stereotypes as shown in the multimodal texts that will be analysed in this article stereotypes that are quite

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important in the hegemonic struggle and are a common habit of ruling groups.
Stereotyping involves reduction and simplification of the main characteristics
of the minority group (immigrant minors in this study) so that they are not
represented as normal by the group in power. By normal the ruling groups
mean natural and inevitable, something that is expected according to their
own ideology and value system.
This article is organized in the following way: the next section is
devoted to the literature review and justifies the use of Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA) and visual grammar as the theoretical frameworks for analysing the selected texts; special attention will be paid to the use of euphemism
and dysphemism for the representation of immigrant minors. Section 3 deals
with the data and general methodology. Then, the main results are presented,
paying attention to the visual characteristics of the texts analysed. Section 5
concentrates on the discussion of the results obtained. Finally, the article ends
by presenting some conclusions arising from the study.
2 . L iterature R eview

CDA analyses the different choices or strategies used to create meaning in

texts in order to point out how discourses are created, also with what purpose
and to what extent those choices shape readers opinions and ideology, and
contribute to maintaining unequal social relationships (for example, those in
which the ruling group is the main group with power over minority immigrant groups). Consequently, CDA allows us to examine those choices and
to construct a link between language and the context in which it is used in
relationships between the immigrant groups and the social reality in which
they are framed (Crespo and Martnez Lirola, 2012; Hidalgo Tenorio, 2011;
Wodak and Meyer, 2009).
Moreover, CDA examines the linguistic potential, i.e. the different possibilities that are present in systems of language and the particular choices
made from that potential in order to accomplish a particular communicative
end, as Martin and Rose (2007: 1) make clear:
treating discourse as more than words in clauses; we want to focus
on meaning beyond the clause, on semantic resources that lead us from
one clause to another as a text unfolds. And it also means that we treat
discourse as more than an incidental manifestation of social activity;
we want to focus on the social as it is constructed through texts, on the
constitutive role of meanings in social life.

Among the different approaches that CDA subsumes for the social
analysis of discourse, we follow the one proposed by Van Dijk (1993, 2009)
due to his interest in the discursive reproduction of power and social inequalities. Van Dijk has studied racism in the press for many years and has paid
special attention to the ways in which immigrants are seen as a problem or

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as an invasion and their representation as such in the press. In this sense, our
approach is critical because our intention is to unveil the negative representation of immigrant minors.
Following Van Dijk (1993, 2005) we intend to show that the informative action of the press contributes to the creation of images of discrimination and exclusion of immigrants, which has an effect on the perception and
behaviour of the autochtonous population towards them. According to Van
Dijk (2009: 63): scholars are typically interested in the way discourse (re)produces social domination, that is, the power abuse of one group over others,
and how dominated groups may discursively resist such abuse (emphasis in
original).
In addition, Van Leeuwens (2008) framework will be used in this analysis because it pays attention to the representation of social actors in discourse
from the linguistic and visual points of view. Consequently, this framework
can be easily integrated within the CDA approach selected because it allows
for the observation of how the immigrant minors that appear in the pieces of
news selected are portrayed as social actors. Moreover, it allows us to observe
the power of the journalists as members of the main group of Spanish society behind their representation. Both approaches allow for the unmasking of
the discursive strategies that appear in the press as a sample of dominant discourse.
International migration has intensified during the last two decades
from the South to the North and from the East to the West. As a result, Europe
has been receiving an increasing number of migrants from other countries,
including immigrant minors (Triandafyllidou and Maroukis, 2012). Racism
in Europe is on the rise and one of its characteristic features is hostility to
migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers. Society marginalizes these new others represented as dependent and as victims (Delanty et al., 2011; Hervik,
2011).
In recent years, the image of immigrants in the press has been studied
extensively using CDA as a framework (Alonso Belmonte et al., 2010; Ban,
2002; Martnez Lirola, 2006, 2008a, 2008b; Richardson, 2004; Richardson and
Wodak, 2009a, 2009b; Van Dijk, 2006, 2008; Wodak and Reisigl, 2001, among
others). Generally, the visualization of migration and migrants is characterized by portraying them as poor people, dependent on the main group or as
people who invade other countries and therefore need help and use social
services and resources (Martnez Lirola, 2013; Nohrstedt and Ottosen, 2005;
Richardson and Wodak, 2009a, 2009b; Steinacher, 2012). The dichotomy
wethey is highlighted by publishing negative news articles about them and
positive ones of ourselves. They are foreigners, defined by race, religion, or
language and, therefore, it is made clear that they do not belong to the main
group and that they will never belong.
Some recent studies have paid attention to the analysis of linguistics and visual discourse in order to observe racial linguistic and visual

