Stability of Immigration Beliefs and Limited Media Effects: Evidence from Six European Countries

Amid rising immigration levels in Europe, public perceptions of immigration appear closely linked to the ways in which news media portray these issues. While media effects on attitudes toward immigrants, and to a lesser degree on beliefs, have been widely studied, existing evidence remains fragmented across national and temporal contexts. Drawing on the issue attribute agenda-setting approach, this study examines how macro-level patterns of media content relate to immigration beliefs across six European countries between 2002 and 2018. A mixed-method design integrates content analysis of newspaper articles with public opinion data from the European Social Survey and macro-level contextual indicators. Two media dimensions—valence (threat vs. benefit attribution) and attribute salience—are analyzed in relation to belief measures. Threat attributes dominated and increased slightly in media coverage, whereas immigration beliefs stayed largely stable. Multilevel and country-specific analyses identify significant but substantially weak and highly context-dependent associations, underscoring the importance of national context in shaping beliefs about immigration.