Media Studies and Migration Phenomena: Systematic Review of the Literature from 2011 to 2021

Abstract

A state of the art describing the main perspectives, findings, methods and theories of communication research focused on migrations during the last decade is absent in the academic literature. This bibliometric analysis of 196 articles in 37 journals, mostly written in Spanish, identified the main publications on communication that contributed to understanding migration. Results of this literature review show that those working in the media attribute the failures of their craft to the lack of training and ethical manuals, indicating that the quality of media products on migration tends to be poor, and that the literature on audiences documents the effects of the media and the perception of migration audiences. These findings suggest an academic bias on Latin American migration phenomena from intersectional perspectives, a lack of ethnographic approaches to media creation processes, that research on products is repetitive, and that although studies on European audiences are plentiful, those on migrant audiences are scarce. The discussion calls for testing these hypotheses and including more Latin American voices in the global conversation on migration. © 2024, Universidad del Rosario. All rights reserved.