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meanings against immigrants. For example, Van Leeuwen and Jaworski (2002)
concentrate on the discourses of war photography. Richardson and Wodak
(2009a) compare recent election materials produced by Austrian and British
right-wing parties with explicit xenophobic agendas in order to observe the
main strategies used to construct fear of immigrants. Richardson and Wodak
(2009b) trace the histories of discourses supporting jobs for natives in the
UK and Austria using the discoursehistorical approach (DHA) to critical discourse studies.
In addition, Baker et al. (2008) pay attention to the exclusion of immigrants in media reporting in the UK press. Similarly, Richardson (2004)
analyses British broadsheet newspapers in order to observe examples of racism in pieces of news on Islam. Other studies concentrate specifically on the
representation of refugees and asylum seekers, such as Gabrielatos and Baker
(2008) and KhosraviNik (2009, 2010).
In general, studies dealing with the visual and linguistic representation
of immigrants in the Spanish press point out that immigrants are represented
as different from the main group of the population as regards race, appearance, culture, language and origin (Ban, 2007; Martnez Lirola, 2006, 2010;
Van Dijk, 2003, 2005). This is one of the strategies used by the press in order
to restrict the arrival of immigrants in Spain. Consequently, it is the Spanish
population that is the group with power and immigrants are represented as
inferior and dependent on the main group. In this sense, the negative visual
representation contributes to persuading readers to have a negative image of
immigrants (Blair, 2004; Moore et al., 2012; Reisigl and Wodak, 2000; Wodak
and Reisigl, 2001).
However, there are fewer studies of immigrant minors in the Spanish
press and the main ones concentrate on the problems caused by Latin American
gangs of young people (see Patio Santos and Martn Rojo, 2007; Retis and
Garca, 2010; Soriano et al., 2008) or on the problems associated with the centres for minors (Ardvol Abreu, 2009; Lorente y Rubn and Jimnez, 2006).
In addition, there are a few discursive studies that concentrate on the
linguistic representation of topics related to immigrant minors (Almeida,
2009; Berman, 2000; Cheong and Halverson, 2010; Faucher, 2009; Hester and
Hester, 2010; Nippold and Scott, 2010). However, the study of the visual representation of immigrant minors has been neglected, thus the focus in the
present article on such visual representation.
In our current society, multimedia elements predominate so that the
majority of texts surrounding us are multimodal, i.e. texts that combine two
or more modes of communication: in the case of the present study, the multimedia elements are the visual (photographs, diagrams, etc.) and the linguistic
(language).
Our main concern in this study is with visual elements and the message they convey in the whole piece of news. There are many studies that
pay attention to multimodality and the role of visuals in the construction of

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meaning (Baldry and Thibault, 2006; Bateman, 2008; Jewitt and Kress, 2003;
OHalloran, 2004; OHalloran and Smith, 2011; Ventola and Moya, 2009;
Ventola et al., 2004, among others).
Following Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006: 177), the authors of the
visual grammar that will be the theoretical framework of this article, there
are three main types of composition in multimodal texts: (a)information
value: the place in which elements are located, for example, from left to right,
top to bottom or from the centre to the margins, can add a specific value; (b)
salience: the different elements of a composition that are designed to catch
the readers attention, for example, appearing in the first or second place, the
size of an element, colour contrast or sharpness; and (c) framing: the presence or absence of frames that connect or disconnect elements of meaning in
terms of whether they go or do not go together in the making of meanings.

