Light in the Darkest Places: Analyzing News Coverage of a U.S. Immigrant Detention Center

Immigrants remain one of the most disempowered groups within the United States. Drawing on critical media literacy research that focuses on power dynamics and positioning, this article addresses ways the news media reports on immigrants and immigrant detention centers. We conducted a critical content analysis of 180 articles on one specific location, Stewart Detention Center (SDC), to demonstrate variability in newspaper reporting on several levels, including frequency, geographic location, and context. Our first research question explored changes in reporting over time, and our second research question considered differences in reporting by geographic level. Our third research question examined differences in reporting on SDC and the national discourse during the first Trump administration. This type of research is particularly important when reporting primarily comes from the outside, overshadowing the voices of people experiencing detention. We consider implications for critical media literacy as an impetus for societal change.