The Portrayal of the Immigrant in Italian and French News

3 INTRODUCTION The goal of this work is the analysis of the representation of the immigrants in the editions of the main Italian and French news throughout the thirty days sample period, with the objective of grasping what image of the complex migratory phenomenon is portrayed to the public and what potential repercussions at social level and of civil cohabitation are hidden behind specific editorial decisions. One can now say that for better and for worse, the immigration phenomenon is a theme of public domain: every day it is object of discussions and debates, of studies and scientific researches; bearer of important social, economical and cultural implications, invoking serious and long-term political and institutional decisions aimed at enhancing the least traumatic impact possible on the civil structure, as well as an organic and efficient legislative device that does not deny, but resolves the eventual discomforts. This complex scenario is assailed by media reflectors that, through their peculiar modes of representation, give visibility to migrants, through the images of immigration that contribute decisively to the formation of public opinion. Media communication, especially television, due to its omnipresence and pervasion, can contribute to building an open, tolerant, pluralistic and multicultural society. But moreover it can nourish logical suspicion and fear of the diverse, a climate of insecurity and the spreading of prejudice, stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes. Thus, information professionals can be social promoters or moral manipulators. They have the power to enhance or to hinder the process of integration and of mutual awareness. The abundance of informative contribution, channels, services and images (more apparent than real) encourages the belief in a diversified completeness and in the objectivity of information, but one questions to which point the depiction supplied by the media is faithful to the represented reality and whether the images supplied truly mirror the truth. These questions have encouraged me to verify personally through the most suitable instruments of analysis in respect to the simple fruition as a viewer of television news. I tried to go beyond the passive audience of news: I analysed the content of the same news and tried to understand what effects it could have on the listener. Moreover, I consulted various publications in an attempt to arrive to a major awareness of the implied mechanisms of the selection and processing of news and of its spreading by the mass media. I tried to understand how the routine and standardized processes, the consolidated standard procedures and the