2.1 The use of euphemism and dysphemism for the representation of immigrants
Serious newspapers carry out a process of social legitimization throughout
the different linguistic and visual choices. Euphemism (i.e. the semantic or
formal process by means of which the taboo is stripped of its most explicit or
obscene overtones) and dysphemism (i.e. the process whereby the most pejorative traits of the taboo are highlighted with an offensive aim to the addressee
or to the concept itself) are very useful devices at journalists disposal for portraying immigrants.
Moreover, these devices help reinforce values and social codes concerning immigration. Euphemism and dysphemism can be considered as
antithetical resources of referent manipulation in the social use of language
because they are powerful tools that allow us to point out social and ideological control of the social issue under study, in this case, immigration. Referent
manipulation implies the process whereby the language user presents the
taboo concept in a particular way, either softening its less acceptable aspects
or, on the contrary, intensifying them (for a full description of this process, see
Crespo Fernndez, 2007).
In this sense, images are very powerful in the creation of meaning
in multimodal texts and they are a crucial tool if manipulation is intended.
Therefore, images can be manipulated in order to create visual dysphemisms
in different ways (Crespo and Martnez Lirola, 2012): for example, the use of
small images and presenting them in non-prominent positions on the page
(mainly on the left, which is the place of given information and therefore less
important); presenting a dark background or not showing a clear contrast
between the background of the image and the immigrants represented; showing immigrants faces blurred; representing immigrants looking down and not
interacting with the reader; not framing the visual texts concerning immigrants properly, so that they are not highlighted, etc.

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Consequently, images can be considered to be visual arguments

(Richardson and Wodak, 2009a, 2009b) because they present standpoints
related to immigrants and evoke certain feelings. In this sense, we agree with
Blair (2004: 50) in the following statement:
Visual arguments constitute the species of visual persuasion in which
the visual elements overlie, accentuate, render vivid and immediate,
and otherwise elevate in forcefulness a reason or set of reasons for
modifying a belief, an attitude or ones conduct.
3 . D ata , A im and M et h odolog y

The corpus of examples consists of all the pieces of news related to immigrant
minors that have appeared in the virtual edition of one of the most important
Spanish newspapers, namely El Pas, from 1 January to 31 December 2011.
El Pas was first published in 1974 and since then it has been regarded as a
serious left-wing quality newspaper. It sold around 370,080 newspapers last
year and is the non-sport-related newspaper with the maximum circulation
in Spain.
The corpus of examples consists of 47 pieces of news. Due to the limitations of this article, this analysis will concentrate on four visuals in which
immigrant minors are represented and on the linguistic characteristics found
in the headings and captions; these four examples typify what was found in the
wider corpus of examples. The selected texts are representative of the negative
way in which immigrant minors are portrayed, as the analysis will show.
The 47 pieces of news in this analysis present immigrants in conjunction
with certain, usually negatively presented facts observed in the topics found
in the majority of news tems in 2011: the arrival of immigrants, in general,
and immigrant minors in particular; gangs; reception centres; bone x-rays to
determine the age of immigrants; the hijab (Islamic veil), etc. Moreover, good
journalistic codes of practices are not followed because some pieces of news
(34%) refer to the most common country of origin of immigrant minors, i.e.
Morocco. However, none of the 47 pieces of news offer testimonies from these
minors, even though it is common to find the voices of the Social Security
Forces (46%), politicians (25%), NGOs (10%), university professors, judges,
heads of school, ordinary citizens, etc. (24%).
A total of 27 percent of the 47 texts relating to immigrant minors in
El Pas are multimodal, i.e. text accompanied by illustrations, and the rest are
written pieces of news only. The visuals of immigrant minors compiled for
this study show racism and discrimination against them through visual discourse. Consequently, the visuals in which these minors are depicted stand as
independent arguments because they create a particular image of immigrant
minors: they are problematic and poor, consequently the visual argument
relating to them is that immigrant minors are a burden for Spanish society. In

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this sense, the different visuals found in the corpus are used to construct fear
of or pity for immigrant minors.
Therefore, the main aim of this article is to analyse the principal visual
elements used by journalists in order to represent the image of immigrant
minors in multimodal texts, i.e. those using more than one mode of meaningmaking, verbal and non-verbal. To this end, the principles of CDA and visual
grammar are applied to the analysis of immigrant minors as social actors in
discourse. In other words, attention will be focused on visual elements used
by journalists to represent immigrant minors in El Pas in order to find out
whether discourse reproduces social domination. CDA and visual grammar
help to de-mystify ideologies and power through systematic investigation of
the data. In this way, language is seen as social practice and the social context
of language used is crucial.
In regard to the method of analysis, Van Leeuwens (2008) characterization of social actors is used in the analysis in order to observe how immigrant minors are portrayed, the consequences of each of the visual characteristics and their contribution to the dysphemistic representation of immigrant
minors. When considering the representation of social actors, the different
participants in pieces of news can be referred to as individuals or as groups. As
stated by Machin and Van Leeuwen (2005: 132): Which of these two options
is chosen can make a significant difference to the way events are represented.
In addition, when analysing the visual representation of social actors, it
is also important to pay attention to social distance, social relation and social
interaction in order to better understand how people are depicted in the photographs and to observe how interpersonal relationships are established (Van
Leeuwen, 2008: 138).
The next section presents the analysis and results. The analysis is
mainly qualitative, following the tradition of CDA. However, it was necessary
to offer some quantitative data in this section in order to offer a preliminary
context to the deeper study that concentrates on the main linguistic and visual
aspects in Section 4. The analysis of the general characteristics described earlier is followed by an exhaustive analysis of four multimodal texts.
4 . R esults

Having referred to some general characteristics of the 47 pieces of news in

the previous section, this section concentrates on the analysis of four visuals
with their corresponding captions and headings. The selected texts are representative of what is found in the corpus and they have been chosen in order
to illustrate the main characteristics of the corpus through specific examples.
This section presents an analysis of the main discourse strategies
used to create an assumption of the criminality of minors represented in the
pieces of news. The analysis will thus help to observe how immigrant minors
are portrayed in a negative way, contributing to discrimination, and the

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reinforcement of stereotypes and differences by the newspapers readership,

the majority group having power in contrast to the minority group, in this
case, immigrant minors.

4.1 General analysis of visuals, captions and headings

This part of the analysis focuses on the main visual characteristics found in
the four images under analysis and the language used in the headings and
captions. The second part of the analysis concentrates on exploring the representation of social actors.
The four images under analysis, selected as being representative of the
47 texts found in El Pas, possess some of the most salient elements of the
multimodal texts. As stated by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006: 201): salience
can create a hierarchy of importance among elements, selecting some as more
important, more worthy of attention than others.
In regard to position on the page, the four different photographs
appear on the right of the written text, which is considered the place for new
information. All the photographs are medium sized, which can be considered
dysphemistic because the size of the elements that create the multimodal text
is one of the characteristics of its salience. Moreover, the whole piece of news
size varies, for example Figure 1 is quite small, which implies that this piece
of news is not highlighted in the newspaper. Figures 2 and 4 are read from
right to left, whereas Figures 1 and 3 are read from left to right as a result of
the participants on the left in Figure 1 appearing clearer than the ones on the
right, looking at the audience with their hands up as a way of catching the
audiences attention.
All the photographs are framed, which implies that the elements in the
photograph belong together, but the frame is not very strong, as according to
Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006: 203): The stronger the framing of an element,
the more it is presented as a separate unit of information.
In order to finish the analysis, it is important to refer to the language used in the captions and headings that accompany the visuals already
analysed. Following Van Leeuwen (2008: 45), there are examples of appraisement, that is, social actors are appraised when they are referred to in terms
which evaluate them as good or bad, loved or hated, admired or pitied. In this
sense, we can say that interpersonally the immigrants represented in the texts
under analysis are appraised since they are represented in a consistently negative way and their presence in Spanish society is understood as negative, marking a clear difference between they and we, immigrants and white citizens.
The four images under analysis have been selected because they share
some characteristics that contribute to representing immigrants in a negative
way, which is supported by the language used in the piece of news (due to
the limitations of this article, we will concentrate on the headings and captions). One of the main linguistic characteristics of the headings and captions

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analysed is that, linguistically, immigrant minors are named as collectivization, because the journalists use nouns denoting a group of people (minors,
immigrants and Moroccan children), as the following analysis will make clear.
The heading of the text accompanying Figure 1 (this is the only image
with no caption) is 23 minors on board. The number corresponds with the representation of immigrants as a group in the image. The written text specifies
that out of the 56 immigrants who have arrived in Spain, almost half of them are
minors and they seem to be from Morocco. In the text, immigrants are referred
to as being without papers, which means that they do not have legal documents
and therefore their status is illegal. Using numbers to quantify the number of
immigrant minors who arrive contributes to presenting them as an abstract
group, they are assimilated and homogenized (Van Leeuwen, 2008: 37).
In the text accompanying Figure 2, we find the following heading:
Minors with margin of error (Menores con margen de error) and the caption
to the illustration is Immigrants who have just arrived in Tenerife after a small
boat has been intercepted (Inmigrantes recin llegados a Tenerife tras ser interceptados en una patera). This piece of news refers to the unpleasant treatment
that immigrants suffer in order to be verified as minors or adults. Sometimes,
depending on the place where the bone x-rays are carried out, their age varies from 13 to 19 years old, which has consequences for immigrants because
being older than 18 implies that they can be deported.
The text accompanying Figure 3 has the following heading My veil
comes into the classroom (Mi velo s entra en clase); the caption to the illustration is Mohammed A. with his daughter in front of the mosque in M-30
(Mohamed A. con su hija frente a la mezquita de la M-30). The heading makes
clear that this piece of news deals with the conflict of a Muslim girl in that

Figure 1. 23 menores a bordo (23 minors on board), 6 January 2011. El Pas.

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Figure 2. Menores con margen de error (minors with margin of error): Inmigrantes
recin llegados a Tenerife tras ser interceptados en una patera (Immigrants who have
just arrived in Tenerife after a small boat has been intercepted), El Pas, 29 September
2011. El Pas.

Figure 3. Mi velo s entra en clase (My veil comes into the classroom). Mohamed A. con
su hija frente a la mezquita de la M-30 (Mohammed A. with his daughter in front of the
mosque in M-30), El Pas, 19 October 2011. El Pas.

she is not allowed to go to school wearing her veil. The girls father, who faces
the audience in the image, is the one whose testimony appears in the piece of
news, where he makes clear that the girl has to go to school. The girls opinion
does not appear in the text, which is connected to the fact that her face is not
shown since it is her father who is in control of the situation.

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Figure 4. Andaluca detecta casos de nios marroques en falso desamparo (Andaluca

detects Moroccan children in a situation of false lack of protection). Menores de un
centro tutelado por la Junta de Andaluca (Minors in a reception centre run by the city
authorities of Andaluca), El Pas, 27 October 2011. El Pas.

The heading to the accompanying text to Figure 4 is Andaluca detects

Moroccan children in a situation of false lack of protection (Andaluca detecta
casos de nios marroques en falso desamparo) and the illustration caption
is Minors in a reception centre run by the city authorities of Andaluca
(Menores de un centro tutelado por la Junta de Andaluca). Here we observe
that the piece of news deals with immigrant minors in Andalucia, which is one
of the Spanish regions receiving more immigrants. Again, as happens in the
text accompanying Figure 1, the nationality is mentioned, which contributes
to highlighting that Morocco is the country from which the majority of immigrant minors come. The piece of news criticizes the fact that some of these
children have families in their country of origin and therefore they should not
be living in reception centres.
This analysis demonstrates that, in general, news articles concentrate
on the vulnerability of immigrant minors (Barbosa, 2006; Jimnez lvarez,
2003). News articles on immigrant minors in Spain have foregrounded the
following topics in the last few years: on the one hand, many pieces of news on
immigrant minors make reference to the arrival of minors from Morocco (see
Figures 1 and 4, ant their accompanying texts) (Lorente y Rubn and Jimnez,
2006; Ourkia and Mulero Garca, 2010). These items of news concentrate on
the fact that minors arrive in Spain and end up begging in the streets or waiting to be deported in a centre for minors. The pieces of news do not mention
the reasons why they emigrate and they do not investigate their situation in
their countries of origin. In fact, they are merely associated with the problems
they cause to Spanish society because they need help and support from the
social services.
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On the other hand, there are some items of news about Latin American
gangs of young people and the problems they create in Spanish society or
about minors under judicial control (Patio Santos and Martn Rojo, 2007;
Rodrguez Wangemert et al., 2010; Soriano Gatica and Peres-Neto, 2008).
These pieces of news portray the immigrant minors represented as criminals
and, therefore, they threaten the security of the main group of the population.
As a consequence, negative stereotypes are highlighted, making readers feel
insecure and threatened (Burguet, 2008; Nash, 2005). In very few cases, some
items of news concentrate on the social situation of the children of immigrants
(Garca Borrego, 2003).
Moreover, the majority of the news items refer to girls caught in the
polemic situation of wearing a veil to go to school (see Figure 3). This is a
controversial topic used in order to establish differences between different
religions. Furthermore, this topic is also used to talk about women being discriminated against in some cultures.
Studies of the situation of these kinds of minors in other countries such
as Colombia, France or Canada discuss the same topics (Amador Baquino,
2009; Berman, 2000; Cheong and Halverson, 2010; Conway and Potter, 2009:
Faucher, 2009) since immigrant minors are represented as people in need or
as people who could become the criminals of the future.
To summarize, the press normally mentions immigrant minors when
there is a situation of conflict or vulnerability, and readers (who do not normally have contact with them) assume that the arrival of these minors leads
to conflict and problems. This section has demonstrated that, in general, the
news articles analysed show negative topics that contribute to the wethey
dichotomy. The texts analysed are representative of the way in which immigrant minors are portrayed in Spain in a current situation of economic crisis
that does not contribute to integration.

4.2 Analysis of participants: exploring the relationship of

the representation of social actors and social distance
This section concentrates on the way in which the immigrants represented in
Figures 1 to 4 are portrayed and on the importance of the analysis of social
distance for creating a dysphemistic image of immigrants.
One of the main characteristics of the texts analysed is that immigrants
are never represented on their own, that is, as individuals (Van Leuween, 2008:
37), but rather as a group; that is, according to Van Leeuwen (2008: 38), they
are collectivized and assimilated and therefore their identity as individuals
is avoided. The idea of indetermination is thus present because immigrants
are represented as unspecified, anonymous individuals (p. 39). In this sense,
Figure 3 is different because we observe only two participants, the girl wearing the veil and her father, who are treated as individuals. In this image, the
fact that the father is looking at the audience while holding his daughter who

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has her back to the camera clearly demonstrates that he is the participant with
power since he is the one interacting with the viewers.
Presenting immigrant minors as a group implies that they are not worthy of personalized representation or attention. Moreover, in the representation of social actors in Figures 1, 2 and 3, it is also clear that we only see the
top halves of all the immigrants represented. This means that social actors are
not represented as a whole, since their bodies are only partially represented. In
addition, using long shots as in Figures 1 and 4 contributes to backgrounding
the individuality of the actors and to distancing the people represented from
the viewer.
Firstly, as far as social distance is concerned, the images analysed construct a distance between the people represented and the reader due to the
visual dysphemisms described in the previous paragraphs. Secondly, in regard
to the social interaction between the depicted people and the viewer, we are
invited to sympathise and cooperate with the immigrant minors; for example,
in Figure 1 the three immigrants on the left look at us (there are other immigrants who look down or look to their left) as does the father in Figure 3.
When subjects look directly at the camera, readers are invited to be involved
in the action.
Thirdly, when paying attention to social interaction, the crucial factor
is whether the represented people look at viewers or not. As already stated,
none of the participants in Figures 2 and 4 look directly at viewers. Therefore
there is no interaction: although they are observed, there is no dialogue and
no explicit demand, and this contributes to presenting immigrants as objects,
a strategy described by Van Leeuwen (2008: 141) as the strategy of objectivization, representing people as objects for our scrutiny, rather than as subjects addressing the viewer with their gaze and symbolically engaging with the
viewer in this way.
Immigrant minors appear backgrounded in all the photographs analysed in different ways: in Figure 1 they appear behind the railings of the
boat they are arriving on and therefore their bodies appear far away from the
viewer. This is a clear example of visual dysphemism because immigrants are
represented behind a physical barrier separating them from readers, symbolizing and reinforcing the differences between the world of immigrants and the
world of the main group, in this case Spanish society. Moreover, this image is an
example of detachment because the viewer is distanced from the immigrants
represented, who are angled away from the readers view. In addition, the faces
of the immigrant minors represented cannot be distinguished; for example,
they are blurred in Figure 1, which is also dysphemistic. Photographing them
at a distance contributes to their social exclusion.
In Figure 2, the represented participants are looking down and covering their faces, which precludes any interaction with the audience. Moreover,
in this image, it is implied that the reader has a stronger work ethic than the
immigrants who are static, doing nothing and trying to hide, indicating that

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they are inferior. Figure 2 shows three levels foreground, midground and
background but all the participants represented share the same characteristics. They do not show their faces, which suggests that they are ashamed of
their social situation and situates them as excluded from the main group of
society, i.e. the group with power.
In Figure 3, the protagonist of the piece of news, the girl wearing the
veil, is represented by her back view and being held by her father. In this sense,
it is significant that the father looks directly at the audience, which contributes
to presenting him as vulnerable and in need of help and support. Presenting
a participant with her back to viewers implies that she is inferior because she
is not taking an active part in her life. This girl is represented therefore as not
interacting with the audience, which is a clear example of visual dysphemism.
This is also a way of placing the world of immigration beyond the experience
of local peoples daily lives.
Finally, all the immigrant minors represented in Figure 4 are also presented with their backs to the audience, which can be interpreted as a way of
placing them outside most peoples experiences. This would contribute to the
immigrants social exclusion, in the sense that their problems are not ours.
Following the principle of information value already mentioned in section 2
(Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006: 177), an image placed on the right is more
important and that is why there are more immigrant minors in this position
in this text, i.e. they are foregrounded.
On the one hand, Figures 2 and 4 are clear examples of offer visuals
because there is no direct contact between the participants and the viewer and
therefore the viewer is positioned as an observer. On the other hand, Figures
1 and 3 are a mixture of a demand and an offer visual because some immigrants in Figure 1 demand an answer from the viewer not only by looking at
them but also by raising their arms, i.e. by a gesture. The man represented in
Figure 3 looks directly at the audience and therefore he demands an answer.
Consequently, these participants demand that the viewer enter into some kind
of imaginary relation with them (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006: 118). In the
case of Figure 1, the immigrants raising their hands are seeking help from the
viewers.
5 . D iscussion : T owards t h e D econstruction
of S ocial A ctors and V isual D y sp h emisms

The analysis in the previous section shows how the pieces of news related
to minors do not allow the reader to understand the situation in which they
live in their countries of origin or when they arrive in Spain, nor the circumstances that made them migrate, because the majority of the pieces of news
merely concentrate on problems caused by immigrant children (the fact of
arriving, the bone x-rays, the problems associated with wearing a veil, whether
or not they are minors and should return to their countries of origin, etc.).

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The majority of the pieces of news in the newspaper El Pas just point out
that immigrants arrive and that they are looked after and request help from
the government and NGOs; this suggests that they are a burden on Spanish
society.
The images examined in this article reproduce the ideology of the journalists who have created the news items and of the newspaper under analysis.
The media, in general, and this newspaper, in particular, have power in society, their voices are legitimate and they belong to an elite group; therefore the
items of news they transmit are given credibility. The texts analysed concentrate on negative facts about immigration, in general, and immigrant minors,
in particular, which promotes the perception of people who arrive from other
countries as a people-problem that needs help, support, etc.
The analysis carried out in the previous section allows us to observe
that there is always a relationship between texts and the society or culture in
which they are framed. In other words, the image of immigrants, especially of
immigrant minors, that is portrayed in the press does not increase the possibilities of reducing the differences between the main group and immigrants,
or of approaching the arrival of immigrants, in general, and of minors, in particular, as something positive. The press offers what the general public expects
to read, but also helps construct that expectation. Hence, from the texts analysed, we can predict the context in which they are going to be consumed a
context that establishes great differences between the main group of society
and the people arriving from other cultures.
The last statement implies that the interpretation of texts has to be
structured, not only taking into consideration what the text says but also the
specific rules of interpretation of each context (Van Leeuwen, 2005: 83). This
relationship is so close that, whenever there are changes in a particular society
or culture, these changes are also reflected in texts.
The analysis has shown that in this article we are mainly concerned
with visual manipulation, and in this sense, following Van Leeuwen (2000:
333 ff) and his concept of visual racism, we use the term visual dysphemism
to refer to the cases in which images show the pejorative side of a social reality or group of people (see section 2.1). In the case of our analysis, the visuals
contribute to the idea that immigrants are different from us and are a burden on society. Therefore, the different social actors depicted in our analysis
appear to be represented dysphemistically in order to contribute to their social
exclusion; they are presented as the others, i.e. those who are not like us, the
main group of the population. They are a threat for our culture and a burden
for our society; see, for example, the immigrant minors represented in the
text accompanying Figure 1 asking for help and showing that they are in a
vulnerable situation. In this way, visual discourse justifies the social exclusion
of immigrant minors.
The way that the participants in Figures 2, 3 and 4 are portrayed, looking away from the camera, is a dysphemism because not showing peoples faces

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indicates that they are ashamed of their social situation. In this sense, Figure 2
is especially significant because the immigrants represented are blurred, they
look down and cover their faces, which gives power to the audience. This may
lead the reader to deduce that immigrants feel ashamed of their situation: they
feel inferior to the main group and that is the reason why they are not looking
at the reader. Moreover, the fact that the girl in Figure 3 is shown being held by
her father is also dysphemistic. This is connected with the written text, where
the fathers opinion is represented but not hers.
The different visual dysphemisms analysed in the previous paragraphs
do little to contribute to a positive view of immigrants. Moreover, it is significant that there are no people from the main group (Spanish society) in
any of the photographs as a way of establishing a clear difference between
the world of immigrants and the world of the Spanish population, between
they and we, showing that their problems are not our problems, and therefore no positive characteristics of immigrants are highlighted by presenting
them excluded from the main group, as Van Leeuwen (2008: 28) makes clear:
Representations include or exclude social actors to suit their interests and
purposes in relation to the readers for whom they are intended.
As far as the roles that social actors are given to play in representations
(p. 32), there is no doubt that immigrants are represented as patients (goals), i.e.
as people to whom the action is done, and therefore it is understood that people
from the main group are the agents (actors). All the minor immigrants in the
multimodal texts appear idle, which is associated with the idea of them being
a burden on society because they need the help of NGOs and social welfare.
Consequently, there is no reference to the immigrants function in society, i.e. to
their occupation or role (p. 42); on the contrary, they seem to be identified with
doing nothing, being unproductive for society and identified not in terms of
what they do, but in terms of what they, more or less permanently, or unavoidably are. This idea of social exclusion is reinforced with the visual dysphemisms
already commented upon (avoiding eye contact, shown in back view, etc.)
To sum up, the analysis presented in the previous section points out
the main visual strategies for presenting people as others, as different from us
([p. 141): immigrants are presented as strangers, separate from people from
the main group (strategy of distanciation); they are also represented as inferior, poorer and with less power (strategy of disempowerment); and finally,
they are represented as objects, as the majority do not engage with the viewer
(strategy of objectivization).
6 . C onclusions

The different visuals analysed in this article make readers perceive the image
of immigrants as negative. The discourse of the press shows immigrant minors
who have no documents, as people who are in need of Spanish social resources
and as potential future delinquents; it seems that minors whose situation is

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irregular are necessarily delinquents or beggars due to the way in which they
are portrayed in the news items; they are linked to problems, to living in reception centres, to being idle, etc. In other words, there are no pieces of news that
report positive facts related to immigrant minors and the visuals found in the
texts analysed do not portray them in a positive way.
In this sense, discourse helps to encourage fear of people from other
cultures and to perpetuate the traditional stereotypes of people who belong
to a different culture, which perpetuates the opposing wethey relation.
Stereotypes and prejudices can be increased or promoted through the messages transmitted by the press and, unfortunately, in contemporary times they
are increasingly prevalent (Retis and Garca, 2010: 145).
The pressure of deadlines and the speed with which journalists work
mean that they often do not take full consideration of the consequences of
their linguistic or visual choices in items on immigration, but rather rely on
their habitual prejudices. This pressure seems to be the justification for problems with the journalistic treatment of minorities in general, and of immigrant minors in particular, leading to their perception as problematic and
threatening, due to the frequent representation associated with certain forms
of deviant social behaviour such as violence, problems in centres for minors,
crimes, unacceptable cultural differences, and so on.
The different choices found in the texts: image size, colours, the different ways in which elements are placed in multimodal texts (top or bottom,
right or left), etc. have an effect on the construction of meanings and, consequently, they have an effect on the way we read a piece of news because there
is normally an hierarchical relationship between elements. Consequently, we
need to be active citizens in our society and develop a critical perspective
when we read texts that use different modes to express meaning.
It is necessary to vindicate the role of the press to make visible the situations in which there is a violation of the basic rights of minors. This implies
the need to call to the attention of the Spanish government as well as the government of the countries where minors come from, especially Morocco in
this case, the need to implement the necessary means to respect the rights of
minors in their public policies, taking into consideration international regulations and Childrens Rights (Convencin de los Derechos de la Infancia).
F unding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
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Biograp h ical N ote

MARIA MARTINEZ LIROLA is Professor of the Department of English at

the University of Alicante, Spain, and Research Fellow in the Department of
Linguistics and Modern Languages at the University of South Africa (UNISA).
Her main areas of research are Critical Discourse Analysis, Systemic Functional
Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. She has published more than 80 papers
and 7 books, such as Main Processes of Thematization and Postponement in
English (Peter Lang, 2009). She has been a visiting scholar in different universities such as: University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada 2014),
Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada, 2012), University of South Africa,
UNISA (Pretoria, South Africa, 2012), University of Anahuac Mayad (Mrida,
Mexico, 2008), University of Kwazulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa,
2006) and Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia, 2005). She has presented
papers in international congresses all over the world.
Address: Departamento de Filologa inglesa, University of Alicante, Carretera
de San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, 03690, Spain. [email: maria.lirola@ua.es]

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